Swindon UFO Research

SUFOR Investigation Report: SUF-CSE-048 :Dancing Lights

Investigation

02/03/09: After speaking to a number of witnesses directly and reading reports from a further half a dozen the following represents the general sighting detail that appears to be confirmed by all witnesses apart from one.

Start time of observations run from 6:30pm, but all end at 9:30pm.

Descriptions generally were given as initially two white capsule (pill like) white lights, rising to 3 or 4 in number, that darted and chased each other around an area of sky to the witnesses north/nnw position. One witness described it as if they were playing a game of 'tag' or 'it'. The lights were reported by witnesses from the southern end of Swindon, the Town center and the northern end of Swindon, as well as Malmsbury and outlying villages.

Witnesses described the cloud level as low and broken. An interesting note is that the most southerly located witnesses reported the lights a few miles to the north. As did the witnesses in the center of the town. The same report was also made by witnesses at the northern end of Swindon which indicates that the source of the lights was much farther north than anyone thought. The furthest report to the north I investigated was from west of Cricklade, the witness believed the lights were a few miles north of them. This may indicate the source of these lights was in fact near Circencester.

Wiltshire Police continue with the apache helicopter theory. However this does not sound likely at this time. However, this may account for the one witness statement I took which reported dark shapes with 3 lights.

It is confirmed that Circencester College had an open day on the evening of these sightings (26th) and did shine strong lights into the sky from 5:30pm onwards. Importantly, the college light show stopped at 9:30pm - the same time as reported by all witnesses.

The lights at the college are supplied by Enlightened Lighting Ltd. I spoke to their production manager who has kindly supplied the technical details of the lights and some images of their operation. To quote him:

'Please find attached the manual for the big lights that we were using last week at Cirencester college. As well as these there were a lot of 400w coloured sodium flood lights in use, as well as some RGB led units around the buildings at the college. '

The big lights he refers to are two Space Tracer 4000's, with 4000w power / 155000 lumen. (Image below)

Specification manual for lights can be read here.

I also spoke to the Met office concerning the possibility of temperature inversions and cloud levels. Their response was that there was a weak temperature inversion in place and that the main cloud body sat between 8-12,000 ft, with lower thinner cloud at lower altitudes. As the witnesses reported the lights as very feint (the further south they were the dimmer they were reported), it could be possible that the lights from the college were bouncing off the higher altitude cloud causing the sightings.

It does appear that the C ircencester college open day light show was responsible for the mass sightings in Northern Wiltshire.

Investigation Report
Title	Dancing Lights
Category	CE1
Date/Time	26/02/2009 18:30 onwards
Location	North Wiltshire, Various
Speed	Various
Height	Various
Angle	Dancing around, difficult to tell
Direction	Generally Northerly
Size	Full moon, sometimes smaller
Behavior	Dancing with each other.
Witnesses	40+
Duration	3 hours.
Colour	White
Noise	None
Smell	None
Animals	None

Description

On the evening of the 26th and 27th of February the SUFOR (Now ARC) hotline got extremely busy. Sighting reports from all over northern Wiltshire came in, describing dancing lights in the clouds. Some extracts are posted here from the witness statements:

The best description I can give is initially there where 4 large glowing lights in the sky. They were quite feint and if not careful you could loose them for a second. They seemed to dance around sometimes coming together but mostly separate and staying within a relatively close proximity to each other. After about 8 minutes two of them gradually became more feint until there were two left. These two then stayed at the same height but shifted further eastwards and remained moving around each other until they also gradually faded away. The whole thing lasted for around 25 to 30 minutes but had been going on for some time before I saw it.

The lights appeared to be in the clouds, playing a game like tag.

A few local papers ran the story. The following extract is from the Swindon Advertiser.

A STRING of not quite so close encounters has prompted Swindon people to ask if anyone was out there.

Strange 'dancing lights' in the skies over the town were spotted on Thursday night and reported to the Adver.

Many of those who saw them could not explain what they saw in the skies over Castle Eaton, Cricklade and South Cerney areas.

Mum-of-eight Lisa Embling, 36, from Cricklade, was with her family at the time of the sighting.

"There were four lights that were quite big in the sky," she said.

"They looked almost like clouds.

"It really freaked us out. I was with my son and his friends in the front garden it was really amazing.

"I have never seen anything quite like it before."

Red Lion landlady Melody Lyall, of Castle Eaton, said the objects were visible from 6.30pm to 9.30pm.

"They looked like dancing lights over the clouds - it was quite strange," she said.

"Sometimes there were two or three and at most four. They looked like bright stars."

Eye witness Shaun Measday said: "I was walking my three dogs in Stratton Woods at about 8pm when I noticed three lights darting around the sky, looking as if they were chasing each other.

"At first I thought it was a high powered light beam, but then I realised that the lights were darting in and out of the clouds and no visible sign of a light beam.

"As we walked towards the lights, they moved more and more further away. Then as we headed back the lights followed us a little bit.

"I returned home and picked up my daughter to come back with me - just to check I wasn't going mad.

"When we returned she saw the same thing and then within minutes they disappeared completely. There was definitely a strange feeling in the air."

Richard Shovlar, of Old Town, said: "I saw the lights in the sky bouncing off the thin cloud cover.

"It was just a light display coming from somewhere in the town center at a guess. You could just about see the beam of light coming from the ground and up into the sky."

Chris Williams, from the Swindon UFO Research group, has been in touch with the Adver to say the lights seen on Thursday night were witnessed by many people across the town.

The group's initial investigations show that it is most likely to be a laser or light show but wants to find out more.

It is thought Thursday's sightings could have been caused by the lights of Cirencester College during an open day for prospective students. Lights attached to the building were shone round the night sky.