Hi all,I am new to the forum and have to admit to being a UFO sceptic but would like to share your thoughts on something a saw at Rendlesham Last December. I was working as a driver on a TV show called "Space cadets" which was filmed at the former USAF base Bentwaters,One evenings at dusk I was delivering food to security guards on a remote part of the set(it was a very large set due to the nature of the show).It was there that myself and a security guy saw a perfect vertical rainbow coming out of Rendlesham forest,all the colours and as wide as a rainbow but vertical.I have thought about this quite a bit since it happened and recently emailed Nick Pope to see if he could shed some light on what we saw.Nick told me that UFO watchers use very bright lights in the forest to search the skys(not sure about this idea because the width of the thing) or maybe it could have been adverse weather conditions?.Would be greatfull if any of you guys could shed some light on what we saw.
Paul
[HOAX??]Vertical rainbow coming out of Rendlesham forest
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[HOAX??]Vertical rainbow coming out of Rendlesham forest
by Bluebird » Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:32 pm
- Bluebird
- Posts: 13
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by Bluebird » Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:48 pm
Hi, I contacted the met office about what I saw and recieved this answer;
Dear Paul,
I can only speculate about what you saw. To me, the most likely
interpretation would be that you did indeed see genuine rainbow or, at
least, part of one. This would not have required it to be raining
where
you were, but it would have had to be raining over forest. If you
could
remember the date we could check whether there were showers in your
area
at the time.{all I can remember with this is it was the week leading up to christmas and there was definatly no rain around at all even over the forest because I remember thats what made a rainbow more unlikely}
The fact that it was dusk fits with the rainbow being vertical. The
height and shape of a rainbow varies according to how high the sun is
in
the sky. If the sun is high in the sky the rainbow is low - just
forming a low arc near the horizon. As the sun lowers towards the
horizon the rainbow becomes higher and wider until, by the time the sun
is on the horizon,it extends in an arc passing directly overhead from
one horizon to the opposite horizon. If it was only raining over the
forest, not where you stood and not in the opposite direction, then
most
of the rainbow's arc would be missing. You would only see the arm of
the arc over the forest where it was (I conjecture) raining - and that
visible portion of the rainbow would be almost vertical at that time of
day.
Do you know in which direction you would have been looking? At dusk
the
vertical rainbow you saw would have to have been at right angles to the
sun, so if the sun was setting in the west, the rainbow should have
been
to the north or south of you.{Bentwaters across to Rendlesham I'm pretty sure must be east}
You use the term 'dusk' which makes me wonder if the sun had actually
set. This would make a rainbow reaching all the way to the ground less
likely, but the sun's rays could still have reached raindrops at some
distance above the ground and formed a bow. Perhaps the sun had only
just set?{the sun had set}
If you are absolutely convinced that no way could there have been any
rain over the forest, then I'm really scraping for an explanation.
There would seem to have been water droplets in the air in order to
form
the bow, If they were not raindrops then, conceivably, they could have
been from some kind of agricultural or garden sprayer.
Hope this answers more questions than it begs.
Regards,
John Fullwood
John Fullwood Applied Scientist Met Office
I am puzzled with what I saw because there was simply no rain about that day,is there anybody local to the area who may have seen this last December?.
Regards
Paul
Dear Paul,
I can only speculate about what you saw. To me, the most likely
interpretation would be that you did indeed see genuine rainbow or, at
least, part of one. This would not have required it to be raining
where
you were, but it would have had to be raining over forest. If you
could
remember the date we could check whether there were showers in your
area
at the time.{all I can remember with this is it was the week leading up to christmas and there was definatly no rain around at all even over the forest because I remember thats what made a rainbow more unlikely}
The fact that it was dusk fits with the rainbow being vertical. The
height and shape of a rainbow varies according to how high the sun is
in
the sky. If the sun is high in the sky the rainbow is low - just
forming a low arc near the horizon. As the sun lowers towards the
horizon the rainbow becomes higher and wider until, by the time the sun
is on the horizon,it extends in an arc passing directly overhead from
one horizon to the opposite horizon. If it was only raining over the
forest, not where you stood and not in the opposite direction, then
most
of the rainbow's arc would be missing. You would only see the arm of
the arc over the forest where it was (I conjecture) raining - and that
visible portion of the rainbow would be almost vertical at that time of
day.
Do you know in which direction you would have been looking? At dusk
the
vertical rainbow you saw would have to have been at right angles to the
sun, so if the sun was setting in the west, the rainbow should have
been
to the north or south of you.{Bentwaters across to Rendlesham I'm pretty sure must be east}
You use the term 'dusk' which makes me wonder if the sun had actually
set. This would make a rainbow reaching all the way to the ground less
likely, but the sun's rays could still have reached raindrops at some
distance above the ground and formed a bow. Perhaps the sun had only
just set?{the sun had set}
If you are absolutely convinced that no way could there have been any
rain over the forest, then I'm really scraping for an explanation.
There would seem to have been water droplets in the air in order to
form
the bow, If they were not raindrops then, conceivably, they could have
been from some kind of agricultural or garden sprayer.
Hope this answers more questions than it begs.
Regards,
John Fullwood
John Fullwood Applied Scientist Met Office
I am puzzled with what I saw because there was simply no rain about that day,is there anybody local to the area who may have seen this last December?.
Regards
Paul
- Bluebird
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- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:48 pm
Light phenomena in Rendlesham forest
by Observer » Mon Oct 02, 2006 9:07 am
Hi Bluebird
An interesting phenomena and Met office report.
You may be aware that the MOD recently made available the Condign report where they pushed the theory that the lights seen in the forest by the airmen was plasma light balls.
It may be worth putting this theory to the Met office and ask them if this plasma light ball phenomena could take place in the middle of winter and at below freezing temperatures? Or put another way, if plasma light balls can happen, what types of weather conditions are needed for them to occur? We then need to establish what the weather conditions were at the time of the UFO. I'm led to believe that it was very cold and clear sky's?
Observer
An interesting phenomena and Met office report.
You may be aware that the MOD recently made available the Condign report where they pushed the theory that the lights seen in the forest by the airmen was plasma light balls.
It may be worth putting this theory to the Met office and ask them if this plasma light ball phenomena could take place in the middle of winter and at below freezing temperatures? Or put another way, if plasma light balls can happen, what types of weather conditions are needed for them to occur? We then need to establish what the weather conditions were at the time of the UFO. I'm led to believe that it was very cold and clear sky's?
Observer
- Observer
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- Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:31 pm
- Location: Woodbridge Suffolk, now London.
by Bluebird » Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:27 pm
Hi Observer, This is starting to really interest me,especially after your plasma light ball theory suggested by the MOD.Read on to this email from John Fullwood the met office guy who by what i'm reading says that plasma light balls are not meterorologically possible but ball lightning is but there has to be a thunderstorm.There was no thunderstorm as I have discovered with the airmens sighting and no thunderstorm about with my vertical rainbow, strange;any ideas on Johns artificial light theory it sounds pretty plausable as I am starting to rule out a meteorological possibility .After looking at a few plasma light ball websites I find this phenomenon very very unlikely.
Hi Paul,
Looks like I didn't crack the mystery! I may need to wait a day or two before completing my response, as I'm painfully deadlined on a commercial task this week and need to visit our library to check out weather conditions in the week you mention. Can you remember whether likely to have been weekend or weekday - or even which day of week? Was it literally going dark or just sunset?
Plasma balls? I'm no great expert in these. Do you have access the internet? If you go into http://www.google.com and then enter 'plasma balls' there's a long list of web sites - mostly about the kind you buy in a shop, but one or two of the websites attempt an explanation of the physics. The nearest meteorological phenomenon that I know of is "ball lightning" - a rare occurrence in thunderstorms.
I'm starting to wonder what goes on in Rendlesham Forest and whether someone is creating artificial lighting effects? As you point out, if your 'rainbow' was directly to the east of you then, if it was also sunset, it wasn't a rainbow in the normal sense. Mind you, your telling me that it was near Christmas also tells me the sun would have set in the south-west, rather than due west, so that any rainbow would have been to the north-west or south-east. Could you have been looking more towards south-east than east? Even then we need to find you some rain!
To be continued.
Regards,
John
Hi Paul,
Looks like I didn't crack the mystery! I may need to wait a day or two before completing my response, as I'm painfully deadlined on a commercial task this week and need to visit our library to check out weather conditions in the week you mention. Can you remember whether likely to have been weekend or weekday - or even which day of week? Was it literally going dark or just sunset?
Plasma balls? I'm no great expert in these. Do you have access the internet? If you go into http://www.google.com and then enter 'plasma balls' there's a long list of web sites - mostly about the kind you buy in a shop, but one or two of the websites attempt an explanation of the physics. The nearest meteorological phenomenon that I know of is "ball lightning" - a rare occurrence in thunderstorms.
I'm starting to wonder what goes on in Rendlesham Forest and whether someone is creating artificial lighting effects? As you point out, if your 'rainbow' was directly to the east of you then, if it was also sunset, it wasn't a rainbow in the normal sense. Mind you, your telling me that it was near Christmas also tells me the sun would have set in the south-west, rather than due west, so that any rainbow would have been to the north-west or south-east. Could you have been looking more towards south-east than east? Even then we need to find you some rain!
To be continued.
Regards,
John
- Bluebird
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:48 pm
Light phenomena in Rendlesham forest
by Guest » Sat Oct 07, 2006 1:38 pm
Hi
Just a few thoughts on the 'rainbow' type light seen at Rendlesham forest.
Hand held spot lamps are available that can emmit up to 1,000,000 candle power with their quartz halogen bulbs. These are usually only found amongst the night shooting fraternity and are available from specialist out lets. You carry a seperate power supply over your shoulder and they are heavy. The power is often more than a car head light! Night shooting is called 'lamping'.
More recent developments with these night lamps now include Zenon bulbs that are even more powerful and they emmit a bluish light like you see some vehicles have. Some lamps can have a projection reflector of up to 15" in diameter, but the more usuall ones are around 8 - 10".
As admin has pointed out, some sky watchers at Rendlesham do have spot lamps and they could be this type.
If the atmosphere is damp which means there are water droplets in the air, a zenon spot lamp pointed vertically into the night sky with its blue light could possibly cause a prism affect on the water droplets thus creating a multi coloured light beam. The width of the beam could also be enhanced by the the moisture.
Some countries have banned the 'blue' light car head light for these reasons.
Observer
Just a few thoughts on the 'rainbow' type light seen at Rendlesham forest.
Hand held spot lamps are available that can emmit up to 1,000,000 candle power with their quartz halogen bulbs. These are usually only found amongst the night shooting fraternity and are available from specialist out lets. You carry a seperate power supply over your shoulder and they are heavy. The power is often more than a car head light! Night shooting is called 'lamping'.
More recent developments with these night lamps now include Zenon bulbs that are even more powerful and they emmit a bluish light like you see some vehicles have. Some lamps can have a projection reflector of up to 15" in diameter, but the more usuall ones are around 8 - 10".
As admin has pointed out, some sky watchers at Rendlesham do have spot lamps and they could be this type.
If the atmosphere is damp which means there are water droplets in the air, a zenon spot lamp pointed vertically into the night sky with its blue light could possibly cause a prism affect on the water droplets thus creating a multi coloured light beam. The width of the beam could also be enhanced by the the moisture.
Some countries have banned the 'blue' light car head light for these reasons.
Observer
- Guest
by Guest » Tue Oct 10, 2006 11:53 pm
I own a 1500000 (1.5mil, available from most motorists stores) poachers lamp and it has never produced a rainbow especialy at dusk when it's effects are limeted due to the amount of ambient light, even in the pitch black, IE in Rendlesham, pointing it straight up is pretty much a waist of time.
For a propper lamp you need a HID gas discharge type lamp which does in fact give off a much clearer rainbow effect but never seen one that could cause the effects you describe at dusk in the air, even at night it still emmits a cone of light, when it falls on a light coloured surface it will seem to be a rainbow, a lot of police vectras used HID headlights which is why they were so easy to spot, till they noticed and retro fitted xenon which are similar but les pronounced in the colours they generate.
You don't need rain for a rainbow just something to refract the light, Rendlesham is in a low lying area prone to fog/low cloud.
For a propper lamp you need a HID gas discharge type lamp which does in fact give off a much clearer rainbow effect but never seen one that could cause the effects you describe at dusk in the air, even at night it still emmits a cone of light, when it falls on a light coloured surface it will seem to be a rainbow, a lot of police vectras used HID headlights which is why they were so easy to spot, till they noticed and retro fitted xenon which are similar but les pronounced in the colours they generate.
You don't need rain for a rainbow just something to refract the light, Rendlesham is in a low lying area prone to fog/low cloud.
- Guest
Rainbows, lamps and causes
by Observer » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:04 am
Hi guest
Your post was interesting and you seem to know quite a bit about lamps.
Our previous guest who told us about the rainbow that seemed to come out of the forest may have seen an optical illusion. Its hard to understand how the description was that the rainbow came vertically out of the forest.
Rainbows usually form an ark and i can only think that where the ark goes to ground was over or behind the forest.
I cannot think that any lamp could cause this phenomena as described by our guest. I don't doubt his descrition but how was it achieved?
Observer
Your post was interesting and you seem to know quite a bit about lamps.
Our previous guest who told us about the rainbow that seemed to come out of the forest may have seen an optical illusion. Its hard to understand how the description was that the rainbow came vertically out of the forest.
Rainbows usually form an ark and i can only think that where the ark goes to ground was over or behind the forest.
I cannot think that any lamp could cause this phenomena as described by our guest. I don't doubt his descrition but how was it achieved?
Observer
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- Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:31 pm
- Location: Woodbridge Suffolk, now London.
by Bluebird » Wed Oct 11, 2006 12:15 pm
Hi, I recieved this email from John Fullwood at the met office recently and it has a link to the TORRO website which has some very interesting reading about the "ball lightning" pnenomenon,maybe the US service men were witnessing this "ball lightning" that has been sighted as their website says in different colours.I recently read "Left at East Gate" and will have to say I found it a lot of it crap full of obvious errors,I believe these guys saw something but I think they have blown all out of proportion to what they REALLY saw.
Check out the "ball lightning" theory on the TORRO website;
Paul,
AIthough I sent you an initial reply to your email below, I don't think I ever sent you a follow-up. Sorry.
My checking of the weather charts in the week before Christmas last year showed a lot of dry weather, though it wasn't completely dry. A genuine rainbow therefore seems quite unlikely - though possible (and only if you were looking south-east rather than east). So I'm sorry I am unable to provide you with an explanation of what you saw.
You did ask for an explanation of "plasma balls" and I'm having to let you do your own research on that. They are not a recognised meteorological phenomenon. However I did mention that 'ball lightning' was the most similar meteorological phenomenon that I could think of. Ball lightning is a rare form of lightning in which a persistent and moving luminous sphere (white or coloured) is seen. The explanation is controversial but, to my knowledge, the organisation that has done the most investigating to is TORRO - the TORnado and storm Research Organisation. Do you have access to the web?
http://www.torro.org.uk/TORRO/index.php
In particular, the TORRO web site's section on ball lightning makes riveting reading:
http://www.torro.org.uk/TORRO/research/blightning.php
Let me know if you don't have access to the web and I'll download a bit for you if you're interested.
Best regards,
John
bluebird
Check out the "ball lightning" theory on the TORRO website;
Paul,
AIthough I sent you an initial reply to your email below, I don't think I ever sent you a follow-up. Sorry.
My checking of the weather charts in the week before Christmas last year showed a lot of dry weather, though it wasn't completely dry. A genuine rainbow therefore seems quite unlikely - though possible (and only if you were looking south-east rather than east). So I'm sorry I am unable to provide you with an explanation of what you saw.
You did ask for an explanation of "plasma balls" and I'm having to let you do your own research on that. They are not a recognised meteorological phenomenon. However I did mention that 'ball lightning' was the most similar meteorological phenomenon that I could think of. Ball lightning is a rare form of lightning in which a persistent and moving luminous sphere (white or coloured) is seen. The explanation is controversial but, to my knowledge, the organisation that has done the most investigating to is TORRO - the TORnado and storm Research Organisation. Do you have access to the web?
http://www.torro.org.uk/TORRO/index.php
In particular, the TORRO web site's section on ball lightning makes riveting reading:
http://www.torro.org.uk/TORRO/research/blightning.php
Let me know if you don't have access to the web and I'll download a bit for you if you're interested.
Best regards,
John
bluebird
- Bluebird
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- Joined: Sun Sep 24, 2006 5:48 pm
by Guest » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:07 pm
The only artificial light i've seen that would be powerfull enough to create something even close to effects described would be the type used in partys and discos, not something you can run off a battery TBH, if you think of the type of light that could display a ring of lights on the cloud base they come on a 40Ft lorry and the genny for them is a seperate 14 tonn lorry, not the sort of thig you carry about easyly i'm sure you'll agree.
I have a mate with an outdoor party buisness i will look into the lights he uses and get back to you (i can feel a trip out one night with a genny and some disco equipment coming on)
It could do with somone local checking to see if any outdoor partys were taking place around the time but TBh they would need to be a semi profesional set up at the least, these lights cost hundreds to over a thousand each not a 14.99 from the garage job, in fact over a certain wattage (IE outdoor use) you need a liesence to operate them so finding sourses of the equipment should be easyer as less people are likely to have them and those that do will be listed officialy.
I have investigated a few L.I.T.S in me time, including several calls describing alien ships circaling london that turned out to be the fault of the MTV music awards
(which is why i know how large the trucks are 
)
I have a mate with an outdoor party buisness i will look into the lights he uses and get back to you (i can feel a trip out one night with a genny and some disco equipment coming on)
It could do with somone local checking to see if any outdoor partys were taking place around the time but TBh they would need to be a semi profesional set up at the least, these lights cost hundreds to over a thousand each not a 14.99 from the garage job, in fact over a certain wattage (IE outdoor use) you need a liesence to operate them so finding sourses of the equipment should be easyer as less people are likely to have them and those that do will be listed officialy.
I have investigated a few L.I.T.S in me time, including several calls describing alien ships circaling london that turned out to be the fault of the MTV music awards
(which is why i know how large the trucks are )- Guest
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