UFOs over west London Sunday night

[IanR]

There was a formation of UFOs swooping over west London last night (Sunday).

I first saw them around 11.30 pm and they went on for another hour - up to four of them, performing manoeuvres at speeds that would be beyond any terrestrial craft. A brilliant "mother ship" which also manoeuvred in the southwestern sky seemed to be controlling the objects, or perhaps it was scanning the ground below with beams. Significantly, all this happened near the flight path into Heathrow.

In fact, there was a light show with powerful searchlights somewhere in the Richmond - Twickenham area, possibly from a travelling funfair. The UFOs were, of course, searchlights beams playing on low, broken cloud. The mother ship was Jupiter, coming and going behind moving cloud.

I wonder how many reports this will engender? I bet Nick Pope won't have a clue, as usual.

Ian

[IanR]

There's a bright star/planet to the north these evenings. Is this Venus or as you said Jupiter - I didn't know Jupiter was so bright could be mag -3.

John

PS. please don't beat me up on my knowledge of astronomy

No beatings here! Jupiter is currently at -2.7 but can get to -2.9, which it will do next year. It's in the south around midnight. Have a look through binoculars and you should see its rounded disk and up to four moons either side. If you're seeing something low in the north then that's most likely first-magnitude Capella.

Ian

[Observer]

I often wonder if Nick Pope is aware of our [some] opinion of his interview comments which as most of us know contribute zilch to the investigation. Or has he got the skin of a Rhino?
Has any one ever tried to draw him out into a debate on the subject?
Obs

[Wolf]

I think he's the last person I would ask......

Wolf

[robert]

I often wonder if Nick Pope is aware of our [some] opinion of his interview comments which as most of us know contribute zilch to the investigation. Or has he got the skin of a Rhino?
Has any one ever tried to draw him out into a debate on the subject?
Obs

Yes I've E Mailed him three times but he has said that he hasn't the time to get involved due to commitments etc.

He also said he's not that keen to get into debate here on the forum.

Don't you guys get me into any libelous situation by asking why!

Robert

[Observer]

Wouldn't dream of it Robert, but his answer is what i expected.
Obs

[slipX]

"I wonder how many reports this will engender?"

None, actually.

So what's life like from the point of view of an 'astronomer' who spends an inordinate amount of his time debunking UFO's?

What's the obsession?

[Observer]

Does seem a bit disproportionate spending ones valuable time de bunking UFO reports. No money in that.
Obs

[slipX]

Is IanR coining it in from debunking ufos?

If he is then he doesn't appear to be very successful at it.

Seriously I just want to know what his interest is. What's his motivation. If he feels that people who've seen unusual things in the sky etc are misguided and that all their experiences can be explained rationally why does he take the time to construct 'explainable' scenarios? Why does he feel the need to put his version forward when to a rational mind like his there'd far more interesting things to be getting on with.

Like say, astronomy for instance.

[AdrianF]

Well put Silvertop and an interesting article that you linked to.

I would imagine that most of the regular posters on here spend a disproportionate amount of time studying the subject ( myself included ) and luckily for us, so has Ian. We might be none the wiser on the correct dates of the incident, for example, were it not for his investigations.

If you are to consider yourself a UFO researcher, then maybe consider that the sceptics are fellow researchers, it's just that their point of view or conclusions might differ.
While this forum is generally good humoured, I've also noticed quite a few disrespectful comments, on other people involved in this case who, should they wish to join the discussions, would probably be understandably put off doing so.

Adrian

[puddlepirate]

Well, er, blimey.... this is an excellent forum and every contributor should be allowed to give their view on the subject without risk of ridicule etc. Free debate is the very essence of forums (fora?) such as this. If abuse starts to creep in then the forum will be devalued simply because it will deter those of a differing opinion from contributing.

Re Ian R - I've challenged his view as much as anyone else but I would defend his right to present it. Intelligent debate is about being able to argue a point of view with substantiated facts, i.e. not simply stating 'you're wrong' but 'you're wrong because..... '

Without lively, challenging, intelligent debate, this forum is dead and that would be a pity.