Coventry England 18;50 tonight December 25th

Whilst eating our Christmas dinner two of us witnessed an incredibly bright object tracking from west by north to east by south about 30 degrees above the horizon.

It's a perfectly clear and still night no cloud and no wind. We both thought Chinese lantern but it was moving way too fast to be one. Object was a single extremely bright golden orb light, surrounded by an orange hue . Size wise, it was at least 3-4 times the apparent size of Jupiter. Checked the ISS and that was on the other side of the world according to the live tracker. Managed to make it to the back door and heard no engine noise either. Plus, there were no other lights visible apart form the incredibly bright golden one. I'd estimate the object's apparent magnitude at about -6, certainly a lot brighter than even Jupiter.

Hello there,not too far from you, other end of the M 42 in Bromsgrove, not seen anything here, although a while back i saw something very much like you have, Just after the sun had set. I'm pretty sure it was the international space station reflecting sunlight, giving it high magnitude. This could be what you witnessed.

reply to post by bargoose


Checked the position of the ISS it was out over the Far East at the time. Plus, this was even brighter than I have ever seen the ISS.

reply to post by FireMoon


In Kent UK near coast 30 mins ago I went outside for a cigar and saw the exact same thing ( bright orange light). I too at first thought "China lantern" It was going very very quick traveling west to east as I was looking south. It did fade for a few seconds then descended a bit before getting brighter gaining altitude and carrying on until out of sight. The object was a little too far off and happened too fast to go and grab a camera . Merry Christmas S&Flag

Hmmm. No flashing lights either make it unlikely to be a plane out of Birmingham. How high would you estimate it to have been?

Originally posted by bargoose
Hmmm. No flashing lights either make it unlikely to be a plane out of Birmingham. How high would you estimate it to have been?

Hard to estimate. It was so big and so bright the immediate impression was something like a low flying helicopter, but there was absolutely no noise, so really can't see it being that. If it was high up it was something pretty large, that's for sure. it covered the distance of about 1/4 of the sky visible from my back garden in about 2-3 seconds. it was that bright it caught my eye seated in a lit room through the window.

OK It could have been Santa ( rouldolfs nose ya know) Seriously though, thats a very good and strange sighting. And we know now that two people saw it. I would maybe submit it here www.nwlink.com... .