The glowing cloud of 2009 (25/07/09 to be exact)

Hey guys!

I was going through the photos on my hard drive and came across these. They are of a strange glowing cloud that was sitting over the Solway Frith at around 2:45am (I was at work on night shift) on Saturday 25/7/09.

At the time I placed a sighting report with the British Earth and Aerial Mystery Soceity (B.E.A.M.S) along with 3 pictures. This is how I can be so accurate with time and date. Here is my original sighting report.

Text Workington, Cumbria, 25 07 09

Time: 2:45am

Message: Hi there!

In the early hours of Saturday (around 2:45) I was on my lunch break outside having a cigarette. Looking North West over the Solway Firth a colleague and I observed a large bright glowing cloud over the horizon.

It appeared to be illuminated from behind and whatever was lighting it up was also lighting up the whole sky around it. Other clouds around the bright one remained dark.

My colleague pointed out it could be the sun rising but it was too early and in the wrong area, i.e not in the East.

When I was going back inside I put it down to the moon rising behind the cloud, however I made a point of going out the next night at the same time and there was no sign of the moon or anything else emitting any light in the sky.

Not really a UFO sighting but strange all the same. Maybe the military were testing something Scotland side? Any ideas?

I took a picture on my cell phone but it didnt come out very well. I will include it all the same. It was much brighter "in the flesh."

Original sighting report link: www.beamsinvestigations.org.uk...

They have taken down the pictures I provided them but as I stated I have found them. They were taken with a Nokia 6220c at 5 megapixel.

Picture number one didn't come out too well, here it is anyway.



For pics number 2 and 3 I switched to night mode on the phone camera and got better results. Photo 3 is zoomed in but digital zoom only I'm afraid.






So there you go! Any ideas what this may have been? Obviously its a cloud of some kind but why the glow? There was no moon as far as I could tell and the glow seemed pretty localized to that one whispy cloud.

Thanks for looking, I'm not sure I'm in the right forum so mods please move if necessary.

Digital zoom? Seriously?you do know that paint can do a better job than your phone? Just resize the pic.... All your digiital zoom does is crop it. Hell thats all optical zoom does, its just optical... cant make out much of anything in these pics at all bro....

reply to post by Grifter81


I'll go with noctilucent clouds

en.wikipedia.org...

And an article from 2009:

www.universetoday.com...

I have somehow cocked up the images. Need to try and resize them bear with me....

i cant get the pics to work the links just go to new topics

reply to post by Chadwickus


That thought did cross my mind to be honest. It looked more impressive with the naked eye.

Originally posted by haven123
i cant get the pics to work the links just go to new topics

Me either!! I NEED PICS!!

Pics are back but their huge!

Having a spot of bother resizing them. At least we can all see them now lol.

pics are too big at the moment but from the bit i could see it kind of looks like the northern lights. hmmm..... maybe i can see it better when the pics fit my screen.

Sorry about the images guys. I've resized them manually and re-uploaded them let's see if this works:







Hope these are better

that is really odd. light pollution can cause some weird cloud glow. no idea what it could be other than that or the aurora borealis

Were there any earthquakes in the area? They have been said to produce strange clouds. Are you near places that are know for crop circles or ancient sacred sights? I once saw something similar, but later learned it was a night shuttle launch. It really lit things up around here.

Just right click on any image and select "view image"

thanks for the pics, looks pretty cool..

is it not lights off where they were putting wind turbines there,?

reply to post by pasiphae


Looking in that direction there is very little in the way of light pollution. There's mainly just small towns/villages and of course the sea.

I don't think it was the Aurora as I would have thought it would cover more of the night sky? However it is a possibility.

reply to post by zachi


To my knowledge there were no earthquakes. I live in a very quiet area where seismic activities are concerned.

The whole earth lights subject is an interesting one though.

reply to post by haven123


Through 2010 and 2011 there was an array of wind turbines built in the Solway Firth, however these are in a more Westerly direction. In the pics we are looking more or less North. The turbines would be visible to my left if I were standing at the same spot.

reply to post by baddmove


Your welcome. It was a strange sight at the time!

I'm at work now so I thought I'd pop out to the same spot and grab a pic in (semi) daylight. Its 10pm here.



There's not much in the way of light pollution in that direction. The immediate area is quite industrialized with factories etc but not further away in the distance.

were do you work is that the old golf course?