Why are UFO's lit up at night??

Hi all,

This is something I've often wondered about and decided to post here in the hope that someone may offer an explanation.

The simple question is: Why do UFO's filmed or seen at twilight or night-time appear to have lights?

The obvious thing to say (to my mind) would be that UFO's of alien origin are never lit up because they don't need to be and/or because they don't want to be seen by the naked eye. Therefore, most or all the ones filmed with lights of some description are of more mundane origins? Or, possibly the aliens don't care about being seen?

If those seen at night with lights are not alien, does it follow that there must be many actual UFO flights that are never seen by us?

The lights on most of the films I've seen don't look navigational, nor do they appear to light up the surrounding area. So, why bother with them at all? I think of all the times I've heard a commercial aircraft at night and not spotted it until the navigation lights become visible due to distance or angle. So, why do UFO's have to be so conspicuous?

I just wondered what the general view is on this question?

Apologies if it has been asked or talked to death in the past.

Grey

Maybe there are far more UFOs flying at night than we realise, but we only see the few that put their lights on?

I put the interior light on in my car when I'm driving, if I need to find something I dropped on the floor. Or, if I'm reading a map, I'll flick the switch.

It's open to speculation and is anyone's guess...

Originally posted by Grey_Pilgrim
The simple question is: Why do UFO's filmed or seen at twilight or night-time appear to have lights?

The most likely explanation is that UFOs seen at night are air planes, fire lanterns, blimps, helicopters, satellites, the space station, the space shuttle, and the planet venus.

UFOs seen during the day are most likely airplanes, balloons, blimps, helicopters, venus (certain times of day), lenticular clouds, and seagulls (in photographs). Hoaxes are a whole other category, as you can make those out of salad bowls, hubcaps, custom models, CGI, photoshop, etc.

Last in the order of most likely to far FAR less likely is alien craft.

Sophismata, assuming you have hit the nail on the head, this still brings me to the question: Why are so many serious UFO enthusiasts excited by night sightings of objects in the sky that are lit up?

It seems unlikely to me that a race of beings from another planet would be so secretive as to completely avoid the general populace or only show fleeting glimpses, yet light up their craft at night. It doesn't make sense.

I suppose one argument is that the glimpses and trickling of ambiguous sightings, increased exposure in the media, the dissemination of info on the Internet and Government investigations could be a prelude to disclosure. A nice way of preparing average Joe for the explosive and life changing news that we are in fact in contact with aliens. Keep the believers believing, the sceptics wondering and the debunkers busy picking fault with everything. All exposure to the phenomenon, be it negative or positive, is still exposure.

Grey

Yeah that makes a lot of sence. Every single UFO ever seen to defy the laws of physics are blimps or birds. We have some extremely awesome birds on this planet!
The reason UFO's are lit up at night is because they want you to see them.

Originally posted by Megadeth
The reason UFO's are lit up at night is because they want you to see them.

Why? Why not just land, pop the hatch and say hi?

Grey

Flying aircraft at night is required by the FAA to display appropriate lighting. ET craft is not exempt from these rules.

No clue why they light up. Maybe they don't care if their lights are on or not. I myself have never seen a ufo but I have family that has. What they saw one late summer afternoon did not have anylights at all. The sighting occured before dusk. Pictures were taken of the craft and none of them came out, they were all pitch black(it was still light out something should've showed up). The ones before and after came out perfect(family gathering and witnesses to sighting).
Back to the lights, maybe its some form of communication between crafts other than vocal or telepathic communication. Bottom line is if they want to be seen they will, if they don't want to be seen they will not be visible. I

Conceivably (and I agree that 99% to 100% of UFO sightings are not ETs) the physics of whatever 'warp drive' they are using might result in visible effects in the atmosphere, even though they wish it weren't.

For instance, especially with afterburners on, you can see glowing from exhaust of jet engines. Surely military plane makers wish it weren't so (and apparently B2 does some work to conceal its exhaust) but the laws of physics are what they are.

Rockets light up very brightly and are another frequent source of weird UFO reports, and there are no external 'navigation lights' or anything on them. They glow brightly from the chemistry & physics of their exhaust.

(in fact I saw one that I thought 'my first real UFO', but in a bit I realized it was a rocket and it correlated with a known launch---looked very different from aircraft).

conceivably, UFO's glow from their dilithium reactors or whatever.

Well, if it's one of the earlier stealth systems, they glow due to beta radioactivity.

The other ones glow because in atmosphere you have to cut on the plasma flow to the skin to keep the friction down when you're doing those aerobatic maneuvers.

Also, the drive system excites the air into fluorescence due to the time shear. It's there in the day time too, but you can't see it because the sun is too bright.

Why are UFO's lit up at night??

So that the hoaxter can photograph them easier.

Seriously though, I wouldn't know as I have never seen one myself. Either night or day.

Originally posted by Grey_Pilgrim
The simple question is: Why do UFO's filmed or seen at twilight or night-time appear to have lights?

1) The UFOs without lights don't get seen or photographed.
2) UFOs don't want to get run into by other aircraft, either.

Why are UFO's lit up at night???

Because they can. Just maybe its a little easier to see them and they have a certain concern about our own air traffic?
They seem to care when they're not abducting cows bowels.

* I know, i know*

Its a strange world and a strange Universe.

I just wanna say I love this question; its been on my mind as well for awhile (like several years.). I had the thought the other day that perhaps (given that it is a genuinly novel/unidentifieable "not from us" advanced technological craft is evidenced) its stands to reason as others have said here that it wants to be seen. So, having said that; perhaps the lights actually function as part of an induction/entrainment sequence as a precursor to "hypnotic" control. If abductee eyewitness accounts are to believed, then the "aliens" are capable of some pretty amazing mind control "technology". Perhaps the lights function as a strong initial focus, riveting the subjects attention and softening them up to subsequent mind control techniques. I actually hate the term "mind control" but I can't think of a better term at this time. When you think about it, humans in general are actually quite fascinated by bright lights of really any sort, frome candles to fireworks. Many hypnotic/trance induction techniques revolve around gaining an initiallly strong focus, and focusing on a bright light within darkness is an excellent, perhaps the most excellent way to start to this process. Which of course brings up another point which is: if "they" know to do this, how much of the technology "they" are bringing to bear here has actually been dovetailed, crafted towards a specifically human culture?
The famous saucer shape itself just happens to be among the best shapes for avoiding radar. (The Stealth designers at Skunkworks wished that they could make a saucer.) Is this an accident, or is it just a bonus that the circular shape itself is very iconic/archetypal for humans? How much of supposedly ET technology is crafted specifically for the earth biosphere/cultures? Maybe the whole sighting phenomenon in these terms is a condescension on the part of these "beings" as part of a very holistic (in the sense of totally thought out from beginning input to end output) entrainment sequence. If a culture were very extremely advanced, even the concept of physical vehicles itself could be seen as [very]archaic. At times the witness reports almost seem to suggest that if you are interested in them, THEY are interested in you. It is almost as if they have a difficulty in being seen. An old law of consciousness is the more attention you put on a thing, the more it grows. UFO sightings often seem to follow this maxim. Perhaps they are more interested in the psychological dimensions of an experience than the purely physical ones?

It IS a very good question and i've often asked myself this, all kidding aside.

I really wish i had the answer. Maybe they want to be seen and when in Rome they do as Romans do???

I always thought the reason they were lit up was their propulsion system really, why else would they have lights?

As far as I know, some of them are lit up during the day too.

I know this because 2 Thanksgivings ago, around 4 PM, me and 3 others who were with me, saw a couple of UFO triangles -- one close up and one further off into the distance. We could clearly see that the one that was closer to us had lights. We even talked about the interesting colors of those lights (orange/pink and a green that tilted toward aqua) and how they 'glowed'.

A little later, that day, after I saw this, I did a frantic search on the internet on UFO's but then it occurred to me to finally google UFO Triangles and from there I found out that often times 2 UFO Triangles are seen hovering over busy traffic intersections at the same time. And there are speculations that they are seen in those area's because THEY WANT TO BE SEEN; for some reason.

At any rate, I thought this was interesting because that's what we saw, not one but 2 UFO Triangles. It's as if 'they' travel in 2's sometimes so as to leave no question in the viewers mind as to what they are actually seeing. But at first we only saw the one large triangle -- but then a few minutes later, we saw the other one. So if someone would be having trouble believing what's right in front of their eye's when looking at 'one' UFO triangle, just look at what's flying out there further off into the distance and see that there's another UFO triangle up there too!

I think they want to be seen and it sure would be nice to know why that is.

PS Just read what Liquidself was saying and I agree that maybe they want to be seen by us so as to test our psychological reaction when they show themselves to us.
But I should add that these crafts looked man-made in that they were as real as the chair you're sitting in now in front of your computer. For this reason, since then, I'm seriously entertaining the notion that our military are manufacturing such crafts. In fact, a few moments after those 2 triangles sped off like the speed of light, 2 military jets THUNDERED across the sky's after them. (those UFO's were completely silent, btw).

[edit on 24-2-2007 by Palasheea]

I can't find the thread right now - but I made the exact same question you are asking! Why DO THEY have their lights on when they're out at night? It makes no sense! Do they WANT us to capture them on film? etc...

Anyways, good luck in finding the answer! Zeta...out.

Cheers

Grey safety regulation R-43497.22 ADOT = All personal craft must be operated with safety lights on. Safety lights must be maintained and in working order

Sorry couldent resist...

It could very well be just that. They have to fly with some sort of safety light on their craft. When your flying around wouldent it be nice to be able to see the thing in front of you before you hit it?

Originally posted by whatukno
Grey safety regulation R-43497.22 ADOT = All personal craft must be operated with safety lights on. Safety lights must be maintained and in working order

Sorry couldent resist...

It could very well be just that. They have to fly with some sort of safety light on their craft. When your flying around wouldent it be nice to be able to see the thing in front of you before you hit it?

LOL! Ok, I hadn't read that regulation, so consider myself educated!

Thanks to you all for taking time to reply. If it is a propulsion system, why does it light up the whole craft? Now I'm getting into even more speculative areas. Think of a jet afterburner. It lights up the rear of the craft nicely, but not the whole thing.

Lighting up to see where they are going doesn't make sense either. Surely they would be using spot/floodlights rather than just ambient light around the craft? We have aircraft capable of navigating well in zero light (IR, radar), so surely an advanced alien race can do equally well or better?

IF, and it's a big IF, these are alien craft, then I'd probably lean toward the possibility they want to be seen more than anything else. Maybe.

Grey