Dark irregular shaped object drifting in the sky [Castle Mylar Party Balloon]

Snake Plisken

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I read this...

"Post it here and our community of meteorologists, pilots, scientists and other sky-watchers will have a bash at finding what it is"

So i am hopeful someone out there might know what this strangely shaped object is?

I should explain this was seen in the Manchester area of the sky on 1st of November 2016 at 12.15pm so some two years now but here's hoping?

I managed to only get 4 photographs off due to a low battery which died on me whilst trying to get a 5th shot.

This object was heading in a direction which would have taken it directly above our home, except it stopped & hovered for a short period of time before (as i hope you will be able to see in the photographs? it turning & heading off in a different direction)

I will post the original shots first & then some cropped zoomed in one's to show some (i think) rather curious features to it.

In order of shot...Here's Photo No1

UFO Manchester 1st NOV 2016 12.15pm - 1.JPG UFO Manchester 1st NOV 2016 12.15pm - 1.JPG

Still not used to this...posted the thing twice again! arghh, sorry about that.

And here is the ZOOM...

UFO CLOSE UP 1.JPG

There are a couple things you will of course see more clearly here now...
Starting over on this right hand side (the pointed area which one would think might be the front? but this is how it approached our home) the most interesting aspect of this object is the pipe like structure underneath this pointed area...not a pipe? take a look at photo 2 (below)
straight lines above leading to a curved top right area which heads down to a fin? type but before getting down to that section notice the protruding antenna type?
Bottom section (as we see it here) then has a slight jagged section before reconnecting with that pipe like structure...what is this? you might think an exhaust port or part of engine but this (Photo 2) might clear things up with regards to what this is...

Photo 2

UFO Manchester 1st NOV 2016 12.15pm - 2.JPG

And now for the close up...

UFO CLOSE UP 2.JPG

As you can see it has banked (turned) a little here after hovering (standing virtually still for a good minute or two when i simply looked at it in awe! never seen anything like it in my life) then i took another shot but this one is very interesting as it would seem to confirm that that thing bottom left is indeed a pipe? as it seems to be releasing something from it that was not there previously in the first photograph...now what is this strange thing about to be released from it (i say released because in photo 3 below it's close by to it heading off in a completely different heading)

Here we can still see the pointed front section?
But other parts become clearer i think, it still looks very strange from this angle but we can now see it has a jagged section along that top edge now & then when you head around & down this right hand side of it it looks more like the tail end doesn't it?
Still very strange but what is this thing it's about to drop?

Photo 3 (in the sequence)

UFO Manchester 1st NOV 2016 12.15pm - 3.JPG

As you can see from this later shot i was truly in awe of what i was seeing (it was so different to what you usually see in the skies if Britain)
The way it looks is strange, the way it was heading over our home only to stop short of it & hover for a short while (it was almost as if it knew i was there & was saying take your shot) then it changed it's shape (well by that i mean it turned & looked as you can see here more like a traditional aircraft type? or shuttle type)

The leaves here are a large tall tree off to the right of our home & might give you an idea of it's size.
I got the impression it was not small but neither was it (i thought) jumbo jet sized, had it landed in front of us i would have expected it to be something close to van sized.

This close up will reveal something you might not have spotted by this one alone...

UFO CLOSE UP 5.JPG

I hope you can see it.
After seeing something dangling from this craft in photo 2 i wondered if there would be any sign of it in this 3rd photo & i am happy to report there it is (a small speck to be sure) but just look under this main object & there it is, closing following it or so it would seem?
What is this? and the main craft?

At this point i would like to mention (hopefully without too much laughter from you folks out there) might it be the Black Knight? unlikely i'll give you but if such a thing exists up there (and the thought of a thousands of years old sat orbiting us is a remarkable one if ever proven to be true)

Ok, sadly folks the last still shot i managed to get, on the click of the 5th attempt the battery was gone, which is why i chose to leave the camera in photo mode rather than switch it to video (but damn how i wish i had a fully charged battery to do so as it left a strange sensation with me)

PHOTO 4

UFO Manchester 1st NOV 2016 12.15pm - 4.JPG

By this time it was heading well & truly away from us, looking a little triangular shaped it has to be said although there's not a great deal to see from this final shot, although the close up is a little more revealing below...

UFO CLOSE UP 8.JPG

As you can see from my avatar i am very much a James Bond fan (Connery before you ask) & this final shot reminds me a little of that Moore bond film Moonraker in which he escapes a speedboat heading over a waterfall by pulling up & out using a handglider, it has the V shape (pointed at the front & swept back win sections at the back with something? at the bottom of it, might this be the pipe? or the probe? or drone returning?)

Curious to know if it's something explainable.

One last thing...not sure if anyone spotted it from above? but in photo 2 with that thing dangling as if ready to drop from that pipe section head to the main body of this structure here the centre area.

It's almost as if you can see inside this thing somehow?
But if true? then what can you see? for it almost looks like (when you ZOOM in even further) that we can see a pilot holding onto to the controls & sitting in a chair.
It might just be white shadowing? but there does some seem to be such an outline if you look close here in this photo no 2.

That's it.

A very strange day that left me feeling as if i had witnessed something very strange indeed, i just wish it had landed!

Moderation Note: deirdre
 
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It reminds me of a kid's blow up slide/bounce house filled with helium.

Something like this - https://www.google.com/search?biw=1...1.1.64.img..1.19.1846.0..0i67k1.0.7O1jdE5t6oA

or like one of these - https://www.google.com/search?biw=1...8.0....0...1.1.64.img..0.0.0....0.VXiolg-T1Ic

maybe like this one - https://www.google.com/search?biw=1.....0.0.0....0.VXiolg-T1Ic#imgrc=P3PgAHHajDgjkM:

While flying over Oregon we spotted what appeared to be large set of party balloons floating at 29,000. I reported the party balloons to ATC. Anyone launching a kids slide or bounce house could get in trouble.
 
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At this point i would like to mention (hopefully without too much laughter from you folks out there) might it be the Black Knight? unlikely i'll give you but if such a thing exists up there (and the thought of a thousands of years old sat orbiting us is a remarkable one if ever proven to be true)
Given that the Black Knight is meant to be a satellite, and this object is below some fairly low stratus clouds, that is pretty unlikely!

If I saw this picture in isolation without any of your back story, then I would think it was an insect of some sort, like a shield bug or something similar. The leg at the pointed end looks like an insect leg.



It doesn't look particularly distant, as there doesn't seem to be much atmospheric hazing.

This photo shows that it was clearly at a very different distance from the camera than the trees were, as the camera has focused on the leaves and the object is way out of focus:



So either it is a small object much closer than the trees, or a large one much more distant than the trees. I'm going to assume that you wouldn't have taken these photos if it was the former.
 
I should explain this was seen in the Manchester area of the sky on 1st of November 2016 at 12.15pm so some two years now but here's hoping?
Anywhere near Heaton Park? That place is a bit of a mecca for kite flyers, and looking at this image,,,

with the 'leg' bit showing and what appears to be another 'leg' on the near side... it looks to me like the line anchor points for a kite of some description, one of those shaped novelty jobs. And a kite could explain the movements you describe.
 
Could it be a large kite?

It might be a KAP rig of some sort, the "probe" could be the camera/gimbal hanging from the strings.
 
As you can see from this later shot i was truly in awe of what i was seeing (it was so different to what you usually see in the skies if Britain)
what do you usual see in the skies of britain? excuse my mild sarcasm, but did you never saw a kite in your life before?!? cause whitebeards assumption seems pretty much right on spot, given your description in your opening post. are you trying to play us? sorry for my questioning and maybe Im just paranoid, but something like this
I managed to only get 4 photographs off due to a low battery which died on me whilst trying to get a 5th shot.
sounds so typical for why-I-havent-more-or-better-pics-from-this-"UFO", its almost kinda lame in a funny way. I assume you dont have any .RAW-files of these shots?
 
Could it be a large kite?

Could it be a mylar balloon? The "leg" could be the filler neck. The images make it look like it could be "dimpled" as mylar balloons get when they deflate a little. If it was moving, then hovered, then moved again, this could be due to shifting winds? Did it change altitude? I know that they do tend to float sideways when they get loose, so they don't have a round shape when you see them floating by. You end up looking at the cross-section. Some are often oddly shaped or have appendages like "SpongeBob" and such. Maybe the leg is a severed SpongeBob leg???
 
@Snake Plisken What happened to the object after your battery died? I assume the object eventually disappeared. How long did that take? In what manner did it disappear? Etc. Give us all the details.
 
And now for the close up...


There seems to be the suggestion of a string here:

upload_2018-8-28_18-34-40.png


As for the "dot" underneath in one image, I think it is just a coincidental bug or something. It looks to be in much sharper focus than the UFO, so I don't think it is close to it spatially. An object that small would be virtually invisible if it was as out of focus as the UFO: look at how "smeared out" the edges of the UFO are. I think the dot is something small and close to the camera, more in the plane of the nearby tree.

upload_2018-8-28_18-37-48.png

There's another similar (but slightly more out of focus) dot off to the right, which suggests that there are just some insects flying around close to the lens:

upload_2018-8-28_18-40-33.png
 
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Do they not have drones in Britain? The "leg" looks like it could have a rotor off of it and the others might be obscured? Hovering suggests a drone to me.
 
If I saw this picture in isolation without any of your back story, then I would think it was an insect of some sort, like a shield bug or something similar. The leg at the pointed end looks like an insect leg.

Given the similarity to the leaves, I'd be tempted to think it was a leaf.
Metabunk 2018-08-28 12-04-57.jpg

Boosting the levels a bit reveals a bit of structure, the kink on the top aligning with this, which makes me think it's a partially deflated mylar balloon drifting in the wind.

Metabunk 2018-08-28 12-09-03.jpg
 
There seems to be the suggestion of a string here:
the jagged end there
i.PNG


reminds me of this sort of thing.
maxresdefault.jpg


if you turn it upright, since kits are 'lying down view', it looks like a little obi wan kenobe or an ewok :) (although based on the leaves there is no reason to assume the kite isn't green or another color)

flip.PNG

maybe the Grim Reaper for Halloween. Do you guys have Halloween over there?
 
Well i have taken that 2nd photo & tried to lighten it somewhat as well as attempting to crop it but just not sure it's anything to be honest.
Of more concern is what type of craft is this? & what's it's purpose? and just why was it dropping drone like objects from it or perhaps a more exciting word to some of us might be 'probe'

UFO CLOSE UP 2B.JPG
Given the similarity to the leaves, I'd be tempted to think it was a leaf.
Metabunk 2018-08-28 12-04-57.jpg

Boosting the levels a bit reveals a bit of structure, the kink on the top aligning with this, which makes me think it's a partially deflated mylar balloon drifting in the wind.

Metabunk 2018-08-28 12-09-03.jpg

Thanks for all the replies folks...

These are sadly the only pictures I have, nothing sinister in it, battery died, saw the indicator & had to make a call of taking some photographs or risk getting something on video but as this takes up more space on the card (sorry I couldn't have filmed it) I made this choice & would do so again.

I can only tell you what I think from my perspective & that is that it appeared to be reasonably sized (van sized, you know? white van man type that size) so for me it was no small balloon (could have been one powered similar to an airship perhaps? but smaller in size & I know what Mick means by Mylar type & that could be so but it seemed under power to me) it was most certainly not a bug, insect or leaf (the photo's show it with little around it so I can understand these suggestions)

Trailblazer you are correct by the time of that last (4th photo) it had moved off to a distance more than that from the camera to the tree (considerably more) so yes you were correct in your assumption of me not thinking it was a bug, I saw this & if it was a bug I would have run to the hills (bit of Iron Maiden for ya there)

No not Heaton Park, this was an a built up area with town houses & roads so for it to have been a kite would (for me) be highly unlikely, especially in regard of the change in it's direction (over these houses & such like) after it had come to a virtual stop & was hovering for between 1-2 minutes which is when I just simply studied it for awhile.

qed I would love to say it disappeared strangely & vanished but that would be a lie, yes I continued to follow it, it certainly moved off in a different direction to which it had come, which is a reason I think a balloon or kite is (for me) highly unlikely as this was not my impression...it simply got smaller & smaller in the distance until I could no longer see it.

I was somewhat surprised that no one else had perhaps seen it & taken photo's in the local Manchester area but if they did I never saw such reports.

I would love to say this was The Black Knight that headed down out of orbit to take a look, highly unlikely (if you believe in such a thing in the first place?) or other strange alien craft or even a classified prototype or why not go the whole hog and think it might have been a time travelling device (to my eyes it looked more than big enough for one person) but no I think Mick could be right with Mylar Balloon type but if so? then it was under power (was my impression) but it was strangely shaped.

My gut reaction upon seeing this was drone? but what a strange one!

Trailblazer highlights an interesting section within those two red lines...my thoughts are that this section could have been a fin or tail section (stabilization)

The most interesting thing for me was this pipe section (for this is still what I think it was) it might well have been a pop out rotor? but in the first photo it is nowhere to be seen & in an almost similar shot in the second photo there is something there at the end of this pipe section...I thought another mini drone, when something is seen close to it in photo three (that may well have been a bug, I can't deny that but could it have been this thing that had been dropped from it? and if so why would a drone drop another drone? maybe it wasn't but it's something?)

Sorry I couldn't get video of this but I made the call & at least I got something.
 
No not Heaton Park, this was an a built up area with town houses & roads so for it to have been a kite would (for me) be highly unlikely, especially in regard of the change in it's direction (over these houses & such like)
perhaps you could be more specific in location? Looks like a kite, possibly a balloon. Doesn't look anything like a craft.
 
It was on the outskirts of Manchester, heading from the Ashton-Under-Lyne area in towards Manchester.

I'm trying my best to describe what I saw.

Judging by the size of the houses beneath it & the trees I can tell you for sure it was not small but I don't think it was large either as I said earlier if I had to judge (and it didn't sadly land otherwise I could give an exact size for you folks) I would say this was roughly the size of a white van you regularly see on the motorways of Britain (might have been a little bigger? but probably not any smaller than this based on what I saw)

Also, to me it seemed to be under power of some kind, could still be a balloon or drone under some form of power.
Why under power? it headed towards us, slowed down & stopped (hovering above us) for approx. 1-2 minutes, now surely if simply a balloon without any power source it would have continued to drift in the winds direction above us?
How could such a thing (basic balloon) stop, hover & then change direction? heading off in another one? that doesn't compute with me.

A kite? just saying it as I saw it & that was not my impression, there's not too many kites flown over this area & if it was then he or she (operating it) had some funky moves getting over all these buildings & houses & such like.

My original thought was a Drone? to me this seems the most logical but if so what type? and what was it doing here? for this was (at least to me) no ordinary drone.

Yes (to reply to the question) of course I have seen drones before & yes I realise that the military one's can be rather large so the question still stands...if a Drone which would seem by far the most logical to me then what type of Drone? a special weather type? one taking Google photograph layout's, coincidence that it just happened to stop & hover as I saw it & began photographing it.

If anyone has any idea as to what type of drone this was then I would love to hear about it or better still see it.
 
qed I would love to say it disappeared strangely & vanished but that would be a lie, yes I continued to follow it, it certainly moved off in a different direction to which it had come, which is a reason I think a balloon or kite is (for me) highly unlikely as this was not my impression...it simply got smaller & smaller in the distance until I could no longer see it.
  1. Did it disappear over the horizon?
  2. When did it start moving?
  3. How long did it take to disappear after the last photo.
 
No not Heaton Park, this was an a built up area with town houses & roads so for it to have been a kite would (for me) be highly unlikely, especially in regard of the change in it's direction (over these houses & such like) after it had come to a virtual stop & was hovering for between 1-2 minutes which is when I just simply studied it for awhile.
Could you give us a more concise location then. 'Manchester' is a bloody big area. In the west there are areas like Chat Moss with some rarish wild life that could be a factor, In the East you have the pennies above Rochdale and Rawenstall, popular with microlites, paragliders and other form of soaring activity. To the south there's Manchester International Airport with various aircraft etc... all could be candidates, or at least need to be eliminated to class the thing as really unidentified. Ideally an exact location, direction the camera was pointing etc would be perfect, but anything close would e a help.
 
Could you give us a more concise location then. 'Manchester' is a bloody big area. In the west there are areas like Chat Moss with some rarish wild life that could be a factor, In the East you have the pennies above Rochdale and Rawenstall, popular with microlites, paragliders and other form of soaring activity. To the south there's Manchester International Airport with various aircraft etc... all could be candidates, or at least need to be eliminated to class the thing as really unidentified. Ideally an exact location, direction the camera was pointing etc would be perfect, but anything close would e a help.
He closed his account because the posting guidelines (another thread) were frustrating him.

He said Ashton-Under-Lyne. toward Manchester. and since there aren't many trees there I'm thinking maybe Memorial Garden. ??
 
I should explain this was seen in the Manchester area of the sky on 1st of November 2016 at 12.15pm so some two years now but here's hoping?
If this helps the Weather in Manchester at that time was as follows...
Time - 12:20 (closet record avaiable)
Gerneral conditions -
Temp - 11 °C
Cover - Scattered clouds.
Wind - 5 mph (NE)
Humidity - 72%
Baro pressure- 1026 mbar
Content from External Source
From - https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/uk/manchester/historic?month=11&year=2016
 
He closed his account because the posting guidelines (another thread) were frustrating him.

He said Ashton-Under-Lyne. toward Manchester. and since there aren't many trees there I'm thinking maybe Memorial Garden. ??
Then thats about 4-5km of to the East of the city centre looking due west, but without a more exact location we can't really nail it dowm, there are number of parks, gardens, playing fields etc in area and it could be related to any of them.

Also I've been srfing the UK UFO fan sites and I can;t find any other reports of a UFO sighting over Manchester that day, and I do find that a wee bit suspect as Manchester is a large and very densely populated city. Surely someone else wpuld have spotted and reported such a spectaular sighting?

I fact the only other UFO report I can find for 01-11-2016 is at 9pm that evening about 100 miles north near Tebay in Cumbria, and that was described as a triangle of lights.
 
I can find no Google kite image that looks like that of the OP. I do, however, think its a kite.
 
I live on the Ashton/Manchester border. Purely anecdotal but I did not recall any mention of a large flying object in local media or gossip. I have searched local press and can't find any thing either. Maybe we are looking at a kite? I fly mine in the local area and an experienced flyer can get some altitude even from a cluttered launch site. Yes mine end up tangled in trees but don't judge me ;-)
 
I don't think shadow can account for the blackness. It is black against light grey clouds. The object is black. Still a kite, just black.
I'm not sure that's right. If the camera is exposing for the clouds then a darker opaque object will appear almost black. I've taken photos of mylar balloons against cloudy skies and they appeared almost black.
 
Today seeing the Op with fresh eyes, the back end does look like the blow up area of a balloon, so just now decided to look at Manchester balloon shops.. certainly wasn't thinking of a princess castle but the dimensions seem to fit if the towers are a bit deflated

premiere.PNG


8435714_orig.jpg
 
Today seeing the Op with fresh eyes, the back end does look like the blow up area of a balloon, so just now decided to look at Manchester balloon shops.. certainly wasn't thinking of a princess castle but the dimensions seem to fit if the towers are a bit deflated


8435714_orig.jpg
Wow, that's a pretty uncanny match. The flags on the turrets even explains the strange "bug-foot-like" bit on the end of the "leg", and the string/tie is in the right place.The other turret would be hidden against the rest of the balloon - in fact there might even be a suggestion of it visible folded down.

upload_2018-8-31_16-50-42.png

View attachment 34375

The other "flag" is more visible in the boosted version Mick posted:



Quick Photoshop demo using this image, darkening and then using the "Puppet Warp" function only on the turrets:


upload_2018-8-31_17-10-46.png
 
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so just now decided to look at Manchester balloon shops.. certainly wasn't thinking of a princess castle but the dimensions seem to fit if the towers are a bit deflated
you gotta be f***ing kidding me, deirdre! I am officially impressed and I will NEVER doubt your ability for pattern-recognition again ;)
 
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you gotta be f***ing kidding me, deirdre! I am officially impressed and I will NEVER doubt your ability for pattern-recognition again ;)
lol. don't be too impressed I was still looking for Halloween balloons, but when I was looking for cone heads I just happened to see the castle.
 
lol. don't be too impressed I was still looking for Halloween balloons, but when I was looking for cone heads I just happened to see the castle.
It was a great spot!

We (or rather the UFO spotting/summoning community) need a database of common balloon silhouettes .
Metabunk 2018-08-31 10-24-40.jpg

The partial deflation is often the complicating factor though. Bits folded over, and dangling, then viewed from an angle. I think here though that if there was a sheet of the 40 most common ballon shapes, and this was on it, then people could pick it out.
 
The partial deflation is often the complicating factor though. Bits folded over, and dangling, then viewed from an angle. I think here though that if there was a sheet of the 40 most common ballon shapes, and this was on it, then people could pick it out.
that's true. in post 13 I had flipped it upright, and thought at that time the arms were probably upright when inflated.. so I did have that view going for me when I saw the castle too.
 
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