What are these things in the sky?

[Ulrich]

Article from German TV Channel translated from German to English by using google translator. Video on website

What is that thing in the sky? Spotlights?

"
Strange lights in the sky over Castrop-Rauxel
Status: 03/28/2023, 9:08 p.m

Was it a UFO? Or just a headlight? A strange light phenomenon has puzzled many people in Castrop-Rauxel.

A mysterious light in the sky worried several people in Castrop-Rauxel on Sunday. Local residents reported a cone of light about the size of a football that appeared again and again in the cloud cover from shortly after 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. at intervals of about five seconds. Some of the local residents tried to locate the source of the phenomenon. Without success.

Jürgen Vogt from the WDR weather editorial team rules out a natural weather phenomenon. "Because it comes every five to six seconds, so relatively regularly," says the meteorologist. In addition, it looks as if the clouds are illuminated from below. "It's not caused by sheet lightning," says Vogt.

Air traffic control assumes headlights
The German air traffic control also assumes a strong searchlight that could have illuminated the cloud cover from below. This is only prohibited in airport approach lanes.

This explanation is not enough for event technician Jannick Beuchel. He is well versed in lighting technology and has his doubts about the theory that the cloud cover was illuminated with a powerful spotlight. You can't see where the light is coming from and in the end the cone of light doesn't divergeˋ , he says.

UFO researcher Hans-Werner Peiniger from Lüdenscheid still considers the headlight theory to be the most likely. Often no beam of light from the lamp can be seen. This is due to the distance between the observers and the reflections and the atmospheric conditions that prevailed at the time."

Video on website.

https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/ruhrgebiet/merkwuerdige-lichter-in-castrop-rauxel-100.html

 

[JMartJr]

I am wondering if we are seeing landing lights illuminating the cloud layer planes are flying through. It looks to me like the film is undercranked, or whatever you call the video equivalent, and the movement of the lights in real life would be slower, and the gap between them longer. If that is not the case, they'd be too closely spaced to be planes.

Watch how they make a similar turn towards the end of each "pass." That sorta shouts airplane" to me.

 

[Mendel]

It looks to me like the film is undercranked, or whatever you call the video equivalent, and the movement of the lights in real life would be slower, and the gap between them longer.

Yes, witnesses describe the interval as "5 to 6 seconds", and the WDR clip goes faster than that.

The counterintuitive bit about this sighting is that, from afar, the clouds appear like a homigenous white mass, but they're really not; and the lighting exposes this unseen structure.

 

[JMartJr]

Yes, witnesses describe the interval as "5 to 6 seconds",

If that is an accurate estimate, it is probably too short an interval for planes, unless maybe they are appraoching two parallel runways? I'll leave piloty folks to chime in on exactly what the rules are on timing during landing...

 

[Duke]

Yes, witnesses describe the interval as "5 to 6 seconds", and the WDR clip goes faster than that.

Lapsed time, speed, and distance are the quantifiable parameters most often misreported by witnesses.

 

[Ann K]

It appears to be a hilly terrain. Is there a road angled up in that general direction from which car lights might shine on low-lying clouds?

Please note, on the original video there also appears to be a fainter light that moves right to left across the path of the bright ones. Any comments on that one?

 

[jarlrmai]

At 10 seconds a slower light seems to move at 90 degrees (right to left) to the fast lights..
We're gonna need some geolocation, but there's not much to go on in the article.

 

[Alexandria Nick]

I am wondering if we are seeing landing lights illuminating the cloud layer planes are flying through. It looks to me like the film is undercranked, or whatever you call the video equivalent, and the movement of the lights in real life would be slower, and the gap between them longer. If that is not the case, they'd be too closely spaced to be planes.

Watch how they make a similar turn towards the end of each "pass." That sorta shouts airplane" to me.

Everything about it screams aircraft flying through low clouds. Even the one that moves 90 degrees to the others. They just happened to catch a really unusual angle that makes it look stranger than it is.

Sometimes on cloudy evenings with lower than usual clouds, I'll go out in my yard just to watch the departures from DCA that go right over my house, because I enjoy watching the planes light up the clouds.

 

[ufoofinterest]

I think those are sky cannon searchlight like these:


Source: https://twitter.com/ufoofinterest/status/1526492521005830144