| Country | Great Britain |
| State or Province | Scotland |
| City | Ullapool |
| Date | 2/26/23 |
| Time | Between 1:20 and 1:45 AM GMT+1 |
| Weather | Clear, 0 degrees Celsius, 7-12km/h N-NW wind, Northern lights on northern horizon |
| Duration | Approximately 30 minutes |
| Witnesses (Number) | 1 |
| Distance | Far away (light “on the horizon”) |
| Solid Object | No |
| Size | As large as a bright star |
| Shape | Other |
| Shape Details | Constant white light, star-sized |
| Metallic/Shiny | No |
| Color | White |
| Glow/Halo | Yes |
| Lights | No |
| How Many Lights | Not Specified |
| How Bright | Not Specified |
| Light Coloration | Not Specified |
| Sound | No |
| Motion/Speed | Ascending or descending on the horizon. Relatively/visually slow but possibly fast given the apparent distance of the object(s) |
| Number of Objects | Four or more |
| Coordination/Communication | No |
| Windows | No |
| Occupants | No |
| Description | On a family road trip through Scotland, we stopped for the night at the Acheninver Hostel which mostly consists of 3 sleeping pods. Around midnight, the landlord notified us of northern lights visible on the horizon. We stepped outside and stood at the rear of the sleeping pods on slightly higher grounds. Due to the remoteness of the place there was no light pollution. The night was crystal clear with a wonderful starry sky and the waxing crescent moon descending on the horizon to the northwest. The northern horizon was glowing green from distant northern lights. As I was travelling light I only had a Nikon DF DSLR camera body with no tripod or other accessories for night photography. The best-suited lens I had with me seemed to be the 20mm that I attached to the camera. The camera was resting, pointing north, on the camera bag, itself laying on a large flat rock. That was the best I could arrange with what I had on hand but far from ideal for night photography. After some time, I found myself alone as the aurora was less and less active and the cold pushed the rest of the family back to bed. The time for the camera to process and write a picture was between 20 and 30 seconds between shots. During such a moment, slightly past 1 AM, I noticed it for the first time. Seemingly far away, on the horizon in front of me, looking north, a bright constant white light ascending and moving to the right for about 10-15 seconds then disappearing (like simply going off, not zooming across the sky). The trajectory, speed and intensity of the light didn’t vary. At first, I didn’t give it much thought until it occurred again, in the same fashion, a few minutes later (constant white light ascending from the same area on the horizon at a 30-45 degrees angle for the same amount of time). And again. I thought immediately about departing airplanes from an airport, climbing away and at one point switching off their landing lights but then I should have been able to see the navigation lights (strobe/beacon + red-green wingtip lights) afterward given the clarity of the cold air that night (passing airliners’ lights were visible from very far away during that night) but there are no airports anywhere close and even more so looking north. I was then able to capture the phenomenon 8 separate times between 01:10 and 01:35 AM (see images below). Each time a single light but 3 times, it was ascending, 2 times the movement was horizontal and 3 times it was descending from left to right. After not seeing anything for a while and the aurora fading out, I headed back to bed, thinking about what it could have been. Satellites? I saw many that night and I’m familiar with the starlink trails but that was not these. Unless the sun, at that time 40 degrees below the horizon north of me, “behind” from where the phenomenon occurred could have been reflected on satellites low on the horizon north of me for a brief moment? Also, another aspect to explore is the Cape Wrath coastal firing range lying 40nm on a bearing of 15 degrees from my position. Was there some naval firing activity that night and could that be a manifestation of that? |
| Nearby Landmarks | Not Specified |
| Latitude | 58.024811 |
| Longitude | -5.352271 |
| Altitude | Above the horizon |
| Propulsion | No |
| Advanced Capabilities | No |
| Visible Payload | No |
| Radar | Not Specified |
| Signatures | Not Specified |
| Awareness | No |
| Aggression | No |
| Health Effects | Not Specified |
| Physical/Environmental Effects | Not Specified |
| Animal Disturbance | Not Specified |
| Witness Feelings | Intrigued |
| Witness Assessment | Not Specified |
| Additional Info | Background info: I am an aerial photographer in the remote sensing industry (Airborne sensor operator) since 24 years with about 5000 hours of flying time. I am familiar with aeronautics and things of the air in general and also meteorology. While flying and as part of my situational awareness, I am most of the time, workload allowing, with my eyes looking at the sky around me. By extension or maybe professional deformation, I will always look at the sky also when on the ground. I am thus extremely familiar with satellites, airliners, contrails, etc. Camera equipment and picture settings: Nikon DF DSLR with a 16.43-megapixel full-frame 4992 x 3292 CMOS sensor. Images saved in JPEG large and NEF raw files at the same time. Time in the camera is set for Belgium with one hour difference. E.g. 02:30 on an EXIF file is 01:30 local time in Scotland. Moreover, as of today 31/03/2024, the internal clock of the camera was found to be advancing by 18 minutes. It can be assumed that this shift was already present at the time of sighting and time shown in EXIF files is consequently off by 1h18 compared to the local time of the sighting. From our example above, 02:30 on the image should be in reality 01:12 local time. Nikon Nikkor 20mm f/2.8 AF lens set to infinity: ISO 10,000, 4 sec exposure time, lens aperture set at f/4. The occurrence of the phenomenon was longer than the exposure time. I didn’t dare to use a longer exposure time being concerned that the increased image processing/writing time might make me miss other occurrences. The camera was put on a camera bag itself lying on a flat rock. See daylight images taken the day after in the attachment describing setup and its environment. Images provided are crops of JPEGs. Full size JPEG and NEF originals (non-edited) are available but too big to attach with this form. I’d be interested to share them via WeTransfer. I intend to report the sighting with the local COBEPS in the near future. |
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