Sighting over Brighton
- James Bowen
- Jan 30
- 2 min read
Date: 30/01/25
Time: 05:52
Location: Brighton
Written Account: ‘I was stood in my kitchen at 05:52 waiting for the kettle to boil, I looked up at the stars through our Velux and noticed a single point of light heading over Hove toward Brighton, so from west to east. It moved too fast for me to be able to open the Velux fully and take a video with my phone. It was steady, did not fluctuate, and had no other colours.’
Object(s) details: A small white object travelling at speed from West to East visible at 90d from where the witness was viewing. The object was viewed for approximately 10-20 seconds before it disappeared behind clouds. There were no unusual sounds or smells reported. No photos or videos were captured and there were no other witnesses.
Weather: Fair cloud conditions and 9mph wind speed confirmed by historic weather database.
Conclusion
Using the programme ‘Stellarium’ which allows users to view historic night sky information a Starlink Satellite or the I.S.S (International Space Station) may be the most likely explanation.
Notable satellites Starlink-2496, Starlink-2644, Starlink-2460 & Starlink-2142 all would have been visible travelling West to East at speed across the night sky at the time of the sighting before becoming obscured by cloud cover.
Starlink Satellites, which can be visible as one or more lines of lights moving across the sky. Starlink Satellites can be launched in large numbers and therefore can look very strange as they travel across the sky. When Starlink satellites were originally launched back in 2019, BUFORA received hundreds of reports over that year until the public became used to observing them and understanding why the numbers were far more than they usually observed when looking at satellites.
Even for a witness who may have observed a Starlink satellite in the past, when viewed through glass, objects can also look very unusual. Refraction is responsible for a tremendous range of optical phenomena such as variations in shape, size, colour and brightness.
The I.S.S would have also been visible at the same time and location as the Starlink Satellites. Although in orbit for over 25 years the ISS Space Station is still often mistaken for a UFO. Travelling at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour it is able to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes. In comparison to other human-made objects in space the ISS is faster than most satellites.
Websites such as IISTracker as useful as historic information is easily searchable.
James Bowen
BUFORA AI