M.A.R.A.
Merseyside Anomalies Research Association

 

Strange Sunrise and Power Cut around 16th June 2008 in Redruth Cornwall UK

Hi Eileen,

Interesting site!  There's definitely something going on out there and I can say I've experienced certain things explaining UFO's.  I work nights at a hotel in Redruth, Cornwall and about a week ago I saw what I thought was a rather unusual 'sunrise' at around 3am.  I'm pretty used to weird weather conditions, especially during the summer months and you notice quite a lot of what goes on throughout the night.  But on this occasion it was really strange, and only after I realised the time I thought it was incredible that there should already be a sunrise as the clouds were a hazy orange colour.  Then suddenly the lights in the hotel flickered and went off along with the hotels computer system, this really annoyed me as I was doing the computer night audit at the time and I spent ages trying to get the system back on tracks!  About 20 mins later I decided to cool my anger down and go outside for a drink, it was a hot night too and all I saw was a dark blue light, no signs of any sunrise and by now the sky should have been quite light, not the dark blue.

I used to live in Cheltenham and there were quite a few reports of UFO's in that area.  People I know used to work at GCHQ and they mentioned that the satellites would pick up UFO's all over the place, this was EVERY DAY!  Though its a great place to find information it all depends on who you know there.

I also used to work at Salisbury and I remember in the summer of 1999 we were driving past Stonehenge on the way to Avebury.  It was a hot sticky day and felt as though it would thunder and rain though it never did.  I remember admiring the bright rapeseed field as I'm an artist as hobby and we made a wrong turn, we turned back and within 5 minutes the road back was blocked, we thought they'd been an accident but it was a massive crop circle in that rapeseed field.  This was no way manmade!

Regards

Mark

If anyone else witnessed the event described above please contact Eileen Shaw

3 Tethered Spheres Over Childwall, Liverpool 14th June 2008

 

Hi Bill

 

LITS Childwall / Huyton Area 14/06/08

 

On The afternoon of Saturday 14th June I witnessed lights in the sky, viewed from Childwall looking east towards Huyton. They appeared at around 15.30ish for around 10 minutes at first hovering around the side of a Cumulus cloud. The object appeared to the left of a cloud, probably at an altitude of around 5000 - 7000ft. I noticed the object flash brightly for a second or so but it didn’t seem as if it was a reflection from the sun. The object maintained a steady brightness throughout is appearance it also moved in different directions but only slowly.

 

The object seemed to be made up of 3 spherical components but it was difficult with the naked eye to see if they were joined together or not. The object then disappeared for around 10 minutes or so then re-appeared at or about the same altitude and position in the sky. Also the object didn’t seem to be affected by wind which was a slight to moderate breeze, enough to move the clouds. The weather was broken skies with Cumulus formations and good visibility.

 

I must also point out on the second appearance of the object a civil aircraft was in close proximity to this object, the aircraft was relatively low (around 8000 to 10,000ft) so it must of just departed from Manchester or Liverpool airport heading towards Wallasey. I don’t think the pilots of the aircraft would have seen anything as they were on the opposite side of the cloud formation. The Aircraft appeared to be a Boeing 757 / Airbus A321 in size. It did lead me however to get a sense of proportion to the unknown object. I would say it would fit within the apparent wing span of one of these small to medium size jet aircraft.

 

 I also noticed about 20 minutes after the object had disappeared a very high altitude aircraft which appeared to be a military jet heading due west towards the North Wales coast. As I am an aircraft enthusiast I could tell by the speed of this aircraft it was travelling much faster than an ordinary plane. I reckon it was doing around mach 0.95. The aircraft seemed to have a delta wing shape which would suggest a Tornado or Typhoon plane. The aircraft appeared to be at around 40,000 to 50,000 feet as other civil jets at high altitude in the area at the time seemed to be lower, I also could not hear any faint jet noise / afterburner from this aircraft.

 

My location was in the Dunbabin Road / Queens Drive area. My father also witnessed the event.

 

The Picture below is a quick drawing of how the object appeared in the sky.

 Drawing of what the witness saw

 

Kind Regards   David 

 

After speaking with the witness, he stated that the spheres did not act like tethered balloons because of changes in direction and speed and because they kept their relative distances from each other as if the tethers were stiff although he couldn't rule out balloons as an explanation.

 

If anyone else witnessed the event described above please contact Bill Bimson

 

Bright Lights Daylight Sighting Over Childwall, Liverpool 9th June 2008

Hi Bill, 
Here's one for you. About 3:30pm yesterday afternoon in Childwall, I was gazing out of the bedroom window. I'm level with Childwall Valley Road so the bedroom window would face towards the back end of Childwall/Huyton.

Being used to planes going over yesterday, high up in the sky (I would say plane height) and saw a fairly bright single object. I say
object because at first I thought it was a plane but it started to move about in the most strange way. Speeding up and then stopping and
then going slow and then gaining vertical height. I kept a watch on this not because I thought it was something strange, but it wasn't
the norm. About 10 mins later, another bright object appeared a fair distance below the 1st object.

Now what struck me is that it was possibly a balloon, but this was almost like a star at night - very bright and very clear, not just a
standard balloon going over with the sun hitting it.

Finding the binoculars, I trained my eyes over the second object (1st one had disappeared in to a cloud) and was very surprised to see 3
silver round shapes - now these could well have been a bunch of balloon's, I'm not going to argue, but they seemed far too bright (or
at least the reflection from the sun was giving off too much light).  I could not get a good fix on them when they disappeared in to a cloud.

There was nothing else in the sky in that area, just the usual high planes going over, but these caught my eye as they were very bright
for what was something strange in the sky - I would have been more concerned if the sun wasn't out, but just found it a tad unusual to
see something that stood out well and then for a second light to hover in the same air space as the 1st.

If you need me to fill in a report or try a drawing (I can't draw a straight line!) then let me know.

All the best
Jonathan Wild

If anyone else witnessed the event described above please contact Bill Bimson

Possible Fire Balloon over Macclesfield UK on 6th May 2008

Hi, at about 9:45pm 6th May 2008, I was getting the washing in off the line in my back Garden in Macclesfield and I looked up and saw what seemed to be a red/orange square object which looked to be on fire,  It was low.  I watched this object for about 2 minutes which seemed to fly off in the sky (there was no noise) towards Knutsford.  I thought this object was very strange,  I thought it was a balloon at first but it was too big for a balloon it must have been about 10ft.  In the centre of this object there was a big flame, the square.  Could you please get back to me about this as it is baffling me.

Mr. S. Marren

It appears the witness may have witnessed a fire balloon. If you are not familiar with fire balloons, MARA have information on them at http://www.mara.org.uk/Halewood_LITS.htm and towards the bottom of the page at http://www.mara.org.uk/Project_IFO.htm  Some manufacturers of these devices which can be purchased over the internet, make them with a square opening at the bottom so this might be what the witness saw.  MARA strongly advises all members of the public not to launch these devices as you have no control over where they will land or whether they will cause a fire possibly many miles from the launch site.  

Orange Square UFO with Orange Light underneath, 5th April 2008 Mossley Hill Liverpool UK

MARA received a report, a short video clip and a photo of a UFO over Mossley Hill on the 5th April 2008 (see below).  The photo shows something that looks very similar to other fire balloon sightings we have had in the past and this is the most likely explanation.  For more information on fire balloons, go to Project IFO and scroll down to near the bottom of the page.  It is possible if the balloon had square edges to it, this may have given rise to the orange square described in the report below.  The other lights in the picture are stars.  If anyone else witnessed the event described below please contact Bill Bimson

Probable fire balloon on 5th April 2008 over Liverpool  

At 10.30pm last night myself and my husband were watching the TV and out of the window above our back garden we saw a large orange square with a circle of bright orange light underneath it which looked like a ball of fire. It flew quite high over our house and then we ran to the front of the house which is when we took a photo and film of it with my digital camera. It flew across the sky towards Speke and eventually disappeared.  Behind our house there are a number of old people homes and other houses and it is in the Mossley Hill area of Liverpool.
 
Thanks, Lindsay

Fast Moving Bright Orange Light In The Sky in St. Helens, UK, mid March 2008

I live and work in St. Helens and after reading in my local paper about another UFO sighting by a midwife, I thought I would have a look to see if there was any more detailed reports on the internet which by chance brought me to this site, so I thought I would tell you about a sighting myself and my work colleague saw in mid March 2008 at about 4 15 am.

We are both supermarket lorry drivers and whilst doing vehicle checks prior to leaving our depot, we both were drawn to a bright orange light in the sky in the west toward the M62.  We could not believe what we were watching.  It was stationary at first and it had no red and green lights like an aircraft has and no audible sound (but we were a distance from it)

We discussed what we were looking at for a few minutes while it just hung there in the sky hoping someone else would turn up so we could point it out to them, then in a second it arced diagonal and upwards at great speed and was gone.

We told people at our transport office what we had seen they thought we were having a laugh. Until now, no one else knew about this.  Have you had similar reports or can you explain it, It is still a topic of conversation when we meet up we are both sensible and hard working family men. This is a true statement of what we saw that morning, hope it may be of some interest.

Thanks Phil and Neil

If anyone else witnessed the event described above, please contact Bill Bimson

Probable Fireball Meteor or Bolide Observed on 12th February from Hesketh Bank, Lancashire UK

MARA received a report of what was probably a bolide or fireball meteor on 12th February.  No meteor showers were due on this date, but meteors and bolides do sometimes occur on their own.  If anyone else witnessed the event described below please contact Bill Bimson

Bill,

You have probably had plenty of reports regarding this, but, this is what I saw. On Tuesday 12th Feb 2008 at approximately 10:30 pm , An orangey/red ball, appearing to me to be about 3mm diameter , with a fiery tail approximately 15 mm long, passed across a perfectly clear sky.

Looking south from Hesketh Bank, it appeared to be travelling in a direction from Southport towards Leyland, going slightly north of west.
It was at an approximate elevation of 45 degrees from where I was stood, and probably lasted close to 10 seconds  before it disappeared.
Firstly the tail appeared to start breaking up. then the "ball " went out, still in the sky.  It didn't make any sound (that I could hear), so presumable it was travelling at less than the sound barrier.

I have seen many "shooting stars", but this was totally different, looking like a classic meteorite from a Flash Gordon movie, going in
relatively slow motion . Quite spectacular.  It certainly wasn't a fire balloon as it was travelling too fast, and there wasn't any wind, although it must have been relatively low as the usual aircraft around at  that time appeared to flying above it.

Steve Jordan


Hourglass shaped UFO over Douglas Bay Isle of Man 3rd January 2008

MARA have received the following report of a  hourglass shaped UFO over Douglas Bay in the Isle of Man at 11:00am on the 3rd January.  If anyone has any further information on this, please contact Bill Bimson

Hi,

I have to report this. Time around 11:00 am on 3rd January 2008.  Location: Palace Road overlooking Douglas Bay in the Isle of Man.

I had been working (I work from home) all morning and had decided to go outside for a cigarette break. I went out to the back of my property, and lit up. I then noticed that I seemed to be in between some kind of weird weather front. In front of me overlooking Douglas Bay the sky was quite clear with white fluffy clouds present in the sky, behind me (coming from the western side of the island) was an ominous looking dark cloud (what I thought was a storm front). I noticed it had just started to hail (quite small hailstones). I then looked up, at first I thought I had seen a star, but on closer inspection it seemed to be a silver, reflective hourglass shaped craft moving slowly to the Northwest between the weather fronts. This was quite high up - I have no idea of how high but above the clouds, as it went behind the clouds and then my view of it was obscured. I raced to the front of my house to try and get a better view of whatever the object was but by then it had disappeared completely. Whatever it was, it was definitely not an aircraft, I saw it clearly enough to establish that it was definitely hourglass shaped and highly reflective - it did not have "wings" but appeared to be slowly rotating "head over heels". It made no sound, and left no vapour trail. In all I viewed the object for probably twenty seconds before it moved behind the clouds and disappeared. The area in which the "craft / object" was observed is not part of a flight path. I have never seen any aircraft in this area of the sky before. This sighting has left me with a feeling that whatever it was it had something to do with the weather, as it seemed to be moving along the edge of the ominous looking dark cloud, almost like it was the craft causing the weather conditions. This is obviously pure speculation but that is the feeling that I am left with - that the weird weather and sighting of the craft were linked. 

Bill Bimson suggested to the witness that it may have been a form of ball lightning because of its association with a storm front, to which the witness replied:

With regard to the ball lightning, I really don't think this was any kind of lightning it was too "Solid" it was highly reflective (i.e it was not giving off light - but was reflecting the sun light) but it was definitely a solid metallic object, it didn't "pulse" or "shimmer" there was no "haze" effect around it - it was just there. Definitely hourglass shaped (or two spheres joined by central spine) that slowly rotated head over heels (i.e one sphere over the other). I know that it's close proximity to a dark cloud and the hail would suggest that it could possibly have been some type of ball lightning, or some kind of plasma effect but it was just too real (if you know what I mean).... also as it moved behind the cloud there was no glow or other effect it just was simply obscured from view. 

I hope this helps, I wonder if anyone else would have seen this, as I'm sure it would have been clearly visible to the entire town? I'll keep an eye on local news sources.... 

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