Video: More sightings of the 'Northern Lights' in Orpington - did you see it?

9:50am Friday 22nd February 2013 in Bromley By Heloise Wood

A PHENOMENON ‘like the Northern Lights’ has been seen by various people in Orpington.

The incident is thought to have occurred around 4.30am on Thursday (Feb 21).

Since Orpington resident Elizabeth Bertioli appealed for other people to come forward with information, two other people have spoken to News Shopper about the bizarre sighting.

Ms Bertioli, of Haydens Close, in Orpington, said: “I had never seen anything like it before.

“The light was white and creamy and it looked just like the Northern Lights.

“I don’t know what it was but I went back to bed and felt frightened, it was quite scary.

“It started at around 4.30am and lasted for around five to 10 minutes.

“There was no noise so it couldn’t have been lightening and it was just localised, it didn’t look like street lights at all.”

The 43-year-old added: “My husband was looking out the window for some time.

"It was out the front – we face north – but when he went out the back to have a look there were all these other people looking out from their houses as well.

“I’m interested to see if anyone knows what it was.”

Colin Carter, of Beaumont Avenue, in Petts Wood, also saw the light.

He said: “It was like lightning but there was no noise.

“My first thought was it was from a fire and I worried about my greenhouse but then it was really exciting.

“I hope it was the Northern Lights because I’ve never seen them.”

Tony White, 29, of Sholden Gardens, St Mary Cray, said: “The light woke me up and it was so bright my dog went crazy.”

Steve Pollard, of Sevenoaks Way, filmed the video with this article on his iPhone.

He said: "As soon as I point the phone to the sky it stopped and then reappeared for a further couple of minutes.

"What made it strange was the colour of the light, as you can see from the video the was a mixture of brown and golden colours mixed in."

Did you see the lights? Call the newsdesk on 01689 885721.

Comments(16)

KentFromKent says...
10:16am Thu 21 Feb 13

Elizabeth Bertioli, just a thought, have you tried staying away from LSD on a school night?

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Toolbox69 says...
10:23am Thu 21 Feb 13

"There was no noise so it couldn’t have been lightening and it was just localised"

"but when he went out the back to have a look there were all these other people looking out from their houses as well."

Must have been a hell of a party for so many people to be up at 4.30am, and no noise to go with it?

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Amanda2501 says...
11:13am Thu 21 Feb 13

I think what you saw was the International Space Station , its been floating around the sky for a few nights.......It was spotted over Woolwich on Tuesday night.

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Gypo.Joe says...
11:36am Thu 21 Feb 13

Amanda2501 wrote:
I think what you saw was the International Space Station , its been floating around the sky for a few nights.......It was spotted over Woolwich on Tuesday night.
I hope it never hung around too long then. Woolwich in day light is bad enough, after dark it's a no go.

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Toolbox69 says...
12:59pm Fri 22 Feb 13

Cosmic!

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Rev. Sue Scottley says...
4:45pm Fri 22 Feb 13

I can't see the video as the work system has blocked it, but I can tell you it absolutely wasn't the ISS. The ISS passes over about 1800, and is similar to a star, just moving rather fast, and can only be seen for a few minutes. I've seen it quite a few times and it's not something that could cause northern lights sightings. You can track the ISS online - it passes over rather frequently.

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gottleofgear says...
7:11pm Fri 22 Feb 13

News shopper, why did you delete my post?

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neighbour says...
8:42am Sat 23 Feb 13

Well at least they weren't the Chinese lanterns that I regularly and mischievously (usually after a couple of pints) launched from my Bexleyheath observatory a couple of years back, which were immediately identified as UFOs by astute cosmologists and contributors to this very newspaper. If the 'phenomenon' on the clip was, in fact, aurora borealis then I suspect it would've been visible by more than the population of Orpington, given that such illuminations would be at least fifty miles up in the ionosphere, but hey, why let the truth stand in the way of a 'spooky' story, but then again I suppose it makes a change from reports of sightings of yobs and ASBOs, so that's a result.

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Silver74 says...
11:14am Sat 23 Feb 13

I don't think it was the Northern lights - they look like green net curtains waving in a breeze. Possibly an electric discharge caused by a train running over a section brake in the live rail on a damp or frosty night.

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dave76 says...
1:37pm Sat 23 Feb 13

Silver74 wrote:
I don't think it was the Northern lights - they look like green net curtains waving in a breeze. Possibly an electric discharge caused by a train running over a section brake in the live rail on a damp or frosty night.
Or maybe railtrack welders?

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Silver74 says...
2:26pm Sat 23 Feb 13

I've been thinking about it! The most likely, in view of the colour of the light is that it is car headlights reflected from low cloud. An electric discharge would be greenish, not yellowish. I've seen this when a car, going uphill has not had the headlights dipped.

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fedup76 says...
9:03pm Sat 23 Feb 13

Weren't there engineering works at Orpington in the week?!? Probably just lights from the work going on there and as cloud was low made it more visible

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Mike Honcho says...
9:29pm Sun 24 Feb 13

Keep looking you may see Elvis next week.

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bnorther says...
8:37am Mon 25 Feb 13

Ohh my gosh - I just turned off Adblock to view this video. I'm not sure whats worse; the quality of the video or the shear number of adverts on the page. Advertising should be subtle to work. I counted 14+ on one page.

You guys need to think about your page design.

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Traceface says...
7:33pm Fri 1 Mar 13

Well at least I know I was not dreaming!! I too saw the lights - I was lying in bed trying to drop off (coughing too much to sleep) and suddenly it looked like someones security lights were on outside - so bright! But like flashing a bit and then stopped. When I looked outside the whole sky above our house was lit up - like a big fireball above the clouds - I thought a plane had exploded and was expecting to see debris - but no sound! This happened twice more and then just stopped! Very weird! I even ran upstairs to see out the loft window to try and have a different view, but it had stopped. Very weird!!

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Michael.1 says...
8:16pm Fri 1 Mar 13

At 04.38 hours on the 21 February 2013, I was just leaving my house in Petts Wood and as I reached my hallway I noticed a very bright white light hit the opaque windows and light up the hall several times. I thought it was torchlight and went out to investigate l checked the whole area without result. It all seemed very odd thank you Ms Bertioli for your article I must have just caught the end of the lights.

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