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</head><body><div>Riaan van Greuning mailed me about a series of bright lights he saw in the sky above Harrismith on Sunday night, which he initially described as a series of fireballs. I've had a few ideas as to what they might be, but none seem to quite fit the bill (aircraft with lights above the clouds, car headlights lighting up the clouds from beneath, fireworks from diwali, rocket launches passing over SA) for one reason or another. You can read his description in the attached message below.</div><div><br></div><div>Has anybody else received reports of this, or does anybody have suggestions as to what it is Riaan might have seen? He is busy uploading the video he recorded onto youtube, and will provide the link as soon as it is complete. He originally sent me a series of screenshots from the video, which I can pass on to anybody who's interested, although I'm not sure how useful they will be - they just show indistinct patches of bright orange-tinted light.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Regards</div><div>Allen Versfeld</div><br>------- Forwarded message -------<br>From: "Van Greuning, Riaan" <Riaan.VanGreuning@afgri.co.za><br>To: "Allen Versfeld" <allen.versfeld@gmail.com><br>Cc:<br>Subject: RE: Re:<br>Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:49:32 +0200<br><br>
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The pictures are snapshots from a video that I took of the appearance.<br>
It was cloudy but it was mostly not behind the clouds.<br>
They were all moving approximately at the same speed, I would say according to the time and distance<br>
About 300km/h, but that is just a guess. It seem to appear from the North and not the North horizon and <br>
It disappeared through the clouds to the south. There was a slight curve in the movement but no sudden direction changes.<br>
The shape stayed the same large, round and bright as in the photos. You could actually see that it is burning.<br>
There were no sound at all. The first one we saw was 22h00 and lasted for about 1min,from the time we noticed it.<br>
Five minutes later we saw another one and it also lasted for about a minute from the time we noticed it<br>
Then we went outside and waited with the hope we saw another. About 10 min passed.<br>
Then two appeared and moved together for about 1min 30sec then they start to split , as they moved on another appeared<br>
This one moved in the same pattern as the others but appeared bigger and you could see the burning and flames more clearly.<br>
I would like to send you the video but it is too big to e-mail.<br>
I took it with my cell 12mpixel.I'll see if I can compress it to reduce the size.<br>
Thank you.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Allen Versfeld [mailto:allen.versfeld@gmail.com] <br>
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2011 10:57<br>
To: Van Greuning, Riaan<br>
Subject: Re:<br>
<br>
Hi Riaan<br>
<br>
Those pictures are very interesting, but I'm afraid I can't tell much from <br>
them. They seem a little blurry, but I can't tell if they're behind <br>
clouds, or if it's just the usual result of a normal camera trying to <br>
auto-focus in darkness (night-time photography and astro-photography is <br>
pretty specialised - you're working at light levels that most professional <br>
photographers simply don't know how to deal with).<br>
Could you give me an idea of how fast they were moving? Did they travel <br>
all the way from the north horizon to the south, or did they change <br>
direction, start at one point, fade away, or anything else like that? <br>
Were they bright points like stars, or large objects with a shape and size?<br>
<br>
The times you gave - 22h00 to 22h22 - do you mean that you saw them at <br>
some point between those times, or that they came at intervals between <br>
those exact times? In other words, did the show last 22 minutes?<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:03:39 +0200, Van Greuning, Riaan <br>
<<a href="mailto:Riaan.VanGreuning@afgri.co.za">Riaan.VanGreuning@afgri.co.za</a>> wrote: <br>
<br>
><br>
> Good day<br>
> Can you tell me what is on the photo's.<br>
> I captured this Sunday night in Harrismith.<br>
> I saw five of these fireballs between 22h00 and 22h22 moving from North <br>
> to South.<br>
> Thank you<br>
><br>
> Riaan van Greuning<br>
> Electrical Technician<br>
> AFGRI Operations Limited<br>
> Tel: +27 12 974 2525<br>
> Fax: +27 86 635 2462<br>
> Mobile: +27 71 679 3533<br>
> E-mail: <br>
> Riaan.VanGreuning@afgri.co.za<mailto:Riaan.VanGreuning@afgri.co.za><br>
> Website: <a href="http://www.afgri.co.za<http://www.afgri.co.za/>" target="_blank">www.afgri.co.za<http://www.afgri.co.za/></a> <br>
> [cid:image001.jpg@01CAFB19.D0B70550]<br>
<br>
<br>
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