Last year, we asked What Did People See In The Sky July 4th 2009? and briefly discussed the possibility of orange Chinese Lanterns being the source of some of the reports and I suggested that the Orange Light UFOs are actually bioluminescent pterodactyls, a theory that didn’t really catch on.

July 3rd 2010 picked up where we left off last year, with a burst of ORBL sigthings with many more on July 4th.

We received this email from a reader a day after he submitted a report of ORBLs over Connecticut
on July 3rd 2010.

I posted last night the sighting of orange light formation in the area of Lime Rock CT.
Today, still intrigued by what we witnessed last night, I asked a few people who live around us if they had seen the same orange light after the fireworks. And yes, a few had seen them, but did not know what it was.

Then, I finally ran into someone who had an explanation.

Yes – Chinese Lanterns. Big ones! 3 to 4 ft tall ones…..orange ones!

This person had found one in a field after it had fallen. You can see videos on Youtube about Chinese Lantern.

These Chinese Lanterns looked like the orange we saw last night.

It makes sense. The lantern would first take off in one large group – would spread out with the wind – some hovering, then fading as the flame within them would burn out and disappear into the night.

It is also not a coincidence that these sightings would appear on New Year’s eve or celebration such as the 4th of July. It is just another form of Fireworks.

We were strangely disappointed when we got an explanation to our mystery, as after reading similar sighting online, we were so excited to have finally witnessed what may have been the presence of UFO. But, once we were told by this person they found a large Chinese lantern after it burned out, we unfortunately came to the conclusion that these orange lights were not related to UFO but simply Chinese Lanterns.

We will continue to scan the sky for real sightings. I hope this helps others understanding what they may have seen.

Chinese Lanterns could explain some but not all July 4th 2010 Orange UFO reports.

One of the several reports from Long Beach, CA reported “a disked shape to me with orange in the sides and it was rotating. It had a light on the top that flickered on and off.”

That doesn’t sound like a Chinese Lantern.

Other reports have the lights moving in formations that could be Chinese Lanterns bound together.

I just saw the same thing in easton Pennsylvania on july 3rd 2010 it didnt seem like they were moving at first until I acutally stopped to look at them nd notice that they were moving in a loose formation with a big group in the front nd a small group in the back

OK This is July 3rd 2010 and my self and 3 other people just watched a couple of orange balls cross through the sky and then fade. I was sent the link to this site after posted what I seen to facebook. Really weird. I am in Russellville Ar.

Our second year started with a bang, with the massive, yet generally unreported, worldwide July 4th 2009 UFO flap. The July 4th Orange Balls of Light were followed quickly by Mike Rowley’s Northport Devil. The phenomenon were first reported in April of 2009, but we didn’t pick up the story until mid August. Sights continue on Rowley’s property today.

In September, guest journalist Ashley Weller covered the The Galactic Gathering’ Conference from Denver, Colorado, including insight on talks by Sheldan Nidle and the always controversial Stan Romanek.

In November, we covered the Bigfoot Central $1,000,000 Hunt for Bigfoot that was to be held near Silverton, Colorado, July 10-14, 2010 which later turned out to be a bust.

The Spiral UFO Over Norway hogged the weird news in December and the new year brought a werewolf sighting in the always weird Cannock Chase and bringing us that much closer to the much anticipated return of Nibiru in 2012.

The spring brought us Mystery Booms reported in Colchester IL, Portland OR, and Bellingham WA and more Sasquatchploitation than we could follow.

And what to expect from the 3rd Year of Whales In Space?

I expect 2012 weirdness to continue to ramp up, more Orange Balls of Light, more bigfoot, some unidentified dead creatures and I’m sure some weirdness I couldn’t come up…

Hang on, there is more weird coming!

It seems the eastern Pennsylvania town is a hotspot for multiple UFO sights, as an email to the Whales In Space Contact Form brought in this report from June 18th.

my buddy and I saw them about 50 objects.Around 700pm,in Bethlehem pa he
said it was prob military,I had doubts not that high in the sky abt 50,000
feet or higher blue red green and white were the colors,they were making
strange circles zipping back and forth and were gone in about 10 mins or
so,any ideas?

“so,any ideas?”…

No. These reports of large numbers of mysterious lights in the sky, only 80 miles East of New York City go mostly unreported and unexplained.

UFO image from July 22 solar eclipse

www.chinadaily.com.cn reports the Chinese scientists at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, who were confirming the were studying UFO video captured during the July 22nd 2009 solar eclipse, was an unidentified object, but ‘not a UFO’.

The bright object to the side of the sun can be seen in more than 40 minutes of video that the Chinese scientists stated they will be studying for up to the next year.

Ji Haisheng, director of Nanjing-based Purple Mountain Observatory, pronounces each word carefully to clarify that he hasn’t made any claim of seeing a UFO during the July 22 solar eclipse, which could be seen across China.

The Daily Mail, however, reported on Sept 7 that China had “confirmed (that) 40 minutes of footage of the object was captured during this summer’s solar eclipse and that research has already started on a year-long investigation to find out what it is”.

The British newspaper quoted Ji as having said: “During the July 22 total solar eclipse observation, China had discovered near the sun an unidentified object, it’s physical nature remains to be further studied.”

This leads to an interesting point concerning the definition of the term ‘UFO’. The Chinese scientists obviously do not want to associate the connotations that comes with the term ‘UFO’, but are comfortable calling it an an unidentified object.

To be clear, anytime we use the term ‘UFO’ on Whales In Space, we mean exactly that. If we know what they are, we will identify them. The term ‘UFO’ does not imply flying saucers, aliens, or little green men. The object that streaked across the Texan skies in February was a UFO. The lights seen across the United States on July 4th 2009 were UFOs. We are not saying they are extraterrestrial, they are unidentified flying objects.

YouTube user ozzyvanhalenrox posted this interesting UFO footage, claiming it was recorded July 3rd, 2009 near Lake Havasu City, AZ.

Interestingly, this would have been the day before the largest recent UFO flap over the United States in recent years, the July 4th 2009 mass UFO sightings that spanned a dozen states and hundreds of witnesses.

I messaged ozzyvanhalenrox through YouTube, requesting an interview and have not heard back.

Thanks to MH for tipping me off to this video.

I still haven’t heard of any main stream media even touching the subject.
Robert Marsh of www.examiner.com posted July 4th UFO comments chime in from 14 states. He noticed the rash of sightings on Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and got many comment reporting on UFOs on July 4th. It would have been nice for him to link to WhalesInSpace.com, its hard not to find the site right now if you are doing a Google search of July 4th 2009 UFOs.

This comment was posted today and caught my attention.

I live in Kansas City, MO. On july 4th 2009 my girlfriend and I both saw an orange ball of light in midtown KC.
We were driving when we first saw it and pulled over to get a better look. This was no firework and this was no chinese lantern. There was a low cloud deck that night. The ball was lower than the clouds which allowed us to get a good look.
The object was actually a black sphere with orange fire rolling around it. It started in the western skies at maybe thirty degrees. It slowly moved until it was directly in front of us (south) and then it ascended into the clouds.
This incident has changed my perspective entirely. I am the president of the engineering department at a local university. I dont believe in spacemen or leprechans or jesus or any of that which has no proof.
But I saw something on july 4th 2009.

And another from Lynnwood, Washington, sent in by email

It was after the fireworks had stopped for the night at our house in Lynnwood, Wa. My boyfriend and I were outside on the back deck when we saw a bright red light coming up on the horizon (NE). It was moving as fast as a satellite/airplane would accross the sky. The light was very easy to see and bright, but there was no definite outline to it. It was a circular shape, but the light almost looked like a laser would with blurred edges. The center of the red light was bright yellow/orange and looked exactly like a star except was a bit larger and closer, definately in the atmosphere. As it slowly moved accross the sky and over our house, my boyfriend was running to get his cell phone so we could take a picture when we saw a second, orange, light coming from the same place the first did. The light flew from the NE direction SE, and they both followed the same path and faded away into the night.

These were moving too quickly to be anything but a powered object, and were moving in a definate direction at a constant speed.

Below are two videos sent in by a UFO witness from Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, about 45 miles North West of Bethlehem Pennsylvania where the first sightings came from.

I haven’t even heard any one really give a good go at the Orange Balls of Light Chinese Lantern Theory (ORBLCLT)?
I guess if it was picked up by the media, someone could say they saw their neighbor releasing Chinese Lanterns, but not a peep.

I’m sticking behind my giant flying bioluminescent dinosaurs theory for now.

Orange Balls of Light Chinese Lantern Theory (ORBLCLT)

A common explanation for this phenomenon is Chinese lanterns. While this theory held up better in a recent string of ORBL sightings over the UK, because of the close proximity of those sightings, it falls apart when you have have coast to coast reports of similar lights across the US.

The website, www.lowpricememory.co.uk that sells Chinese Flying Lanterns was posted by a WhalesInSpace reader, I presume to ‘prove’ that what people were seeing on July 4th were Chinese Lanterns. The product description states the lanterns, which measure 36cm or about 14 inches by 90cm or 35 inches and reach heights of 1000 meters or 3280 feet during their 15 to 20 minute lifespan. First, there is no way something with a 20 minute flight could explain sightings in 10 states across the US, unless there was a coordinated mass launching of lanterns. Also, I have never heard of people setting off Chinese Lanterns for the 4th of July.

Below is a video of a group of Chinese lanterns being launched. Could this be what people saw on the night of July 4th 2009?

If the Orange Balls of Light Chinese Lantern Theory (ORBLCLT) doesn’t fit, what does?

Giant flying bioluminescent dinosaurs?

How about giant flying bioluminescent dinosaurs?

A recent episode of History Channel’s Monster Quest explored reports of pterodactyl-like creatures that have been seen in the skies of Papua New Guinea. Called a ropen or flying demon, it is said to be bioluminescent and blurry video and photos presented by Monster Quest and monster hunters Paul Nation and Garth Guessman look a lot like the video and photos from the UK and July 4th ORBL sightings.

The natives of Umboi Island of Papua New Guinea have stories of unexplained lights in the skies and tales of giant flying dinosaur like creatures that go back generations. More recent sightings, such as the Duane Hodgkinson “pterodactyl” sighting in 1944 and 1994 Gideon Koro, Wesley Koro, and Mesa Agustin sighting, reporting a huge 20 foot plus wing span on a pteranodon or pterodactyl like creature, a crested head, and in night time sightings a glow or bioluminescent quality.

What are bioluminescent pterodactyls doing flying over Pennsylvania, Washington State, Missouri, Ohio, and other parts of the US on the 4th of July?

Would you rather except they are little green men from another planet in flying orange orbs?

“A procession of the damned.
By the damned, I mean the excluded.
We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded.”
Charles Fort – The Book of The Damned (1919)

I don’t know what people saw on July 4th. They were UFOs for sure. Unidentified flying objects.

30 or so orange lights seen over Bethlehem Pennsylvania, described as flying in a formation like the constellation Pegasus.

The comment was moved to its own post and received multiple comments of others who had seen the UFOs.

A quick check of the UFOStalker.com site brings up Event ID 17791, a sighting of 15-20 lights, again reported as flying in a formation. The report sites Bethlehem Pennsylvania as the location of the sighting and includes an image of the formation that the lights were flying in.

We were driving home after our local fireworks display. I looked to the northeast of our vehicle and saw what looked like light rising into the air. After a little while it became obvious that they weren’t rising, but moving. There were about 15-20 lights in the sky flying in a loose formation from north to south. There was a main group and a smaller group further behind of about 5 lights. Many people were pulling over to view the lights. One woman in the car next to us asked us what they were. I kept thinking that they were most likely aircraft. But they were flying low in a very loose formation with bright lights on, which seemed odd to me. It is certainly something I’ve never seen before. We lost sight of the lights when they continued south and were too far away to continue viewing.

Additional reports of orange lights were sighted over Almyra PA (Event ID 17792), Ellwood City PA (Event ID 17793), Hanover Township PA (Event ID 17795), and Lafayette Indiana (Event ID 17794).

The orange lights didn’t stop there. More sightings from Seaside California, Spring Valley California, Barstow California, and Federal Way Washington.

Will July 4th 2009 be remembered as the night the Orange Ball of Light (ORBL) sightings that have been filling British skies in recent months finally arrived in the United States?