# What phenomenon would explain \[the lights in the sky in\] this video? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 23, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936 "2016-01-23T03:41:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![IDtenT\_Error](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@IDtenT\_Error](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IDtenT_Error)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/21 "2016-01-26T15:12:39Z")
Additionally, it’s right near the approach to Seattle Tacoma International Airport, so low flying planes would be common, there. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/22 "2016-01-26T15:53:07Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Two objects - most likely two objects that are not even remotely close together, but just happen to look that way from where the video was shot. > > (Consider, for example, that in those cases where the shadow of a plane passes over you, it would have looked, from where you are standing, like the plane was flying into the sun, but the plane is not actually flying anywhere near the sun) Visual depth error is particularly possible without (re)-cognizable size references. Particularly if you’re looking at essentially infinite range, where a moon and your thumb look alike, if you didn’t know a) one was a thumb and b) whatever either of them are, one is attached attached to your body and pretty close. Cite: my own brain, particularly when I’m tired, or, in my teens, stoned, when interpreting a visual world with input from only one eye. Which is always. ETA: “(re)cognizable” point a), semantic contribution to visual processing, is suggested above in **Chronos** ’s post. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/23 "2016-01-26T15:54:58Z")
Thread title edited to make subject clearer. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/24 "2016-01-26T21:09:44Z")
> [@IDtenT\_Error](#): > > Additionally, it’s right near the approach to Seattle Tacoma International Airport, so low flying planes would be common, there. I don’t think it’s Venus. The ‘stationary’ light does move slowly, but perceptibly throughout the course of the video - at the end, it’s three times further away from the telegraph wires as it appears at the start. Pause the video and move the slider back and forth - you can see it. I think it’s two planes - the steady light is one coming toward the camera; the flashing light is another one going away, at a higher altitude. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/25 "2016-01-26T21:27:09Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I don’t think it’s Venus. The ‘stationary’ light does move slowly, but perceptibly throughout the course of the video - at the end, it’s three times further away from the telegraph wires as it appears at the start. > Pause the video and move the slider back and forth - you can see it. > > I think it’s two planes - the steady light is one coming toward the camera; the flashing light is another one going away, at a higher altitude. Yeah, that “stationary” light does move slowly, so it’s not Venus. I assume it’s just a satellite. Nothing there looks particularly weird or unusual to me. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/26 "2016-01-26T21:41:36Z")
A satellite would move quicker than that, and wouldn’t stay that bright for that long. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/27 "2016-01-26T21:45:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A satellite would move quicker than that, and wouldn’t stay that bright for that long. Then weather balloon? I’ve seen lights like this before; I’ve just always assumed they were satellites. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/28 "2016-01-26T21:52:13Z")
Or airplanes heading in my direction with landing lights. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/29 "2016-01-26T21:55:12Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Then weather balloon? I’ve seen lights like this before; I’ve just always assumed they were satellites. Satellites don’t blink regularly like that. They usually move smoothly across the sky. Some will brighten considerably then fade again ([satellite flare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare)). ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/30 "2016-01-26T21:58:55Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Satellites don’t blink regularly like that. They usually move smoothly across the sky. Some will brighten considerably then fade again ([satellite flare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare)). No, I’m not talking about the blinking light. That’s just a plane, isn’t it? Or do people find that thing weird, too? ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/31 "2016-01-26T22:35:11Z")
I live on what I presume is the line of sight along a flight or landing path for aircraft in the direction of SeaTac airport. It is incredibly common to see this, and more complex weird slow dancing lights as aircraft are stacked up in the pattern and very distant ones shift angle compared to closer ones. At dusk, when it is night on the ground but high aircraft are still directly illuminated by sun’s rays, even stranger artifacts and colors can happen, like a light changing colors slowly, or appearing oblong and spinning. This video isn’t even slightly weird. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/32 "2016-01-27T07:28:43Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Or airplanes heading in my direction with landing lights. I think so. When they’re travelling in the direction of your line of sight, they can appear to stay still for a long time - leading to the illusion of ‘hovering, then veering off’, which is common in UFO reports. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2016, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936/33 "2016-01-27T11:57:09Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I think so. When they’re travelling in the direction of your line of sight, they can appear to stay still for a long time - leading to the illusion of ‘hovering, then veering off’, which is common in UFO reports. This. I can often watch planes appearing “stationary” when I look to the east from my house; in fact they are just following the glide path into Heathrow which lines up pretty well with my location. When they make the 180 turn for approach, they appear to suddenly dart off to the side, and then disappear (as the landing light angles away from me). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-phenomenon-would-explain-the-lights-in-the-sky-in-this-video/743936.md?page=1)