What did I see in the sky last night?

[purplepoppy]

There was a light broken cloud that only allowed the brightest of stars through. A very bright sharp white light moved very very slowly across the sky above cloud level, where you'd expect to see a plane i couldn't hear any sound. It stopped dead, slightly obscured by a light cloud and appeared to expand from a single point of light into a tight group of multiple flashing lights of much lower intensity before disappearing after a minuteor two.

There's quite a few military bases near hear so I suspect it was some kind of training exercise but I couldn't hear any firing.

Any idea what it was?

Updates

+1 y

My initial thought was a helicopter as many have suggested. Flashes probably from a firing exercise. Would have been good to had a better view but least it wasn't aliens come to probe me.

[Anonymous]

I did some digging around and came up with some information stating that the British army is in the process of replacing its medium helicopters, currently 4 different types to a single type.

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-begins-1bn-project-for-new-medium-helicopters/

One of the contenders for the bid is a military version of the Airbus H175, the H175M, which would be produced in Wales.

https://www.deeside.com/airbus-selects-broughton-for-military-helicopter-production-line-as-part-of-raf-puma-replacement-bid/

How loud is a helicopter?

https://www.chem.purdue.edu/chemsafety/Training/PPETrain/dblevels.htm

How much does sound decrease over distance?

https://www.acoustical.co.uk/distance-attenuation/how-sound-reduces-with-distance-from-a-point-source/

H175M is quieter than the Bell J2A in the dB listing.

https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/stories/2020-10-quieter-city-skies

How high can a helicopter be?

Stated ceiling heights are about 20k ft

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_Helicopters_H175

If it were 100dB at 20k ft at sea level it would be down to about 55 dB, refer to how loud is a helicopter chart indicates this is roughly equal to a normal speaking voice.

So as the Airbus is quieter it is possible, particularly with obsecuring background noise, perhaps rain could make a difference? etc Maybe you dont hear the helicopter or maybe you do hear it but you dont recognise it as a helicopter because its not as loud as you expect it to be?

As for the lights, could they have been the release of decoy flares? Perhaps as an accident or for some training purpose or even a training accident?

This is a Lynx Mk7

Its hard to know what you saw but this seems to be within the realm of possibility. (I didn't see what you saw)

[Opinion Owner]

Oh the current cloud height over Wales right now is 2 - 7 km which is about 6k - 22k feet, so within the same sort of range as a helicopter.

https://en.sat24.com/en/gb/km

[ChrisMaster69]

There have been some C-17, Chinook, Wildcat exercises around Pembrokeshire.

Also aircraft have been transiting from air shows.

tbh could be anything, even the moon smacked of its tits

[AviatorTom]

Technically speaking, it was a UKO, because you couldn't identify it. It most likely was a top secret UK-US aircraft under development. Don't be surprised if you get a visit from MI6 in the near future.

[ArtemisSilver]

I'd say a military exercise.

Anti missile system air to air. If it was really bright possibly an anti ballistic missile system.

[ArtemisSilver]

I bet you were secretly hoping for a probing though 😏

[bean2k21]

Did it look like this? This is a property I own called the moon.

[purplepoppy]

That's a tree

[bean2k21]

I haven't a clue. Maybe Elon Musk was messing around up there.

[FunkyMonkee]

Sounds like you saw a UFO!
We're the lights flashing constantly in a very rhythmic pattern?

[purplepoppy]

They were in a tight cluster but didn't seem to have any notable patten.

[FunkyMonkee]

But, did the lights flash at regular intervals?

[NathanDavis]

that was Elon Musk... trolling twitter again

[legalboxers]

shooting star?

[exitseven]

We are not alone.

[jimmy2]

No telling these days

[panamared1]

was the weed any good

[Anonymous]

Was it Clark Kent naked?