UFO Balloons

For quite a while now there have been 'UFO-balloons' on the market. Originally they came from China/Asia but there seems to be a market for them here in Europe. Here's a company that sells them. While I suppose it's great fun watching them go up in the sky, it creates havoc with UFO sightings. It's remarkably easy to mistake them for UFOs, and people have done exactly that a number of times. Overhere in Holland it has become the latest fashionable thing to do on new year's eve, but I have observed myself that some people let them up on other dates as well. While up close you can tell the difference, you can see the fire and paper cilinder, farther away you only see an orange glowing light drifting along where ever the wind takes it. Naturally from a distance it looks like a UFO.

I've sighted these UFO balloons many times, however on one occasion I sighted something which I believe was 'the real thing'. On new year's eve 2006-2007 I was at my mother's place celibrating new year. After 12, my family and I went outside to light up fireworks. My sister in law and her son were beside me when my nephew alerted me to an orange light in the sky, just above the houses some 2-300 meters away. (My nephew remarked that there were 2 lights but one disappeared, I only saw one.) When we looked at the orange light it was stationary (from our point of view) but suddenly it started moving our way. We were watching this light go straight over our heads some 15-20 meters up in the sky. When it was directly over our heads I could see it was eliptical shaped, glowing in an orange colour (all over its mass) but the strangest thing was, that it was pitch black in the dead center. (Normally that's where the fire should be in a balloon.) There are a few more things to point out. At that particular date it was stormy weather, windforce 8, not the best time to launch a balloon since there was a high probability the balloon would smack against the nearest building. Second thing to note, from the direction where it came there weren't any buildings, there was (and still is) a cemetery.

Tried to make a drawing of the object I saw but it still doesn't do it any justice. It was a glowing orange more like molten metal. The black thing in the center was also pitch black but with a 'vagueness.' Really hard to recreate that with pen and pencil.