Kelowna man records strange lights streaking across sky

Photo: Laurie

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Photo: Laurie Photo: Laurie Photo: Laurie Photo: Laurie Photo: Cindy Raftis Photo: Cindy Raftis Photo: Lauire

UPDATE 10:40 a.m.

Theories and explanations about the unusual lights in the sky above Kelowna have been coming in since our story was published Wednesday morning.

Multiple people have reached out to suggest the lights were drones flying in synchronicity and two people have shared photos which look like they could be drones.

Laurie tells Castanet she was out taking photos of the northern lights but she didn't notice the objects until the next day.

"I too saw something strange when I went back to look at the pics Saturday morning. I live between Orchard Park and the hospital and these pics were taken facing west.

"I took the first attached picture at 11:39 p.m. The second picture was taken at 11:40 p.m. and there are 3 strange objects now in the frame. I don’t know what they are and thought maybe just an anomaly until I read your article and saw the video this morning," Laurie says.

Cindy Raftis, who lives in the Mission, was also taking photos of the northern lights Friday night around the same time, and like Lauire, she didn't notice the white objects until the next day.

"I was taking pictures across the lake. And you know, it was beautiful. I just noticed in one picture after it was all done there was this white thing above the moon because the moon was down below, but there's a white thing. And so I kind of zoomed in and I think it's a drone," Raftis said.

"But then also, I look back at some of my other pictures that I took and there are other white little dots in the picture. And three, definitely, I don't know, they're not stars. So I kind of think that maybe it was drones. It's kind of weird."

Drones can be programmed to fly in unison.

According to TechCrunch a team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon managed to teach drones to fly together without pre-programming in heavy winds and drone light shows have been popular now for several years.

"I just want to give this guy some kind of peace of mind that, it probably was a drone," Laurie says.

ORIGINAL 4:00 a.m.

A Kelowna man and his family spotted something so unusual in the sky above Kelowna that he waited a few days before deciding to share it with Castanet.

Bobby Vandenhoorn lives a few blocks from Orchard Park Mall and he was on his rooftop patio Friday night hoping to see the Northern Lights between 10 and 11 p.m. with his family when they got more than they bargained for.

"We're just kind of waiting for the aurora borealis to show up and we started seeing those groups of things just flying through the sky really fast. Eventually, we just decided to start filming some of them and caught some all in a row, all going the same speed."

Vandenhoorn says at first he thought it might be Starlink's satellites, but then they started breaking up and moving in different directions before reforming into a group.

"These ones kind of seem to be flying together, but they would spread apart. Some are really low, below cloud level and some are kind of higher up, probably higher than the clouds would be, but it's really, really strange."

In the video, you can hear the family trying to figure out what the objects could be.

"I think my parents were just trying to throw out logical ideas as to what it could be because we all couldn't really believe that. There's just these silent orbs flying through the sky."

Vandenhoorn says he's watch the video back over the past couple days and wanted to hear if others saw the same thing.

"I've had a good amount of time to really sit and think about, what the heck was that? And I can't think of anything other than something unusual, you know, because it's not aircraft and it's not satellites and it's not birds."

"There must have been other people staring at the sky at the same time as me."