Strange phenomena or someone having fun?

[Abingdonman]

Wonder if anyone else saw this or maybe something similar in the past somewhere...
this was observed early morning Sunday between 2.40am and 3.15 am (bit of a late night for us! )
Myself,wife,and son observed swirling ripples of light (Northern lights without the colour) sweeping through the clouds,with no obvious consistent pattern a little distance away NW of us,we reckon it was pretty near Whipsnade zoo(Bedfordshire)or somewhere between us,the 'sweeps' happened with gaps varying between a few seconds and up to around 1.5 minutes apart,we realised after a while that it was only visible in clouds ....when clear gaps appeared it wasnt seen in the gaps.
because it seemed to be in one particular area of sky,albeit a pretty large area,we pondered over whether it could have been someone using powerful light beams or even lasers,but we never saw any 'fingers' of light coming from the ground at any time,or any particular 'bright spots', in fact it looked more like the light was coming from above the clouds!
anyway,it didnt look staged,and between us we had 35 minutes out there!.....
whatever it was,it was fun for a while!

[DanH]

We had a similar phenomenon around here a few months ago, it turned out to be a large spotlight from a fun fair a few miles away so that's possibly what you saw.

Failing that, aliens

[nigelblake]

Noctilucent cloud

[Abingdonman]

Thanks for replies...having looked at a few noctilucent shows on youtube just now,there are similarities at certain times,the only thing is I believe the clips are speeded up/time lapsed and what we saw was moving pretty rapid,swerving & curling,almost doing a U turn at times...the cloud cover looked about the same over most of the sky,fairly high,but definitely not in the stratosphere!
as for a spotlight(s)or lasers, it was very much more like the movement of the Northern lights within or just above the clouds,with an ongoing movement,then fading fast untill the next time( over quite a large area of cloud really)we weighed it up and discounted lights with powerful beams from the ground,we reckon it would have been some achievement to have put up such a sophisticated and prolonged display,with no harsh patches of light or repitition (we looked out for repitition over the 35 minutes! ) if it was man made...we congratulate them on their genius!
we see many an aircraft climbing up from Luton with its spotlights on,can be very eeirie,but they are what they are,and stick out like a sore thumb..
tonight we have a video camera ready and waiting,but naturally it wont happpen again!

[DanH]

Aliens then

[Abingdonman]

Aliens then

Could be....I'm expecting a call from Nick Pope anytime now!

Whatever it was we know that someone else must surely have seen it,in the 25 minutes I was out there personally,a single aircraft flew overhead,and probably more significantly..I noticed a total of 3 what I took to be aircraft to do with Luton or even Heathrow,in the distance(could have been the same aircraft of course )....these were only visible for a few seconds (through a gap between buildings)but would have been as near to the Phenomena as us I would have thought.....

[nigelblake]

Aliens then

Might be "Thermians" " Please commander will you help us?"

[Abingdonman]

Lets be thankful that no one has suggested a 3mile X 1.5 mile Chinese lantern

[andyxm575]

oh bugger I was going to say that!