If you happened to videotape several minutes of slow-moving, brightly lit groups of circular objects in the sky, would you post your video online right away or wait a few months to do it?

A YouTube user, named Naktis Ireland, chose the latter option, after recording odd lights over Cork, Ireland, back in December. Ireland uploaded the video on March 16, and it’s only now starting to get some attention, according to Open Minds.

In the video, seen below, the bright objects keep materializing in the sky at the right, and move in formation to the left at approximately the same distance between each other, until they slowly seem to fall behind a group of trees, before another group of them appear out of thin air and do the same thing.

Check out the Ireland UFO video here:

Many questions about the legitimacy of these UFOs are being raised by online commenters and a handful of photographic and special effects experts, who speculate on whether these are flares, balloons, lanterns or simply, unexplained.

Writing on YouTube, Ireland addressed concerns about the shakiness of his UFO video.

“I am sorry for the quality, it was filmed with a mobile phone. Ironically I had a Canon EOS 55D with 300 mm lens at home that could of filmed in 3000×3000 but I was afraid that they would disappear by the time I got my camera as this is a very rare opportunity so instead, used a phone to record as much as possible.”

 

  • Ireland UFOs 1

    In December 2012, a YouTube user identified as Naktis Ireland, recorded nearly three minutes of video which purported to show groups of slow-moving, brightly lit UFOs over Cork, Ireland. And yet, the video wasn’t posted to YouTube until March 16, 2013. While many comments and some photo experts have weighed in on the issue, the jury is still out as to what these objects were. This slide show offers several images of the UFOs as they moved slowly across the sky before disappearing behind the bushes or the house.

  • Ireland UFOs 2

    In this image, one of the lights drifts down behind bushes while the other disappears past the house.

  • Ireland UFOs 3

    These three glowing objects moved in formation until disappearing behind the house.

  • Ireland UFOs 4

    The three lights seem to glide in formation as they move slowly in harmony.

  • Ireland UFOs 5

    In this image, four of the objects are seen at once, with one of them about to move out of view near the house.

  • Ireland UFOs 6

    Another sequence showing four objects at the same time, all moving at identical speed.

Whitley Strieber, best-selling author of numerous books that have been made into feature films, including 1987′s New York Times No. 1 non-fiction book, “Communion,” suggests the Ireland UFOs could be sky lanterns or something else.

“I am wondering if these could have been flares,” he wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “The thing that bothers me about them is that I am seeing that slow falling motion, not like something powered at all. I think that they are too large to be fireworks.”

On their Unknown Country website, Strieber and his wife Anne examine this case, reaching out to some experts in the special effects, photographic and web design arenas, to try and get some clarity about the Ireland UFOs.

One of those individuals, web designer James Beeson, doesn’t give credible marks for the video.

“I’m going to come down hard off the fence and cry ‘foul.’ This event, if real, would surely have drawn not only media coverage, but also other videos from different locations. It’s a big city, it’s not dark, they keep on coming (a bit like a big lantern release would) … and very convincingly emerging from the gap between the houses.”

A photographer and documentary cinematographer who prefers to be identified as “Dan” told HuffPost in an email, “It’s hard to imagine that many flares being deployed over such a densely populated area. Surely it would have led to the arrest of the pilot and the revocation of his license — or pilots, plural.”

“On the other hand,” Dan added, “in the preponderance of faked UFO videos, the objects tend to be perfectly composed in convenient parts of the sky relative to the camera. The only other possibility I can think of is that these could have been little remote-controlled quadcopters carrying bright lights. But these would have been seen and reported by many, so there goes my theory.”

Dan also pointed out the realistic manner in which the UFO-orbs seem to “diminish in brightness and size as they pass behind the tree, lampposts and bushes. I imagine it would be possible to fake this detail only with considerable skill. So while this incident remains well inside my ‘maybe’ box, I’ll concede, once again, that it ‘could’ be real.”

Naktis Ireland, who originally uploaded the video, states on YouTube, “I never mentioned aliens. I said they are very bright, strange orbs that are UNIDENTIFIED witch [sic] means that I cant even say that they where [sic] lanterns because no such detail was seen. Believe what you want to believe, anything is possible.”

  • Lanterns

    These candle-lit Chinese lanterns can rise high into the sky and are often mistaken for UFOs.

  • Melbourne, Australia, Feb. 2013

    This is a composite image of how three alleged UFOs maneuvered about in the sky over Melbourne, Australia, in early February, 2013. The final verdict isn’t in yet on whether they’re birds, aircraft, balloons, bugs or something truly unidentified.

  • Exploding Weather Balloons, Not UFOs

    On Dec. 20, 2012, a bright, circular object (pictured at the top of this composite image) was videotaped exploding in the skies above Sacramento, Calif. It wasn’t immediately identified, resulting in speculation that it was either an alien spacecraft, military top secret weapon, runaway planet, North Korean satellite, among others. Within a short period of time, it became apparent that this was a weather balloon. The bottom part of this image shows such a balloon as it ascended over Tampa Bay, Fla., on July 2, 2012, and exploded in an identical manner as the Sacramento object, probably much to the dismay of all true ET believers out there.

  • Boomerang UFO composite images — 10-5-12

    This is a composite of images shot by two eyewitnesses of a boomerang-shaped UFO they reported seeing over their Burbank, Calif., home on Oct. 5, 2012. Mutual UFO Network photo/video analyst Marc Dantonio concluded the object was likely “a balloon, floating on the wind that has collapsed in half.”

  • Changing UFO Pattern — Warren, Mich. 1-10-13

    This four-image series of lights in the sky was recorded over Warren, Mich., on Jan. 10, 2013. The lights were seen changing into several patterns. The most logical explanation for these types of UFOs is a series of balloons or lanterns.

  • UFOs Over Earth

    This composite image shows four different times that alleged UFO were photographed above Earth by either space shuttles or the International Space Station. The big question is whether or not they are truly unidentified objects or if they are more likely reflections from spacecraft windows, meteors or fast-moving spacecraft-generated debris.

  • Pink UFOs Or Lens Flares?

    What appear to be pink-red UFOs are actually lens flares from the Google Earth street view camera as it snapped images in Texas (left) and New Mexico (right).

  • Lens flares Arizona

    These two flying saucer-shaped, pink-colored lens flares were created by the Google Maps camera as it drove through locations in Sedona, Ariz. (left) and Flagstaff, Ariz. (right). The images were snapped in April 2009. Submitted to HuffPost by trenna.

  • Lens flare Whiteriver, Ariz.

    This skybound lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in June 2008 over Whiteriver, Ariz. Submitted to Huffington Post by Cheryl Weeks.

  • Lens flare Gulfport, Miss.

    This very Earthbound lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in November 2007 at Gulfport, Miss. Submitted to Huffington Post by Jenni Parker.

  • Lens flare Eureka Springs, Ark.

    This seemingly grounded lens flare was created by a Google Maps camera in January 2008 at Eureka Springs, Ark. Submitted to Huffington Post by SE.

  • Lens flare Escanaba, Mich.

    This lens flare appears to be following a car. The Google Maps image was created in October 2008 at Escanaba, Mich. Submitted to Huffington Post by Mary Robinson.

  • Cincinnati Skydivers NOT UFOs Sept. 28, 2012

    On the night of Sept. 28, 2012, a group of strange-looking lights appeared in the sky near Cincinnati, Ohio. First there was one, then, two, then three lights, slowly descending. It turns out, however, that these lights were originating from a group of skydivers performing a pyrotechnics jump at the La Salle High School homecoming event.

  • Weather Phenomenon

    Some UFO sightings may be due to a natural phenomenon known as sprites, like this one shown from 2006. “Lightning from [a] thunderstorm excites the electric field above, producing a flash of light called a sprite,” said geophysicist Colin Price.

  • Clouds

    Clouds: Saucer-shaped or “lenticular” clouds that form at high altitudes have been confused with UFOs.

  • Blimps or Advertising Balloons

    Blimps or advertising balloons: These can look like flying saucers from some angles, especially at night.

  • Sunken Ship in the Baltic Sea

    On June 19th the Swedish-based diving company Ocean Explorer discovered something they’ve never quite seen before. They were exploring in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland looking for sunken treasures when a very unusual image suddenly appeared on the sonar. A 197 feet diameter cylinder shaped object was discovered at the depth of approximately 275 feet which resembles the Millennium Falcon from the movie Star Wars.

  • Baltic Sea UFO 1

    An image released on June 15, 2012, shows a close-up view of the unidentified object sitting on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

  • Baltic Sea UFO 2

    Close-up of rock bed that forms the Baltic Sea UFO, which still mystifies researchers.

  • Baltic Sea UFO 3

    One of several odd stone circle formations, sitting on top of the unidentified object at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

  • Antarctic UFO — Aug. 10, 2012

    A circular UFO hovers above the Neumayer-Station III research facility in Antarctica on Aug. 10, 2012. Theories ranging from a simple weather balloon to a more elaborate ship from another planet have run the Internet gamut. The next slide shows a closeup of the object.

  • Antarctic UFO Closeup — Aug. 10, 2012

    This is a closeup of the UFO from the previous slide. No official explanation has been offered about the object.

  • Manufactured UFO — 2011

    Pictured is a quad copter — a deliberately manufactured UFO created by special effects wizard Marc Dantonio for a National Geographic special, “The Truth Behind: UFOs,” which aired in December 2011. On the left is what the small device looks like resting on the ground, measuring 4 feet in circumference. At right, is how it appeared behind a tree in the night sky.

  • Police Dashboard Camera In Texas

    In February of 2012, this fireball was captured by a Texas police chief’s A dashboard camera. F.A.A. say this was probably a meteor, falling to Earth. .

  • Meteors

    Meteors: Space debris can create a spectacular light show when it burns through the Earth’s atmosphere, and sometimes reported as UFOs.

  • Civilian or Military Aircraft