Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s probably just a Chinese lantern.

Margaret Frain, of Ullswater Mansions, Macclesfield, was mystified when she saw a convoy of strange orange lights hovering in the skies above her home on Sunday evening (February 14). - and her thoughts turned to little green men.

Retired mum-of-one Margaret, 77, said: "I have no idea what it was, it could have been anything.  It was very eery. I saw them through my kitchen window, first there were two, then two more, and more until there were about ten of them."

Margaret, who is a retired physiotherapy aid at Macclesfield hospital, explained: "They were golden coloured and all lit up, they looked a little bit like aeroplanes. I opened my back door and they weren’t making a sound which was really very strange." But Jodrell Bank astronomer, Doctor Tim O’Brien, reckons Margaret’s UFO theory is just hot air.

He says her visit from the third kind was more likely to be a flock of Chinese lanterns released to celebrate Chinese New Year. He said: "I haven’t investigated this specific occasion but I have to say it is unlikely they were alien aircraft. The most common explanation for unidentified lights in the sky are Chinese lanterns which have become very popular in the last few years.

"I’m 99.9 percent sure this is probably the reason, some people are lucky enough to look up at the right time and see a meteor or a fire ball, but this sounds like they were lanterns. Dr O’Brien explained that the paper lanterns, often released in celebrations, are powered by a flame which emits a golden light, carried slowly by the wind and often tied together, giving the impression they are aircraft flying in formation.

He said: "They have become very popular over the last few years and most enquiries we have here turn out to be lanterns, I’d say a few a month. He added: "We’re not used to seeing them, but sometimes you can’t be sure."