Been having a another nose around small cars. Try Ford Ka. UK version, not sure on other countries layouts. Looks like a candidate?

Yes; I mentioned the Ka already (and somewhat elliptically) in this post
UFO over London
(using the non-astronomical defintion of elliptical, of course)
(although I do notice that the Ka dashboard clock is, in fact, definitely elliptical in shape)

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Opps. Apologies. Worked along the lines of student so small car then went through the makers web sites to look see. Sorry I missed yours.

Isn't that an unnecessary limitation?

1. Not all students are unable to own, drive or hire medium-sized or large cars (although I don't know anything about the general scene at that particular university).
2. The article doesn't say whether any of the three people in the car at the time owned it.
3. It says the driver was a male friend of the student, but it doesn't mention his profession or financial status. It only says he had grown up in London.
4. If the "UFO" is the reflection of some fixture inside the car, the text indicates that the driver wasn't familiar with it -- "...he can't find a reasonable answer" and "None of us can come up with a reasonable answer to what this might have been." We have to keep in mind that if he deliberately helped the student make some money from her photos, he would be most unlikely to say he knew it was a reflection of something inside the car.

Not really. I could assume they were all in the same boat for somewhere to start. I could assume they were not all in uni and start looking at high end motors but the view did not support it. So I started at small cars. Besides, beaten to it. It was just somewhere to start.

For all you know the car might have been a old model, you are looking at KAs only, I think I will sell my UFO pic to the paper if that was the case! I think my picture has proved a point, also you have to consider that it was night time and if it was a clock on the dash it would glow when the head lights are on!
I say it is a cup holder and what you can see is the lid of the cup, even though it is eliptical in shape , that might be because the windscreen has a curve in it to distort a circular shape, plus I think that it was suggested in a previous post ,(I might be a girl but I do know a thing or two about cars! )

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In my opinion the best argument for its being a cup-holder instead of a dashboard feature is the lack of any direct view of the object itself. A dashboard feature reflected in the windscreen would place the feature and its reflection fairly close to each other in image space from just about any vantage point. The reflection would be seen above the feature itself, displaced slightly to left or right. Since the photographs show considerable image space below the reflection, and there is no feature visible directly in that space, this counterindicates a dashboard feature. If the object is farther back in the car -- say, between the front seat occupants -- then it will be out of frame yet still appear as a reflection.

You can experiment with this on your own. Place an object on your car dashboard and try to photograph its reflection in the windscreen, placing the reflection in the same relative position in the frame as in the Sun photos, and see whether you can avoid also taking a picture of the object itself.

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I disagree with the ascertation that a center-console feature would necessarily be reflected near the bottom of the windshield. You have to also take into account the depth of the dashboard and the slant of the windshield itself, which from what I've observed driving past my window for the last 10 minutes varries greatly per vehcile.

I made a little sketch to illustrate my point: it's not based off of any particular car or accurately scaled, just meant to show what I'm trying to say (Sorry, I'm at work, it's the best I can do with windows-paint).

A) Windshield
B) Possible location of center-console feature such as A/C dial
C) "Armrest" (Just for reference)
D) Possible location of cup holder
E) Dashboard depth.

Now the angle of A) and the length of E) can varry greatly depending on make/model of the vehicle. And I'm not discounting the cupholder theory, as it would most certianly reflect near the top of the windshield. But depending on the angle of the center console, the angle of the windshield, the depth of the dashboard, and how far the windshield extends back over the cab, a center console feature could easily be reflected in the top third or quarter of the windshield.

Attached Images

Cross-Section.JPG (8.7 KB, 5 views)

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Few of my college friends drove small cars; they drove large beaters, mostly. Of course, in my social circle, few of us drove cars at all, which is why it was so important for those who did to drive large cars! Not that I'm trying to pick on you, mind. I'm trying to give you another data point.

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No worry. It was just a point to start from. Could have picked the larger type but there we go.

Over here student debt appears in the press a lot. So I would assume that larger cars are avoided unless they are well off. I have not sat outside a university to log cars and drivers. Smaller cars also appear to be the preferred choice for the younger generation as insurance costs are quite high. That is an observation rather than a proven fact on my part

Right, where is me personal packet of spanish inquisition....

Over here, for a short while at least (late 70s to mid 80s), it was possible to get a cheap large car as the older generation dumped their traditional "tank" for a more fuel-efficient model, creating a temporary glut on the market of used behemoths. Those days are now past, but many of the Baby Boomers who benefitted from this in their youth then bought compact cars as adults, then turned around and traded them in for SUV's and Minivans. So another generation got to benefit from a wave of relatively cheap used vehicles.

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I think the insurance is the killer for the younger generation now. When (and where) I grew up it was usual for there to be one car per family and that was for the major wage earner should they be off the usual public transport routes or shift work. Not large cars either. Nowadays I look up and down the street where I live and each house has at least two cars including me. Few large cars but mainly what appears to be termed "compact" in other parts of the world. You can spot the house where junior has just passed the test. A small cheap car appears and he/she starts to fix shiny bits and a loud stereo.

I've done my own test on page three link 86 here and the cup holder has to be near the front consol to get the light reflecting on the lid , I have tried it on different levels to simulate the picture and you will see my results.
Oh! and my car is a small car.
Thank you JayUtah for seeing my point of view!

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In addition, there's another variable: where the camera was held. Some seem to be assuming it must have been at the normal location of the passenger's head, or close to it. But many people lean forward when shooting through a windshield.

Further, with today's digital cams and cell-phone cams it's quite common for the device to be held out at arm's length when snapping. The camera could have been far forward of the usual POV of a passenger. This would also suggest an explanation for why the UFO was not visible to the passenger but did show up in the photo.

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Shame on all scientists here. Words, words, words, and the only experimenter a "mere" girl.

As an alternative, could it be a lighted cup holder? Admittedly it's a little odd in that case that only one of them is visible, unless the light is travelling up through a transparent or translucent cup of some sort. I still think it's a possibility though. Funny enough I looked for a picture of an example and wound up back on the first page of this thread lol.

If you look on page 3 link 86 you will find my example there .


Thanks TJ "mere girl "

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"Make the most of every day like it could be your last and enjoy each others company as this will make good memories for when we pass". chrissy

*A rock is for life not just for throwing*

You're kidding! Although I'm not a scientist, as post 19 on page 1 says, I did my own experiment away back on 1 March and reported my findings, and JayUtah reported his own findings a little later.

Around that time there were a lot of wild guesses from people who were clearly not doing any experimenting and were sounding a bit like moonlanding hoax-believers -- "It looks like... so it must be." How they imagined the UFO could be the reflection of a speedometer escaped me, considering that for well over 20 years cars have been designed to eliminate such reflections in the windscreen.