Ominous Black Ring

According to a article on mirror.co.uk, Georgina Heap, while playing tennis with friends at Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, saw an ominous black ring in the sky. Ten girls in total are reported to have seen the ring last Friday. And Met Office did not believed it to have been a weather phenomenon (like some sky rings are):

(Above are the images of black ring posted on: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/leamington-spa-schoolgirl-takes-picture-3414787 - and several other sites.)

Of course, you know I love this sort of thing. Is the picture real? If so, what is this thing? If not, what was the motivation for such a hoax?

So, on first look, the images show no obvious signs of tampering. In the first image we see a jet trail, either higher up, or much smaller than the ring. Then in the second photo we can see an insect, looking bigger than the jet from the trail would have been, so it’s reasonable to assume the ring was between the two, and the bug much closer to Georgina, indicating that the ring was probably somewhat smaller than a jet.

So, zooming in for a closer look, I became suspicious that the ring had tighter pixilation than the rest of the sky, however, this pixilation turned out to be consistent with the more detailed trees and buildings, indicating it’s how the details were saved by the phone.

Meanwhile, my web search turns up no indication that the story is a hoax or reproduction, and the same story on several news sources that are more familiar to me. Along with some stories on similar rings, and ones that turn into clouds.

Furthermore, the ring changes between the two images, indicating that it really is smoky, and not just something static (such as being painted on glass, for example).

Conclusion; I don’t know for sure what they saw, but I believe they definitely saw something (at least for the time being).