UFO sighting spooks Carlisle couple
Last updated at 11:01, Wednesday, 31 December 2008
A Carlisle couple claim to have had a close encounter after they saw strange lights in the sky over Houghton.
Heather Rayson, 52, and her husband Adrian, 53, had been enjoying a quiet night in at their home in Tribune Drive, Houghton, on Sunday.
But at 8.10pm Heather, who works at the city’s McDonald's restaurant in Kingstown, recalled how her she and her husband had been watching TV.
“Adrian just suddenly sat up, looked towards the window, and said: ‘What’s that?’.”
The couple spent the next six or seven minutes staring in fascination at a bizarre collection of oval lights, some static in the air, some moving. “I told my husband to get his camera, so he could take photos of them,” said Heather.
“It was a cloudless night and I remember just thinking ‘wow!’. It was something we just couldn’t explain.”
Heather is adamant that the lights could not have been laser lights or candle-lit paper Chinese lanterns, which are currently popular in some parts of the county.
They have been known to float high into the night sky on thermals.
She said: “Some of the lights were still, and some moved quite fast, converging on the others and then they all just rose up and disappeared.”
Two other people reported seeing similar lights at around 5pm on Christmas Eve over Cummersdale.
The Raysons are not the first Cumbrians to this year witness strange phenomenon in the night sky.
Some people are so fascinated by the idea of alien life visiting earth that they devote hours each week to investigating the subject.
Workington based UFO investigator Sharon Larkin, 36, believes that most UFO sightings can be explained in earthly terms, but not all of them.
“There are a handful that can’t be explained,” said Sharon.
During 2008, there have been some memorable sightings, some strange enough to make the headlines.
Sharon says some reports are the result of a trend to light paper lanterns which can be lifted high into the air by thermal currents, even on cold nights.
Others have been harder to explain, she said, particularly those over the Solway in the area around Dundrennan.
Memorable UFO sightings during 2008 in Cumbria include:
December: several reports of a cluster of orange lights flitting around the sky at around 8pm;
November 5, Solway Firth: orange lights rising steadily upwards, before finally disappearing;
Cartmel, October 11: a dozen orange, circular objects seen flying across the sky at 10.30pm. Followed short time later by four similar objects;
Kendal, October 6: witness reports of circular object with a comet-like tail flying above Hallgarth Estate. One witness said the bright object, said to be quick and silent, was just 200 metres above houses;
October 5, Penrith: bright object seen “shooting” from the west from the Solway;
September 23, Penrith: witness describes seeing bright oval-shaped light, white at the front and orange in the middle, flying across the sky. From the back came sparks and its speed was constant.
Sharon became interested in UFOs after a close encounter in Broughton in 1999.
“It was about 8pm, and we saw this huge black triangle in the sky, with a red light underneath and three white lights at the corners,” she said.
“The thing was about half the size of a football pitch and almost noiseless.
“The only sound was a faint electric humming noise, like electricity.
“Looking at it, we felt fear as well as excitement, and then it turned around and started coming down towards us. We all jumped in the car and drove off as fast we could.”
First published at 09:13, Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
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On Saturday night at 10:15pm I was watching TV with my wife and two grandchildren who were on a sleepover when I saw a bright orange light in the west travelling east towards my house. I grabbed my camera and went outside for a better view. The light turned north when about 1/4 of a mile away. I managed only to get one photograph. There are two bizarre points about it. One, it was totally silent and two, after moving north for a few seconds, it abruptly vanished. It is only a speck on the photograph but when the image is magnified it clearly shows what is a perfect sphere.
I am astonished that there appears to be no other report, or perhaps there are.RegardsRonPS. I have spent my life debunking UFO sightings but am at a complete loss as to an explanation.View all comments on this article
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On Sat 17 Oct 09 around midnight my sister and I were driving on the A590 towards Kendal when from a distance we saw 3 bright orange orbs in the sky, alongside the right side of the dual carriage way. One of the 3 was a distance perhaps 2 or 3 times higher than a radiomast. The other 2 were higher in the sky. We watched them as we drove past them. They were stationary. We didnt stop to observe them. There were other cars at that time so I'm sure others would have seen them.
Posted by christine neil on 18 October 2009 at 22:04