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- TOP SECRET INVESTIGATIONS DEPARTMENT -

The National Security Agency's UFO Investigations Unearthed

There is one question that persistently circles the community of Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) true-believers: If the government has nothing to hide, UFO fans often ask, then why is it keeping so many UFO records under lock and key?

???Well, it turns out that the government does have something to hide, but it has nothing to do with extraterrestrials,??? said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, D.C.

A document has surfaced that had been stamped ???Top Secret Umbra?????”the codeword for the highest, most sensitive category of communications intelligence.

The once-classified affidavit was originally filed by the National Security Agency (NSA) in a 1980 lawsuit to justify the withholding of records on UFOs. The document is largely declassified??”with certain sections cut out, ostensibly to protect employee names, and keep NSA technologies, skills, and foreign connections out of the limelight.

The document??”In Camera Affidavit of Eugene F. Yeates: Citizens Against UFO Secrecy v. National Security Agency, October 9, 1980??”was released in redacted form on November 3 in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from researcher Michael Ravnitzky and posted on the website of the Federation of American Scientists.

A read of the document yields insight into how a super-secret agency like the NSA became caught up in the UFO phenomenon.

Created in November 1952, The National Security Agency/Central Security Service is America??™s cryptologic organization. It coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to protect U.S. government information systems and churns out foreign signals intelligence information.

Being a high-tech organization, the NSA is a cutting-edge home for communications and data processing. It is also a center for foreign language analysis and research within the government.

The just-released 1980 document explains that a total of 239 documents related to UFOs were located in NSA files, with 79 of those documents originating with other government agencies. One document is an account by an NSA official attending a UFO symposium. A healthy chunk of these reports were produced between 1958 and 1979.

The titles of NSA-related UFO documents that are noted in the declassified document are intriguing, such as UFO Hypothesis and Survival Questions.

Another title cited is UFO??™s and the Intelligence Community Blind Spot to Surprise or Deceptive Data. In this seven-page, undated, unofficial draft of a monograph authored by an unnamed NSA employee, the author reportedly points out what he considers to be ???a serious shortcoming??? in the NSA??™s communications intelligence (COMINT) interception and reporting procedures. That is, ???the inability to respond correctly to surprising information or deliberately deceptive data.???

The unidentified author uses the UFO phenomenon to illustrate his belief that the inability of the U.S. intelligence community to process this type of unusual data adversely affects U.S. intelligence gathering capabilities.

Within the pages of the newly-released affidavit??”and between sections of excised copy??”it shows NSA intercepted in 1971 communications between two aircraft and a ground controller discussing a ???phenomena??? in the sky, as well as radar screen observations, labeling what was viewed as ???unidentifiable??? objects.

Other intercepted and decrypted reports of bright lights, luminous objects, and unidentified aircraft??”along with an elongated ball of fire??”scooting through the skies over non-U.S. countries are noted too.

The 21-page affidavit makes clear that release of documents for public scrutiny, for a variety of reasons, ???would seriously damage the ability of the United States to gather this vital intelligence information.???

Furthermore, how the NSA works with a network of foreign sources, organizations, and other governments to secure intelligence data would be adversely affected.

The majority of these records, explained NSA official Eugene F. Yeates in the 1980 affidavit, were communications intelligence reports that ???are the product of intercept operations directed against foreign government controlled communications systems within their territorial boundaries.???

According to Aftergood, the newly declassified Yeates affidavit provides new insight into the types of records sought by UFO researchers that have been withheld by NSA.

???Even with all of the deletions, one can get a sense of the enormous scale??”and the apparent success??”of the worldwide electronic intercept operations conducted by NSA at the height of the Cold War,??? Aftergood told SPACE.com.

???Unfortunately it is not clear from the affidavit how the withheld documents might have related to UFOs,??? Aftergood said. ???There must have been some connection in order for them to be within the scope of the original FOIA request??¦but I have no idea what it was.???

But for those hungry to show a great government conspiracy is at work and that alien-driven UFOs routinely cruise through our skies, the just brought to light document won??™t help you.

???The affidavit does not discount the UFO phenomenon??¦it simply doesn??™t address it one way or the other,??? Aftergood concluded.

Source: Space.com
http://www.space.com/news/051116_nsa_ufo.html

- ALTERNATIVE ANSWERS DEPARTMENT -

Professor Thinks Bombs, Not Planes, Toppled WTC

The physics of 9/11 ??” including how fast and symmetrically one of the World Trade Center buildings fell ??” prove that official explanations of the collapses are wrong, says a Brigham Young University physics professor.

In fact, it's likely that there were "pre-positioned explosives" in all three buildings at ground zero, says Steven E. Jones.

In a paper posted online Tuesday and accepted for peer-reviewed publication next year, Jones adds his voice to those of previous skeptics, including the authors of the Web site www.wtc7.net, whose research Jones quotes. Jones' article can be found at www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html.

"It is quite plausible that explosives were pre-planted in all three (WTC) buildings," BYU physics professor Steven E. Jones says.

Jones, who conducts research in fusion and solar energy at BYU, is calling for an independent, international scientific investigation "guided not by politicized notions and constraints but rather by observations and calculations.

"It is quite plausible that explosives were pre-planted in all three buildings and set off after the two plane crashes ??” which were actually a diversion tactic," he writes. "Muslims are (probably) not to blame for bringing down the WTC buildings after all," Jones writes.

As for speculation about who might have planted the explosives, Jones said, "I don't usually go there. There's no point in doing that until we do the scientific investigation."

Previous investigations, including those of FEMA, the 9/11 Commission and NIST (the National Institutes of Standards and Technology), ignore the physics and chemistry of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, to the Twin Towers and the 47-story building known as WTC 7, he says. The official explanation ??” that fires caused structural damage that caused the buildings to collapse ??” can't be backed up by either testing or history, he says.

Jones acknowledges that there have been "junk science" conspiracy theories about what happened on 9/11, but "the explosive demolition hypothesis better satisfies tests of repeatability and parsimony and therefore is not 'junk science.' "

In a 9,000-word article that Jones says will be published in the book "The Hidden History of 9/11," by Elsevier, Jones offers these arguments:

      ??? The three buildings collapsed nearly symmetrically, falling down into their footprints, a phenomenon associated with "controlled demolition" ??” and even then it's very difficult, he says. "Why would terrorists undertake straight-down collapses of WTC-7 and the Towers when 'toppling over' falls would require much less work and would do much more damage in downtown Manhattan?" Jones asks. "And where would they obtain the necessary skills and access to the buildings for a symmetrical implosion anyway? The 'symmetry data' emphasized here, along with other data, provide strong evidence for an 'inside' job."

      ??? No steel-frame building, before or after the WTC buildings, has ever collapsed due to fire. But explosives can effectively sever steel columns, he says.

      ??? WTC 7, which was not hit by hijacked planes, collapsed in 6.6 seconds, just .6 of a second longer than it would take an object dropped from the roof to hit the ground. "Where is the delay that must be expected due to conservation of momentum, one of the foundational laws of physics?" he asks. "That is, as upper-falling floors strike lower floors ??” and intact steel support columns ??” the fall must be significantly impeded by the impacted mass. . . . How do the upper floors fall so quickly, then, and still conserve momentum in the collapsing buildings?" The paradox, he says, "is easily resolved by the explosive demolition hypothesis, whereby explosives quickly removed lower-floor material, including steel support columns, and allow near free-fall-speed collapses." These observations were not analyzed by FEMA, NIST nor the 9/11 Commission, he says.

      ??? With non-explosive-caused collapse there would typically be a piling up of shattering concrete. But most of the material in the towers was converted to flour-like powder while the buildings were falling, he says. "How can we understand this strange behavior, without explosives? Remarkable, amazing ??” and demanding scrutiny since the U.S. government-funded reports failed to analyze this phenomenon."

      ??? Horizontal puffs of smoke, known as squibs, were observed proceeding up the side the building, a phenomenon common when pre-positioned explosives are used to demolish buildings, he says.

      ??? Steel supports were "partly evaporated," but it would require temperatures near 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit to evaporate steel ??” and neither office materials nor diesel fuel can generate temperatures that hot. Fires caused by jet fuel from the hijacked planes lasted at most a few minutes, and office material fires would burn out within about 20 minutes in any given location, he says.

      ??? Molten metal found in the debris of the World Trade Center may have been the result of a high-temperature reaction of a commonly used explosive such as thermite, he says. Buildings not felled by explosives "have insufficient directed energy to result in melting of large quantities of metal," Jones says.

      ??? Multiple loud explosions in rapid sequence were reported by numerous observers in and near the towers, and these explosions occurred far below the region where the planes struck, he says.

Jones says he became interested in the physics of the WTC collapse after attending a talk last spring given by a woman who had had a near-death experience. The woman mentioned in passing that "if you think the World Trade Center buildings came down just due to fire, you have a lot of surprises ahead of you," Jones remembers, at which point "everyone around me started applauding."

Following several months of study, he presented his findings at a talk at BYU in September.

Jones says he would like the government to release 6,899 photographs and 6,977 segments of video footage for "independent scrutiny." He would also like to analyze a small sample of the molten metal found at Ground Zero.

Source: Deseret News
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635160132,00.html

- GOING APE OVER NEW KING KONG MOVIE DEPARTMENT -

To celebrate the release of the new King Kong movie, our friend Komar sent us this picture, taken at the Empire State Building during opening ceremonies for the Guinness World Records Museum. The photo is of Komar lying sandwiched between two beds of nails with King Kong on top. Komar also states that..."at the time, Miss Universe also sat on 72666/101623_komar-ape.jpg me."

- STRANGE LIGHTS, STRANGE EVENTS DEPARTMENT -

In Welsh folklore there are examples of "tan-we", strange lights which would appear from the heavens and land near houses where people were doomed to die. So when some Welsh poachers saw what today we would call a UFO in Buckley, Flintshire in the 19th century, they were afraid it would bring ill fortune down upon them.

They were also afraid to talk about the sighting for fear of being imprisoned for trespassing. But sons and nephews of the witnesses told the story to Buckley historian, the late James Bentley, who preserved this fascinating account for us.

Mr Bentley learnt that a serious dispute over pay at a Buckley colliery in the 1880s had led to the coal miners going on strike. They were forced to poach to feed their families.

Unfortunately, all the land thereabouts belonged to the mine owners, making the enterprise a very risky affair.

One dark, moonless night, five companions crept down to the fields south of the town and set their traps and released a ferret.

"Everywhere was pitch black and deathly silent," recounted Mr Bentley. "Suddenly a feeling of electrical tension seemed to descend upon their crouching figures. They had the feeling of being observed.

"Glancing up, they all saw a large, purplish-red luminous ball hovering above them. Silently it descended into a field adjacent. Petrified, they cowered down into the hedgerow and covered their heads with nets.

"Then they sensed a lessening of tension and heard a slight swishing sound. One of them cautiously opened his eyes and peered over the bank. A swirling ball of smoke, with small tongues of flame issuing from the base, was lifting off the ground." The men ran home in alarm and vowed each other to secrecy. The following evening one brave soul returned to collect the gear they had left behind in their panic.

"Peering into the nearby field, where the object had appeared," recorded Mr Bentley.. "He saw a large brown ring - it was scorched grass.."

This Victorian close encounter is a rare example of a UFO sighting from the pre-flying saucer days and as such is extremely valuable. A circle of scorched earth is often noted after UFO appearances.

The UFO phenomenon only got into its stride in the 1950s, when the storytellers were already elderly. So the tale is unlikely to have been corrupted too much by extra detail - making it all the more believable.

Today many people put UFO sightings down to the military testing new designs and equipment, but there have been sightings in North Wales as early as the 17th century. During that period balls of flame were seen crossing the sea near the west coast of Wales. In Harlech in 1662 it was claimed that these strange lights were setting fire to crops and barns and infecting grass, although they seemed to do no harm to people who were in the fields at the time.

In 1743 William John Lewis, a farmer from Peibio, near Holyhead, saw an object sailing through the air above the nearby mountains long before man had mastered flight. He claimed he had seen similar craft at roughly 10-year intervals.

The Egryn lights are a famous phenomenon that have baffled people in Meiryonnydd for centuries and in 1877 blue lights were seen over Pwllheli and the Dysynni Estuary.

Once strongly believed in Wales were Corpse Candles (Cannwyllau Corff), supernatural lights said to appear in the homes of the dying or be seen floating down country lanes at night, making their way to the parish burial ground along the same route subsequently taken by a funeral.

One year the area around Barmouth became famous for mysterious lights in the sky - what today we might call UFOs, but which the inhabitants back then considered death omens. The Barmouth lights achieved a lot more attention than the usual stories because they coincided with a major religious revival.

In 1905 national newspaper reporters descended on the seaside town - cynically, no doubt, expecting to write about a bunch of superstitious peasants in the back of beyond. But many returned to London impressed with the UFO-like phenomena described by reliable witnesses.

The lights were soon adopted by Mary Jones and the Revivalists as proof that God was trying to communicate with them. Ms Jones was widely discredited as being crazy, but with the increase in UFO sightings over the 20th century the lights later became a focus for UFO investigators.

Of these, there are two well-attested accounts of sightings of mysterious lights which, in both cases, appeared to predict a death.

In the first a party of people walking on the south side of the Mawddach estuary saw a strange light at the ferry house of Penrhyn. One description has it that the light appeared to be inside the cottage and shining through the windows; the other that it shone outside the house and was similar in appearance to the glow of a bonfire. At any rate, the light had vanished by the time they reached the ferry house.

When they returned to Barmouth, they learnt people there had seen the light, too. A few nights afterwards, the man who lived at the cottage fell into the estuary at high tide while stepping off a boat, and drowned.

The second incident took place that same winter. Lights were seen dancing in the air by people on both banks of the estuary. At Borthwyn or Borthwnog - depending on which account you read - many people gathered to watch the lights.

After a while all but one of them disappeared. This one descended to a little bay where some boats were moored, and some men in a sloop which was anchored there also saw it. The light hovered over one particular boat and then vanished. Days later the man to whom that boat belonged drowned in Barmouth harbour.

In 1896 Welsh Folklore, by the Rev Elias Owen, recounted the story of Dafydd Fawr, a farmer from Penrhyndeudraeth who thought he saw a fairy dance but may actually have had a close encounter of the third kind. Dafydd was on his way home from market when he saw a small comet fall to the ground, followed by a hoop of fire. Two small figures appeared from the flaming hoop, drew a circle on the ground and started to dance around it.

Dafydd watched amazed as more little people, both men and women, seemed to appear from nowhere and join in the dance. The fairies, as Dafydd supposed they were, danced for a few minutes until the first two figures climbed back into the hoop of fire and flew away. The rest of the fairies vanished.

Dafydd continued home, a journey which would normally take him about 20 minutes. When he got home he found he had lost three hours. According to writer Richard Holland the "fairy dance" episode had all the cult hallmarks of an alien landing - a strange object comes out of the sky, unusual humanoid figures emerge and leave a circle imprinted in the ground, and the incredulous earthling watches spellbound before realising he has lost hours in what seemed like minutes.

Close encounters continue to this day throughout Wales. Gaynor Sutherland, from Oakenholt, claimed she was taken on a journey by aliens she had met when she was nine. In 1976 Gaynor was playing in fields near her home when a flying saucer landed nearby. Two figures, which she supposed were male and female, emerged from the ship and began to carry out what appeared to be scientific tests on the ground.

In an area of West Wales and the island of Aglesea, in what's been dubbed the Broadhaven Triangle, A game of football between children at Broadhaven School was interupted when a glowing cigar-shaped object landed in a nearby field, on February 4, 1977. David George, nine at the time, said he saw a "silver man with spiked ears" near the craft.

On February 17 the ship was seen by one of the school's teachers and then later in the day by two women. They claimed to have seen a figure climb into the craft before it made its departure.

In September the following year, a group of boys were playing football in Llannerchymedd, Anglesey, when they saw what they thought was a helicoptor land nearby. The boys went to investigate, finding a small white object with a red glow stuck in the ground where the helicopter had been. They also claimed to have seen two hooded humanoids near the craft.

One family claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrial while travelling through North Wales on November 10, 1977. On the same night an elderly man from Llandudno had been frightened by unusual beams of light in the sky above the Great Orme. The family were driving near the village of Llandernog, Denbighshire. They saw a purple triangular craft which then swallowed up their car. The purple object seemed to vanish. The family had lost several hours but could remember nothing about what had taken place during that time.

Meanwhile, another man driving along the Llandernog road that night claimed he saw a spacecraft as big as a soccer field with hundreds of bright lights emanating from it. The man whose family were abducted was reportedly instructed by the RAF not to speak publicly about what had happened to him.

Source: FarShores
http://www.farshores.org/ufo0519c.htm

- WATCHING YOU FROM ABOVE AND BELOW DEPARTMENT -

Undisclos 72666/101615_microchipimplant.jpg

There's a guy in Yuma who swears aliens put an implant in his wrist.

Tim Cullen, a 54-year-old former construction worker, says he had it surgically removed in 1998. He says it was metallic and coated with a biological membrane.

"Isotopes from these metals, some of them are not from this planet," Cullen told me. Others claiming to have been abducted by UFOs have told similar tales. Have they all been bugged with alien tracking devices?

"It was a lot more sophisticated than the ear tags we put on cattle out at the feedlot," said Cullen, who has appeared in several TV UFO documentaries.

I'm a big fan of alien-abduction stories. But I'm more afraid of giant corporations and government bureaucrats developing tracking devices of their own - tiny chips that are increasingly implanted in consumer products.

"This technology can be turned against people," said Katherine Albrecht, a privacy advocate and co-author of "SpyChips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move With RFID."

RFID stands for radio frequency identification. RFID chips can be as big as an index card or as small as a grain of salt.

When beamed with a pulse of electromagnetic energy by an RFID reader, they broadcast information - typically a unique serial number. The history of the chip and the item to which it's attached can then be recorded and monitored in computer databases.

RFID chips help manufacturers manage supplies. They help retailers track inventories. They reduce theft. They let marketers gather customer information.

But Albrecht fears one day we may all be under constant surveillance.

The seeds for this potential sci-fi nightmare are already sown. You may be using an RFID device to pay tolls on E-470. You may be using one to get through the door at work. In both cases, your identity and the time you passed the RFID reader were probably recorded.

Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Gil- lette, Proctor & Gamble, United Parcel Service and the U.S. Postal Service have used RFID technology. Many grocery stores are using club cards that link customers' names to every item they purchase.

Albrecht and co-author Liz McIntyre envision a future in which RFID readers are everywhere - embedded in roads, sidewalks, doors, household appliances, floors and ceilings - recording everything.

They have sifted through scores of RFID patents, including ones on deep-organ implants that can never be removed.

These could track prisoners, mental patients, military personnel, corporate employees - and maybe you.

"We've had a whole 20th century worth of pretty horrific history," Albrecht said. "We've seen many governments turn on their citizens and use every means at their disposal to control and, in many cases, exterminate their own citizens."

Scores of companies are developing RFID systems. One of them is Denver- based RFID Ltd. Its president, Nicholas Chavez, has launched an Internet rebuttal campaign against the book.

"They are very entertaining writers," he told me. "They must have asked, 'What is the absolute worst thing that can be done with this technology?' Let's write it into a book to scare the crap out of nontechnical people."

He says RFID technology is a long way from being able to do many of the things the authors claim and is still too expensive to deploy as ubiquitously as the authors imagine.

For more information, check out www.spychips.com and then see Chavez's rebuttal at www.packagedrfid.com/spychips_rebuttal.pdf.

Albrecht and McIntyre primarily argue for awareness and disclosure. They want companies to provide labels when there are RFID chips in their products.

This seems reasonable to me. If companies and governments want to know what people are doing, they should not object when people want to know what the powers-that-be are doing. After all, technology can be easily abused. Just ask Cullen.

"The extraterrestrials are doing it," he told me. "What's going to stop our government?"

Source: Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_3207821

- UP, UP AND AWAY DEPARTMENT -

Tibetan and Ind 72666/101613_levitation.jpg >

Legends say that ancient levitators were able to rise above the ground up to 90 cm

Gods in Oriental Mythology had a special ability. They could fly. However, ordinary mortals could master the unique art of flying too. For example, Indian Brahmans, yogis, hermits and fakirs could rise and float in the air. Levitation

There is a chapter in the Vedas on levitation, a sort of guidelines on how to reach a state required for taking off the ground. Unfortunately, the meaning of many ancient Indic words and concepts has been irretrievably lost over the last few centuries and therefore the invaluable instructions can not be translated into modern languages.

As regards the ancient levitators, records at hand say that they were able to rise above the ground up to 90 cm. They did not lift off to impress the onlookers, they simply wanted to assume the most suitable position for performing religious rites.

The art of levitation still exists both in India and Tibet. Many scholars engaged in oriental studies also mention the phenomenon of "flying lamas." Alexandra David-Neel, a British explorer, one day witnessed the flight of a Buddhist monk. The monk flew a few dozen meters over the alpine plateau Cnang Tang. He was bouncing off the ground like a tennis ball to rise in the air again and again. He kept his eyes on some guiding star hanging somewhere in the distance, the monk was the only person who could see the star in broad daylight.

Europeans have long been aware of levitation too. There was one big difference between Eastern and Western medieval levitators. Unlike the Brahmans, yogis and lams, the monks in Europe never took any special training for levitational purposes. They would normally rise in the air after reaching a state of ultimate religious ecstasy.

According to trustworthy records, Saint Theresa, a Carmelite nun, was one of the first levitator of the Middle Ages. Her flight was seen by 230 catholic priests. The nun wrote about her unusual "gift" in the autobiography dated 1565. It is quite noteworthy that Saint Theresa herself did not want to fly. She spent long hours praying desperately in an attempt to get rid of her special power. She was asking Lord to relieve her of that grace. One night the Almighty finally heard the nun"s praying. She did not fly ever since that night.

Josef Desa used to be the most famous "flying man." He was born into a devout family in South Italy. Since he was a boy, Josef was a very religious person prone to inflicting all kinds of torture upon himself in order to experience a state of religious ecstasy. Later he joined the Franciscans. He would get really ecstatic at times and rise in the air. One day he floated right before the Pope's very eyes. Josef arrived in Rome. The Pope Urban VIII granted him an audience. Josef got as excited as one could be. He could not help rising in the air. The head of the Order of St. Francis eventually brought Josef back to earth. Men of science observed more than a hundred cases of levitation of Josef. They put down their comments in the official records. However, the Christians were thought to be embarrassed by Josef's flights. As a result, Josef was sent to a out-of-the-way monastery in 1653. He was transferred to another monastery three months later, then to another one. The list can go on. Wherever he appeared, the news about the "miracle man" spread like wild fire. People from the neighboring towns and villages stood outside the monastery walls waiting for a miracle. Finally, Josef was transferred to a monastery in Osimo where he died in the fall of 1663. He was canonized four year later.

Daniel Douglas Hewm was the most famous levitator of the 19th century. Below is the description of his first flight penned by an editor of an American newspaper. "All of a sudden Hewm began lifting off and all the people in the room got completely surprised. I could see his legs floating about a foot about the ground. Hewm apparently could not speak as he had a twinge going from top to toe after the clash of fear and rapture in his mind. He went down some time later, and rose up again. He went up to the ceiling during a third ascent."

Hewm learned to levitate of his own free will later on. He showed his outstanding ability to thousands of spectators including such celebrities as William Makepeace Thackeray and Mark Twain, Napoleon III, other politicians, doctors and scientists of note. Hewm has never been accused of hoaxing an audience.

There is a lot of controversy regarding a physical nature of levitation. Some researchers say that it is a product of the biogravitational field created by a special kind of mental energy emitted by the human brain. Doctor of Biological Sciences Alexander Dubrov is a supporter of this hypothesis. Dr. Dubnov points out that the biogravitational field is deliberately created by a levitator and therefore the latter can control the field and change the direction of a flight.

Source: Pravda
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/378/16433_levitation.html

- UFOs AROUND THE WORLD DEPARTMENT -

22 years ago, Russell Henthorn took some photos of mysterious lights in the sky.

The Royal Australian Air Force has taken a look at them, as have various UFOlogists: now, the book's being reopened on those still-unexplained photos as the Bendigo and District Astronomical Society hosts a meeting about them. Russell Henthorn will be at the meeting.

"It was a pretty interesting time," Russell says of the time when he took the photos - May, 1983.

"There'd been quite a few sightings in the area, lots of lights reported throughout the Bendigo district. I was out playing table tennis with my brother, and spotted a fairly impressive light that was extremely bright and appeared to be quite shimmery.

"Initially, I thought 'it's probably just a bright star', but given that there was such a lot of activity in the area, I thought I'd take a closer look. I got my father's binoculars out, had a closer look and it was pretty impressive.

"What I saw through the binoculars initially was pretty much like a colour and light show - again, very brightly coloured reds, greens, blues, which did appear to spin. It was quite impressive at the time.

"I went and grabbed my camera - I was an amateur photographer at the time - and set her up and took some photos."

Russell's set of photos wasn't the only one, he says.

"A local radio announcer had also taken some pictures a couple of days before, but my particular photos showed a form in the light that hadn't been seen before.

"It certainly did create some interest. We had the RAAF come up and interview me, and the media was quite excited about it at the time; we had a number of research groups inquire as well."

The RAAF came up with their own conclusions, Russell says, saying that the object he photographed was a star. The brilliant, shifting colours were due to a temperature inversion, they said.

Russell won't commit himself one way or another: he just doesn't know.

"To be honest, I'm probably my own worst sceptic," he says.

"I think it was probably a star, because of the way it tracked - it did tend to go in a straight line. But the impressive part about it was the colour - particularly in my photo anyway - the colour and the shape.

"It is a mystery. I can honestly say that this is an out-of-the-world and there's not another one like it anywhere in the world."

Russell says he doesn't often talk about the photos but, when he does, he usually gets a response.

"When I do [talk about the photos], a lot of people do come up and say 'I've got a story to tell' and 'I've seen lights'. It's incredible, most people are quite open and a lot of people do have a story to tell, so it makes you wonder."

Source: ABC - Central Victoria
http://www.abc.net.au/centralvic/stories/s1489262.htm