UFO seen over Coalinga wildfire

Photo of an alleged UFO (seen in upper right) near a wildfire in Coalinga.

Photo courtesy of MUFON.

While searching for recent UFO sightings on the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) website, I came across this 2006 sighting that occured in Coalinga back in 2006 during a wildfire. According to him his girlfriend is a wildfire photographer and while shooting pictures of a fire east of Coalinga caught a strange object in one of her photographs. The object wasn't seen at the time the photo was take, but was seen after when the photo was viewed.

The person goes on to say that there were no support aircraft in the area at the time and also claims that a fire official was so intrigued by the photograph that he asked for a copy of it.

Personally I'm not sure what was photographed. After viewing the photo I'm leaning towards it being a possible bird caught in flight (hence the blue of the object) as you can see another bird on the road. And since the object covers part of the power line it can't be that large in size as the power line is perhaps several hundred feet away. Still, it's inconclusive as to what it really is. Hopefully MUFON did an investigation into this and was able to determine what it really was.

MUFON report: Disc object inadvertently captured while photographing a grass fire.

My girlfriend is a wildfire photographer. After we had been together for several weeks and knew I wouldn't laugh, she showed me her UFO photo taken in 2006.

While photographing a grass fire East of Coalinga CA, she set her camera to auto fire at one frame per second. In ONE frame, a disc shaped object with a dark circular dot on the underside appears. It does not show in timestamped frames one second before or after.

This was not noticed until the pictures were viewed later.

Under magnification, the object appears to eclipse a power line behind it!

A CalFire official was intrigued enough upon hearing about this photo, he asked for a copy.

I should note that no aircraft were dispatched on this fire and no other aircraft were observed in the area,

Recent Central California UFO sightings

Every so often I like to check out the National UFO Reporting Center and check to see if there have been any recent UFO sightings in the valley. As luck would have it there were several over the past two months and I thought I would share them. Please note that these were posted as they were on NUFORC and I haven't edited either spelling or grammer. Link to the original report can be found at the end of each one.

Occurred : 7/30/2011 22:00

Reported: 7/31/2011 12:22:48 PM

Location: Squaw Valley, CA

Shape: Light

Duration:10 seconds

Slow moving ball of light.

I've lived here for about 6 years now and I'm a sky gazer. For the past 4 weeks or so, I have been seeing strange lights in the northern sky. I've only seen one at a time. They look like bright stars, but they are moving slowly in the sky. I only see them for a few seconds before they completely just disappear.

Last nights sighting was a little different. This time it was closer and it flared and then disappeared. In the 6 years I've lived here, I have never seen these before. They are not airplanes. I see airplanes all the time in the night sky and I know the flight patterns. These are just balls of light that appear and disappear. They don't blink, or pulse, other than the one that flared brighter before it disappeared.

Link

Occurred : 7/18/2011 21:30

Reported: 7/18/2011 11:06:24 PM

Location: Turlock, CA

Shape: Light

Duration:3 min.

Four lights moving in the Ca Valley Sky

Just before 9:30pm my wife and I took our puppy out to the back yard for his night time bathroom break. We live in the country so sky watching is just something we like to do.

While waiting I noticed a silvery light moving fast across the east horizon line. The speed of it caught my attention. I pointed it out to my wife and then we notice 3 more as we began to look around. They were almost directly above us. The 3 were moving towards each other when we noticed them. One was moving some what straight from a Southernly direction to a Northern direction. One that looked like it was coming from the northern direction was moving erratically (like jumping from spot to spot. It was also more bright than the others) but mostly head Southernly towards the one coming from the South.

The third just kind of appeared out out no where and seemed to be coming from the West. All 3 looked like they were going to collide.

My wife got excited because she thought they were g! oing to crash! But it looked more like they passed right through each other.

After crossing paths or whatever they did, the one headed more Northernly seem to pick up speed very fast and quickly disappeared into the North direction. The brighter one from the North was still headed southernly but slowed and stopped for about 1 min.

The one that came in from the West instantly turned 90 degrees Northernly (but was more N/W in direction) at the point of meeting for the three. It kept the same speed the entire time. It wasn't fast, but it wasn't slow! We watched it till it faded off into the sky.

The brighter one that stopped, just disappeared where it was. It looked bigger too compared to the other ones and most of the stars that are in the sky.

The other two seemed to be about the same size and brightness. I would size them comparable with the majority of the small stars in the sky. Big enough to see, but too small to see any detail. Not like you would see if it were an airpl! ane, you can see its flashing lights.

Can only say they looked like w hite lights just like most stars look like, other than they were moving.

Link

Occurred : 7/18/2011 11:45 (Entered as : 7/18/2011 11:45)

Reported: 7/19/2011 2:07:16 PM 14:07

Posted: 8/7/2011

Location: Los Banos (approx 10 miles east of), CA

Shape: Triangle

Duration:3-5 minutes

3 Bright lights along highway 152 east of Los Banos, very close to the ground

I was driving along highway 152 traveling west, when approximately 10-15 miles outside of the town of Los Banos, I saw a green bright light fly across the highway a mile in front of me. As it passed and it turned and looked as if two white lights had been shot off out of it almost.

It proceeded to to turn make a tight turn to pass over the highway once again. It passed over the highway and then proceeded to drop very low to the ground, still continuing forward. Low enough that I could remember seeing the ground lit up from its light. The reflection of the light allowed me to see what I believe was that the lights where actually connected to one another (i.e., that the craft was a bigger object with these three lights at the points).

After flying low to the ground for a short distance it gently curved back up and achieved more alluded ((sic. Altitude?)) and turned left.

I was driving along 152 heading west, and all this occurred in the span of about 3-5 minutes. I could still see the craft in my side view/rear view mirrors, as I continued down 152. The object looked to be staying in the same area.

I was in the car by myself at the time, but there were other drivers both east and west bound along 152.

Link

Occurred : 7/13/2011 13:00

Reported: 7/16/2011 11:35:33 PM

Location: Coarsegold, CA

Shape: Disk

Duration:2 minutes

UFO Sighting on the way up to the mountains on a road trip with family

This photo is not a fake or altered....I took this photo on a road trip to the mountains...with ((husband's name deleted)) & the kids....we were with 3 kids in the back seat...as I was taking photos...I saw one silver grey disk hoovering in the clouds......so I took a photo of it with my cell phone.

At that moment...I turned around to check on the kids, who were fussing...and when I turned around to take another photo of the disk...IT WAS GONE!...just that fast.

I don't know how to do any altering of photos.

Link

Occurred : 7/5/2011 00:38

Reported: 7/15/2011 1:55:16 PM

Location: Fresno, CA

Shape: Triangle

Duration:20 minutes

Strange lights/UFO's over Fresno,Ca near the airport.

On July 5th, 2011, at 12.:38 am my son and I were in our backyard talking. we live about 4 miles from the Fresno airport and were watching airplanes and police helicopters in the shy that night. People have been lighting off illegal firworks and we were watching the show.

As we were looking up, I saw a large triangle craft moving slowly to the south-west towords the airport. I was standing facing the same direction, when my son spoted another set of lights that looked like bright orbs. There was 3 of them and moving south-east of our home.

The large triangeled changed colors form white to red to blue then back to white, then started to fly way faster than anything else that was in the shy that night and was out of sight in about 4 seconds. The orbs also changed color. Red,white and then back to red.

We could see other airplanes flying into the Fresno airport and taking off, but nothing could fly without making a sound.

We waited to see if the Air National Guard would send jets to the area of these objects, but nothing. We have seen other unexplained lights over the greater Fresno/Clovis area for the last couple of months, but nothing like this. The orbs stayed on the same course, but came together as one light and disapeared straight up.

There were at least 3 helicopters and multiple airplanes that night, but nothing moved or looked like those lights we saw that night.

Link

Occurred : 7/3/2011 21:00

Reported: 7/2/2011 10:20:37 PM

Location: Fresno, CA

Shape: Light

Duration:3-4 min

My boyfriend and I see these same ones a lot. He came in, telling me to come and look.

It was a bright light to the east, a little southeast.

We watch it for longer than they usually stick around. It moved slightly up and down as it was moving across the sky at the speed slower than an airplane. Then it dimmed.

It was about dusk. A lot of fireworks going off so I'm hoping someone else may report it, as well. My first report although I've seen many. I think we have something that makes us more aware. Not sure how no one else sees these.

My little boy Has witness them with us as well although I'm not sure he understands why he saw.

Link

Occurred : 6/29/2011 22:55

Reported: 6/29/2011 11:25:19 PM

Location: Visalia, CA

Shape: Light

Duration:5 min

Bright light that disapeared

Light came from northwest going southeast. It looked like a plane at first. The light was getting brighter with no flashing lights.

It passed over head at about 1000 feet or the height of a low flighing plane with absolutly no sound at all. It just disappered after it passed over us.

This was at 10:05 pm. It was definatly not a plane.

Link

Occurred : 6/29/2011 04:00

Reported: 6/29/2011 4:52:12 AM

Location: Porterville, CA

Shape: Disk

Duration:45 minutes

disk shaped object getting brighter and dissapearing also moved a little.

There was one disk shaped object we observed for about 45 minutes that would disappear and get brighter. It seemed to move a little it also looked like the lights consisted of many white lights and a couple red lights.

Link

More info on the Fourth of July weekend Clovis UFO

As I had reported yesterday, KMPH Fox 26 had reported that several strange lights were seen over the Fourth of July weekend. One of the main points of the story, and what started the call ins to KMPH was a sighting in Clovis. I was able to find the original MUFON report and apparently the event occured on July 2, 2010 (reported on July 3, 2010) and whatever happened, it terrified the witnesses.

The event started when one of the witnesses daughters came back into their house screaming a plane was going to hit the house and they should run to safety. Her father ran out of the house to see what was going on. He too started yelling that something was going to hit them and they should run.

The witness who made the report ran out of the house with her son. She goes on to state they never saw or heard anything but were so focused on escaping. The husband told them to stop behind some trees as he was afraid the object was about to hit the house. When nothing happened he told them to keep running as he headed back towards the house. He came back in his truck and said the object had just vanished.

According to both the father and daughter, who were the ones to actually see the object, it had two bright lights on it and made no sound whatsoever and they described it's movement as teetering back and forth a bit, but the lights were always horizontal to each other. The husband was also able to make out the silhouette of the object and describes it as as large as their back pasture.

I can't say what these people saw without talking to them myself. I know the skeptics out there want to just say it's a low flying plane, but I'm giving this family the benefit of the doubt. They live in a rural area of Clovis and I imagine they are familiar with aircraft on final approach to the Fresno airport. I don't know what they saw, but whatever it wa, it was real and scared the hell out of them.

MUFON Report: 2 bright lights huge object no sound thought we were going to die.

Im not sure how long it lasted because we thought we were going to die but you will understand in this description. It felts like minutes but I know it was seconds because we really thought we were going to die! Here is the story:

I am reporting this in sadness because of this event my dog died! My daughter went to get the dogs from outside to bring them in (she's 15) and she ran screaming "get out a plane is going to hit us" "run" and she was hysterical. Me my husband and my son and I went running downstairs and my husband went to the backdoor (running) to investigate because my daughter is very meek and quiet and never screams. The next thing I know my husband is yelling "run" "its gonna hit us" and he started praying to God that we lived and if not take us to Heaven and let it be quick.

We ran straight out the door as fast as our legs would go. Myself and my son never heard or saw anything we were just running for dear life. My husband told us to stop behind the trees because he thought at any moment it would hit and we wouldnt get much father ( didnt atually even think we would make it out the front door) and we live in the country so its all mostly open space in front of us. When nothing happened after a few seconds he told us to keep running as I horrifyingly saw him turn back toward the house.

We kept going hurrying down the road and as we went we were trying to call our dogs that had escaped with us. My husband returned in his truck to state the object simply was gone/vanished he had no idea where it went but it never hit our house or flew over us and not a single sound was heard. So we continued the search for our dogs however one was struck by a car and killed.

Later when I spoke with my husband and daughter I was informed it had 2 bright lights and was up in the sky they could see the back neighbors house below it and it made no sound and teetered a little back and forth but the lights were always horizontal to eachother. This object made no sound what so ever and my husband said he saw the silhouette and it was as big as our back pasture across and very dark.

I am very saddened but wanted to report this because weird things have occurred before here that we never mentioned to people. Like for one instance our laser pointer lights (we would play with our dogs with) when we would point them in the field they would disappear at some points but would be seen all the way to the orchards at other points and we always laughed that it was like something invisible was sucking up the light at that spot. Im now truely scared and wanted this reported in the case something happens to us.

Now it is time for me to grieve. I am afraid to sleep. I truly believe it must have landed in our pasture but everything appears normal. Something very wrong happened here tonight...please help!! Has anyone else ever experienced this?

Former police officer watches as alien children vanish

Anyone who knows me that I only fear two things when it comes to the paranormal. Being abducted by a UFO and ghostly children, or just creepy children in particular. So when I read this story and saw that both of my fears had been combined into some good ol' fashion nightmare fuel I knew I had to share.

An ex-police officer, giving his name as Nick R, stated that while he was driving home one night after work he saw an orange oval light in the sky that he knew could not be the moon. He parked his car at his flat, went inside and then came out about 10 minutes later for a smoke.

As he was smoking he looked out onto the fields that were on the back side of where his flat was at. There, in the darkness, he saw what he thought were children "messing about". As he was watching the "children" the orange globe appeared in the sky and the the children disappeared.

Nick R then reflects that perhaps those were not children that he had seen, but in fact alien beings and they somehow returned to the craft.

Now I don't smoke. But if I saw what this guy did I would start smoking the entire pack to calm my nerves down. Then I would have ran back inside and found the nearest bottle of bourbon. Yeah I'm a wuss, I know.

Full source: Herald 24 UK

Paul Christian, Reporter

A FORMER police officer saw a UFO, and what he thought were children that “disappeared all of a sudden”, while driving from Hertford to Puckeridge.

The sighting was in July last year, but has only emerged within the last few days on a UFO-watcher’s website.

In his tantalising account the ex-cop, who identified himself only as Nick R, wrote: “I saw whilst driving along the A10 going home one evening after work north a light which was not the moon, orange and oval in shape. I drove into my parking space in Puckeridge and went into my flat. Faffed about for about 10 minutes then went outside for a cigarette.

“I saw something which I have never told anyone about. My flat was in Cambridge Court in Puckeridge backed on to fields. I saw in the twilight what I thought were kids messing about. No, as the light faded around 21.30 the orange globe appeared in the sky. I was at this time watching something on TV, then went outside for a fag again.”

Chillingly he raised the prospect of seeing alien beings that he initially thought were “children”, in the field – a so-called ‘close encounter of the third kind’.

He added: “I know that area is a flight path from Stansted, but that was strange.

“The children disappeared all of a sudden. I lived there for one-and-a-half years, and never experienced anything like that.”

In reply to the post another site user wrote: Intrigued by your report, am interested in sightings on either 25/26th of July in this area seems to be a pattern.”

He suggested Nick R report his sighting on another site dedicated to serving and retired police officers’ sightings of UFO-related phenomena.

More UFO's filmed in Northern California

I had reported last week that several UFO's had been filmed flying over Oakland, CA late one night. More footage of a different craft (or crafts) was shot over the weekend once again in Oakland. This one is different than the one I previously posted as there are only four objects in this footage, whereas the one from last week had five.

It's hard to say what these objects are. Could be just a squadron of planes in a rather tight formation, a (small) flock of geese reflecting light from the city, causing them to show up on a night vision camera, the usual top secret government project conspiracy theory, or could it be a fleet of craft from some other planet? It's hard to say, but one thing is for sure. There's something strange flying around in the California night skies.

UFOs filmed over Vatican by guards

Was Rome visited by Unidentified Flying Objects? Definitely, and once again the sightings in the skies over Vatican City stirred newspaper headlines and numerous TV news reports in Italy. According to recent reports, it seems that a UFO flap is taking place in Rome and that strange objects were also recorded on camera several times. The most important one is the footage of an odd luminous formation taken by three security guards stationed in front of the residence of the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican (Holy See). These were qualified witnesses since they are artillerymen, trained experts in air surveillance.

It was at 4 am in the night of June 7th when three men belonging to the 17° antiaircraft Regiment at the “Santa Barbara” station in Sabaudia (Latina province), spotted three spherical bright objects hovering in the sky above St. Peter’s dome in the Vatican, right in the center of Rome. They promptly filmed the unexpected nocturnal air show with a cell phone.

From their point of observation in the Roman Monteverde area (overlooked by the Gianicolo hill), they immediately stopped a police patrol. Well trained in spotting aircraft, the artillerymen excluded the possibility of a commercial plane, a jet fighter or a balloon. They described the object’s swift maneuvers, mentioning a “darting move toward the sky,” a “delta formation,” and “luminous dots suspended at about three hundred feet above the ground.” They added that there is “no way a conventional airplane can do such things.” The UFO disappeared and reappeared for brief moments, with sudden changes of altitude before it darted westbound at a 40 degree angle. The police patrol took the report very seriously and the central police station in Rome was immediately alerted. The footage, more than a minute in length, was acquired by the Italian police, pending further investigations.

Thanks to the technical background of the witnesses, many TV networks took the news seriously. “Studio Aperto” (Mediaset, Italia Uno newscast) anchorwoman Elena Guarnieri introduced the segment saying: “We will show ? you now an exclusive video footage of a UFO sighting in Rome, this video was filmed by three soldiers, take a look.” Staff journalist Paolo Capresi then describes the images: “They are three flying objects and they are floating in the air, they were filmed last night in the sky above Rome. The images were taken with a cell phone by three soldiers who were in service in front of the U.S. ambassador’s residence in the Vatican City (Holy See), Monteverde district, two steps from St.? Peter’s Square, and were immediately handed over to the Carabinieri [police]. As you can see there are no objects around to use as reference points that can give us the exact distance and size of the UFOs. It seems that they are spherical in shape and they hover above the Vatican. They appear and disappear often changing altitude.”

The journalist concluded, almost ironically: “The soldiers who have filmed these objects are based in the antiaircraft division and are specialized in recognizing the flight path of aircraft. Since 1978 it’s the Air Force that is in charge of registering sightings (over Italy)”. Colonel Marco Picciau of the Italian Air Force specifies that “statistics of sightings reported before 2001 were 300, after 2001 we have a more precise statistic on 50, 55, sightings [every year]”.

Original story can be found here.

Another V shaped UFO seen in Northern California

The recent wave of UFO sightings in Northern California continues, this time in Oakland. On May 28, 2010 a V shaped UFO was filmed around 10:00 pm.

The video looks similar to the Fremont video shot in December 2008, but I think these are separate craft flying in a tight formation. If you look at the lower leg, the spacing of the white lights is different than the top leg. Still, whatever these craft are they are moving at a high rate of speed and in a tight formation.

If they were conventional aircraft you would see a strobe light, but not on these. My theory is that it's some sort of terrestrial form of aircraft, albeit it a some sort of secret one.

Witnesses photograph UFO in Northern California

This photo, taken in Northern California, purports to be

some sort of flying craft.

Same object, cropped and enlarged.

Two California witnesses report watching "strange looking objects" in the sky on May 13, 2010, when one of them came close enough to photograph, according to testimony from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

The reporting witness stated that his "niece, whom was behind me, was able to snap a picture of a V shaped object. "

No town name was given in the public portion of the MUFON report.

The following is the unedited and as yet uninvestigated report filed with MUFON. Please keep in mind that most UFO reports can be explained as something natural or manmade. If California MUFON State Director investigates and reports back on this case, I will release an update.

CA, May 13, 2010 - Unidentified V shaped object hovers above us.

I and my niece had been watching strange looking objects when we noticed one of them flying in our direction I decided to shine my laser light not at it but fairly close to it then it slowed down flew closer to us and then stopped. I somehow lost sight of it after shining the laser but my niece whom was behind me was able to snap a picture of a V shaped object. I did not realize that she had this picture until recently.

Link to the original article and MUFON report can be found here.

Strange V shaped object filmed over Sacramento

This particular UFO was filmed over Sacramento on March 20, 2010. According to the person who posted the video it was filmed sometime in the evening flying over the Sacramento foothills. It's really hard to determine what this is, not sure if it's similar to the craft that was shot over Fremont. This object seems to be just floating there. Perhaps it's a balloon? Whatever the case may be, Sacramento has been a hot bed of UFO activity as of late.

Are aliens about to invade Australia?

A mass of UFO sightings has Territorians wondering if we are on the brink of an alien invasion.

There have been seven separate Top End UFO sightings reported in the past week. Hardly a night has passed without a sighting of some "unexplained phenomena" since the first sighting last week.

Almost all of the sightings have been in Darwin's rural area.

The first sighting was reported by a woman who wanted to be identified only as Shirel on April 21.

She said she saw the strange lights from her Humpty Doo home hovering over Howard Springs.

"The lights were really low in the sky, really bright, with flashing dots," she said.

"Three of them formed a semi-circle and they hovered over the area for at least half an hour."

here were three separate sightings on Friday night including British backpacker Kylie Myers who said she had "never believed in anything like UFOs" before her strange encounter.

The 27-year-old tourist said she turned into a "believer".

Ms Myers said she stopped her car on the side of the road to grab her camera from the glovebox, but the light disappeared.

"It was pretty spooky."

There were more sightings at Coolalinga on Saturday, Acacia Hills on Sunday and again in Howard Springs on Tuesday.

But astronomer Geoff Carr yesterday told the Northern Territory News he was "far from believing any of this UFO stuff".

"Unless aliens have found a way to travel faster than light speed, it's a doubtful thing to believe they came to visit us," he said.

Mr Carr said he believed 99.9 per cent of all the UFO sightings could be explained as simple weather phenomena.

Link to the original article can be found here.

UFO filmed over Sacramento airport

This video was reportedly recorded on April 23, 2010 near the Sacramento International Airport. For reasons not stated, the person was recording planes taking off when they saw a strange light near a plane. The light shot off the opposite way at a high speed.

Given the quality of the video, it's hard to say what is is. I'd still like to know what the person was filming airplanes at the airport to begin with. But whatever it is, it's part of an ever increasing amount of UFO sightings in Sacramento.

UFO buzzed Tracy, California on March 26th 2010

At approx 8:00AM on the Friday of March 26th a strange object was captured on camera in the Tracy area of California as it headed towards an area known to be the Lawrence livermore Labs testing site or "site 300" as our friends refer to it as. The image was captured using a Canon Power shot SX10IS on a manual setting where the shutter speed can be adjusted on the fly. The camera was also set on rapid fire for multiple exposures.

We took these images ourselves while in route to the south bay area. As a former employee of the wind turbine company originally known as US Wind Power, this author has spent many hours looking out into the secret void in the Altamont hills known by all wind smiths as "Site 300". No matter when you gaze out into this classified area someone dressed in black was looking back through their binoculars. If you touched the perimeter fence in any way, even in areas of discretion, black vehicles would soon arrive on our location. OOPS. The images were the result of a spontaneous feeling to pull over and start taking pictures with "Site 300" in the background. We have heard by many investigative enthusiasts that many people experience a euphoric feeling just prior to and during a UFO event while in close proximity. We had that experience which encouraged those actions to whip out that camera and shoot like crazy. After the smoke cleared and a few hundred additional imaged had been recorded on our media we moved on down the road. It was not until after uploading the images that we noticed the strange flying object headed towards the place were we had once been employed ......while keeping a lid on our curiosity regarding our neighboring occupants. Perhaps this object was attracted to the mega watts produced by those wind turbines. Maybe this is a probe on its way home,..... back to the Lab. What ever it was we can assure you that we can do it again. If we all choose a day designated as "UFO capture day", where we all stop what we are doing at the very same time to take a few hundred pictures for 15 minutes the results would blow your mind. Can you imagine? A world wide event that would have profound validation, credibility and excitement. If Just 15 minutes could do that what do you think the rest of the day and night look like?

Link to the original story can be found here.

The pictures above can also be found with the original story. To be honest the object circled is too far away and too blurry to be anything conclusive. Still I'm interested in this reported Site 300. I think a day trip may be in order. Interested?

Radio-controlled planes have some Modesto residents seeing UFOs

They come in peace.

Those lights you've seen swooping and swerving across the Modesto night sky are not extraterrestrial. They do not want to be taken to your leader. They're not even unidentified anymore.

Instead, the culprits are a bunch of model plane enthusiasts who have attached lights to their radio- controlled aircraft and fly them through the night sky for fun.

"This was never intended to be seen as a UFO," said Robert Merrill, the de facto captain of the Nor Cal Nite Fliers. "We figured we'd try something, fly at night. Next thing you know people are calling the cops, TV and thinking they're UFOs. We never really thought it'd be this kind of a spectacle."

The 39-year-old Modesto resident and a group of about eight other men often meet at Modesto Hobby & Crafts, off McHenry and Bangs avenues in north Modesto, for their night flights.

They've flown all over Modesto and across the area, including Ripon and Tracy.

The crafts have about a 6-foot wingspan and weigh about 2 pounds. Each flier has customized his lights design.

Merrill, who had been flying model planes for about eight years, came up with the idea in August when he found the lights online from a manufacturer in Hong Kong.

The 1-meter adhesive LED strip is about a quarter-inch wide and comes in red, white, blue, green and amber.

Because they run on batteries and turn off to glide at altitude, the crafts are nearly soundless. In flight, the planes resemble a graceful, digital albatross.

So why fly a $250 model plane at night when it's, well, dark?

"I think (it's) just the calmness of it. The whole thing is, when you get off work, you bring your plane out to the park and literally kick back in a chair and fly them," Merrill said. "Nighttime, you can fly it farther because the lights are so bright you can see it farther than in the daytime."

Some members admit the E.T. factor adds to the excitement.

"Honestly, the most fun is messing with people," said Modesto resident Rick Sanchez, 40. "People will see the lights (from their cars) and their heads will hang out the windows. It's amazing how many people think they are UFOs."

The group flies almost every night that the sky is clear. Manteca resident John Gilmore, 46, started about eight months ago.

"The challenge of it interested me. And it's definitely a challenge," he said. "We're having fun. We're not trying to freak anyone out or cause problems. It's just good, clean fun."

The Modesto Police Department is well aware of the group. Lt. Clint Raymer said he first saw the lights driving to his north Modesto home. He has since talked with the men and discussed the pertinent municipal city codes.

"They're not supposed to fly them in the city limits," he said. "But the industrial area (off Bangs) is fine. I see the cars pulled over and people gazing at those things in the sky. They catch people's attention; they're neat to see."

He said the planes haven't set off anything close to a "War of the Worlds"-level hysteria. While the department has fielded a few UFO calls, Raymer said "it's not a burden."

"Whenever I see people looking, I pull over and tell them it's remote-control planes," he said. "It kind of takes the fun out of (it) then."

Modesto Airport has fielded a handful of calls about the lights in the sky. Airport manager Jerome Thiele said the Federal Aviation Administration has an advisory circular with guidelines for model aircraft standards.

The circular encourages "voluntary compliance" and includes cautions about operating near airports, hospitals and schools. It recommends flying no higher than 400 feet.

"I just want to make sure that they don't intentionally fly close to the airport and keep clear of the medical helipads close to the hospital and other populated areas," Thiele said.

No specific complaints about the model crafts have been filed with the FAA's Flight Standards District Office in Fresno. FAA Inspector Jim Henry said the advisory circular is meant to encourage hobbyists to be careful in the airspace.

"We can do the enforcement if it's an egregious danger to the public," he said.

Merrill said he was familiar with the FAA advisory and that the group never tries to interfere with active aircraft.

"If we see a plane fly by, we'll move away," he said. "We try to stay out of people's way."

The group caused a minor commotion over Super Bowl Sunday when members flew their planes near Briggsmore Avenue. Modesto Hobby & Crafts owner Joe Keevil said drivers stopped along the busy thoroughfare to rubberneck at the night sky. Police later came and asked them to stop.

"We try to stay away from busy roads now," said Keevil, who doesn't participate in flying planes but knows all the men from his store, where they all met.

Even from their north Modesto flight area, the planes and their lights can be seen all around town. Merrill said he can fly as high as 1,000 feet with his craft. He has heard reports of sightings as far away as Maze Boulevard near Highway 99 and in Riverbank.

"Every single night (we fly) somebody comes out and wonders what they are, if they're a UFO," Merrill said. "We sort of laugh about it."

Original story can be found here.

Strange craft caught on film flying over Kearney Boulevard

Over the weekend I received a voice mail from someone saying they were taking some pictures out by Kearney Boulevard a few months ago and they had forgotten about the film until last week. When they got the pictures developed, they noticed something strange in the last couple of shots. I then got an e-mail from them with some scans, one of the original photo with the object in it, the other an enlargement.

At first I was almost tempted to dismiss these as some sort of bug or other flying creature. The person had told me they had not seen anything at the time they were taking the photos, and in my opinion how could you not see this? Though they also told me they were taking these photos to finish off a roll of film, so there is the chance that they weren't really paying attention to what's in the sky but just hitting the shutter until the film had stopped advancing. But I was showing these to some friends on Sunday and one of them actually recognized the object.

They used to work out near Kearney and had seen the object in the air several times. They described it as large craft, longer than the length of a football field and made hardly any sound. The small orangish lights on the object appear to be engines, according to my friend. Though we were unable to determine what is causing the pinkish glare, though I imagine it's from the sun as it was near sunset when the picture was taken. The photographer thinks it was a glare from a porthole or something, though I'm not sure how that is possible. I've sent it to a few photograph experts I know in hopes of getting an opinion. I'm also sending these to the local MUFON investigator here in hopes that he can find out what this is. As always, anything I find out I will post here.

Several UFO sightings seen in Central California over the past week

In the last part of August 2009, there were several UFO sightings reported to the National UFO Reporting Center of UFOs seen in the central part California. I'm not sure if they are all the same craft, there are a few similarities but I think they are different craft. Still I believe they are worth mentioning in hopes that maybe someone else has seen one of them and will then report what they saw. Below is what was reported linked back to the original report.

Occurred : 8/16/2009 14:00
Location: Auberry, CA
Shape: Triangle
Duration:15 seconds

Silver triangle shape - Silent

I hesitated to report this, as we only saw this for a short time. We live in the Sierra Mountains about 4,200' elevation. Sitting at the table and looking due south thru a huge window, we saw a long silver triangle (jet or plane [?]) close at a low elevation. What is unusual is we live under a flight plan for Fresno - Las Vegas & back. These go north of our home. This craft appeared to be 1 mile or closer and low, almost equal with our elevation. At most I estimate it might have been 5,000'. It was headed west and when it tilted it was totally sleek from pointed nose to the tail which was completely straight across. No wings, just a very long thin triangle shape. We ran to the west deck & couldn't see it anymore. Did our eyes deceive us? No noise.

Possible fighter jet, w/no markings, but no noise.
Link.


Occurred : 8/18/2009 09:03
Location: Fresno, CA
Shape: Other

Two Jets following or escorting an unknown white dot looking craft.

I was walking with my mother on the Dakota and Fruit ditch in Fresno, Ca. I heard two jets so I looked up and saw that they were really close, and then I looked back up and saw that they were following something. The UFO was a white dot it kind of looked like the international space station does when it goes over. It had no blinking lights like the jets. It looked peaceful, moved slowly it looked to me as if the jets were escorting it somewhere.

We live close to the airport and it has an air defense base, I heard jets take off about ten minutes before, they were heading north then turned east, when I saw the two jets following this craft side by side they were head south west.

I remember the time being 9:03am because that is when I twittered about it.
Link.


Occurred : 8/19/2009 21:00
Location: California (central part), CA
Shape: Diamond
Duration:10 secs

On Aug 19, 2009 around 9:00pm me and my family were driving back from San Francisco to San Diego. We don't know exactly where we were but we were definitely in central California, deep in the boonies. As we were heading South, on our right side of the road we saw a diamond shaped flying object. It had red and green lights that surrounded the object. The object was first low then it tried to fly away but it seemed like something pulled it back then it went like 3 feet closer to the road then it went lower again. That's all I could see, we were driving too fast for me to see if it went in the sky or not. The object was definitely close to the ground, maybe about 4-5 feet off the ground.

I'm not good at describing how it moved but it certainly moved.
Link.


Occurred : 8/24/2009 17:30
Location: Modesto, CA
Shape: Changing
Duration:15 seconds

It looked like three bright dots, small gap then three more bright dots. it was dancing gracefully a mile or two above the horizon.

Link.


Occurred : 8/26/2009 20:45
Location: Clovis, CA
Shape: Triangle
Duration:2 minutes

Three flashing red lights in a triangular shape seen south of Fresno

I saw three flashing red lights in the formation of a triangle. View looking south of Fresno at an approximate 30 degree angle from horizon. Maintaining formation, they lowered until I could no longer see them past the trees.
Link.


Occurred : 8/26/2009 21:30
Location: Modesto, CA
Shape: Cigar
Duration:45 Min.

Two crafts spotted over Westfield shopping cntr. Modesto

2 crafts 1 with bright lights across could be cigar or saucer shaped. Other was cigar shaped deep bright neon blue glowing. It would glow and then fade out and come back. The other one hovered up and down quit a bit and side to side like having engine trouble. The blue cigar one stayed close as if to make sure the other was ok. A police or military white I think with markings plain stayed close by flying between them. Then they faded out. The hight I would say would be about 15 to 20 stories up in the sky.
Link.


Occurred : 8/27/2009 21:00
Location: Modesto, CA
Shape: Light
Duration:15-20 minutes

3 unidentified aircraft over Modesto, CA

August 27, 2009 9:00pm PCT I was riding my bike tonight and observed what appeared to be two aircraft of some kind at about 1000 ft. above our neighborhood. There were about 10 people in the street watching.

The highest craft had two bright white lights on it, and the craft appeared to be hovering, then moving a few feet, and then hovering again.

Beneath this craft was a second craft that had two very bright neon-blue lights. It made wide circles about 100 feet under the other craft.

Both craft made small changes in altitude and direction, but generally stayed in the area above our neighborhood for about 15-20 minutes or so.

A third craft (with blinking red and white lights on it) started to close on the higher craft, and this one looked more like a conventional aircraft.

At one point it flew between the two craft (below the higher one and above the lower one). At that point the lower one (with the bright neon-blue lights on it) began flying in a fast semi-vertical circular pattern.

The third craft continued on, and eventually the higher-flying craft began to fly away in a northwestern direction.

I ran to my house and got my camera, but by then they were all gone. I checked, and no else had a camera to take any photos.

I called the Modesto Police Dept. to see if anyone else had reported seeing the lights. I was told that someone else had called in, but no record was made of the call. Nor were they interested in making one of my call.
Link.

Fox News covers UFO sighting in New Jersey

It's a rarity for the news to cover any UFO sightings that may occur, even ones that are seen by many eyewitnesses. Earlier this year there was a mass sighting in New Jersey and the local new station decided to pick up the story.



Not really sure what to make of the video that accompanied the story. My first thought is that it was a Chinese lantern, but the objects didn't drift like lanterns normally do. It could be ultralights flying in a formation, but this would take some damn good flying by several ultralights. Whatever it is, it's interesting to say the least. And it's nice to see the media do a story where the people aren't portrayed as a bunch of crackpots.