Lights in sky are not aliens

3:00pm Thursday 3rd July 2008

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THE mystery of bright lights and apparent UFO sightings in the Herefordshire sky may have been solved.

Residents in the north and east of the county have been reporting sightings of different coloured lights appearing shortly after dark.

But according to an expert the lights are nothing to do with extra-terrestrials.

“The lights are as a result of a type of cloud that glows at night thanks to reflections from small dust particles mixing with ice particles more than 50 miles up in the atmosphere,” said Grant Privett, an astronomer who works for the MOD in Malvern and lives in Yarkhill.

“The conditions are just right at this time of year with the long days.”

Two of those who saw the phenomenon were Grant Chaplain and wife Bryony, who were sitting in the garden of their Hatfield home, near Bromyard.

“It was about 10pm when two very large parallel lights flew over the woods near our house before moving in a south-easterly direction towards the Malvern Hills and suddenly disappearing,” said Mr Chaplain, a management consultant.

Sally Eversham from Wellington Heath, near Ledbury, said she saw “two massive orange lights” in the sky. “I realised it was coming towards me very fast. I was terrified. They were round and flat but there were no beams.”

And David Bemand, from Luston, also reported seeing an orange light which “looked like the flame from a hot air balloon”, although not as well defined.

Mr Privett said the phenomenon may be around until late August and is visible by looking north around an hour after sunset.