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Things That Are NOT UFOs

'UFO spent four hours hovering above our rural home', claims family after capturing video footage of 'spinning lights' in the sky

Source: Daily Mail
Date: 18 October, 2012

Morag Ritchie, 50, was awoken in the middle of the night by flashing lights in the sky over the family home in rural Scotland.

The grandmother-of-one woke her family up and her daughter’s fiance caught the shocking images of four blinking lights on video.

[...]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2219690/amp/Familys-terror-UFO-hovers-rural-home-hours.html

This is the video:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/video/video-5024/Woman-films-UFO-Scottish-night-sky.html


I have never seen this previously and it is of particular interest, perhaps being reminiscent of a photograph allegedly taken in Perthshire, during March, 2016.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...counters-style-UFO-hovering-home-minutes.html


One apparent suggestion for the earlier video was the Northern Lights.

Any thoughts on this possibility, or another explanation?
 
Very interesting. I'd say each light is a separate object in the sky. When you look closely one of them leaves the group and flies right.

Also it's not 4. I'd say at least 6 lights.
 
Comfortably Numb said:
I have never seen this previously and it is of particular interest, perhaps being reminiscent of a photograph allegedly taken in Perthshire, during March, 2016.

[...]

One apparent suggestion for the earlier video was the Northern Lights.
Click to expand...
John Macdonald claims his photograph was taken at Rossie Ochil, Perthshire, whilst driving home to Dysart, Fife on Sunday 6 March, 2016 at around 11 p.m.

31EF38A300000578-0-image-a-3_1457290893858_resize_96.jpg


From the Daily Mail article:

John Macdonald, 65, from Dysart, Fife, is convinced he saw a spaceship above him and said it was only around 50 to 70 yards away from him.

'I don't know whether I frightened it or not with the flash of the camera, because in the beat of a heart it was gone.'

It happened at around 11pm last Sunday, when he was driving home after visiting a friend.

He described how the noise drowned out the sound of his jeep.

'My jeep is quite noisy, but this sounded like a thousand hoovers".
[End]

So, the object is claimed to have emitted a particularly loud sound and then after hovering overhead long enough for him to tske a photograph, it vanished?

However, look at what else was in the sky over Perthshire, that very same night:

Aurora Over Perth

On Sunday 6th March 2016 Perthshire was swathed in a spectacular blanket of blue, yellow, green and purple as the Aurora Borealis filled our night sky.

Social media went wild with images of this stunning natural phenomenon as we all rushed out to capture the seldom seen Northern Lights in such magnificent glory.

Most of us were entranced by an golden green but as you’ll see in these stunning photographs, there were patches of red, yellow, green and violet streaming and filling the sky with a rippling curtain of colour and magical, eerie glow.

https://www.smallcitybigpersonality.co.uk/Aurora-Over-Perth
 
Comfortably Numb said:
John Macdonald claims his photograph was taken at Rossie Ochil, Perthshire, whilst driving home to Dysart, Fife on Sunday 6 March, 2016 at around 11 p.m.

View attachment 30472

From the Daily Mail article:

John Macdonald, 65, from Dysart, Fife, is convinced he saw a spaceship above him and said it was only around 50 to 70 yards away from him.

'I don't know whether I frightened it or not with the flash of the camera, because in the beat of a heart it was gone.'

It happened at around 11pm last Sunday, when he was driving home after visiting a friend.

He described how the noise drowned out the sound of his jeep.

'My jeep is quite noisy, but this sounded like a thousand hoovers".
[End]

So, the object is claimed to have emitted a particularly loud sound and then after hovering overhead long enough for him to tske a photograph, it vanished?

However, look at what else was in the sky over Perthshire, that very same night:

Aurora Over Perth

On Sunday 6th March 2016 Perthshire was swathed in a spectacular blanket of blue, yellow, green and purple as the Aurora Borealis filled our night sky.

Social media went wild with images of this stunning natural phenomenon as we all rushed out to capture the seldom seen Northern Lights in such magnificent glory.

Most of us were entranced by an golden green but as you’ll see in these stunning photographs, there were patches of red, yellow, green and violet streaming and filling the sky with a rippling curtain of colour and magical, eerie glow.

https://www.smallcitybigpersonality.co.uk/Aurora-Over-Perth
Click to expand...
In think it is a real photo of a UFO, and one I like a lot. Again compare the lights to the Lubbock Lights, in size and quality. Note that they appear to be attached to disc-like object, ringing the periphery, and that periphery is not a perfect circle --the craft is not rigid. It also made a loud noise.
 
To me, it looks like a poor quality picture of a fairground ride.
 
Trevp666 said:
To me, it looks like a poor quality picture of a fairground ride.
Click to expand...
It kind of does! And a lot of them do, including Charlie Red Star (sometimes did). It's like the "Strange Crown" of 1902 and so many others --it's a top with lights, flexible, with a hull like a big programmable matter balloon.
 
If you look at pics of the Lubbock Lights:
ufo-reports-052a.jpg

They are very similar to the lights on the Scottish UFO:

index.php
 
Here is a better pic. He was apparently looking up at it and we are seeing the bottom. It's circular and appears as an ellipse, but an irregular circle, flexible.
56e1fd26150000ad000b1a24 (1).jpeg
 
Comfortably Numb said:
Here's an even better one! :)

Literally just found this - is the 'object'...'transparent', excepting its centre?

View attachment 30479
Click to expand...
I think they are often "cloaked" and only the lights can only be seen; this is the "active camouflage" that the US Army is working with TTSA on, and one of Elizondo's "Observables" concerning defining UAPs / UFOs. Another thing they can do is only be visible from one direction (light is bent around by programmable matter / metamaterial hull or some field generated by it). We are able to do similar things now. So, a UFO could be visible to one person but not to those on the other 300 degrees around it.
 
Comfortably Numb said:
... Literally just found this - is the 'object'...'transparent', excepting its centre?
Click to expand...

I don't think so ...

If you're basing the transparency on seeming to see clouds behind / through the arrangement of lights ...

Note that the better image is in fact the glossy hardcopy print MacDonald is holding in the earlier photo (match the creases).

You're not seeing clouds behind the object within the image. You're seeing differential reflections off the print's glossy surface.

The photo feinman posted is a truer depiction of the image MacDonald captured.
 
feinman said:
He was apparently looking up at it and we are seeing the bottom.
Click to expand...
This might be the original report, from a local newspaper and dated 5 March, a day earlier than others who, on 6 March seem to publish essentially the same article.

Were the 6 March articles all quoting a press release from somewhere?

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-courier-advertiser-fife-edition/20160305/282986809026886

Interesting in the Courier's report is that the photograph was taken using a flash, which Macdonald subsequently wondered had scared the 'craft' away.

I can't locate at present and wouldn't swear to it... did I not read an article where he claimed having a camera handy on his dashboard and had time to get out of his car to photograph the object hovering overhead...

There seems no mention of him using a mobile phone to capture the image.

This was, of course, shot at around 11:30 p.m. in an isolated location... and presumably 'pitch black'?
 
Comfortably Numb said:
This might be the original report, from a local newspaper and dated 5 March, a day earlier than others who, on 6 March seem to publish essentially the same article.

Were the 6 March articles all quoting a press release from somewhere?

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-courier-advertiser-fife-edition/20160305/282986809026886

Interesting in the Courier's report is that the photograph was taken using a flash, which Macdonald subsequently wondered had scared the 'craft' away.

I can't locate at present and wouldn't swear to it... did I not read an article where he claimed having a camera handy on his dashboard and had time to get out of his car to photograph the object hovering overhead...

There seems no mention of him using a mobile phone to capture the image.

This was, of course, shot at around 11:30 p.m. in an isolated location... and presumably 'pitch black'?
Click to expand...
This is the article that I have been using, here:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ufos...xnVqPT5Dp52lsrHoUd6QUkh4X-QuBOsKQdwkubmjctFPu
 
Comfortably Numb said:
What do we make of this video, which seems different?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-19989427
Click to expand...
they look similar enough to be two pics of the same thing. Was it the same incident? The two articles are about the same publication date. "PUBLISHED: 07:16 EDT, 19 October 2012 "
Comfortably Numb said:
This is the video:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/video/video-5024/Woman-films-UFO-Scottish-night-sky.html
Click to expand...
'Freaky' lights in sky near Fraserburgh spark UFO claims
Published18 October 2012
 
l’m pretty sure that we’ve seen the photo of the Scottish UFO before, and that l pointed out its resemblance to the Mother Ship from Close Encounters:

close-encounters-mothership.jpg


Edited to add: First mentioned by @Bigphoot2 here in 2016.

maximus otter
 
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maximus otter said:
l’m pretty sure that we’ve seen the photo of the Scottish UFO before, and that l pointed out its resemblance to the Mother Ship from Close Encounters...
Click to expand...
The obvious concerns are:

- no other witnesses

- no apparent information re how the photograph was taken, i. e. on a camera or mobile phone

- the object conveniently hovered close overhead

- the object supposedly then just disappeared

- the object does look like perceptions of a brightly lit alien spaceship a la Close Encounters


I was thinking it looked something akin to a chandelier-type room light, with a central fitting.

That would explain the outer circle 'droplets' of light.

Is there such a thing available, which conceivably might be used for a hoax photograph - in general, not necessarily here.

It would appear so - online...

Screenshot_20201009_015026_resize_32.jpg


Screenshot_20201009_014739_resize_77.jpg
 
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I'm still going with the fairground ride similarity.
In the pic he holds up, the outer circle of lights appears to be more octagonal than circular.
I'm calling him a total fraud.
Where's James Randi - he want's his beard back.
 
Comfortably Numb said:
John Macdonald claims his photograph was taken at Rossie Ochil, Perthshire, whilst driving home to Dysart, Fife on Sunday 6 March, 2016 at around 11 p.m.

View attachment 30472

From the Daily Mail article:

John Macdonald, 65, from Dysart, Fife, is convinced he saw a spaceship above him and said it was only around 50 to 70 yards away from him.

'I don't know whether I frightened it or not with the flash of the camera, because in the beat of a heart it was gone.'

It happened at around 11pm last Sunday, when he was driving home after visiting a friend.

He described how the noise drowned out the sound of his jeep.

'My jeep is quite noisy, but this sounded like a thousand hoovers".
[End]

So, the object is claimed to have emitted a particularly loud sound and then after hovering overhead long enough for him to tske a photograph, it vanished?

However, look at what else was in the sky over Perthshire, that very same night:

Aurora Over Perth

On Sunday 6th March 2016 Perthshire was swathed in a spectacular blanket of blue, yellow, green and purple as the Aurora Borealis filled our night sky.

Social media went wild with images of this stunning natural phenomenon as we all rushed out to capture the seldom seen Northern Lights in such magnificent glory.

Most of us were entranced by an golden green but as you’ll see in these stunning photographs, there were patches of red, yellow, green and violet streaming and filling the sky with a rippling curtain of colour and magical, eerie glow.

https://www.smallcitybigpersonality.co.uk/Aurora-Over-Perth
Click to expand...
Seems like the reporter from the 'Daily Mail' might have at least made sure to depict the photographic print the right way up ~ whichever way that is?
 
Trevp666 said:
I'm still going with the fairground ride similarity.
Click to expand...

That's the first thing that occurred to me, too.


Trevp666 said:
... In the pic he holds up, the outer circle of lights appears to be more octagonal than circular.
Click to expand...

You're right about the arrangement not being truly circular, and this is something that's bugged me since I first saw the photo (in either orientation).

The outer lights aren't arranged in a circle. The larger / brighter / nearest white lights in the outer rim aren't evenly distributed. They appear to be four sets of four lights each, and each such quartet has the same pattern of large / small members in the same somewhat crooked linear alignment (rather than a consistent arc). They look like a single linear quartet viewed from different angles - i.e., a single set of four that's been copied and distorted into a simulacrum of a larger arc.

MacDonald-A.jpg

The central 'hub' component doesn't seem to occlude a circular rim that runs behind it. If anything, the upper leftmost and rightmost lights seem to trail off in a straight line. To my eye the outermost bordering lights are a U-shaped arrangement rather than anything circular.

I also find it suspicious that the earliest news items showed the image vertically reversed from its orientation in the photo in which MacDonald is holding the photo print himself. None of the news articles I've seen mention this reversal or state the earlier news items mistakenly displayed the photo upside down.
 
With some cases, like this one and The Woonsocket photos (imo), folks are unable to believe they are real because there are so few of these types of close-up views that could be real, and everyone is so jaded with and wary of hoaxes (as they should be), that they are unable to accept real images when they do appear. Similarly, If you've heard enough lies, it is hard to know what the truth is anymore. Many UFO cases fall into the category of individual witness situations, often with no corroborative photographic or video evidence. My case is similar, yet I did discover the corroborative sighting had by others, that same year in Roseburg. One of the tactics of these devices (as seen in the old articles, and right up through Lennon and Duchovny) IS to isolate folks and interact with, or show themselves to them, often occurring on roads where the UFO is in pretty complete control of the situation. UFOs with lights on their rims are a well-known type of UFO.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ufo...zBv4Q_AUoAXoECAsQAw&biw=1707&bih=813&dpr=1.13
If you listen to the witnesses who say they have seen them close up, they describe exactly these sorts of things: metallic discs with lights / ports, appearing as manufactured technology. The same objects are also seen as smudges or clusters of lights at distance. I have know way of knowing whether the gent is lying and the photo is a hoax, but I think it's a real picture, and he's telling the truth.
 
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This preview of Charlie Red Star mentions the ferris-wheel like appearance of some UFOs and their similarity with the Close Encounters UFO; it is art imitating life. Again, I'd put it in the same category of the "Strange Crown" seen in 190(3)? Both the "Crown" and CRS appeared as smudges of light in the distance until they got closer. "Strange Crown": that's how I'd describe the Scottish UFO back then:
https://books.google.com/books?id=Hm44DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT553&dq=ufo+ferris+wheel+lights&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZ1uHr56fsAhVDBc0KHVYYCgEQ6AEwAHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=ufo ferris wheel lights&f=false

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=ufo+ferris+wheel+lights

More. I'll stop at three more :
https://books.google.com/books?id=-...AHoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=ufo lights rim&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=G...A3oECAEQAg#v=onepage&q=ufo lights rim&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=p...BXoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=ufo lights rim&f=false
 
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EnolaGaia said:
That's the first thing that occurred to me, too.




You're right about the arrangement not being truly circular, and this is something that's bugged me since I first saw the photo (in either orientation).

The outer lights aren't arranged in a circle. The larger / brighter / nearest white lights in the outer rim aren't evenly distributed. They appear to be four sets of four lights each, and each such quartet has the same pattern of large / small members in the same somewhat crooked linear alignment (rather than a consistent arc). They look like a single linear quartet viewed from different angles - i.e., a single set of four that's been copied and distorted into a simulacrum of a larger arc.


The central 'hub' component doesn't seem to occlude a circular rim that runs behind it. If anything, the upper leftmost and rightmost lights seem to trail off in a straight line. To my eye the outermost bordering lights are a U-shaped arrangement rather than anything circular.

I also find it suspicious that the earliest news items showed the image vertically reversed from its orientation in the photo in which MacDonald is holding the photo print himself. None of the news articles I've seen mention this reversal or state the earlier news items mistakenly displayed the photo upside down.
Click to expand...
Also, the only thing we are seeing in this print are lights, only lights. Nothing that shouts that this is an image of a "UFO" to me personally, particularly as 'EnolaGai' has highlighted this sequenced and what appears to be a duplicated number of rotated copies.
 
Hmmm.. I think we are seeing this. Here is a freehand sketch. I put a horizon line and road in there too. Like the Woonsocket UFO, the object has a faceted edge (at this time). I believe they are flexible programmable matter.
Scottish1.png
index.php
 
The similarity to the Lubbock Lights can be seen when the photos are juxtaposed:
comparison.jpg
 
Comfortably Numb said:
'I don't know whether I frightened it or not with the flash of the camera, because in the beat of a heart it was gone.'
Click to expand...
I've seen this before.

Sometimes it's a case of, 'next, it just seemed to disappear, although I don't remember that part clearly '.

I wonder if Mr Macdonald reached home later than expected.

A fair few hours later than expected... :alien:

That very much aside, I have located one report which quotes Macdonald and confirms "I grabbed my camera".
 
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