9 May 2001 - Unknown Objects sighted

The witness described the sighting as follows:

"I was going west on Route 40 toward Chalk Hill. It was about 4:30 AM and I was going to work. I noticed what looked like a bright star toward the southwest. Then I saw it was moving slowly to the east. After a couple minutes it was off to the south fairly high up in the sky and brighter. I stopped the car and watched it. There were actually three lights close together in a triangle form. They covered an area a little larger than a full moon in the sky. Each light was not round, it was more like a short line pointing in the direction they were moving and with distinct edges. The three were moving together with two on the outside leading and the one in the center following behind.

At first I thought it was one large object, but then all three stopped and remained motionless for about a minute. After this the one in the center moved between the other two and slowly continued to the east in the same manner as before. The other two remained in place. I watched the one continue to move east. It varied in brightness, getting brighter then dimmer. Each time it dimmed it became less noticeable until I could no longer see it. When I looked back to where the other two were before, they were gone. I don't know if they went out like the other one or what happened to them since I was looking at the single light and didn't see the two actually disappear."

The witness is certain the object was not the moon since he said he also saw it in a different area of the sky. He also reports no sound, or other effects related to this sighting. Follow up investigations were unable to place any aircraft in this area at the time. The witness reported no effects resulted from this sighting.

EXIF Data was retrieved and validated. The photograph was taken in bright sun outdoors, on 19 September, 2009, according to date information on the image. An anomaly was noted in the left center of the picture which resembles some type of unknown object in flight.

The camera used was an Olympus C120 D380 series, 2 mpix camera. No camera anomalies were evident. EXIF Data was examined.

The object is blurred due to a depth of field / focus issue. That would indicate a smaller object close to the camera.

Finally, any larger object can be dismissed by the lack of a shadow pattern. It is not casting a shadow of itself on the roof.

Based on the above I conclude that the unknown object in the image was likely an insect flying close the camera instead of a bird or larger object at a distance at the time the image was made. Also EXIF data shows the flash fired. This plus the bright sun would tend to "wash out" anything close the camera.

As a reference I am providing a compilation of various beetles in flight taken from various locations on the web. Compare the image you have captured with these and note similarities. Especially note size of wings, body shapes, and various appendages. While the coloration is different due to wash out, and color variations may differ between species, the general shapes are similar.