UFO landscapes - 2

The classic UFO landscapes are extremely romantic. They're even better when combined with classic UFO reports. It's a pity that the time of UFO's is past. They were so much fun. Now we have only ISIS, NSA, China and Russia to speculate about. No fun mysteries.

Peter Day ... was between Thame and Aylesbury close to Cuddington on the Oxfordshire border … He had seen the strange thing in the sky about two minutes before he was able to stop the car … Using the cine camera that he carried on a seat of the car he filmed the mystery round orange object. In less than 15 seconds the object had gone and Peter Day was a very puzzled man. …

The basic details of the observation by Peter Day are quite simple, he was driving along a road he knew well when for a couple of brief minutes he saw a totally unfamiliar event. The round orange object he estimates was at least three-quarters of a mile away and travelling in a level plane and horizontal to the tree lined horizon. … He describes the disappearance of the object as "one minute it was there and the next minute it was gone". In fact the film shows the object to be clearly visible in the penultimate frame and not in the final frame.

The second case, the John Flattley film ... is still under investigation. … The events of that memorable evening began when a portable television flickered and the picture died. ... Shortly afterwards the first of many strange lights was observed for a brief moment. It looked like an orange in the sky, it meandered about gently and then disappeared. Soon it was followed by more, and it is these that are recorded for all the world to see.

The low light film, Kodak Ektachrome 160, shows the scene as dusk fell. The foreground clearly visible, and the strange orange light in the sky moving through the field of view, slowing and stopping. … This being a film intended for use in daylight the dusk was insufficiently light to produce a fully illuminated picture, so only the brightest are as are recorded, in this case the lights. This section shows lights appearing 'from nowhere', and melting back again in to nothing.

I have tried to reproduce this atmosphere using a modern digital camera. In the right place, under the right circumstances it is possible. You get nice photographs of mysterious spooklights. Of course they are not situated in the sky. But they still fit the narrative.

On October 6th 1971, by sheer good fortune, an experienced film crew witnessed a UFO event whilst preparing a sequence of film for a television programme. They were able to take a good length of colour film of the phenomenon … Unfortunately … the event filmed was of limited value. What is recorded generally resembles a high f1ying aircraft accompanied by a vapour trail, and looks most unlike a typical UFO event. The film has proved extremely difficult to analyse, although considerable efforts have been made. … Had the film not been taken there is little doubt in our minds that the case would now be forgotten as fairly uninteresting and quite possibly representative of an aircraft seen under unusual conditions.

Sources:
UFOs: A British Viewpoint, Jenny Randles and Peter Warrington, 1981, Book Club Associates, Robert Hale Ltd. - Chapter: Instrumentally Detected Cases