Teenager's
party blamed for UFO mystery
Published
Date: 23 April 2008
By CHRIS MARSHALL
THEIR
presence in the night sky stopped onlookers in their tracks and sent the conspiracy
theorists into overdrive.
But
despite their otherworldly glow, it seems the mysterious orange lights spotted
above the Capital earlier this month have a rather more down-to-earth explanation. It
has now emerged that the orange orbs, which were caught on film by walkers in
the Braid Hills area, were Chinese sky lanterns let off during a teenager's birthday
party. Several
people reported seeing the lights between 8.50pm and 9pm on Saturday, April 12. The
UFO mystery was today solved when a resident of Blackford Avenue, near the Royal
Observatory, said the lights were nothing more than lanterns bought from internet
auction site eBay as part of celebrations for her daughter's birthday. The
woman, who did not want to be named, said she was shocked at all the fuss the
lights had caused. She
said: "They were called Chinese sky lanterns and they even said on the box
that they could be mistaken for UFOs." One
Edinburgh-based astronomer said the growing popularity of the lanterns had led
to a string of similar sightings in the Capital in the past few years. Resembling
small hot-air balloons, the lanterns are lit by a naked flame and then float into
the sky with a fiery glow. Russell
Eberst, a former information officer at the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill,
said: "We get a steady flow of calls about UFOs, and Chinese lanterns are
making up a bigger percentage of those in recent years. "There
are usually two or three UFOs sightings a day reported to the observatory, especially
if we get a run of clear nights. The lanterns tend to be used more at times like
New Year and the Chinese New Year. "There
are no doubt sci-fi buffs who would love to be in contact with people from other
worlds, but there are all sorts of lights in the sky. It's
a big jump from seeing something in the sky to assuming it relates to an alien
civilisation visiting the Earth." A
number of people had contacted the Evening News following sightings of the orange
lights. Air traffic
controllers had noted nothing unusual and the Army also struggled to come up with
an explanation for the strange objects in the night sky. Last
year, the Government opened its records on UFO sightings for the first time, containing
eyewitness reports from across Edinburgh and the surrounding regions. Sightings
included a series of flashing lights over Corstorphine Hill in 1998. Investigators
said at the time they were puzzled by the lights and urged more witnesses to come
forward, but the mystery was never solved. Other incidents, such as two "fuzzy
white lights" that danced over Leith in 2001 and a "swirly" object
appearing above East Linton in 2006, have also never been explained.
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