12-01-2015: Tynemouth, North Tyneside: North East Coast 'Domed UFO' Object
A ‘UFO’ has been captured on video, apparently hovering in the North East sky.
Craig Lowther, a 43-year-old venture capitalist from Tynemouth, North Tyneside, said he was letting his dog into the garden at around 11.30pm on Monday when he saw the strange object.
And he managed to capture it on film.
He said: “I always look up at the night sky when I go out because where I live you get a great view of the stars.
“But when I looked up I noticed what I thought was a plane travelling on an unusual flight path.
“It was an unusual colour for a plane and it was not moving as you would expect a plane to move.”
At this point, Craig went back into the house to get his video camera so he could get a closer look at the unidentified object.
The camera was low on battery so Craig had to wait a few minutes while it charged, but the object was still there.
He said: “I used the zoom so I could get a better look, and what I saw surprised me.
“It appeared to be a dome with a bulge in the middle and it had pulsating lights on it.
“I am out at night a lot walking the dog but this was like nothing I have ever seen before.”
Having said all of this one star watcher claims to have solved the mystery.
Since it was spotted over Tynemouth on Monday night, social media has been rife with people trying to explain what the object was.
Alex O’Neil is originally from Newcastle but is now studying for a Masters in Astrophysics at Sheffield University.
After viewing the UFO video on the Chronicle’s website, he got in touch.
He said: “The brightest star in the night sky is called Sirius and it is often mistaken for a UFO because of how bright it is and how low in the sky it is.
“It appears to be twinkling or pulsating because when light passes through the atmosphere, it becomes distorted.
“Viewing Sirius through a telescope can be very confusing because it appears to move and change colour. It is all just a trick of the eye.”
Speculation from other sources say that the object was a police drone looking for heat sources, yet Northumbria Police told the Chronicle they do not use drones.
They also confirmed the force helicopter was not in the area at the time.
More pictures of alleged UFOs have surfaced, and plenty more people have reported seeing unexplained lights in the sky.
Paul Kerry, from Cramlington, reported seeing a light in the sky on Monday night at 8.30pm.
He said: “It was a bright orange light. I see the planes flying all the time and know their flight paths, but this was going a different way.
“It was definitely not a Chinese lantern or anything like that, its movement was too different.
“My son saw it too. It was a lot brighter than your normal light.”
Other potential explanations put forward via social media include certain camera lenses distorting images and Venus and Jupiter being low in the sky; truth is, no one seems to have a verifiable explanation, and as so often is the case, the object must be classified as an 'Unidentified Flying Object'.
