There's something out there . . . Or is there?
Heavens above! The debate on UFOs in Derry has really taken off this week after the story in Tuesday's Journal about the Evans family seeing a series of lights over their house last Saturday night.
It just three days more than 7,000 people viewed the video recording of the sighting on the Journal website www.derryjournal.com
Click here to view the footage and read the original story
It was made by Owen Evans, of Lower Nassau Street.
This latest phenomenon has sparked off worldwide debate on the web. Here at the Daily Planet, we've been inundated with calls (quite a few from taxi men), who vehemently deny any suggestion of extraterrestrial involvement and claim the lights are no more than mere Chinese lanterns - which, apparently, you can pick up at one of the city's plethora of pound shops.
Others, however, phoned in to report their own close encounters.
One man, who didn't want to be named, said he laughed when he saw the article.
"You can buy Chinese lanterns at the pound shop," the man said. "They are fantastic things. You light the four corners, it is like a miniature hot air balloon. I have about 15 lying under my bed.
"They go up through the clouds and drift around and they will eventually go out. They come in different colours. People can be fooled by them."
Another sceptic who contacted us said: "I saw two of those lanterns last night. All the weans are using them now but they are supposed to be for over 18s. I saw them coming but I knew what they were, I've seen enough of them to know."
Not all callers were non-believers though. One woman said she too saw something strange flying in the sky this week.
"It went flying over my house," she said. "It scared the heart out of me. To me it looked like a glass bowl with a light inside. I rushed to get inside the house to see it but when I got there and looked out it was gone. I would be one to believe in angels and this scared me."
Another UFO spotter claims to have seen similar objects in the sky over the past four weeks.
"We took a photo of the lights that we saw and it turned out great," he said. "But we lost it.
"We have been noticing lights the past four weeks. It has no sound and it goes at some speed. I am interested in aerodynamics and this thing did a 90 degree turn. There is no way a Chinese lantern could do that. It came from the east and took off towards the north with no sound. The first thing on our minds was a UFO because it was bright orange and had a circle round it."
Another 'believer' who contacted the Journal said: "My daughter and I saw something on December 17, 2008, but we didn't know what it was. It looked like a big ball of flames. It kept coming at us and went into three different parts. It was over Ballyarnett, really high in the sky. We were worried because we had two dogs with us and my daughter freaked out a bit.
"They are definitely not Chinese lanterns, they were like a big fire in the sky."
So, maybe the skies over Derry are holding more mysteries than we'll ever know. Or there's been an outbreak of Chinese lanterns. Either way, as long as we have enough taxi drivers to let us know the true meaning of life and the cosmos, we're ok. We're ok.
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Weather for Derry
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Heavy rain
Temperature: 3 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 28 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South west
