Subject: Re: Minor Updates
From: "Ray Schmitt" <rschmitt@...>
Date: 26 Jun 2001 07:27
Hi Everyone, I am a filmmaker in Mathias, WV currently in post-production on a sci-fi film called "The Lights." The film is based on a couple of stories I had heard about mysterious lights in our neck of the woods. Since we developed a website to publicize the film as we were working on it (www.wv-thelights.com), many people have started contacting me about various lights they have been seeing in this area (Lost River Valley, Hardy County, West Virginia). Last week I took up an offer from one nearby person to see some lights that they had been seeing off their deck for about one week. Below is my account and that of another interested spectator who I asked to join me. Check out the Forum page on our website and feel free to add comments. Thanks, Ray Schmitt Description of Lights I went up to (deleted) home on Monday evening, June 18, 2001, at 9:00 PM after reading their e-mail message of June 17, 2001 concerning seeing "strange blue lights." The (deleted) home is .4 miles up a mountain off Jenkins Hollow Road, in Mathias, WV. The dirt road winds its way through woods until it reaches their home. They cut down about 100 feet of trees on the hillside sloping down from their small yard to give them a view of the distant mountain range. The view is toward the east (North Mountain) and WV/VA line. They explained to me what they had been seeing and pointed out the different directions the lights seem to emanate from as we stood on their outside deck waiting for it to get darker. The skies that night were crystal clear without any moon. Since my night vision is poor I was initially unable to see the lights they were pointing out. However, I got my 7 x 35 mm Sears binoculars out of my truck and went back up on the deck. Around 9:30 PM just as they had stated, we started seeing lights. The darker it got, the more lights I began to see. They were small, but very bright, and in the nearby woods and above the tree tops. They looked white to me but the (deleted) reported also seeing blue and red lights. I was able to watch them through my binoculars. They would be still and then shoot about very quickly horizontally like Humming Birds through the nearby trees and above the tree tops. The lights seemed to pulsate slightly as they moved about. Their movement was extremely quick and they had no difficulty navigating through the trees. Many of the lights followed the path of the driveway leading up the hill. Around 9:45 (deleted) and their son arrived. They, too, began seeing the lights move about in the wooded area. As the night progressed the lights became more numerous and would come closer to the house. Some were practically right in front of us--perhaps 100 feet away. Others would come near the satellite dish and then dart about. It was quite incredible. It should be noted that we saw several of these same lights an estimated 2-3 miles away against the backdrop of North Mountain. These distant lights seemed as bright and clear as the lights in front of us. After observing this for about 20 minutes we started looking farther into the distance, including the horizon over North Mountain and upwards in the sky. We started watching a bright light move high across the sky from right to left (south to north) . It was not like the small lights we were watching dart about through the woods in front of the house. This light was moving northward relatively slow and very high in the sky. With my binoculars I watched the object move across the sky for about two minutes. The tail end of the light seemed to "wobble" as it traveled. Others were watching the same movement with their naked eyes. I saw another large glowing round object to the left (north). It appeared just above the mountain ridge and changed in color from a white light to orange. It dropped down out of sight behind North Mountain and then reappeared. We all were watching it as it started to go straight up seemingly changing color at the same time before it disappeared. Note: While the others in our party described the lights as being both white and blue, and even changing to red, they appeared white to me. This may be because of my poor night vision or because I was looking through binoculars. If a person were not paying careful attention he or she might think the lights they were seeing "in the corner of their eyes" were fireflies. But after careful watching, the numerous lights were to big and moved to quickly to be fire flies. We also saw blue, red and white blinking lights moving across the sky but knew that they were airplanes since we could also hear the jet engines. The lights that we witnessed did not make any sound. Ray, Thank you for sharing that extraordinary experience last night at the (deleted) Homestead. Here is my recollection of the experience. Arrived at 9:45 PM Within the first 5 minutes of our arrival we witnessed the strange blue lights (Some call these Ghost Lights) zigging and zagging atop the tree line and on the ridges of the mountains. We thought them to be fireflies at first but they were much too bright and traveled too fast. We also saw several bright orange lights that fascinated me even further. The first orange light (Ray pointed out over the ridge of North Mountain) began to move from right to left and seemed to duck below the mountain top. A short few minutes later it appeared and started climbing upwards (about 2 o'clock in direction) in an angle then all of a sudden transformed into 4 lights. The second orange light came from behind the house and was traveling toward North Mountain at a pretty good speed considering the altitude it was at. It would zig and zag kind of like it was jumping up or down in altitude across the sky then suddenly disappeared. (example ____--------______---------________----------) The 3rd orange light came from behind North Mountain and got brighter as it climbed straight up and all of a sudden just vanished. I have no explanation of what it was that we witnessed. I returned home and did witness a few blue lights in Middle Cove but, no where near the quantity witnessed at the (deleted) residence. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gregory Lynn" <g.lynn@...> To: <mysterylights@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 2:10 AM Subject: Re: [mysterylights] Minor Updates > > > Hi Sean and List, > > > > How are you doing Sean? Will be checking out your updates shortly. We've > > gotten some excellent video footage out here in Ontario Canada along > > with some great pics. I'm still going through these and will let you > > know when they are online. The videos were shot in both regular mode and > > night vision using zoom. Colours observed were green, white, amber, and > > red. The lights appeared to split and reform both with the naked eye and > > optical devices. Any questions? Speculation? > > It sounds very much like a bright planet or star 'scintillating' due to > atmospheric turbulence. Where there any bright planets/stars in the vicinity? > Mars is at opposition at the moment, and sounds like a good candidate. It may > also have been an effect due to a atmospheric temperature inversion-I have seen > this condition used quite reasonably to explain quite a few 'UFO' sightings in > Australia. > > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > mysterylights-unsubscribe@egroups.com > > > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > >