Saturday, October 19, 2013

Daily 2 Cents: UFO Lights Over Gettysburg -- Unexplained Events -- NSW Government Says 'No' To Blue Mountain Cats

Bright Lights Witnessed Over Gettysburg, PA

Last Saturday evening (10-12-13), I saw something truly extraordinary!

It was just after 8PM and I was headed to York, PA on my motorcycle to surprise a old friend, in from California. It was pretty cloudy and I was taking a chance riding because odds were, itd rain before I could get home. In any event, as soon as I pulled out of my driveway (just north of Gettysburg), I saw it.

Or, I should say - them!

There were three very bright lights in the shape of a long, acute triangle - low in the sky, directly off to my right (after I turned left, onto the road). They were impossible to miss they were so bright! There wasnt another light in the sky and it looked as though they were moving!

I kept glancing at them as I rode along and it was quite obvious they were individual lights, not part of some larger object or craft. It wasnt until I reached the 4-way intersection about 3/10s mile from my home, though, that I could tell they were indeed moving. They were headed almost due south, very slowly - maybe as slow as 5 or 10mph - with the light farthest from the two closer to each-other, in the lead; like a giant arrowhead moving across the sky!

I was looking at them from the side, facing east, as they neared the roadway. I turned right at the intersection, heading right toward them and it wasnt long until I was nearly below them.

I let off the throttle and was moving pretty slowly myself (maybe 15 mph,), listening as best I could over the rumble of my Harleys exhaust. Earlier this year, Id seen other, similar lights, but none traveling in "formation". They were always solo and of pretty short duration. I was definitely excited and a bit nervous, but not afraid. I was not nearly this close for the other sightings and really wanted to see as much as possible; not knowing what would happen - but eager to find out! I called upon my infantry training to calm myself and take in as much detail as I could. Like the others Ive seen, these too had an orangish, amber-like hue, but these were closer and very bright; seeming almost to sparkle. It was much as though I was looking at them through running water, or something. They kind of rippled, I guess you could say. The had a slow pulsating effect as well which was steady and consistent - all three pulsing in unison, about every second or so. It was obvious at so close a distance, but I hadnt noticed it when I saw them from afar. I cant say they really "glowed", but it was very humid and they were very, very bright, so there was sort of a halo around them (for lack of a better word).

I was getting close but not yet underneath them when they seemed to slow. Then, without warning, the first one "shrunk" and took off - straight up and through the low-hanging clouds - followed by the second one, immediately thereafter. Id lost the first one as soon as it hit the clouds, but I could see the second one continue up, high into the atmosphere through a hole in the clouds, accelerating and growing dimmer and dimmer as it went. I was finally directly under where the first one had been when the third one too became only a small, dim light as well. I assume it shot up through the clouds too, but at that point I had to really pay attention to my riding because Id already been looking up for far too long and was afraid Id run off the road!

I should add that when they began their vertical assent, they didnt exactly "shoot" up. They just "went" straight up - not all that fast (at first). They did enter the clouds pretty quickly, though, so they mustve already been a few hundred feet in altitude. If I had to guess, Id say they were around 300-500 feet high, or so, and (at their "largest") Id guess they were about six to ten feet in diameter, perhaps. When they "became small", they were maybe the size of a basketball. I admit that Im really only guessing, though. I have no idea what the cloud level was - but, they were very low and dark - with small, open patches through which I could see the darkening sky above. As I said, it appeared the second one continued to accelerate, after it cleared the thick clouds and flew high into the atmosphere.

Now, I didnt know what to think about all this, of course. I was hardly expecting to see something so dramatic (just leaving mu house!) and I was debating whether I should turn around and zoom back to my house to tell my wife (and hide?), or, if I should continue on my way. I decided to keep going until I reached a little gas-station/diner by Rt 15 (Hunterstown Exit) where I pulled over to call my wife. I no sooner pulled in and turned to face home when another light appeared - or, more accurately, it was there when I turned around and looked. Anyway, I kept watching it as I fumbled with my gloves, goggles and leather "Snoopy cap" and, finally, managed to get my phone out from under my leather riding jacket.

The light was moving south, just as the others had and Id only just gotten my wife on the phone when it suddenly disappeared.

I was about 4 miles from where Id seen the other lights, so I cant say what it actually did. It was simply too far to tell for sure - but, like the others, it was too bright to miss and it too was the only light of any kind in the sky. I was trying to bring my wife up to speed - lamenting that shed missed such an amazing sighting - when another light suddenly appeared! It came out of nowhere - exactly where Id first seen the one a moment before and almost certainly where Id seen the others - and, it was also heading due south.

I was encouraging my wife to throw on some clothes (she was in bed!) and get out to see this one, at least, when it too disappeared - at the same spot the last one had!

I was already running pretty late, so I asked my wife to stay out for awhile and see if she spotted anything else, but I had to get on my way. We dont know if any more appeared as she went up/out for only a few minutes before heading back inside. It was getting a little chilly and shes deathly afraid of the dark (and absolutely hates being out at night w/o me there - even with our large dogs!). I wish she had stayed out for awhile, but she didnt. I did what I could; constantly scanning the skies on my way to York, but saw nothing else.

Id like to add that Ive seen more unexplainable lights and objects in the sky in these past six months than in my entire life put together - and Im an outdoors kinda guy and have always enjoyed looking at the night sky! This sighting was the most amazing I can remember, by far! I dont know what (if anything) all this recent activity means, but Im going to be out there looking, every chance I get! You can count on it!

Goodness knows, it sure beats watching the news! :-(

*Im including two pictures I made which are pretty accurate representations of the three lights I saw. I did them in Photoshop, using landscapes and storm-clouds I snagged online (or, created myself) and assembled them into composite-illustrations - adding the UFOs/lights as best as I could. They are not pictures of the location(s) where I saw the lights. I was just too lazy to go out and snap pictures. Id have still needed to insert the skies and all anyway, so I didnt bother. The size of the lights (as they appear) is very close to accurate, however, and the pics look pretty close to the actual area where this occurred. The lights were definitely big, but I did have a hard time with the brightness and color (Im read-green color deficient) and how do you make something in a picture bright and pulsating? Still, the pics are pretty close to what I saw and should give the viewer a good idea of what they actually looked like.

Thank you.

**Oh! I did get caught in a torrential downpour on my way home and arrived soaked to the bone and frozen! It was worth it, though! I had a great time! - MUFON CMS

UFOs in Pennsylvania: Encounters with Extraterrestrials in the Keystone State

Silent Invasion: The Pennsylvania UFO-Bigfoot Casebook

Really Mysterious Pennsylvania: UFOs, Bigfoot & Other Weird Encounters Casebook One

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Unexplained Events

Strathmore, CA: My husband and I have had several things happens to us in the course of our marriage which are unexplainable, and since all the new TV shows about Aliens; we feel it is ok to talk about this now.

In Colorado we have lost time, and distance while driving from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Alamos, Colorado. We have seen UFO ships; as all this was in 1999. We had one strange event when we moved to Florida, and now that we live in on a very large farm in Strathmore, California it seems to be getting stranger each year; as we have lived on this farm since June 1, 2010. I have recorded strange voices, interferences, on my cell-phone, and my husband has seen lights hovering over our water meter, and both of us have seen red and blue lights right over our home; and a perhaps a UFO hovering for a longtime and then coming back. We only lost time and space once that we know of, however I have had marks on my stomach a type of an attack in Colorado in 1999 that I thought may have happened within inside my home, but now I am not so sure. I am a Christian so I went to my pastor about this, but maybe it was something else. I still have the marks on my stomach." There is a lot more, but I am very uncomfortable right now talking about this. I have also had dreams about the same type of (unknown) on TV they call them the Grey, several times, but my dreams were not bad at all, not like on TV. They were nice and needy. Calm and seemed very concerned. Every time I used my cell-phone I would get major interference, and now the darn things do not work, and we had to buy news one. It is if the UFO burned them out; I am not sure. I still have the phones. The 4th Video that night evening was scary, please look at the 4th one though out the while thing. I heard a some sounds outside, so I got my phone, now I did not see anything, but when I uploaded it; this is what I got. - MUFON CMS

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

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NSW Government Refuses to Search Further For Blue Mountain Cats

A doctor, dentist, solicitor, clergyman and Qantas pilot have all seen it, as have numerous Rural Fire Service volunteers and an officer from the Department of Agriculture. A NSW detective spoke of how he watched the beast, from barely 50 metres away, for more than a minute. And like most others, he is "convinced" it was a black panther.

Rumours have circulated for decades about a colony of "Big cats" roaming Sydney's western fringes and beyond. But today, a report commissioned by the State Government has concluded that the many hundreds who have seen the panther are wrong.

In a review of "large free-ranging felines in New South Wales", a New Zealand-based invasive species expert, John Parkes, said the accounts were "at best prima facie evidence".

"The sightings are mostly of black animals but the occasional reports of brown or tan cats suggest either more than one species is present or people are mistaking other animals for cats. Large dogs, large feral cats or swamp wallabies have been suggested as candidates by some."

He added: "There is no conclusive evidence that large cats exist in the wild in NSW."

The NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, said: "The NSW Government will not commit further expenditure to this issue and, as far as I am concerned, the matter is closed.”

Mr Parkes' findings are set to infuriate an army of eye witnesses across the Blue Mountains community - not least because two previous NSW Government reports concluded that panthers were most likely present.

Questions have also been raised about the timing of the review's release. Fairfax Media has obtained a leaked email which shows the Government received the final report from Mr Parkes in "early September". However, it chose to release the findings on a day when many within the local community were either sitting in evacuation centres or trying to save their homes because of raging bushfires.

State member for Hawkesbury, Ray Williams, who himself saw the creature at Cono Heights in 2009, said: "Certainly, these latest findings will anger many locally. When you have 620 people all describing the same creature, with the same poignant similarities, you have to accept something's there."

Fairfax Media can reveal that on March 19, Blue Mountains resident Chris Coffey made the rare journey into Sydney for a special summit in Parliament with Ms Hodgkinson. The meeting was called to address the sudden spike in panther sightings and fears, among locals, that someone, particularly a child, could be attacked. Ms Coffey has seen the creature on several occasions, the first in 1998. Since then, she has launched The Grose Vale Group and compiled a database of sightings. Almost 15 years on, the file contains 497 credible first-hand reports that span from Lithgow to Mudgee and from the Hawkesbury to Hunter Valley. But as Ms Coffey pointed out in Parliament that day, this was hardly a revelation. In May 2001, a freedom-of-information request revealed that the NSW Government had grown so alarmed about the reports of a "large panther size cat", it commissioned a big-cat expert Johannes Bauer to provide a professional opinion. In his report, he concluded: "Difficult as it seems to accept, the most likely explanation of the evidence ... is the presence of a large feline predator."

He went on to describe the region as "optimal leopard habitat", adding: "In this area, [it is] most likely a leopard, less likely a jaguar."

After Dr Bauer's shock-horror findings in 2001, the Government ordered the Department of Agriculture to send "a suitably skilled person to enable this animal to be tracked, located and identified".

However, due to a lack of funding, they instead dispatched an officer from the department and a German shepherd dog. The "hunt" ended in failure, 72 hours later.

One of the main problems faced by Ms Coffey and fellow witnesses is that for all the alleged sightings, nobody has ever landed the prized photo or video to warrant David Attenborough packing his bags and boarding the first flight to Sydney.

In 2005, the local community's hopes were raised once more when a Discovery Channel documentary team arrived on its doorstep, wanting to finally put "the myth to bed". Armed with the best high-tech gadgetry money can buy, the crew strategically scattered eight infra-red motion sensor camera traps throughout the Blue Mountains National Park where the beast had been commonly spotted.

But as Ms Coffey recalled with a sigh: "They camped here for over a week and then they produced a sensationalised program that caused us locals to be ridiculed even further."

While that episode tested the community's resolve, it was nothing compared to what would follow in 2008 after the NSW Government commissioned a second study. Fuelling cover-up claims, an FOI request later unearthed two separate versions of the report, the latter heavily edited for public consumption - and stripped of its conclusion which stated: "It seems more likely than not on available evidence that such animals do exist in NSW."

Fast forward to the present day and in his report, Mr Parkes questions the reliability of eyewitnesses. "People rarely describe with precision an event, simply because they do not see all the details, but more importantly they also subconsciously process their observations to fill in 'gaps'..." he commented."

Ms Coffey said of the report: "We continue to be treated like fringe-dwelling idiots. This is an insult to everyone who has seen the creature."

Careful not to upset his own party meanwhile, Mr Williams, had this to say: "It's interesting that the previous studies went through quite an exhaustive process and came to a different conclusion. This won't change the views of the many hundreds who have seen it. And it certainly won't change mine."

When Taylor Pearce came face to face with a giant predator on her family's property at Bilpin, the terrified teenager turned to the internet to help identify the creature. The picture she showed her mother was of a black jaguar.

On May 14, Taylor, 14, and her younger brother Mitchell, 9, were playing on a ride-on mower when an enormous feline suddenly sprung a fence and bounded into their back paddock. "I was on the mower and Mitchell was on the back. As I turned around, I saw it leap over. It walked over to a tree. Then it stopped behind us about 20 metres away. It was a big, jet black cat with a very long tail," she recalled. "We were petrified. I did not want to yell so ... I just told Mitchell to run."

The pair bolted through two gates and up a path, approximately 100 metres to their house. "I was so scared, I couldn't even speak when I got back," she said.

The family's property backs directly onto a dam and the seemingly never-ending Devil's Wilderness which is where the cats live, according to Taylor's mum, Amanda.

"It's such a vast area of national park, reaching over to Springwood. Nobody ever gets down into that part of it."

She said it was "insulting" that after so many sightings, locals were still ridiculed for believing the creature to be a genuine big cat'. "It might be a myth to others but if you live out here, you accept they are here."

"People need to be warned because I fear one day soon, one of these confrontations is going to end in tragedy." - SMH

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