A reddish-orange glow was seen low in the sky on the evening of Wednesday, September 21^st., 1983, by two female witnesses. One of these observed the glow whilst sitting in a stationary car, waiting for her friend, who also eventually witnessed the same thing.

Witness (B), Mrs Joy ‘B’ did not notice anything unusual as she was making her way to her friend’s car, but she stated: “I noticed my friend was looking up into the sky as I got in the car, and I remember saying: ‘what’s the matter’?, and my friend immediately said” ‘What do you think that is?. On looking up into the sky facing west I saw an object that was a orange-red colour. It was stationary for a few moments, that it travelled towards the west at a rapid pace.”

The weather was dry at the time of the sighting, but fog patches were developing. The total duration of the event was approximately one to two minutes. Both witnesses described the phenomenon as that of an oval shape, although there was some disagreement as to its outline with witness (A) claiming that it had a sharp outline, whilst witness (B) was adamant that the object’s outline was in fact, hazy, although both agreed that it was solid. Both witnesses agreed however, that the object’s colour was orange-red, with no attendant colours. It was the brightness of the object that brought witness (A)’s attention to it in the first place. She described it as a “Very bright light”, and “As bright as the Sun”. Witness (B) compared it to a bright car headlight seen in the fog - that is of a brightly diffused light source.

The object covered an angular diameter of approximately 7 degrees in the sky, as demonstrated by letting the witnesses compare its apparent size with familiar objects held at arm’s length. It was also estimated by the witnesses that originally the object was not moving, and that it did not illuminate the locality in any way. It did change shape however, and appeared to loose it’s brightness appeared to move away. Witness (A) stated that the object did change it’s shape whilst in view, becoming more oval in outline, before finally vanishing soon after her friend got into her car.

After a full examination of the facts, verification of the witnessed phenomena, as that of the Moon witnessed under unusual circumstances, was eventually achieved by consultation with the Royal Observatory. In many instances, only a suggestion as to the cause of a particular sighting can be made. However, in this particular case, an accurate association between the light source and the Moon can be made. The obscuration of the Moon by the prevailing scattered cloud and fog cover, would have produced a very strange glow in the sky, which would have been even more stranger to the witnesses, when there was no apparent light source producing it.

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