Strange lights in Strathearn skies

Dec 2 2011 by Lynn Duke, Strathearn Herald

A STRANGE white light that appeared in the Strath sky on Friday has been puzzling residents.

“I’ve seen lanterns before,” said one who did not want to be named. “When the lanterns first came out people thought they were UFOs but this was very different. It was a white light and it was in the same place for ages.

“The lanterns are usually orange coloured and they drift across the sky. This was really bright and hanging in the sky towards the south east. It was like a star but appeared far to low to be one. If you believed in such things you would almost have thought it was a UFO.”

Peter Reilly, from Muthill, also saw the light. He had heard his workmates talking about it before he actually saw it for himself.

He said: “My workmates in Perth saw this bright white light in the sky early on Friday morning about 6am. They said it was quite high up in the sky, which was clear at the time. During the day, I mentioned it to my son who was working in Glasgow and he said he’d heard them talking about it on Radio Clyde. People were seeing it from the A9.

“That evening, I was out in the garden. It was a nice clear night and I could see the stars but there was also this other light up in the sky which seemed to be too low for a star. You couldn’t miss it. It was towards the Sherrifmuir/ Orchil direction and was well up in the sky but not as high as the stars and it definitely wasn’t a star. I saw it at 6pm and it was still there at 10pm. When I looked the next morning it was away.”

A spokesperson from the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh told the Herald that the light spotted in the evening could well be Jupiter, which is showing particularly well in the south east at the moment.

But Saturn is also making a big appearance in our skies just now and is in the south east in the mornings. It is low down on the horizon, which can also have the effect of making it look larger, such as with the “moon illusion” when at certain times of the year the moon looks much bigger than normal because it is lower in the sky.

If conditions are right, this is also a good time for stargazers to see Saturn’s rings if viewed through a telescope or powerful binoculars.