[meteorite-list] Friends Videotape Mystery Light In Sky

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:43:35 2004
Message-ID: <200107261650.JAA28342_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2129696&BRD=1697&PAG=461&dept_id=44551&rfi=6

Friends videotape mystery light in sky

JEFF EDELSTEIN
The Trentonian (New Jersey)
July 25, 2001

Another day, another weird light
in the sky that disappears without warning. On Sunday, the day before
Monday's meteor sighting, P.J. Rosso, 11, and his friend, Alex Stemm, 12,
were lounging on the trampoline in Rosso's grandparents yard on Curley Lane
in Lambertville.

At about 8:30 p.m., Rosso and Stemm noticed a very bright, slow moving light
in the sky. It was the only thing visible in the twilight.

"We thought it might be Venus," Rosso said.

He went inside and got his camcorder, and started filming what he was
seeing.

As twilight gave way to darkness, the light was even more pronounced in the
sky, much brighter than anything else.

And then -- nothing.

"Dude, it disappeared!" Rosso could be heard yelling on the videotape.

And disappear it did.

At exactly 9:13 p.m. on the video, the light exploded like a Roman candle.

Less than a second later, the light was gone.

"Since it blew up, we're pretty sure it wasn't Venus," Stemm noted.

They both ran inside to show Rosso's grandparents, James and Mary.

"It's hard to tell," James Rosso said. "It looked like debris was coming off
it, but all at once it disappeared."

Mrs. Rosso was even more stymied.

"I got excited," she said. "It looked like something important, but I don't
know what."

Lambertville police had no reports of strange lights in the sky, and a
professor in Princeton University's Department of Astrophysical Sciences
couldn't explain what it was.

"It doesn't sound astrophysical," he said. "It could be a plane, taking a
turn behind a cloud."

The young Rosso decided not to hazard a guess as to what he videotaped, but
Stemm went on the record.

"I guess it was an UFO," he said.

Both said the image of a bright light disappearing from the sky was similar
to that observed in Carteret last Sunday, when nearly 100 people, including
police officers and one priest, witnessed a series of bright lights blipping
out of view.

No official explanation had been given in the Carteret case as of yesterday.
Received on Thu 26 Jul 2001 12:50:17 PM PDT