SUBJECT: BETHELLS BEACH UFO WATCH                            FILE: UFO1157


WESTERN LEADER, Auckland, New Zealand
     May 28,1990  CR: R. Collyns



by:  FIONA BATBER

     Strange lights in the night sky have a group of west Aucklanders baffled.
     Six people have spotted the multi-coloured lights shooting and hovering off Bethells Beach and cannot explain the unidentified flying objects.
     "Whatever's out there is definitely not human," says witness John Herbert.
     Two observers have experienced the phenomenon twice.  Opossun-hunters William Glasgow and Chris Knapton were at Bethells early one Saturday morning when they first sighted the lights.
     "We were hunting when we saw a light,"  says Mr. Glasgow.  "We thought it was another hunter but then it went above the trees.
     "We saw three of them, all zig-zagging along the shore," he says.
     Unsure of what they had witnessed, the pair went back with a group of friends two nights later.
     Mr. Glasgow says the group was treated to a similar dispoay for two hours.  He says the lights could not be connected to hunters.
     "It was out over the ocean.
     Mr. Knapton says at one stage a beam radiated from the lights, sweeping over the ocean.
     "It must have been pretty big to have had a beam like that," he says.
     Mr. Herbert says he saw a light shoot across a clearing and hover about three miles off-shore.
     "It was green, yellow, orange and red," he says.
     "It did all sorts of acrobatic movements.  It vanished into cloud with lights flashing."
     The observers have ruled out the possibility of conventional aircraft.  On another night the group saw two planes traverse the sky and say there is no conparison in size, speed or colour.
     Both the Auckland weather office and the observatory report unusual atmospheric conditions at present.
     Commercial services manager at the weather office Linda Summersby says the group could have seen aurora lights.  Caused by charged particles entering the altered atmospheric conditions.
     Aurora lights were spotted off Canterbury the night after the six had been dazzled by the Bethells display.  While most auroras are seen in the South Island, they do occur further north, she says.
     Head astronomer at the Auckland observatiry Glenn Urquart says increased sun activity has led to the altered atmospheric conditions and aurora lights are being spotted more.
     However, Mr. Urquart says the Bethells group may have seen a meteor shower or fireball.  These exhibit different colours as they burn, he says.
     Atmoshperic conditions may be responsible for visual aberrations, he says.
     But the group, who contacted the Western Leader after reading about a similar sighting, is confident what they've seen has nothing to do with things human.
     "it was like something out of Close Encounters," says Mr. Herbert.

         
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