SUBJECT: RIDDLE IN THE SKY                                   FILE: UFO2863




Is it a plane? A planet? Reports of mysterious object revive UFO debate

Grand Rapids PRESS News Service, January 31, 1995

MUSKEGON - They're baaack!

They may not be alien spacecraft, but less than a year after UFO sightings
stirred West Michigan, new reports have returned of mysterious objects in
the night sky.

More than a dozen Wolf Lake area residents late Saturday told Muskegon County
Sheriff's deputies they spotted a strange circular object in the northeast-
ern sky.

Deputies, responding to Suzanne Bowen's call at 439 Grover, saw the intensely
bright thing, too.

"The object appeared to be circular in shape and seemed to remain in a
stationary position," deputies reported.

Central Police Dispatch operators reported the sighting to the National UFO
Sighting Center. The National Weather Service told deputies it might be a
"pulsar" - rotating neutron stars.

But most neighbors who watched Saturday's clear northeastern skies didn't
buy the "pulsar" explanation. They said whatever it was, it emitted an in-
tense white light from which viewers could see hints of red and green.

"I'm really baffled by whole situation," Bowen said. "It wasn't like
'saucers' or anything like that. It was pretty to watch. It seemed to be
spinning to us."

Neighbor Sue Kiesten saw the phenomenon, too, and chalked it up to something
more earthbound than interstellar craft. "I think it was an airplane,"
Kiesten said. "All we could see was lights  blinking, red and green. It was
moving from west to east...like an airplane.

"We watched it as it went on across the lake and disappeared."

But Sue Hruskach isn't so sure such a conventional explanation is sufficient.
"It was too bright to be a star," said Hruskach, who believes the bright
light was made up of three objects making a "V" formation.

The night sky was clear, the temperature cold, sighters said.

Walter Andrus, director of the Texas-based Mutual UFO Network, said it's
likely the sighting has a natural explanation. "You have planet Mars in the
eastern sky and it has a reddish tinge to it," Andrus said. "The higher it
gets it loses some of its red and it gradually rises as the earth rotates."

Andrus suggested area residents watch the northeastern and eastern sky
tonight. "If it is Mars, it wlll be there again. If it's not, then it's
something else," Andrus said. "(But) 80 to 90 percent of these things can be
explained."

Almost a year ago, several West Michigan residents saw a globe-shaped object
that emitted an intense white light travel from the central part of
Michigan's lower peninsula to Holland.

At the same time, a National Weather Service radar operator saw the "craft"
on his radar scope as a Holland police officer watched whatever it was fly
over Lake Michigan.

The report drew national attention because of a dramatic tape of the radar
operator's amazed explanations as he watched his screen track the flight of
the still-unexplained phenomenon.

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