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Description Of The Incident
MARA has obtained three and a half minutes of good quality video footage of
a ball of light (BOL) UFO. The incident took place between 10:31 pm and 10:35
pm on the 31st July 2001 in Croxteth Park Liverpool. The witnesses described
a ball of light which rapidly changed brightness as if it was rotating very
quickly. The rapid rotation was accompanied by rapid colour and shape changes,
but the overall colour was silvery orange. They described a slow vertical movement
of the object downwards over the duration of the sighting although this movement
only amounted to a few degrees. They also described a lateral movement which
was estimated to be about the same as the diameter of the object. This movement
would take place over a period of a couple of seconds, then after a period of
about a minute, the object would move back to its original position. They estimated
the size of the object to be about 10% of the diameter of the moon viewed from
their location. They claim that the object appeared while they were watching
in the direction of the object and that it disappeared because it switched off
like a light or it just dropped below the horizon. It made no sound and there
were no unusual smells at the location. The distance to the object was difficult
to estimate since they did not know the size of the object because of its strangeness,
but it was certainly beyond the trees that it dropped behind making a minimum
distance of at least 400 yards.
Investigation
There were 3 witnesses and one of them telephoned me to say that he had the
video footage. I arranged to go along to interview the 3 witnesses with two
other MARA members.
An interview was carried out with all three witnesses and a site visit was later
arranged and carried out. We obtained a copy of the video footage and an analysis
was made of the footage by careful study of the video and by frame capturing
individual frames for analysis on computer. The object did not appear to be
of a military aircraft origin because it consisted of a single bright light.
Given the MoD’s reluctance to co-operate in these cases and the fact that they
will lie if they know something concerns national security, I decided not to
write to them. I did not contact National Air Traffic Services because they
have stated in a previous investigation that they will no longer help us in
identifying anomalous aerial phenomena. A weather report was obtained and maps
of the area were examined along with a geological map. A seismological analysis
of the UK and North Sea was obtained from the internet.
Video Footage Analysis
To view the video on MARA's Myspace site click
here then click view my videos, then click on Croxteth Ball of Light. Click back on your
browser twice to return here. The footage was taken on a Sharp VL-E630H camcorder with a 16x power zoom lens
(F1.4, F = 4.0-64.0mm) and full range auto focus with a low light capability
of 0.8 Lux. The footage consists of a brief, rapidly panned, panoramic shot
of the surrounding area, followed by a couple of shots of the moon at 10:20
pm. There then follows at 10:31 pm, 3 minutes 37 seconds of footage of the anomalous
object. Most of the footage is done on a high zoom factor without tripod support
so there is a degree of camera shake. The object is first recorded just above
a tree slightly to the left of centre. The object drops very slightly over time
making it consistent with an astronomical object setting in the west. After
2 minutes 39 seconds of the footage, the object is completely lost to view because
it has slowly slipped behind the tree. The witness then shifts his position
so that he can regain view of the object lower down to the left of the tree.
The object is lost for a total of 15 seconds taking the footage up to 2 minutes
54 seconds, at which point it is in view at the left hand side of the tree until
3 minutes 37 seconds when it finally succumbs to the horizon and is lost completely.
When the video is viewed frame by frame, by using the still frame mode on a
video recorder then using a frame advance feature, the object can be seen to
change brightness rapidly going from dim to bright and back to dim again in
the space of 4 VHS frames. JPEG images were captured on computer from the video
and labeled as frames 1 to 4 in this article. The VHS standard runs at 25 frames
per second, so the brightness variation has occurred in the space of 4/25 =
0.16 seconds. Even if a branch of a tree was blowing in and out of the line
of sight of the object, it could not move that quickly so we have to assume
that it was the actual brightness of the object, which was changing rapidly.
The witnesses commented that they thought the object was spinning, probably
because of the rapid changes in brightness. If a spinning object had a bright
light on one side, this would account for the variation but it would have to
be spinning approximately every 0.16 seconds or 1/0.16 = 6.25 rotations per
second. This sounds fast compared to the majority of reported flying saucer
sightings.
4 consecutive VHS frames showing the rapid change in brightness
Frame1
Frame 2   Frame3
Frame 4  
Witness
Interview
All 3 witnesses seemed credible and gave a good description of the event. The
witnesses told me that they thought the object was in the north east direction
and that they had seen Mars earlier in the night and that the object they saw
was definitely not Mars.
The witnesses made reference to a ley line at the site and stated that they
have seen other anomalous phenomena from the same point. They believe
that the ley line may be partly responsible for the appearance of anomalous
phenomena at that location.
Site Visit
I went to the site during daylight hours with two of the witnesses and I made
a video recording of the area of the sighting and took compass bearings on the
landmarks associated with the sighting footage (figure 1). It transpired that
the witnesses were not quite right about the direction of the object. The magnetic
bearing of the object was 096 degrees as opposed to their perception of North
East.
There is a stone about 18 inches wide sunk into the earth at the point where
they had the sighting and the witnesses believe this is a marker stone for a
ley line (figure2).
 
Figure1
Daytime shot of location. Figure
2 Possible maker stone for a ley line.
Weather Report
A weather report was obtained from Bidston Observatory and this is largely
in agreement with the witnesses’ description of the weather. The report stated
that the weather was fine with no unusual weather conditions at that time.
CONCLUSIONS
In order to focus on what the object may have been, I find it useful to first
eliminate everything that it could not have been followed by everything that
it was unlikely to have been and then concentrate on what is left.
Astronomical Objects
Before I viewed the video footage and made a site visit, I was already convinced
that the object seen was Mars but I was proven wrong on several counts. If you
look at the skymap (figure 3), you will see that the object was at a bearing
of 096 degrees whereas Mars is something like 190 – 200 degrees. In addition,
one witness said that he thought he saw Mars and that it’s direction was back
along the footpath from where he came which is a south south westerly direction.
Hence, I believe the witness was right in his assumption that what he saw in
the direction of the path was Mars and this was more than 90 degrees away from
the anomalous object. You will see from the skymap that there are no bright
stars anywhere near 096 degrees close to the horizon and even those below the
horizon are dominated by the constellation Cetus which has no bright stars,
so it could not have been an inversion layer producing reflections of stars
below the horizon. However, the absolute killer fact that rules out Mars and
all other astronomical objects is that the object definitely gets lower in the
sky with time and yet the direction is roughly East and hence any astronomical
objects should have been rising not setting. To make an astronomical object
set in the East requires us to change the direction of rotation of the Earth.
Figure
3 Skymap for Liverpool at 10:31 pm on the 31st July 2001. Note that
East and West appear transposed because the figure should be held above you
when viewing it to compare it with the sky. 096 degrees is Just
below the large E on the left.
Aircraft
Approaching aircraft with landing lights on can look like very bright lights
in the sky and it is just possible that the aircraft could be far enough away
to not see it’s strobe lights and yet be able to see the landing lights. Manchester
airport is about 30 miles away from the sighting location and only 20 degrees
South of the line of sight, so landing aircraft have to be taken seriously.
The next paragraph is a quote from the Manchester Airport website.
During
periods of Westerly Operations, aircraft take-off to the west from Runway 2
(24L) and land from the east on Runway 1 (24R). During periods of Easterly operations,
aircraft take-off to the east from Runway 1 (06L), and land from the west on
Runway 2 (06R).
Hence,
during Westerly operations it might just be possible on a clear night to see
an aircraft landing on runway 24L which is at a bearing of 240 degrees and hence
a witness who sees the aircraft head on will observe the aircraft at a bearing
of 60 degrees. However, landing lights have a fairly narrow beam and would not
appear brighter than a strobe unless the aircraft was approaching directly.
The observation of the BOL made at 096 degrees and the aircraft approaching
at 60 degrees would make an angle between approach of the aircraft and observer
of 36 degrees which is too oblique to cause the high brightness observed (see
figure 4 below)
Figure
4 Angle of 36 degrees between aircraft landing at Manchester and the observer’s
view of the BOL.
Liverpool airport is much closer to the sighting location, but is due south,
and hence aircraft on final approach to Liverpool can be ruled out.
Ball Lightning
Ball lightning is a rare meteorological phenomenon which is not properly understood
but can form a ball of light in the sky. However, ball lightning has only been
observed during stormy conditions and the witnesses description of the weather
along with the weather report, lead me to believe that ball lightning was an
unlikely explanation for this event.
Land Based Industrial Lights
From examination of maps we can determine that the line of sight cuts through
the town of St. Helens and the glass works which are likely to have a chimney
or two which might possibly produce a flame at the top. Likewise, further away,
South Manchester probably has a number of factories with chimneys. However,
I believe these can be ruled out because the light definitely gets lower to
the horizon with time and I am not aware of any chimneys that can change their
height.
Extra-Terrestrial Spacecraft
Amongst the most controversial of possibilities, we must include Extra-Terrestrial
(ET) spacecraft. We do not know the technology of advanced alien races and it
is possible that they would use craft or probes which produce ball of light
phenomena in our atmosphere. However, the absence of any real structure to the
BOL and the fact that it would appear to be making itself as visible as possible
to observers does not make sense. If ETs wanted to make contact, they would
probably use something more sophisticated than a BOL. If they wanted to make
a covert study, they would be unlikely to use a probe which shines out so brightly.
Ley line phenomena
The witnesses stated that the lights may be on a ley line because there was
a marker stone by their observing point (figure 2). A MARA member at the interview
suggested that something on a ley line may be attracting the light and this
was backed up by the witnesses statement who claim to have seen other phenomena
at the same point. Modern mythology about ley lines brings in all sorts of pseudo-science
which I do not intend to go into here as I believe there is no justification
for it. For a no-nonsense description of ley lines and how these ancient features
have been hijacked by New-agers and the like, go to http://www.acemake.com/PaulDevereux/leylines.html
Be warned, New-agers won’t like it. There is a possibility that people in ancient
times viewed the appearance of BOL phenomena as something spiritual and erected
such features as standing stones in-situ, although the appearance of BOLs is
most likely due to the geology of the area.
Earth Lights
I believe the most likely cause of this event was indeed an earth light. These
lights are poorly understood partly because they are rare, but not as rare as
ball lightning and partly because the scientific community have chosen to ignore
them. I am guilty of this myself, chiefly because MARA members have in the past
told me that they are produced by the piezo-electric effect in the ground creating
strong electric fields in the atmosphere and developing plasma. I have now read
Devereux’s book ‘Earth Lights Revelation’ and realised that what I had been
told by MARA members was a vast over-simplification. In fact Devereux states
in his book on page 23 that Earth Quake Lights (Earth Lights during an earthquake)
cannot be produced by the piezo-electric effect on its own. On page 51 of the
book Devereux states that other researchers have looked into the possibility
of ground based piezo-electricity producing atmospheric electric fields and
found that the ground has too low an impedance to allow the build up of charge
which might cause the atmosphere to glow without further mechanisms being involved.
This is the problem that I had with the earth light theory that I had been told
about. However, other mechanisms may be involved and the lights themselves are
probably not plasma based. For a full description of what is known of earth
lights I recommend Earth Lights Revelation or go to the following website http://www.skygaze.com/content/strange/Earthlights.shtml
The reasons I believe that an earth light was the cause of this event are as
follows:
1 Description of brightness and colour is within earth light boundaries (Reference
Earth Lights Revelation).
2 The motion is within earth light boundaries (Reference Earth Lights Revelation)
3 Size is within earth light boundaries (Reference Earth Lights Revelation).
4 It appeared to be close to the ground (video footage).
5 The flickering appearance has been reported with earth lights (Earth Lights
Revelation).
6 Changes in size and shape have been reported with earth lights (Earth Lights
Revelation).
7 There are a number of fault lines in the area where the object was seen.
8 There is a lot of sandstone and pebble beds in the area with high quartz
content and this is likely to produce a piezo-electric effect with tectonic strain.
The peizo-electric effect in the ground is one of many factors which it is believed
are necessary to produce earth lights.
9 The seismicity of the area is higher than average for the UK Although there
was no seismic activity in the area at the time of the incident, Devereux has
stated that this is not necessary. In fact tectonic strains is usually reduced
after an earth quake because rocks either side of a fault have moved to reduce
the strain.
10 The similarity in appearance between photographs in Earth Lights Revelation
and frames taken from the witnesses’ video. 11 The lack of a credible alternative
explanation for the sighting.
When all of the evidence above is taken into account, I think it is very likely
that what the witnesses saw was an Earth Light.
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