EDEN, New South Wales, Australia - Eden residents Margaret McDonald and her grandchildren are wondering about life in space after seeing an strange object in the sky three nights in a row.From Friday night to Sunday night on the last weekend in August, Mrs McDonald, her husband Greg and two of her five grandchildren, Tim and April Keft, watched the antics of an orange star shaped object in the night sky.
Miss Keft was the first to spot the unidentified flying object [UFO] as it approached from the north at about 9.30pm on Friday night when she took the dog outside for a stretch, and called out Mrs and Mr McDonald outside.
"When I first saw it I thought it was a star," she said.
"It was like it could see us as it did a little dance.
"Timothy [Keft] got binoculars out and saw flashing lights.
"It was very high up when it started to move and it was heading south and then it just sort of turned gradually and left in an easterly direction over the sea."
At about the same time over the next two nights the family piled outside again.
"It looked like it was more above us and it looked like it had a cross on it, it wasn't round but more like a star," Miss Keft said.
"On Sunday night it did a little dance and went south."
Astrologer David Reneke has researched UFOs for more than 10 years and currently contributes to Sky and Space Magazine.
He said there was a list of possibilities to work though before an object could be called a UFO.
"Mrs McDonald's explanation was very vivid and descriptive," he said.
He said without further investigation it was impossible to regard the UFO.
"One of top five things I ever saw came from the Ben Boyd National Park, and it was in daylight," he said.
There was more than one witness and they had evidence."
The story Mr Reneke mentioned was the filmed sighting of five or six flying objects over the sea by three Sydney men who were in Eden to film an eclipse of the sun in 1976.
Mr Reneke examined the film frame by frame and sent it to the United States for analysis where it was confirmed to be unidentified.
So is there pattern of UFO sightings in our skies at the time of an eclipse?
"No," said Mr Reneke.
UFO New South Wales
UFO New South Wales
