A man taking time lapse images of the Milky Way also captured a series of odd light swirls in the sky, and the resulting footage has ignited talk of UFO activity off North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
Artist Wes Snyder is well known in the Southeast for his coastal photography — particularly images taken at night — but even he is at a loss for what the rotating red trails might be.
The lights are seen multiple times in his video — always along the horizon — and they appear to be circling something.
Snyder says the movement defies easy explanation, when taking into account the time lapse process: Each photo is taken with a 10-second exposure, with one second in between.
“I’ve caught thousands of plane trails and never have any of them looked like this, so I’m certain they are not your typical aircraft,” Snyder told McClatchy news.
“I’ve caught these trails before in several other time lapses, but I have yet to figure out what kind of plane possibly has these capabilities. … Whatever they are, they have some incredible maneuverability.”
The photos were taken between 8 and 10 p.m. on Sept. 27, with cameras facing west, toward the mainland. Snyder says the trails were “visible for 10-20 minutes.” The video was only recently posted online, because of the time it takes to edit images taken simultaneously by three cameras, he said.
“We (the Outer Banks) are not too far away from a bombing range and eastern North Carolina is known for lots of military aircraft,” Snyder said. “My bet is that it’s military aircraft training over the Pamlico Sound.
“All I want to know is, how can I get a ride in whatever it was,” he added.
The video was shared Jan. 21 on Facebook, where it has been viewed 13,000 times and gotten hundreds of reactions as of Jan. 31. (He posted it Jan. 27 on YouTube.) A recently removed shipwreck known as the Ocean Pursuit is included in the foreground of the video.
Many commenters on the Facebook post seem to agree the lights were likely military craft or drones, while others weren’t afraid to call it a UFO. That’s technically correct, since the lights are tough-to-identify flying objects.
“I believe they exist … and have been visiting us for a long time,” one woman wrote.
“Whatever they are, I hope they’re on our team!” another commenter posted.
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