Yesterday, a respected doctor took a video of an unidentified flying object over the skies of Montreal (more specifically, over the Cavendish Mall).
The headlines were typical for this type of story:
“UFOs in Montreal? Strange sights reported: Doctor among witnesses to ‘not of this world’ light show”
“Cote St. Luc doctor wonders if he spotted a UFO”
“Unusual object in night sky baffles Montrealers”
Dr. Cleve Ziegler, an obstetrician-gynecologist (note: not an astronomer… yet the press seems to think that because he’s a doctor, he’s more credible), spotted the object when he was driving home from work around 12:30 a.m. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
“There were many little sparkly red and blue lights. It had a changing shape, morphing from something that looked triangular to something that looked like a trapezoid. It was not a stable shape,” Ziegler told CBC News.
CTV News posted the video that Dr. Ziegler was able to take. Stills from the video are found below.
UFO? A planet? A star? Satellite?
Andrew Fazekas, a director at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, said the object was likely of this world.
“From the description, definitely I would say it is not something astronomical. It’s not a satellite. And it’s not a star or anything like that,” said Fazekas.
He posed another theory. Around the same time, helicopters were buzzing around the site of a fuel spill at the Port of Montreal in the other end of town.
And if you look closely at the image on the right, you can actually make out the shape of a helicopter: the bulbous portion on the right, and the tail on the left. Looking at the video, it is certainly plausible that the movement of the object is that of a helicopter.
Having grown up in Montreal, this story piqued my interest. The concept of extraterrestrial life has always intrigued me, and as much as I would like to believe that an alien aircraft hovered over Montreal last night, I reckon this is nothing more than something from our own home planet.
References:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/09/30/mystery-ufo-sighting-montreal.html
http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100929/mtl_UFO_100929/20100929/?hub=MontrealHome
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/100930/canada/canada_montreal_mystery_ufo_sighting_montreal