Carolinians seeing weird objects in the sky

For decades, folks all over the world have aimed their cameras, both still and video, toward the sky in hopes of catching images of a UFO for everyone to see. In some cases, they were remarkably successful.

     In 1965, Rex Heflin’s pictures of a hat-shaped object hovering in the sky over Santa Ana, Calif. have been regarded as some of the most famous ever taken of a UFO.

     Then, there are the four glowing objects in the sky that were captured on film one night in 1952 over Salem, Mass. And in May 1950, Paul Trent of Oregon took one of the best-known photos of what was then called a flying saucer. In short, thousands and thousands of purported UFO photographs and videos have been produced over the years. A few of them are considered to be authentic while many others are outright fakes.

     Now, a man in Simpsonville, S.C. claims to have caught the image of a UFO on his video camera. Jawad Ashey was sitting on the front porch of his home with his girlfriend at approximately 10:30 p.m. Sunday. All of a sudden, a blue light appeared in the night sky.

     Ashey said it started out small and then got bigger, according to a story by WSPA-TV of Spartanburg, S.C. “Just here on the porch, chilling out, and there it was!” he said in the TV story. “I don’t think it was anything of this world, I really don’t.” Ashey said that what he saw was not an airplane or some other manmade aircraft. He’s convinced it is a UFO. Ashey’s video shows the blue light in the sky for about three minutes. “I went from ‘Oh wow, I’m excited,’” he said, “to ‘Oh wow, I’m kinda weirded out,’ to ‘Oh wow, I’m a little scared!’” WSPA Meteorologist Dan Bickford said there was “nothing unusual,” such as a meteor shower, going on in the skies at the time of Ashey’s sighting. Ed Richards, who enjoys astronomy, said both Venus and Jupiter are visible in the night sky now, but this object does not match those heavenly bodies.
“I was a skeptic, but now I’m a believer,” said Ashey to WSPA. “I’m definitely coming back out tonight to see if it shows up again.” To see the video Ashey recorded, visit this link: http//www2.wspa.com/news/2010/sep/06/6/simpsonville-man-believes-he-caught-ufo-on-camera-ar-795868/

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     While a blue light has been seen over Simpsonville, S.C., some folks in Highlands are reporting orange orbs in the sky over their homes. The website skyshipsovercashiers.com contains an eyewitness testimony about some weird lights seen near Highlands, which is west of Cashiers.

     “On the evening of June 18, 2010 at approximately 9:30 p.m., I and five friends were sitting on the deck of a home on Panther Mountain outside Highlands, NC and observed six to eight bright orange orbs blinking on and off in the trees adjacent to the property,” read the testimony.

     The weird orange lights were larger than softballs, perhaps up to 8 inches in diameter. The bright color orange was very clear. “This was observed by myself and two others in our party and lasted for about 15 minutes,” read the testimony. “We all experienced feelings of euphoria and elation. Our intuition was that we were being acknowledged by loving and benevolent light beings.” These “light beings” apparently enjoy giving folks in western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina something interesting to talk about. So if you watch the skies carefully, they just might appear.

Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com.