Strange Lights Over Patagonia

by Luis Pacheco

A strange white luminescence was observed on Monday, September 30th, 1998 over the entire Patagonian region. The brilliant aura of light which remained visible in the sky for over twenty minutes gave witnesses enough time to take photos, but none of them managed to photograph the strange phenomenon they'd witnessed. In San Martín and Junín de los Andes, a perfectly circular, luminous form slowly traversed the night skies, causing bewilderment among the population. The sighting occurred at approximately 21:00 hours. The sky was completely clear and lit with the characteristic luminosity provided by the waxing moon.

A luminous circle suddenly appeared from the south; its size was estimated at 8 to 10 times larger than the full moon. At first sight, the circumference had the appearance of being gaseous and slightly opaque; its edges appeared brighter than its center, through which starlight could be perceived as it crossed the sky. The object travelled at low speed and its trajectory did not coincide with that of the wind that was blowing from the southeast toward the northeast at that time of night.

The phenomenon's inclination with regard to the mountainous horizon of this southern region was of some 45 degrees, and after the first ten minutes of movement at an even speed, the brilliance of the edges of the object dimmed until it barely became visible 40 minutes after the initial sighting.  The phenomenon was seen best by residents of the suburbs of San Martín de los Andes due to the absence of electric lighting.

The fact that the direction of its travel did not coincide with that of the prevailing winds helps to discard any suggestions of a mass of clouds. "It wasn't smoke, because it would have dissolved immediately. This thing appeared to have its own [kind] of density and a hole in its middle through which the stars could be seen as it went over us," indicated a resident of the Los Radales neighborhood, who witnessed these effects during the first 10 minutes of the sighting.

In Junín de los Andes, news of the sighting was transmitted by local radio station FM Quasar, and eyewitness accounts were broadcast shortly after. "I saw it for some ten minutes over Cerro de La Cruz, and it drew my attention, because had it been a cloud, it would have changed shape and not remained perfectly circular," stated a teacher who witnessed the event from the vicinity of Parque Industrial.

Ana Hall was not only among the many residents of San Martín and Junín de los Andes who followed the event, but she also took hold of her photo camera and took repeated snapshots of the phenomenon in the hopes of capturing the event on film. But no image could be seen after the film was developed.

The same brilliant white image passed over the rural region of Villa Regina and Roca that night. It was later possible to determine that the ring was formed by two circles: a larger outer one and a smaller inner one which gave off white light and was perfectly silent.

The object was seen here at around 21:35 hours and lazily flew over the area for 20 minutes until it rose into the night sky and vanished altogether. Numerous witnesses in the rural area of Regina, Chinchinales and Valle Azul indicated having seen the phenomenon. One woman stated that the object was originally flying at a low altitude and disappeared from sight upon gaining altitude. According to Carla Pérez: "it was around 21:35 when I saw it over the river. It seemed to fly at a very low altitude, because when I looked at the object, it could see it halfway over the tree line. It later rose into the sky and vanished."

Seen By Students Leaving School

SAN ANTONIO OESTE. On Monday night, shortly before 22:00 hours, students majoring in Fishing Production were returning home after late classes at the Instituto de Biologia Marina y Pesquera Almirante Storni were startled to see a luminous circle that appeared over the Municipal Museum and vanished over the research center's building.

One student described the phenomenon stating that "the circle moved slowly; it was transparent at its center and white at the edges. When it flew directly over us it stopped and then vanished." The group of witnesses, consisting of ten students and an instructor, were unable to confirm the nature of the phenomenon. The object had already disappeared from view by the time members of the Instituto appeared with photographic equipment.

This case has many points of contact with another two famous cases in Argentinean ufology, one of them which has been christened "The Night of the Twin Moons" and which occurred on June 14, 1980. This case created (and still creates) a considerable controversy among researchers, some of whom argued that the object appeared to move intelligently and followed a trajectory that brought it close to a number of military airfields, and those who believed that the object was merely an upper atmosphere experiment conducted by NASA.

The present case has many of the same characteristics as the earlier one, particularly in its "clouded" appearance. An additional detail can be found in the fact that the witnesses agree that it moved contrary to the prevailing wind, which would be the case if we were dealing with a luminous phenomenon in the upper atmosphere.

In my opinion, a very important detail to keep in mind, is the testimony of two people on America TV who observed the phenomenon as it passed over Santa Rosa, with the apparent loss of power to the engine of one witnesses' car. While it is clearly possible that both events have no connection, the phenomenon of the "sudden" stoppage of machinery or automobiles in the presence of UFOs is a very common pattern of behavior within the phenomenon.