S T R A N G
i n t h e n o r
The big-city astronomer
says it's the planet Venus.
Residents of Fort R e s o l u t i o n ,
Northwest Territories, say
they know what Venus
ike, and this isn't
T
By COLMANJONES
he normally sleepy town
ol Foil Resolution in the
Northwest Territories has
become a mini-centre ol
attention alter residents
reported a series of bi-
zarre objeets — bright.
Flickering, multi-col-
oured lights punctuating the nor¬
mally barren Arctic sky. Their re-
ports ha\c been greeted Jow n south
with predictable enthusiasm Irom
UFO believers, skepticism i rom the
astronomical community and be-
mused curiosity from the media.
This kind ol attention isn't some-
thing this small settlement of native
caribou trappers is used to. Ihis
quiet community sitting on the
south shore oi Great Slave Lake.
153 kilometres across the lake Irom
Yellowknife, seems ambivalent
about the sudden interest then
sightings ha\ e generated.
What's more, they aren't con-
vinced by the explanations being
offered by academics thousands ol
miles away that what thev'ie ic
porting are just optical illusions.
After some astronomers began
debunking the sightings as nothing
more than celestial bodies, some
townspeople stopped talking about
their experiences with outsiders al¬
together. "They'll tell everybody in
town but they won't talk to any-
body else about it." says Stan
Hunter, the brother of i on Resolu-
tion's mayor.
Scary ride
This latest hi/arre entry in the an-
nals of WO reporting began on
January 4. w hen citizens started de-
scribing an unusually bright light
drifting westward through the sky
between S and S pm each evening
Perhaps the most sinking mcideni
took place when Roben Beauheu.
suix-rvisor of a govemment-eon-
tracted highway maintenance crew,
was on his way back home.VM) kilo-
metres out of Kort Resolution. The
details ot his story were confirmed
by three other residents I spoke to.
Beauheu recalls. "I saw a strange
NOW FEBRUARY 1-7. IWf,
E S I G H T I N G S
t h e r n s k y
=
looks
5C
it. /
Defence department officials side with residents—those twinkling lights in the night sky probably aren't planets or stars.
lighl on a hill at b:IO pm. and sat the astronomy program at York finds it suspicious that the lights are "They have seen something —
ihcie and watched it. It kept chang- Cniversity, has told residents in returning nightly "If objects come I'm sure they have. What that is is
ing colours." Fort Resolution that what they have up in the same basic position, night anybody 's guess. It certainly would
The supervisor immediately call- seen can he easily explained. His alter night alter night, and then de- be something the military would
ed his brother in tow n on his mobile objections to the sightings start scend towards the west or rise up like to have, because one of the in-
phone. "I had all my lights shut off w ith a broad stroke of skepticism from the east, that's a prett) good dividuals describes the object al
when 1 was talking to him on the about the likelihood of interstellar hint it's likely to be part of the sk\ one point as taking off straight up at
mobile, and as I turned on my two travel. Needless to say. Fort Resolution great velocity."
orange beacons on the cab of the "There are physical amounts of residents who have heard about De-
truck, whatever that object was lei energy that are required to move laney s ideas aren't satisfied with Armed lorces public affairs offi-
out a big red Hash and look off west " physical amounts of mass - I his explanation. cer Susan Cray also sides more
On his way home. Beau lieu ran Local resident Cecil w ith the locals thpn with Delaney.
into a Coworker, Arthur Sanderson, Laffeity simply laughs "I really don't know what it is",
"I think there are legitimate fears from
who was driving in the opposite di- "I don't believe these she says "I think these are legiti-
rection. Sanderson, reached by residents of Fort Resolution. I think they guvs," Lallerty says mate concerns and legitimate fears
NOW, corroborates Bcaulieu's "You have to be really from local residents ol Fort Resolu-
story, say nig he saw the same lights. deserve to find out what it is."
here to see it The) tion, and I think they deserve to
"I noticed it was to the south, just Susan Gray, Canadian armed lorces could have seen it years find out w hat it is."
sitting above the trees," Sanderson BgO(if it wasa planet) '
says, "and it wasn't moving at all don't care who you are — and to In an interesting twist, members Videotaped images
— it stayed in one position, and it get them here and more or less play of the Canadian armed forces sta- What might have been just an-
w as just quiet, there was no noise or peekaboo w ith a pickup truck in the tioned in the area who received re- other brief UFO "flap" shows no
nothing. It was u big. bright red ports about the sightings are giving
Northwest Territories doesn't make credence to the residents. signs ofreceding.In the last week.
light and a white light, right beside
one another They would take turns, ,i u hole lot ol sense to me." he says additional reports — some of them
Commander Paul Lehlanc. com- anonymous — have poured in from
one would go bright and then die- Easy e x p l a n a t i o n mander for the forces" northern re- the surrounding area. On January
down and then the other. At the bot- gion, actually took two of his staff
tom of it were just blue lights llick- Delaney says he's plotted the po 14. Beauheu saw the object again,
and a Twin Otter plane equipped
enngoll andon mov ing in a circle " sition of the objects reported to him w ith video cameras one night to see hut this time he had a video camera
by the townspeople and concluded hy his side. He bubbles enthusiasti-
Most interestingly, Sanderson re- w hat he could find out himself.
thai the planet Venus and the star cally about the images he has on tape.
ports, "After 15 minutes of watch Alas, reports Leblanc, " nothing
Sinus are the likely culprits of
mg it. I started to drive away, and showed up that night. We came m at "My shot is better than the one the
man) oi the sightings,
all of a sodden it shot straight up the same time as the period of time military had. which showed no col-
into the sky, just a straigln ltd As to the multicoloured aspect of when the sightings were occurring ours or lights spinning in the sky
streak in the sky and it was gone " the sightings. Delanev points out on the foul d.iv s prev ions'" You see it where it even explodes
In one of the most unsettling of thai light, when it passes through Nevertheless, Leblanc took back into a big red Hash It was just
the incidents reported, two caribou the atmosphere at a sharp angle, un- a copy of a videotape of the night- above the treetops, and it was just
trappeis. Raymond Giroux and dergoes what's called refraction, time ohjects captured by a lorces sitting there, it was Hashing bright
Colin King, were out on a fro/en which causes a scintillation or twin- reservist. Leblanc says that "from white Hashes, blue Hashes, and
lake when they saw I bright object kling effect akin to a prism the various discussions I've had whenever it was going to take off it
hov enng over them. "It's the result of white light being with people, and from what we let out a big red Hash and it would
King say s. "I saw lights alongside refracted by the different layers of have seen on the video of the object be gone." NOW has asked lor a
of us in the sky The first one we the Eaith'l atmosphere, and that taken by one of the witnesses, it copy ol the videotape
saw on the lake was pretty high, gets more intense as the object gets couldn't have been a planet
Michael Straimc. Canadian direc-
and theirwhen we got onto the in- closer to the hon/on Depending on "tThe Venus explanation l doesn't tor of the Mutual UPO Network
land, it showed up alongside us just the degree of turbulence in the at- match the description of the people.
above the trees — just lights, no mosphere, the white light can break Some ol the descriptions said that I ML'HON), the largest and most ic
sound It was moving back and up into red and blue lights and it the object is only about lour kilo- spected l'F 0 research organiza
:
forth, like it was cheeking us out." does really flicker tion. remains open to a w ide range
metres away Then, as the person
Giroux and King, who insist they "Those apparent motions are re- moves closer, all ot a sudden the ol interpretations.
were sober, also reported unusual lated to terrestrial phenomena. A object takes oil and moves a dis "It could be any number of
electneal disturbances, echoing little bit of cloud Hilling around the lance further dow n the road One of things," suggests Strainic, reached
many other such reports over the place, if it gets too close to the hori- the individuals chased ilns thing fot in Vancouver. "It might be astro-
years "It killed the engine ol the zon, looks as it it's slipping in and about 29 kilometres. I think the nomical phenomena, some sort of
skidoo 1 had to change the spark around trees, which might be rust- chances of mistaking a star for the high-altitude military exercise or
plugs," Wilson say s ling in the distance." ob)ect they have been describing genuine I'FOs, and U s all mixed
Prolessor Paul Delaney, head ol The astronomy professor also would be relatively low." up together." •
IK
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