THE mystery deepens as more reported sightings of strange lights in the night sky over Ripon and Masham pour in.
Last week we reported how red lights had been spotted moving slowly through the sky on the night of Friday, August 8.
Neither the police nor RAF Leeming were able to shed any light on the sightings and this week more readers have contacted the Gaz
ette to say they also saw the unidentified flying objects.
Roy Waite, of Ripon, was among a group of Wakeman Mummers who saw the lights while walking along Harrogate Road at around 10pm that Friday night.
five lights"We noticed five lights in the sky in a W pattern. They were large, dull, reddish and in a few minutes had reduced to three. They were due east of us, not apparently moving. There was no sound of fireworks or aircraft," he said..
Peter and Susan Iveson, of Masham, reported seeing about 30 red objects in the sky on the same evening above Masham.
"They looked like a long string of red balloons, floating along. They were very silent and we watched until they disappeared behind the clouds. We couldn't work out what we had seen," said Mr Iveson.
'like a rocket'Joyce Pearson emailed to recount an incident two years ago when she and a work colleague saw a light in the sky on their way from Masham to Ripon. "It appeared to be like a rocket, it went overhead and was a red light with what appeared to be like flames from the back of it, similar to a firework. It landed in a field to the right of us but we couldn't see any impact or hear any sound," she said.
"I am so glad that other people have seen this phenomenon, but can it be explained?"
spiritual energyAlex Humphries believes it can. He emailed to say the date of the sightings - 08/08/08 - was significant as it was a day of great spiritual energy and he predicts we will be seeing a lot more UFOs in the coming years.
A more down to earth explanation comes from Ripon taxi driver Adrian Meredith, who reports seeing half a dozen or so orange lights above the cathedral.
They were moving with the wind and seemed to form a circular pattern, he says. "I assumed these were small scale hot air balloons, tethered together, such as can be made with large sheets of tissue paper and balsa wood, powered by a small candle."
Can you solve the mystery? Perhaps you released miniature hot-air balloons in the Ripon or Masham area on the night of August 8? Email rip.news@ypn.co.uk.