Object Photographed Over Newcastle Remains Unidentified

In September 2013 Paula Roberts, The Lincoln County News Sports Editor, was traveling south on Route 1 between games when she spotted a bright object in the early evening sky.

Roberts, a lifelong resident Lincoln County, felt the object was out of place. She had made the same run between sporting events hundreds of times and had never seen anything like it. She got out of her car, grabbed her camera, which was already fitted with a 200 mm lens, and took several photos.

When she examined the photo later, enlarging it on her computer screen, she found something she didn’t expect and couldn’t identify. “It was out of this world; like nothing I had ever seen,” Roberts said at the time.

An investigation was launched in an attempt to clarify what the object might, and might not, actually be. Following a four-month effort, and after sharing the photo and its circumstances with a number of experts, the object in the photo is still unexplainable.

However, the extensive investigation launched by The Lincoln County News was able to eliminate a number of possibilities.

While the mystery remains, the probabilities of what the object might be have been narrowed, and what remains is the essential truth that the object was flying and is unidentified – an Unidentified Flying Object or UFO. The Lincoln County News investigation follows.

She was in Newcastle when she noticed an object in the sky that seemed out of place and seemed to be traveling ahead of her and in the same direction (“southbound” to most local motorists, but actually west-southwest by compass).

She described it as a “bright white object with no flashing lights, traveling in a straight line” from her right to her left. When she pulled her car into the rest stop at Sherman Lake and got out to look at the object without having to drive, she was able to discern there was no sound coming from the object’s direction. She grabbed her camera and took several photos of the object using a 200 mm lens.

Returning to her car and continuing toward Wiscasset on Rt. 1 she continued to observe the object traveling in straight line until she turned in a northerly direction on Route 27.

Upon examining the photo later, and enlarging the image, it appeared that the object was circular with rings on its exterior. Using the bottom edge of the photo to establish level ground, the object seemed to be angled at 45 degrees along a central axis. It also appeared to have flattened surfaces on what might be considered the “top” and “bottom” based on the axis.

Unfortunately, because of the distance of the object and its size in the evening sky, the camera’s auto settings were unable to yield a sharp image. Additionally, the resolution setting for the image, 300 lines per inch, which is more than adequate for most purposes, caused the image to become a bit pixilated when enlarged to the degree required to make it discernible.

Moreover, despite the fact that Robert’s exposure rating on the camera was set on ISO 6400, a very good rating for low light, her lens was only able to achieve an aperture of 2.8; which (in English) means that her range of focus was limited.

On a more positive note, the 2.8 aperture setting also allowed for a high “shutter speed” of 1/400 of a second, which would tend to eliminate the blur caused by movement of the camera or the object.

All of these elements, except for the shutter speed, combined to negatively affect the sharpness of the image. Nonetheless, even in unadjusted form, enough aspects of the object are discernible to make it quite compelling.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was contacted to ascertain if any satellites or the International Space Station were in the area at the time.

Steve Cole, with the NASA Office of Communications in Washington, D.C., advised the possibility of a satellite being overhead at the time could not be completely eliminated. According to Cole, “we do not keep a comprehensive record of past satellite locations,” adding that, “even if we were to rule out any NASA satellites over that location at that time, there are a lot of other satellites up there.”

However, Cole added a caveat. “One thing that can be safely said about any satellite as seen in the nighttime sky from Earth, it would appear as a fairly small point of light moving slowly but noticeably in an arc.”

Roberts described the object as moving in a straight line at a good pace fairly low to the ground; not in a slow, high arc.

The next contact was with the Mutual UFO Network, known as MUFON. This is a group of nationally recognized and well-qualified volunteers dedicated to “the scientific study of UFOs for the benefit of humanity.” Three of their experts reviewed the photo and the circumstances surrounding it, and offered their opinions.

MUFON Investigator Ken Biddle noted that the object was out of focus and there was no means to discern its size based on reference with another known object, such as a structure. He also noted that, “The ‘light’ in question strongly appears to be out of focus, an effect I’ve seen hundreds of times while trying to focus on distant lights during low light situations.”

To explain Biddle’s observation further, it should be noted that digital cameras digitize their subjects into an image; they do not make an exposure based on reflective light that film cameras do. This property sometimes causes digital cameras to take subjects that they are unable to discern well and “morph” them into an image in the photo. It was this type of process that Biddle was alluding to in his observation.

Biddle also had another observation, proposing that, “being out of focus caused the light to appear much larger than it actually is.” While purely conjecture, it is at least conjecture from a qualified source.

In a final bit of conjecture, Biddle noted the proximity of the Portland Jetport as well as other airports and concluded: “Most likely, this is an airplane.”

MUFON Investigator Glenn Bailey, Ph.D. noted some technical issues regarding the photo and the light source before concluding: “I have no idea what the object could be.”

Marc Dantonio, the Chief Photo/Video Analyst for MUFON, also reviewed the photo. Dantonio first eliminated the possibility that the object was the International Space Station, which was over the Newcastle area that day. He was able to establish the ISS orbited over Newcastle at 3:31 a.m. and 5:05 a.m.; far from the 7 p.m. sighting made by Roberts.

The ISS would have also been traveling in the opposite direction that the object was observed to be traveling, according to Dantonio.

He also cited the same issues with focus that Biddle expressed. “The main note here is that the object is highly out of focus and the shape and ‘details’ seen in the object in close up are actually artifacts induced by the camera system,” Dantonio said.

Dantonio’s conclusion was also the same as Biddle’s. “It appears to me that this likely a commercial jet aircraft on approach to landing that was flying with landing lights on,” he said. “In case after case like this the landing lights easily preclude seeing navigation lights especially when the plane is at distance,” which Dantonio feels is the explanation for the lack of flashing lights as reported by Roberts or present in the image.

With two out three MUFON investigators agreeing that the object was in fact an aircraft approaching an airport to the south, which would explain why it was lower to the ground than a high-flying aircraft in transit or a satellite, it would seem that the investigation was concluded. However, a telephone call to Greg Hughes of the Portland Jetport knocked that conclusion out of consideration.

“There shouldn’t be anything coming from that direction,” he said, pointing out that most of the arriving flights at the Jetport come from the south. “It just doesn’t make sense that somebody would swing up that far,” he said.

Hughes checked for arriving flights during that time of day and noted that the only flight was from Philadelphia.

A check of FlightTracker.com for air traffic near the Jetport or over Newcastle during the time period between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on a Friday night also indicated that no commercial aircraft should have been in the area.

There is, however, an image that – despite its technical issues – remains very compelling. In the end, readers will have to take the information previously outlined in this article, make their own observation of the image, and reach their own answer regarding the possibility of a UFO visiting Lincoln County on Sept. 20, 2013.