UFOs over Big Ben...or Trick of Light?

A picture of 4 UFOs flying over London, published yesterday in the UK’s Telegraph, has already gotten a lot of people (meaning bloggers) talking about the photo’s authenticity.


Derek Burdon, who took the photo from the roof top of Orion House in Covent Garden, said he didn’t even notice the shapes while he was taking it. It was only after, when he was looking through his camera, that he saw them. For the skeptics, Burdon was sure to make that clear:

"I have not tampered with it and you would not be able to fake it. It was taken on my mobile and I guess I am just lucky to have it. These shapes were not visible to the naked eye so it's not as if I was looking for them."

What quite a few people – but especially UFO believers – are saying is that the “UFOs” in this photo are just reflections of the room lights against the window.

I don’t really know what to think about this one. I believe in UFOs, but I also believe in Photoshop and other possible explanations. Still, I can’t picture someone doctoring a UFO photo and giving it to a newspaper with their name unless they actually believed it was real. People do it though. Damn you photo pranksters!

But, oddly enough, London is a hotspot for UFO sightings anyway. According to the BBC, the number of reported UFO sightings in 2008 had almost doubled since the year before.

Another UFO photo (new word: UFOtograph?), this one from a year ago and published in The Sun – and referred to in my post, “There’s No Such Thing as a UFO” – is so clear that it looks like a movie still or something.


I don’t know if that makes the photo less believable or the movies more accurate.