Out in the middle of the San Luis Valley, a few miles north of Alamosa, Colorado, stands the world famous UFO Watchtower. You might have seen it in one of many UFO/UAP documentaries on the various TV networks, or on Youtube perhaps.
Judy Messoline runs the Watchtower, and her fascinating interviews are often highlighted in these documentaries.
Over the past few decades Judy has collected over 300 hand-written sighting reports from campers and visitors to the valley, one of the hottest UFO hot spots in the world. They've been kept in a 3-ring binder on the counter top, but now they're safely published in a book for easy and safe reading, or for study if you're a UFO researcher like me.
Amazing Sightings Publicly Disclosed for the First Time
Read on for a summary of the many stories, some conclusions I came to, and why these stories are a gold mine for researchers and students of the phenomena, or even just for a fascinating read!
Snippy and friend kept us company for the duration!
My wife (she's a book publisher with several hundred titles under her belt) and I had the honor recently of sitting for several long days under the watchful eye of the skeleton of Snippy the Horse (here's an awesome book about Snippy if this famous story if it's new to you) as we scanned those 300 or so pages of stories and photos.
It was a labor of love for the subject, and well worth the effort.
Some High-Probability Explanations
Similar to the many sightings that pour into MUFON, many of these sightings have a high probability of being explainable. I can't say for sure what people saw, as in most cases the thorough research and fact finding needed to draw any conclusions has not been done. But from experience, I can list some likely explanations. I'll cover some of those here.
However, it's important to note that there are some amazing and highly convincing stories, some with interesting photographs, that tend to defy all the conventional explanations. These beg further investigations where possible!
Starlink Confusion
A fairly clear cut example of some sightings that have a highly probable explanation happened on May 26, 2019. We scanned and transcribed several reports from that date, all describing a long line of lights moving across the sky "for about 10 minutes".
5-26-19 10:30pm
Strand of lights at least 10 minutes on and off blinking & flashing lights. Everyone in the campground saw them. Definitely unidentifiable. Very Impressing. Morrison, Co. Also seen by Riccunda... and Leah.
Suspecting these sightings might be of Starlink satellites, I checked to see if there was any supporting evidence online. Yep! If you search the phrase "Starlink May 26, 2019" on Youtube, you'll find several videos made that same day of Starlink satellites moving overhead across Chicago and other localities. They were highly visible that day.
5/24/19 ~19:00
Late at night there was a phenomenon of approximately 30-50 bright lights (as bright as the stars); all of the lights were in a perfectly straight single-file line. The lights originated over the west side of the valley and headed east over the dunes and over the mountains. The lights traveled quickly and were gone within 10 minutes.
- Grant, Indian Hills, CO
It's informative to study the reports from the Watchtower that day. It becomes obvious that some witnesses are much better at reporting accurate data than others. Since we know, with high probability, that these people saw a trail of Starlink satellites, we can fact check their reports for accuracy.
For example, one witness stated the lights were moving towards the north. But to fly over Chicago they needed to be orbiting towards the east, as other witnesses stated. Some witnesses saw the lights flashing, and others did not. Similarly, some saw them wiggle around in the sky, something that satellites don't do!
Clear Cases of Autokinesis
Several other sightings involved objects that stayed in "almost" the same spot in the night sky for hours, often reported to be dancing around or zig-zagging a little and coming back to the same spot.
This often happens with Venus, Jupiter, brighter stars like Arcturus, as well as steadily moving objects such as satellites and planes. Our eyes always do a dance, in order for the rods and cones to better see things, and usually we aren't even aware of this motion. But it's well known that stars and satellites can sometimes appear to dance in the sky due to the way our eyes work. It's called autokinesis.
Lens Flare
There are quite a few photos in the book, unfortunately scanned from copies since we didn't have access to any of the originals. Some are very mysterious, and need better analysis, but a few appear to be excellent examples of lens flare.
A typical give-away for lens flare is if the unknown object appears symmetrically opposite the very center of the photograph from a known light source, such as the Sun, street lights, or other light sources.
Jupiter and Venus
The night sky at the UFO Watchtower is awesome beyond description. There are no bright city lights, the sky is clear and dry many nights of the year, and our galaxy, the milky way, often spans from horizon to horizon in full glory.
As a result, Jupiter and Venus often astound people who are not used to their bright display in such skies. Several of the sightings in the book were likely these planets, or other bright stars, often reported to be doing the autokinesis dance described above.
Careful research would be needed, of course, to verify that these sightings can be explained in this way. Checking out astronomy resources would be a good place to start!
But Wait, There's More!
Careful, scientifically minded UFO researchers are mindful to "do the research" before coming to any conclusions as to what witnesses might have seen, or to rule out conventional explanations.
But even without a thorough investigation, there are many sightings in this book that defy simple answers. Some have multiple witnesses from different vantage points around the valley. Some describe behavior and motions impossible for known aircraft. Some describe windows, rows of spinning lights, and up-close shapes, colors, and surfaces that rule out simple explanations.
Those are the fascinating cases that motivate my wife and I to visit at, and camp near, the UFO Watchtower as often as we can! Perhaps we'll see you there!
To find out more about Judy's book, visit the book: UFO Sightings from the UFO Watchtower on Amazon.
