Lights could have been planets, moon

Tauranga Astronomical Society president Stuart Murray said Tuesday was a particularly fascinating night as both "Venus and Jupiter were in a straight line looking at the moon," which was expected to continue through the week. Photo / George Novak

A Welcome Bay couple left mystified by three glowing lights that disappeared into the sky on Tuesday night may have witnessed the unusual alignment of Jupiter and Venus with the moon, an astronomer says.

Tracey and John Daintith were walking their dog on Falcon Drive about 8.15pm when "three lights that looked like stars and were almost the size of a street lamp ... but too high to be a street lamp and too low to be star," grabbed their attention.

The trio of lights were quite large, the same size and an equal distance apart, Mrs Daintith said. She likened the lights "to my heat lamp in my bathroom as they had a bit of an orange tint."

"I have never experienced anything like it, I have seen lights in the sky but these were not flashing or flickering they were static."

The lights, which also reminded Mrs Daintith of those on the front of a motorbike,"didn't move and they didn't glisten they were just glowing and bright."

Captured by the events unravelling in front of them, the left-hand light moved slowly away while the one on the right did exactly the same movement in a horizontal direction, she said.

The pair tried to document it on Mr Daintith's phone but were unable to.

As they fumbled with the camera one light turned sharply like a helicopter and seemed to move closer and closer, she said.

"I don't know how far it was away, it could have been a long, long, way but I know it was quite big and getting bigger and brighter.

"Then it just did another sharp turn and moved away. The one in the middle stayed were it was before it faded and disappeared."

All the way home the Daintiths tried to convince themselves that "things like this don't happen; there has to be an explanation," she said. "My husband does not believe in ghosts or UFOs and is a former aircraft engineer but even he said that was very strange."

Tauranga Astronomical Society president Stuart Murray said Tuesday was a particularly fascinating as both "Venus and Jupiter were in a straight line looking at the moon."

"They were especially brilliant because the air was very clear and they almost looked like car headlights, they were so bright and clear. It was spectacular." That night there were people at the observatory with the roof open and looking through telescopes from 7.30pm to about 9.30pm, he said.

However, Mr Murray said you would not see the planets moving if you were standing still and they did so slowly.

Niwa atmospheric scientist Dr Richard Querel said on Tuesday night the Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, (caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun) would be more likely to be spotted along the horizon while the planets that aligned were higher up. The geomagnetic storm was normally only seen in the South Island, but was so big it was spotted off the North Island's east coast. To see the Aurora you would have to be looking south if there were any strange flashes, he said.

"Sometimes it looks like bright lit-up clouds along the horizon."

Tauranga Airport manager Ray Dumble said nothing unusual had been reported but it did field calls about unexplained lights in the night.

Matariki and the Night Sky
•A presentation tomorrow night at the Ferguson Park Observatory at 7.30pm.
•Held in conjunction with the Tauranga City Library and Tauranga Astronomical Society.
•The evening will explain how this event occurs and how other civilisations used similar solar cycles to mark the annual passage of time as well as present the
beauty and wonders of the sky at night.
•Students free, adults $5.

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