Australia astronomer David Reneke is confounded by the footage of a UFO taken by Durras surfer Ben Roberts.“I do not know what to make of it,” he mentioned.
“At first I was sure it was Venus, simply because it was in the area in the sky at the time, but the way it moves in the last 5 to 10 seconds is strange stuff. Unless the film has been sped up it has me puzzled.”
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Mr Reneke said that Venus was responsible for most sightings across the world, and can be “quite brilliant”.
However, he also brought some aspects of the footage into question.
“In the end it pans left and there is a very bright sunrise, whereas before it was pitch black,” he said.
Mr Reneke was a UFO researcher for 15 years in the 1970s and 1980s and has pored over much footage of UFOs.
“UFOs usually don’t hang around for long, but this one does for nearly 10 minutes,” he said.
“What I would like to do is talk to the people who filmed it. It’s not bad footage but with the cameras and editing technology we have now it would not be hard to fake something like this.”
Meanwhile Mr Roberts, who filmed the footage near North Durras around dawn on June 21, has scoffed at suggestions the object is a “Chinese lantern” he made with firelighters and a plastic bag.