"It has been photographed, it has been recorded on video tapes so there is no doubt that there
is something going on up there."
A lot of the time, it's pretty easy to dismiss UFOs.
A hoax by film students here, a weather balloon there.
There is one example, though - The Hessdalen Lights in Norway are a phenomenon so frequently
seen, tracked, videoed and photographed that no-one, governments and universities included,
can turn a blind eye.
They've been radar tracked at 30,000kph, and they appear in the exact same valley, several
times a year, for anyone to go and enjoy.
Oh, and no-one knows what they actually are.
The lights have been reported in Norway's central Hessdalen valley as far back as the
1940s, but really came to light, so to speak, from 1981.
Over a period of several years, the lights were seen an astonishing 15-20 times every
week, causing thousands of tourists to flock to the area and camp out to witness the phenomenon.
So seriously was it taken that a research centre was even set up and permanently manned.
Project Hessdalen was initiated by Swedish and Norwegian UFO groups, but its research
is now continued by various academic institutions, which in 2007 took this astonishing video.
Erling Strand heads up project Hessdalen, so I asked him why he thought that these lights
in particular are taken so seriously whilst many other phenomenon are laughed out of the
park.
"Well, I think there are several reasons why Hessdalen maybe is taken a little bit more
seriously than other places where similar sightings occur.
We didn't only have stories from people telling about their sightings but we managed to have
the instrument running and record data when it showed up.
It's very easy to speculate of course I know many other places do.
My personal feeling is that we should get more scientific data to base our discussions
on."
So what's so special about Hessdalen?
Well, it turns out actually it's not that special.
"That's an interesting question of course.
We have asked that several times ourselves.
There are also other places around the world, similar amount.
In Australia you have what we call MinMin lights.
We have other places in Europe too, in South America there is certain lights in the mountains,
In Mexico too around the volcanoes."
Erling's right, the lights are an example of what is traditionally known as a Will-o-the-wisp,
a legendary phenomenon talked about for centuries in European and far-eastern folklore, but
very rarely recorded.
A bright light that rises above swamps and water in remote countryside, guiding travellers
towards it, but always just out of reach.
They're often believed to be the spirits of the dead, or guardians of buried treasure.
But that doesn't scientifically explain what they are.
Various theories have been put forward, from incidences closer to the ground being quad
bike lights, although they're often noted as being too smooth, to get this, extremely
rare electrically-charged luminescent crystals formed in the ionization of ground radon.
Obviously.
But then, a 30,000kph crystal?
Erling doesn't know what they are, no-one does.
But he knows they aren't a hoax.
"Several sightings can be explained of course if you've got this light high up in the sky.
It has been photographed, it has been recorded on videotapes and so there is no doubt that
there is something going on up there.
If someone at this location could put up some instruments to see if we've got the same readings
as we do, or other readings also of course, I think it's very important to get data."
So here we have a genuine 100% unidentified flying object.
Not a creation of some after effects genius, not an illusion, a real object from old folklore
that physically exists.
Just what it is, alien craft, some bizarre form of lightning or gas escape, or some strange
chemical reaction, we don't know - yet - and that makes it pretty exciting but basically
Hessdalen is a lesson in how to do it properly.
No conjecture, no "this is proof", just a slow, patient, waiting game for the real answers
to reveal themselves.
A model, perhaps, for how things should be done.
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