UFO over UAB campus among two Alabama UFO reports in March

The Pleiades star cluster is 400 light years from earth.

It’s the third Thursday of the month, so this week I’m giving you an update on UFO reports in Alabama from the previous month, courtesy of the Mutual UFO Network. A search for UFO reports in Alabama between March 1 and March 31 on MUFON’s website, www.mufon.com, resulted in two reports from within our state during that time.

The first incident took place on Sat., March 3, at 5:35 p.m. in Birmingham. The witness in this case said that he was walking down 13^th Street on the University of Alabama-Birmingham campus when he looked up and observed a “white triangular craft” moving at a “strange pace” at high altitude. The witness watched the craft travel west before it moved “abruptly” to the southwest and out of sight.

The second incident occurred on Wed., March 21, at 3:33 a.m. in Stewartville, which is in Coosa County. The witness in this case reported that a “large craft with pulsating blue lights” had been seen floating above his house almost every night since January. Interestingly, even though this incident is said to have happened on March 21, it wasn’t reported until April 4.

While we’re on the subject of objects in the night skies, I was looking in my farmer’s almanac the other day and read that on April 24-27 the planet Venus will glide just to the left of the Pleiades star cluster. The almanac says this will be a “fine sight in binoculars.”

Venus is one of the brightest objects in the night sky and should be easy to find later this month, especially right before dawn when looking east. From our part of the world, it should be pretty low in the sky. The Pleiades star cluster should be visible to the right of Venus and the thin crescent moon.

Many of you will remember from school that the Pleiades is a cluster of stars that’s nicknamed the “Seven Sisters.” This cluster is relatively close to earth and is close enough that it can be seen with the naked eye. If you’re about half-blind like me, a good set of binoculars will help you see it more clearly.

Most sources say that the cluster is about 440 light years from earth, which means that if you take the time to find it in the night sky, the light that you’re seeing with your eyes actually left the cluster about 440 years ago. In other words, the light you see nowadays from the cluster left there about 200 years before the American Revolution. Another way to look at it is that if the cluster were to somehow blink out today, no one on earth would know if for about 440 years, that is, sometimes around the year 2458.

Before closing out this week, I just want to put it out there again that I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has witnessed a UFO, especially in Conecuh County. I think a lot of other people would be interested in hearing your story too, and I’m willing to accept your report anonymously. You can contact me by e-mail at courantnewsdesk@gmail.com or by phone at 578-1492.