A New Mexico witness at Santa Ana Pueblo reported anomalous lights showed up in a photo taken that depicts three lights in a triangle formation, according to testimony in Case 62729 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
The incident occurred while the witness was on business and staying at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, at 7:05 p.m. on January 15, 2015.
“I used an iPhone 4S, and took several photos of the sky around the hotel,” the witness stated. “At no time did I see the lights (objects?) that show up on the attached picture…in other words, this was not visible to the naked eye, and only showed up when I checked the photos I had taken.”
The witness provided one image with the MUFON report, which was filed on January 19, 2015: Image 1.
The witness has an aviation background.
“I am a licensed pilot, with instrument rating, and a former amateur astronomer, so I’m accustomed to observing the skies and noticing details. These lights were definitely not visible to the naked eye at the time the photo was taken. The lights did not appear in any other photo, either before or after the one being attached, so I doubt this was a malfunction of the camera in my phone.”
The witness does not believe other nearby light sources could be the cause.
“There were also no other point light sources in the general area that might have been bright enough to cause reflections in the lens. I have no idea what these lights were, but thought it strange enough to report to you.”
Santa Ana Pueblo is in Sandoval County, New Mexico, population 479.
Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.
I saw this things around 1pm about 15miles from artesia nm I try to show my husband but it banished so fast .
I think it’s lens flare, any chance you could get hold of some of the other similar photos that they took?
The submitter took the photograph from inside the resort. The 3 lights are undoubtedly reflections on the windows in the lobby.
You can see the patio in Google Earth here: 35.349869° -106.545467°
Judging by the distance from the table the photograph was taken from inside the lobby.
Here are photographs looking in the opposite direction.
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/06/8e/c7/d5/hyatt-regency-tamaya.jpg
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/05/85/11/8d/from-the-back-of-the.jpg
Here is a photograph taken from inside the lobby. The windows and column structures are identical to those in the previous photographs. Note the patio furniture. Note the lights in the ceiling.
http://www.donriddle.com/data/photos/373_1in_the_city_21.jpg
The metadata says the picture was taken at 7 AM, not 7 PM. The mountains in the background are the Sandia Mountains, which are to the southeast of the resort.
Great work, Chew. Thanks for the links and other info. Case closed. It reminds me of a similar one from London several years ago. Follow the link and scroll down a bit to see the ufo photo and comparison interior photo showing the exact lights that caused the reflection:
http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f225/ufos-seen-day-over-london-82034/
My mom saw this around 2 am. That night. We live by Bernalillo high school and she saw it while she was smoking on our deck (no windows by the way) looking West. I didn’t believe her and when I showed her this picture and with me saying anything about it she said that it is exactly what she saw that night.
I witnessed these same lights about 3 months ago over the Sandias. However each light slowly fizzled out and disappeared one by one. They caught my eye because they were really bright!
This was undoubtedly not taken from the hotel window. I was standing in the Sandias watching the sunset on January 15th with my brothers and right when the sun set, we saw those three with the triangle over mount Taylor and four other ones moving around. I took pics but my phone camera was only able to capture it very subtly. Zooming in on my pictures I see the lights. The glow is very distinctive.
Very interesting sighting. If you go to the MUFON Database on the MUFON site listed under Research category, select Saudi Arabia, and then Triangle, three case files are found. The first casefile has a photo very similar to the one in this article, the second casefile is the one I submitted in 2011, regarding my sighting in 1991. The third casefile is from another soldier from the 35th Signal Brigade who was also deployed to Dhahran during Desert Shield. Interesting that such similar objects have been seen worldwide for decades.