SIGHTING: DARWIN, NORTHERN TERRITORY (AUSTRALIA)

Witness Testimony

"I have been a storm chaser for sometime and visit Darwin Northern Territory every year to capture large active storm with video and still photographs. I live in Perth Western Australia.My wife and I stay at the same hotel every year and have a balcony with unobtrusive views of the ocean.We set up multiple cameras and and video equipment to capture large active storm cells from the balcony.This particular night we watched a massive active cell slowly form out to sea and very slowly make a direct passage over us. From formation to moving over the top of us was over 5hrs.We had two video cameras, two DSLR cameras with lightning auto triggers and a iPhone 5s using a lightning trigger app.All cameras were pointing at different angles to capture close strikes.I only saw the objects when a lightning strike illuminated the two objects for about 5 seconds. It was the only time I saw the objects in the storm.The black object stood out more so then the silver saucer shape object embedded in the cloud to the right of the black object. The black object was in my full vision. I voiced out loud "what was that!" My wife said "what" I said it was there for a few seconds near the cloud.I'm not sure what the black object was when I first saw it as it appeared to be changing shape very quickly. My mind was trying to process what just happened and what I saw.The silver shaped object appeared in my side view and the top of the silver object stood out as the flash of the lightning enhanced it more so. The two objects were stationary for the brief time I saw them. Only I saw them and not my wife. She was looking in another direction to the objects.I was standing next to the iPhone 5s, which was on a small tripod, when I heard it click when the photo was taken of the objects. I knew straight away it captured the angle were I saw the objects as I was in line with the view I set it at.The iPhone 5s was using a app that triggers the photo. I have used it many times to take photos of lightning. It can be very accurate and reliable to capture footage. I only use it as a back up when I don't have my DSLR camera with me.This particular night the storm cell was so active I wanted to cover the whole storm with all cameras. I had set the iPhone 5s app settings to be for a close strike so the setting washed out the far strike picture because the ISO was so high on the iPhone. The app will change the ISO or it can be set to a solid value depending on how you want to take the photo.That night of the objects being capture there were no birds, fruit bats or insects in the sky.We had our balcony doors fully open and we would never even see a moth inside the hotel rooms.I felt excited that I had seen an unusual object(s) and that I might have captured it on film. I never checked the camera until the active cell had passed over our location. I was speaking with my wife that I might have been lucky to capture the image and we will have to check all images on our cameras if they might have been other photos. The excitement of the objects had over taken the excitement of being so close to a massive active lightning storm.We straight away checked the iPhone when the storm had passed and even on the small screen of the phone I could see the black object. It was not until I downloaded the image on my iPad could I see the silver saucer shaped object.I then put the image onto a HD TV in the hotel room and saw the image better on screen. For some years I have kept the image to myself and have only showed a small group of people I trust."