The Central Java Circles

January 2011 saw the occurrence of one of the most widely reported phenomenon regarding UFOs in Indonesia in the last decade: Crop Circles in the Central Java region. Although not a typical UFO sighting/encounter type, the phenomena still stirred the biggest attention to date regarding the general theme of UFOs.

Local Ufology group, BETA UFO, first received the information of a crop circle pattern reportedly appearing somewhere in the Central Java region between 23 and 24 January 2011. It wasn’t until later in the day, after the buzz of confusing information on where exactly the pattern had emerged, did BETA UFO managed to get a fixed idea of the location.

There were three identified locations of the Crop Circles, that were investigated by BETA UFO as early as 24 January 2011, as follows:

Jogo Tirto Village, Berbah District, Sleman Regency; Yogyakarta Special Region (D.I.Y.) [See photograph below]

Srimartani Village, Piyungan District, Bantul Regency; D.I.Y. [See photograph below]

Banyusari Village, Tegalrejo District, Magelang Regency; Central Java Province (Jateng). [See photograph below]

While details of BETA UFO’s investigation will be published in a separate special report it can be said here that the phenomena in Central Java did show intriguing features commonly attributed to genuine Crop Circles. In a wider sense, it has also brought up interesting reaction from local scientists as well as putting the topic of ‘Ufology’ quite abruptly at the forefront of public attention.

Stay tuned for the special report to come.

Changes

I suppose anybody could clearly see, whether they have been checking up on this blog regularly or not, that not much new things have been posted all along 2011. The main issue has been the lack of time (and not lack of reports or interest). I guess every blogger in the world has that problem or at least has cited it often.

Nevertheless, I have updated the blog format and added the 'label index' somewhere down below to hopefully give anyone blog walking here a decently pleasant experience. I have also prepared new stuffs to live up to what I said in a 2010 post about getting new posts up.

Lastly, I don't know how informative or useful this blog has been so please do drop a few line in this post's comment box or the shoutbox somewhere at the bottom if you have something to say about that or the blog in general. I don't like e-mails so let's just stick to the commentary/shout boxes shall we?

So, some changes have been made. Hopefully for the better.

Strange Lights in Bandung

On June 22 strange light orbs-like objects were witnessed in the eastern sky of Bandung City, West Java Province, by a single witness. The objects were said to be stationary & was visible in the clear sky for 2 to 3 hours long, but no one else has so far reported sighting the same objects. The witness also took several photographs of the objects as can be seen below. BETA UFO has so far put this sighting into its unexplained file for 2010.

The Shanghai April Sighting – Part 2

The following are screen shots of the two unidentified objects spotted and video recorded in the skies above Shanghai, China on April 24 2010.

The Shanghai April Sighting – Part 1

This is one case that almost got drowned in the multitude of case reports coming into the BETA UFO network back in 2010. I suspect that the scant attention it received also has to do with the fact that it was a sighting case that took place in another country. In addition, the case was also reported through BETA UFO’s online testimonial channel that was pretty dull to ever attract much attention back then.

Coming onto the case, the report was filed by an Indonesian guy that was on holiday in China, back in April 2010. The sighting took place on April 24, at around 8:55 PM, as the witness and several other tourists were queuing for a bus taking them to a hotel in Shanghai. It was at this moment that he then noticed 2 strange objects high up in the clear, cloudless sky and start filming them with his hand held video recorder (see the video below).

According to the witness, he decided not to publish the video recording due to fear of censorship (or worst) by the Chinese government. He also considered the fact that the Shanghai Expo was just about to be opened in 5 days and that therefore the 2 objects he saw might just be promotional blimps for the event. When news of UFO sighting in Hangzhou appeared in July he then decided to publish the video and inform BETA UFO of his strange experience.

Things To Come in 2011

A lot of things were left un-posted, as the saying doesn’t go, in late 2010. Some of these things have to do with the general increase of reported UFO sightings across Indonesia. Some others have to do with the finishing of the BETA UFO’s Case Review for 2010 and the fact that a link for the 2009 report hasn’t been provided yet in this blog. These are the things that are going to be corrected now, in 2011. It’s always better late than never, isn’t it? To start off, the BETA UFO Case Review Reports for 2009 and 2010 can now be downloaded here and here.

Posts of sighting reports that basically stopped in October will be continued after this posting. Along with that, I will also be posting BETA UFO’s analysis of the much publicized Crop Circle phenomena in Central Java that occurred in January 2011.

Updates on The October 24th Sighting

The October 24th sighting in Tangerang Regency, Banten Province (practically a suburb of the Greater Jakarta area) intrigued me so much that I decided to contact the photographer/witness. His explanation seemed to shed some lights on what the objects might have been.

Firstly, he admitted of shaking his hands quite a lot while making the photographs. The fuzziness of the lights in the photographs was therefore not due to of any kind of maneuvers from the objects themselves. They just flew by in the sky.

Secondly, he also admitted that the objects look more like light spots. In fact, the man pointed to one of the photos in my older posts (Photographic evidence cases from 2008) as something that resembled what he saw that night. Strange thing is, he hasn’t yet confirmed exactly which photo he is referring to. My assumption is it’s this photo below (Taken in Jakarta, showing -according to the photographer- four blinking lights that basically 'hung motionless' in the sky).

Now that photo above is definitely no Chinese lantern. However, I have also found a Youtube video (watch below) -courtesy of a friend's sharp eye- that showed orange lights passing through the sky (I think it was in Lincoln, U.K.) almost the same as the objects photographed in Tangerang on October 24th. They looked quite similar, especially with the shaky hands of the video grapher. More importantly are the comments that people give for the video – that the objects are nothing more than Chinese lanterns.

Case closed? Probably so…, don't you think?

UFO(?) Over Serangan Island, Bali – August 2010

On August 26th, BETA UFO chairman, Bayu Amus took an intriguing picture while trying to photograph some storks near his office complex in Bali. One of the photo turned out to have a strange object, up in the ‘background’ sky (see photo and zoomed object below).

The photo was taken with a shutter speed of 1/500 seconds and showed –according to the photographer- a tinge of purple and green that is not present in other shots taken at the same spot. The object is suspected to be 'hovering/flying' somewhere above Serangan island, to the southeast of Bali Island.

October 24th – More Sightings in Jakarta’s Suburb

Just as I thought there won’t be any other ‘sighting’ to file for a while, the BETA UFO mailing list went buzzing with another possible case. This time, reported by nationwide TV channel SCTV (‘’Liputan 6’ news program), the case is said to be a sighting of dozens of strange aerial objects in Tangerang Regency, Banten Province (in the suburbs of Jakarta) on October 24th. The news coverage (with no actual video or photos) revealed that there were allegedly 25 objects seen flying slowly pass the sky at around 7:30 PM. The event lasted for about 30 minutes watched by dozens of residents from their homes as well as those driving by on nearby streets. The report also suggested that most of the witnesses agreed that those objects could not be airplanes and that some also concluded them as possible UFOs.

Well, that wasn’t very interesting for me until someone in the mailing list updated the news with a link to a witness’ website – complete with photos of the objects (some of the photos can be seen at the end of this text). The witness said, the sighting lasted for about 45 to 50 minutes. He also said that the objects were glowing with a yellowish red and orange color, and were moving in particular formations through the sky, wave after wave of it. Interestingly enough, he also suggested the possibility of the objects being Chinese lanterns. Nevertheless, he also went on questioning how could Chinese lanterns make such strange formations in the first place?

A BETA UFO researcher commented that the way the objects move slowly, wave after wave, is indicative of Chinese lanterns. No explanation has been offered for their particular formations though.

Could it be nothing more than Chinese lanterns?

Public Sighting in Downtown Jakarta, September 2010

Just a few days prior to the UFO sighting in NYC, on October 13, a somewhat similar event occur in downtown Jakarta. On September 28, two freelance journalist hanging out at Plaza Semanggi Shopping Mall on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta spotted (along with several dozens other people) several strange, colorful lights in the sky. The video that they -fortunately- made of the phenomena was then sent and aired by a local TV channel (RCTI) as can be seen in the video below.

The National Space and Aviation Agency (LAPAN) has since been contacted by the TV channel and -as can be seen in the video- stated their conclusion that this phenomenon could be nothing more than balloons or kites or simple reflections of airplane lights..BETA UFO has so far rejected such simplistic explanation. Especially since witnesses all agreed that the strange objects were moving and forming formations in the sky.