Mystery light enchants north

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"Look, up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it'swhat is that thing, anyway?"

This seems to be the million dollar question plaguing the community of Fort Resolution, N.W.T.

Sightings of an unexplained dancing white light, moving through the sky just above the tree line, have the whole town talking.

And the Canadian Armed Forces listening to the stories of the eyewitnesses of the strange, yet beautiful, glow in the sky.

Residents of Fort Resolution first saw the light Jan. 4, said Euan Hunter, Mayor of Fort Rez. It was spotted by a dozen people who watched it for an hour that first night.

Mayor Hunter did not see the light until 10 days later, when he and the RCMP witnessed the show. It is not the northern lights, a weather balloon, or anything else he's ever seen in the northern skies, he said.

"It seems to hover, and it's above the tree line, and in a period of about, say, from 4:30 p.m. to about 7 p.m., she'll move right from the middle of town, which is south-west. Move from the middle of town to the very end of town and start declining," said Hunter.

The real spectacle occurs during the last half-hour of the night's performance, when viewers are treated to a show of bright red, blue and green flashes of light seeming to come from underneath the intense white glow, said the mayor.

There have been three video recordings taken of the light. The first was viewed by representatives of the armed forces, but according to Captain Sue Gray there wasn't a fixed point of reference on the video so all that was visible was a "small dancing white light throughout the screen. Other than that, you couldn't really decipher anything, except darkness."

National defence arrived in the town Jan. 10 to investigate, but the cloud cover was too great that night and the light was not visible. During the last few weeks, this was the only night the light could not be seen.

Just about everyone in town has seen the light now, said Hunter. Without counting the children, that number includes approximately 80 "credible" people.

"It's definitely not a hoax," said Hunter. National Defence do not have an explanation for the light, but they know for sure there are no military exercises in the area, he said.

Minus 40 degree weather have put a freeze on any attempts to chase down the source of the light. However, as soon as the temperature rises, many residents have promised themselves a snowmobile trip out on the lake to find out what, or who, is responsible for their evening entertainment.