A UFO sighting over Clydach Gorge has prompted a rush of theories about the identity of the mysterious apparition.

Last week the Chronicle reported a local resident’s perplexed response to a curious light low in the night sky.

He was at a loss to explain the bright vision he saw hanging over the horizon towards South Clydach.

He likened it to the brilliant glow from a light bulb. There was no movement from the source which put in an appearance on September 24 between 5.30am and 6am.

Scientist, inventor and amateur astronomer Dr Brian Wybrow from Gilwern was pretty sure that what the witness noticed was nothing more exciting than Earth’s nearest neighbour Venus, the brightest planet in the solar system.

He caught the same bright light at about 4am on the same day, revealing that its position at the time was not far off the location identified by the stargazer who gave his name but did not want it printed.

Not moving

He explained, “It is interesting that your observer mentioned that the object did not move.

“This agrees with my view that, from previous experience, and upon checking books and the Internet, the bright object was likely to be Venus.

“Venus is an Inferior Planet because, like the planet Mercury, its orbit takes place inside the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.

“This means that, due to its position at present, it rises in the Eastern sky well before the sun rises, and so appears as a brilliant object in the night sky.”

He added, “There is much to see in the night sky this month, and there is a wealth of information on this subject on the Internet - one source of which is https://in-the-sky.org/solarsystem.php?obj=5”

He said of the sighting, “At the time Venus was behind Blorenge, just to the left. That’s the simple explanation.”

One reader felt the UFO may have been car headlights switched on at the top of the gorge.

While another, Michael Reid from Crickhowell, was not ruling out the possibility it might have been someone messing around with a recent purchase from Aldi.

“A week or so ago Aldi’s in Abergavenny were selling very large industrial type searchlights,” he revealed.

Could this be, he asked, ‘some irresponsible person playing around, perhaps?’

Motorists also reported seeing something quite bright and in explicable, albeit on a different day.

A Chronicle reader said, “My friend and I were returning to Pandy from our weekly swim at the Leisure Centre on September 9 at about 8.45pm.

“We saw two lights, one smaller than the other, above the Skirrid Mountain as we drove home. They were exactly as described and photographed.

“We kept watching them as we drove home and wondered if anyone could be on top of the mountain at that time of night - a rather foolhardy decision in the dark - although the lights seemed to be in the sky rather than on the mountain itself.

“We agreed that they definitely weren’t stars. As we drove past the mountain, they were obscured and when we got to Llanvihangel Crucorney and looked back, they had gone.”

Margaret Morgan from Crickhowell also found herself staring in disbelief towards the heavens from her home just a few hours before the anonymous witness from Clydach late last month.

Her attention was drawn to a very bright light low in the sky between the Lonely Shepherd and Clydach.

And she was adamant that what distracted her was not car headlights, Venus or any bright star.

“It was a very bright light lower than the line of the mountain but still in the sky. It hovered over the area and then disappeared and then I saw it again before it vanished again. I’ve no idea what it was - but I know what it wasn’t,” she said.

The mystery thickens…