Published: 03-02-2010

by Harold Egeln (edit@brooklyneagle.net)

Did UFOs Buzz Williamsburg?

By Harold Egeln

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

WILLIAMSBURG — UFO fever is now gripping Brooklyn, with blogs such as the Gothamist buzzing over videos and reports of strange nighttime lights reported and captured on video over Williamsburg and Bushwick recently.

Without a full scientific investigation, the source of the odd nighttime lights remains unknown. But the UFO frenzy has excited Brooklyn bloggers’ cyberspace since the videos were first posted a few weeks ago.

“Video: Do You Want to Believe in UFOs Over Williamsburg?” headlines the Gothamist blog. The McBrooklyn blog notes, “Something Odd Floating Over Brooklyn.” The Free Brooklyn blog headlines, “Marty Markowitz Welcomes UFOs to Brooklyn as ‘Their Gateway to Planet Earth.’”

Even Voz Is Neias — “The Voice of the Orthodox Jewish Community” — reports on the Williamsburg video, “Some people in Brooklyn are convinced aliens are swooping down for a little New York night life.” The videos were shown on WPIX-TV News.

The mysterious nocturnal light shows even caught the attention of Borough President Marty Markowitz, who in good humor, offered the red-carpet treatment to otherworldly visitors to our borough, and a Community Board 1 member, as reported in a weekly Brooklyn newspaper last week.

The videos, taken in Williamsburg and Bushwick by Williamsburg artist Tina DeRamus, are being widely viewed on YouTube and the Brooklyn blogs since being posted on Jan. 26. As far as it is known, the sightings have not been verified by any other witnesses.

Starlight or Star Visitors?

On YouTube, she said, “Spotted from my backyard in Williamsburg. I watched for about 40 minutes, so I could tell it was moving but very slowly. They sort of looked like stars but were hanging too low and the blue one was a bit too sparkly.”

Many stars are blue, given not their mood but their comparatively young age, and one has currently been sparkling brightly in clear night skies midway across the southern horizon during evenings.

However, one video clearly shows a curious light-blue ball-shaped orb as the camera zooms in, firmly ruling out a star that would be trillions of miles away and would still look like a dot. The video-maker said that the video is the real thing and not a video construct.

Several people commenting about the YouTube video posting are not convinced that a genuine UFO or any kind of spaceship from outer space was involved. And certainly there was no way, if indeed the objects were unconventional, to identify their origin from space, this planet or anywhere else.

Markowitz publicly welcomed extraterrestrial visitations, telling a newspaper here that he would be thrilled if otherworldly visitors chose Brooklyn as their entry point to Earth, since it has immigrants and tourists from every culture. A Community Board 1 member told the newspaper not to worry over alien invaders and joked about ET life.

Brooklyn has a long and storied history of UFO lore and reports, as noted in a recent feature article in this newspaper. It is home to Park Slope independent filmmaker Barry Strugatz, who produced a light-hearted feature movie, “From Other Worlds” (2007), now on DVD, about a fictitious UFO abduction support group in Brooklyn.

In reality, there are three Brooklyn-based UFO witness support groups for people who sincerely relate their close encounters. Two of them were founded by Brooklynites Joseph Capp and Posey Gilbert, the latter who has videotaped UFOs here. There is even the Flying Saucer Café in Boerum Hill at 494 Atlantic Ave., in business since 2000.