The Wattle Company, Nyanga Factory: light that lit the clouds from within

What was reported

Mr O P Martins of the Wattle Company factory at Nyanga noticed an unusually bright light on his way to the garage at about 19:00 on 23 March 1980. The sky was overcast with no stars. He called friends and watched through 16x50 binoculars: an object about a quarter the size of the moon, silent and therefore not a helicopter, stationary with its light shining upwards. It faded until it resembled a quarter moon with its dark side toward the earth and a glowing glass tube pointed skyward, brightening and fading three or four times while circling slowly. Guests and neighbours joined in. At 19:30 it moved west behind trees; Martins drove to high ground and saw it enter cloud, where the cloud glowed from within as though a spotlight were aimed upward while the ground below stayed black.

What Hind made of it

Listed among unexplained lights that may be natural phenomena unidentified at the time.

Explanation offered
Helicopter (rejected: no sound); meteorite, bolide or satellite (Hind's general caveat)

In their words

• We agreed it was not a helicopter, as there was no sound.

• the clouds were lit up as if by a spotlight shining upwards, while below it was completely dark

Source

Cynthia Hind, UFO Afrinews No 2 (June 1989), spread 19

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