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Car Lights
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Car lights on Highway 67 have proven to be an almost irresistible attraction for skeptics and amateur observers. That is understandable when you consider that car lights negotiating that mountain highway do look plenty mysterious and are available nightly in contrast to 'real' mystery lights that appear only about 11 nights a year (some years are better than others for reasons we do not yet understand). From time to time groups or individuals set out to discover the truth about Marfa's mystery lights. Following are a few examples:
Who: Dr. Donald Witt, Sul Ross college professor. When: Mid-70s With what: Students, jeeps, radios, triangulation. Conclusion: Ranch lights and automobile lights. Comment: It has been reported that Dr. Witt was impressed later in life when he was lucky enough to see a more interesting ML.
Who: Alto Technologies. When: August 25, 2000 (1 night). With what: Aircraft instrumented with hyperspectral detection sensors. Conclusion: Hyperspectral soil was reflecting car lights and causing them to appear mysterious when viewed from the View Park. Comment: Their ground person could see car lights turning on and off and varying in intensity but from the airplane they looked like normal car lights. Alto Technologies suspected that On and Off states of car lights observed from the View Park might be due to reflective terrain located between the car traffic and the View Park. This concept was supported by airborne soil measurements of reflectivity.
Who: University of Texas Society of Physics Students. When: May 2004 (4 nights). With what: Video cameras, traffic volume monitoring equipment, chase cars, binoculars, and student observers. Conclusions: All of the lights observed and tracked during their study were determined to be automobiles. Comment: Truly mysterious lights appear on less than 12 nights a year (average of 2004 to 2008 is estimated to have been about 11 nights per year) so the odds were against them seeing MLs during their four night study.