A MYSTERIOUS object seen in the sky over Bolton is NOT a UFO after all.

As reported in the BEN, two people from Harwood were baffled by a bright white light moving across the night sky.

But Horwich man Derek Hatton, aged 53, knew exactly what they had seen.

He says the object is the Russian Mir space station with six cosmonauts on board, which can be seen in an orbit around the Earth at night.

And spacewatchers who would like to see the space station for themselves can do so by looking at the right part of the sky at the right time.

Derek, who lives in Victoria Road, explained the situation: "I read the description in the BEN which matched the object my son and I have observed in the sky recently.

"If the reports had mentioned green, red or orange flashing lights then it would obviously have been something different.

"I saw the object just before midnight last Friday but was not exactly certain about what it was.

"Then I saw it again earlier this week at about 10.30pm.

"The view was not good at that time because it was not dark enough.

"My son Matthew woke me up just after midnight and told me I had better get up if I wanted a good look at it!

"It was much clearer the second time. It looks like a very bright star and is a long way up in the sky.

"Mir is visible for a few minutes unlike a shooting star which disappears quickly.

"It can be seen two or three times every day in times of darkness, progressing along a set path across the sky, like a plane but it is silent and obviously does not have lights like a plane has on its wings."

Matthew is a computer enthusiast and discovered details about the space station on the Internet at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration web site.

From the USA, NASA sends information about viewing Mir from different cities all over the world.

Details are given concerning direction of approach and times are worked out to the minute.

For those who would like a look, Mir can be seen over Bolton as following:

June 4 at 11.47pm, moving from West to East, visible for eight minutes.

June 5 at 1.23am, moving from West to South-east, visible for six minutes.

June 5 at 10.50pm, moving from West South-west to East, visible for seven minutes.

June 6 at 12.26am, moving from West to East South-east, visible for six minutes.

June 6 at 2.02am, moving from West to West South-west, visible for two minutes.

June 6 at 11.29pm, moving from West to East South-east, visible for seven minutes.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.