The mystery surrounding an unidentified flying object off the Central Coast continues after a woman captured a fuzzy picture of it on her digital camera.

Katie Elvins, of Umina Beach, said she noticed the object while she was waiting for a bus.

''My camera is small enough to fit in my handbag so I always have it on me,'' she said.

''I was just looking in that direction and noticed it in the sky.''

She said she didn't tell her friends or family about the incident and forgot about the photos.

That was until she read an article in the Express Advocate a week later about a former air traffic controller's sighting of a mysterious object which prompted her to have the pictures printed.

They clearly show a short contrail the line of condensation in the sky caused by planes at high altitude but no visible aircraft in front of it.

The contrail was also angled slightly up, which former Royal Air Force traffic controller Lindsay Carter, of Terrigal, said was unusual.

Mr Carter, 63, said it was definitely the same object he had seen about 50 times in the past two years. ''It was like looking at an old friend,'' Mr Carter said.

He had contacted the newspaper in frustration at not being able to identify it and hoped this new photographic evidence could prompt an explanation.

After three years in the RAF and a lifetime interest in planes, Mr Carter said he was confident at being able to identify almost every kind of military or commercial aircraft. ''This object is like nothing I've seen before,'' he said.