© Iona SpenceRob Jackson and his mother Anne have both spotted the UFO over the Moray Firth.
Rob Jackson has come forward to reveal he was the person who sparked a UFO fireball alert over Nairn last month - and dismissed claims what he saw was merely a love lantern.
For Mr Jackson said the mystery object was shaped like a helicopter and moving at 150-200mph.
In revealing his identity, he stressed that he is not a crank and said one sighting was also witnessed by his mother, who said she was "awestruck" by the experience.
The first report of the incident above Nairn on Valentine's Day appeared on a Canadian website. But when an account of the sighting was published in the Highland News, it led to debate on this website over whether a Chinese lantern could have been responsible.
Eventually a love struck couple from the Aviemore area contacted the HN to claim responsibility, saying it was a large love lantern they had released in the Cairgorms.
But Mr Jackson has now come forward to dismiss this theory and even has his mum as an eye witness to strange goings on in the night skies along the Moray Firth coast.
"I know what I saw but it was definitely not a love lantern or a Chinese lantern. It was far too big and it did not flicker from the centre. It was shaped liked a helicopter or truck cab and it traveled at between 150-200mph, so it could never have been a lantern," Mr Jackson told the HN.
"I am just an ordinary guy and am not a crank. I felt after reading these silly stories about the love lantern all I want is verification. I can't believe this was seen by myself and nobody else."
He said the love lantern was set off in the Cairngorms at 6pm and the light he saw was at 8pm.
Mr Jackson, a self-employed bathroom fitter, said he has now had FOUR sightings of the UFO. And the second was witnessed by his mother Anne.
Last month we described how the Valentine's Day sighting was reported on the website of Canadian paranormal researcher Brian Vike.
Mr Jackson had sent an anonymous blog to the website describing how he spotted the UFO approaching Nairn from the east on February 14.
He turned up the Grantown Road to get a closer look to see the fireball-like object travel in a north north-easterly direction.
He was so amazed he phoned his girlfriend and mother before reporting it to the local police station.
The following evening, he took his mother to the spot near Nairn where he had parked his van to witness the spectacle. Although there was no sign of the UFO there, Rob and Anne spotted it on their journey home to Culloden.
Although Nairn police said they had no record of the sighting, Mr Jackson insisted he did report it to the station.
"I spoke to a female civilian employee," he said. "I told her that I had seen something strange in the sky that didn't seem to be of this planet. I just said I'm not nuts and I'm very sane but I have seen this fireball.
"The woman said she would send a car out immediately but I just laughed because whatever it was I had seen had long gone."
Mr Jackson said he was so amazed by the experience he took his mother back to Nairn the following evening.
"I suppose we were UFO hunting," he said. "We parked up on the Grantown Road where I had seen the UFO the previous evening but saw nothing so decided to head home to Culloden via the back road. At Balloch, out of the corner of my eye I saw the same orange light shaped like a helicopter. I got out of the van but couldn't pick it up on the camera but I watched it with my binoculars.
"There was a man there with two black dogs but I didn't have time to speak to him, but he must have seen it. Mum just looked at it in silence.
"It was heading between the Kessock Bridge and Nairn along the Moray Firth coast and we followed it in the van before it disappeared into light clouds."
Mr Jackson said he saw the same object on a night out with friends in Inverness on February 27 about 11.30pm.
"I drew it to the attention of my mates and one of them asked me how I knew it wasn't simply a plane. You don't see a plane which is orange at the front back and side. I knew it was the same thing I'd seen before at Nairn and Balloch."
The fourth and last sighting happened again at Nairn on March 6 as Rob drove along the A96.
"I turned off and went down to the car park beside the cafe on the links and this was one of the best sightings.
"It seemed to cover a distance of about five miles in about 20 seconds."
Mum Anne said what they saw on February 15 definitely wasn't a Chinese lantern or a love lantern.
"Chinese lanterns hang down and it wasn't that shape. I realised straight away it wasn't a plane because it had no wings. There was just this ball of orange light with no wings and we had to travel quite fast to keep up with it.
"I was awestruck. I've never seen anything in the sky like it before and it didn't look the norm. Rob got a much closer look at Nairn but it was exactly as he described to me and I could see what he meant."
An RAF spokesperson at Kinloss said nothing showed up on radar at these times which could be conceived as a threat to UK air space.
* This time last year, UFO reports hit the headlines in several parts of the UK, including incidents at North Kessock and Lochaber which were revealed in the Highland News. These included a wind turbine in Lincolnshire which was badly damaged after locals saw mysterious lights heading towards a wind farm.
At the time, Ministry of Defence insiders suggested a giant Stealth bomber on a secret mission in the vicinity could have been responsible for the damage.
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