Orographic Cloud
© The SunSpaceship shape ... cloud encounter of the third kind.
This cloud encounter with beings from another world turned out just to be a bit of stratus-fear.

The remarkable cloud - looking exactly like an alien flying saucer - was snapped over Perthshire at the weekend.

Brian Wilton and wife Isobel captured the moment it passed over as the sun went down in the town of Crieff.

Brian believes the cloud owes its bizarre appearance to the almond-shape of altocumulus lenticularis formations.

He said: "The formation of the dramatic orographic clouds (produced as air is forced to rise over mountains) are usually in mountainous regions due to very specific atmospheric conditions.

"They're usually to be found on the down wind side of the mountain, are very slow moving but evaporate very quickly.

"We couldn't believe it. It was like the scene in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind when the big spaceship comes down."

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