San Diego new year's lights UFOs or Chinese lanterns?

Strange lights were spotted over the skies of San Diego. Some friends in Clairemont captured the unusual sighting on camera.

It was about half past midnight on the first day of 2008 when a string of nine lights from east to west were spotted over San Diego.

"There is a big commotion over the corner; I could tell there was something really exciting going on.” Says witness Nat Coil.

Nat Coil was among a group of college friends at a new Years party in West Clairemont.

"I looked up at where they were looking at, and right then and there I knew it was a once in a life time thing, so I had the camera on me and I started to record."

"They all moved uniformly, in a uniform speed, they moved in an arc, they didn't move in a straight line." says Dustin Gannon, "We live with a couple of guys that are astrophysics majors, and they were sitting there running through the list of possible things and we ran out of things before we could identify what it possibly was.”

Identified Flying Objects?

Possible explanations flooded into FOX6 after we aired our first report, from top secret military drones to rockets.

Several viewers suggested the lights were Chinese flying lanterns. Basically, minature hot-air balloons fueled by a candle or other flame.

They are customarily released at the New Year for good luck.