IS this a picture of a UFO  seen hovering for more  than an hour near Exeter?

Amateur astronomer Lee  Betts, 29, believes it is — or  that the sighting is at least  unexplained.

Mr Betts took the photographs with the help of  his telescope in the bedroom of his home in Newton St Cyres.

He saw the red  cigar-shaped object hovering around 1,000ft off the  ground four miles away, towards Thorverton, late on  Monday night.

“I couldn’t believe it at  first,” he said.

“The shape was about  100ft long and there were  four lights coming from it  initially.

“I saw it at the back of my  house, which faces  Thorverton, so I got my  telescope set up and magnified the image 20 times  and then took this picture.  All this happened at around  8.45pm and it was still there  an hour later.

 “I’ve never seen anything  like this before — it’s unexplained.

“The shape moved slowly  across the skyline and as I  looked through my telescope it seemed to pivot on  its central axis. It was very  strange.

“It then sort of rolled  around and a bright light  appeared at one end of the  shape.

Then, without warning, a  sudden flash of light like a  shooting star went across  the sky.”

Mr Betts, who lives with  his fiancee, said he was  pleased with the outcome of  his photographs, which he  supplied to the Echo.

“The shape was about  four miles away in the direction of Thorverton  Hills,” he said.

“I have been an amateur  astronomer for the past  three years and sightings  like this are all new to me.

 “Luckily, I could magnify  my telescope which enabled me to take this picture with some accuracy.”

He said the sky was different than normal on Monday.

“Clouds were illuminated for some reason and  when I told my brother  what I had seen he said the  sky was also strange over  Bristol where he lives,” he  said.

Mr Betts said that a work  colleague had confirmed  the sky in Taunton was also  unusual on the same  night.

A police spokesman said  they had not received any  reports of any sightings of  a  UFO in Devon.