Just went to the BBC website and found this article on the front page.
QuoteSixty years ago a football match ground to a halt when unidentified flying objects were spotted above a stadium in Florence. Did aliens come to earth? If not, what were they?
It was 27 October 1954, a typically crisp autumn day in Tuscany. The mighty Fiorentina club was playing against its local rival Pistoiese.
Ten-thousand fans were watching in the concrete bowl of the Stadio Artemi Franchi. But just after half-time the stadium fell eerily silent - then a roar went up from the crowd. The spectators were no longer watching the match, but were looking up at the sky, fingers pointing. The players stopped playing, the ball rolled to a stand-still.
QuoteOne of the footballers on the pitch was Ardico Magnini - he was something of a legend at the club and had played for Italy at the 1954 World Cup.
"I remember everything from A to Z," he says. "It was something that looked like an egg that was moving slowly, slowly, slowly. Everyone was looking up and also there was some glitter coming down from the sky, silver glitter.
"It is a fact that at the same time the UFOs were seen over Florence there was a strange, sticky substance falling from above. In English we call this 'angel hair'," says Pinotti.
and here is a new explanation that beats swamp gas for me!!! ;D
QuoteIn McGaha's view, the whole spectacle, "angel hair" and all, was nothing more than migrating spiders.
"When I looked at this case originally I thought perhaps it was a fireball, a very bright meteor breaking up in the atmosphere. They can be cigar-shaped with pieces breaking off. But it became fairly apparent that this was actually caused by young spiders spinning webs, very, very thin webs.
"The spiders use these webs as sails and they link together and you get a big glob of this stuff in the sky and the spiders ride on this to move between locations. They just fly on the wind and these things have been recorded at 14,000 feet above the ground. So, when the sunlight glistens off this, you get all kinds of visual effects.
Here is the link... http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29342407 (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29342407)
Spider Silk Images
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/Vault/ssvs5.png)
http://ifo.s5.com/ss1.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjtdwcseT1Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Ballooning (spider)
Ballooning, sometimes called kiting, is a behaviour in which spiders and some other invertebrates use air-borne dispersal to move between locations
It is generally thought that most spiders heavier than 1 mg are unlikely to use ballooning. Because many individuals die during ballooning, it is less likely that adults will balloon compared to spiderlings. However, adult females of several social Stegodyphus species (S. dumicola and S. mimosarum) weighing more than 100 mg and with a body size of up to 14 millimetres (0.55 in) have been observed ballooning using rising thermals on hot days without wind. These spiders use tens to hundreds of silk strands, which form a triangular sheet with a length and width of about 1 metre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballooning_(spider)
In the Sky "ballooning" or "floating" webs made by young migrating spiders.
Migrating Spiders Sailing Through Texas Skies. The webs of spiders in their annual migration to better hunting grounds, and surprising a lot of people. Its a natural phenomenon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai3gTAwssxQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai3gTAwssxQ