This is a trivial post. But, there has been some discussion here lately about whether it is even worth the bother to collect information on Lights-in-the-Sky cases and put them into the UFO data collections. I read all these posts of course, and it struck me that people were making that most common of all human "in-the-heat-of-the-argument" errors of overstating what they really, upon more reflection, would think to be sensible.
Obviously the clogging up of case files and statistical attempts at learning UFO characteristics with huge study-bending numbers of weak-to-bad data is a poor idea. If I were doing some statistical work, I'd surely make SOME attempt at "scrubbing" the input. And I wouldn't do it without a describable methodology, determined beforehand, for the scrubbing work either. One plays a dangerous scientific game if one "wings it" as one goes. But having said that, what's the other side of this story? Are LITS actually worthless?
Here is a list of just a few LITS cases from my files which I am EXTREMELY HAPPY that past researcher/collectors decided were worthwhile:
I could have made several kinds of lists. This one is composed of [in the majority] my case list of some phenomenon quite close to my UFOlogical " heart". The cases spelled in GOLD are my 25 case pile for what I call "astro-alignments". These are incidents wherein the moving light does something in apparent deliberate spatial relationship between it and the witnesses. This particular relationship involves moving in a way where the observers are in a unique {"privileged"} viewing spot, so as to see the Light taking an apparent relationship with some astronomical object. [ex. the "anchor case" here is the Long Island/ Lake Ronkonoma incident of 1955, where a number of astronomy buffs saw a Light move {from their vantage point} in a precise "orbit" around Saturn, then move linearly to the Moon and cruise a precise half-circle around it.] What the witnesses in all these cases saw was a Light/astro-object relationship only viewable from the spot on which they were standing --- persons "off" by only a small distance would not have had the same perspective. The Light in other words did its act "just for them".
The majority of the rest of the list is in GREEN. These are twelve cases from Allen Hynek's personal folder on Project Moonwatch reports. That's interesting for several reasons. 1). Allen thought them worth saving, and I'm VERY reluctant to think that he was a poor judge of cases worth thinking about. Allen, for his time, saw/read more UFO reports than any human alive. You "get a sense" of things after a while. 2). These cases were witnessed by some of our most experienced skywatchers. And they were people seriously on the job. 3). The cases were somewhat vetted by the scientists in this country who knew more about high flying objects [satellites] than anyone. 4). And several of these unknowns were not only unknown, but had no feasible mundane explanation. The Bethpage case was photographed by a professional optical tracking station and has never been explained. Others also took photos of the "ECHO" companion, or the ECHO going the wrong way, or the ECHO going faster or slower than the real ECHO. At the Van Nuys station, these unexplainables happened three times in a month.
The last case that I threw in there for fun is in RED . The Deadwood case is one that Hynek himself investigated. Why did he bother with a light in the sky? A whole lot of witnesses including police officers in four stations saw this thing. The objects, a larger light and two smaller ones, made various aerial maneuvers and even sent out shafts of light. The central larger light would sit in the sky, AND THEN DRAW A RECTANGULAR PATH in the air. Hynek was so boggled by the very high credibility of the many witnesses AND the equally boggling strangeness of the "Geometrician-in-Space" that he included the case in his talk to the AAAS symposium post-the folding of Colorado, and his book, The UFO Experience.
So, yes. There are a lot of Chinese Lanterns up there screwing the work up.... but there are Other Weird LITS up there too. It is a wise person to sort them out.
But, in the end: What could they possibly tell us about UFOs?
Well... That the agency behind them is Intelligent for one thing. Apparent Rings around the planets and the Moon, Geometry in the Sky? These matters are not the product of random activity in a chaotic atmosphere. They are not the product of animals flying whither thither about. There is higher thought behind this.
And, "IT" is interested in US. Displays JUST for a human or a small group of humans in a privileged viewing spot. Display.... Display.... the LITS say: Display.
Hmmm.... the LITS phenomenon is involved with intelligence and interest in us. An insight of any value??
Admit it. YOU KNEW that behind those Golden Orbs, some THING was watching you........
Peace, my friends.
