A Brief UFO Diversion

I've run out of steam on the cryptodump for the moment, so I'll try something else. Our mentor, Dr. Hynek, would probably approve since it's about UFO cases, but is having second thoughts since I'm the one writing it. Well, relax Allen. I'm just giving a few facts on five cases this time.

These five offerings have crossed my path spontaneously [translation: nothing I do anymore is planned]; one via buddies on the NICAP site, and four because I'm trying to clean up my files.

MID-GULF of MEXICO, 1967: 

This is the recently dug up document courtesy of the never-ending successes by my friend Barry Greenwood. This is a radar-visual multiple witness case. It has significance because it was one of the example cases listed by Dr. Hynek for his The UFO Experience. Strangely, it's the only RV example case that he doesn't discuss in the text. AND it's nearly impossible to find the documentation for it. But Barry did [of course] and so you and I can read the initial report. I note the odd circumstance of chaotic blinking on and off by the 6 red lights, contrasted to the regular 4 1/2 second pulsations. Note also Hynek's personal scrawl on the document and his rating of the case as a "5" for strangeness, but a "7" for credibility {which is high up that scale for him. } 

CHARLESTON, WV {and a lot of other places}, 1960: 

I blundered into this newspaper clipping from my old hometown area. It featured something that was happening in several locations back then which no one has yet explained {I talked about some of this stuff in some entries on Dr. Hynek and the Project Moondust satellite watch anomalies in some earlier blogging}. 

The clipping led me to discover that I had some correspondence from this lady [to NICAP], which follows:

Mrs. Bennett nicely included her pictures.

The clipping had more text too.

... and that's interesting because it [as is rare with photo cases] establishes that this thing was seen by multiple and independent observers. The "skeptical scientists" and the USAF tried to pass this off with it was just a meteor. To that I say:

US Route 601, SC, 1959: 

We got lucky and had an artist get a look at a dome disk while driving through South Carolina back to God's Country in the green hills of WVA. 

The case is a nice simple UFO encounter, which seems to have been a park-in-front-so-you-can-look-at-me affair, The object seemed to choose to fly off only when the observer began to back away. 

.... and now a peek at the Aliens.... 

This newsclipping came undated and started an odyssey of thrashing away trying to discover what it was. The Hoge case seemed interesting. The mindbogglingly useful UFO-DNA almost missed it entirely --- referencing only the whacky Trevor James {Constable} They Live in the Sky, as a source. Turning nearly every page in James {as he conversed freely with Ashtar of Venus to receive universal truths} I finally found that he'd read it in Keyhoe's Flying Saucer Conspiracy. OK, a step up. Keyhoe smirked away the story in typical Keyhoe anti-entity fashion, and added little. So, I was about to give up --- even the magnificent Albert Rosales [a follower of this blog and a good friendly colleague in the quest,] only had Vallee's minimalist reference to go on. Then, falling magically into my lap was....

.... well, how about that! Aime Michel's contemporary [and very slightly earlier colleague] Jimmy Guieu had gotten information on the incident for his book Black-Out Sur Les Soucoupes Volantes, and somebody at CSI-NY had nicely translated it for me --- I think that we have Lex Mebane to thank for that. Guieu's reference is collaborative and slightly better detailed. The case is a good old fashioned CE3 with mostly"modern" looking aliens. Nice case for that era when few were followed up in any way.

LAST ONE --- near Anadarko, OK 1906 --- yep, 1906. Please forgive the jump-around look of this clipping --- I didn't want to just cut it up to "organize" it.

Well, I can't help it. I like this one. Multiple close-passing something-or-others which then just vanish suddenly. .... high strangeness in 1906. 

But, you demand, WHAT were they? 

Till next time, folks.

Peace.

Coincidence in Barbados

Yep, this one really is about Barbados. ... admit it, you always wanted to know something about Barbados.

It's October of 1980 and Allen Hynek is sitting at his desk at the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston trying to figure out the Universe. His peaceful reveries are broken by the arrival of the mail. One envelope bears a nice-looking stamp from Barbados --- doubtless some Center employee will swipe that for their stamp collection he thinks.

The letter is from a fellow astronomer, Philip A. Stahl, who resides in the division of Barbados called St. Michael [in the south central of the island.] His small observatory makes him a focus point for what is called The Barbados Astronomical Society. He has a major puzzlement that he wants Allen to solve.

Stahl had received a report that he thought remarkable enough to publish in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. On December 7th, 1978, a pair of adult witnesses had observed, on a well-overcast evening [no stars or Moon visible], a "large green luminous object." The thing was a very bright "ordinary" green [i.e. not lime green like the famous US Southwest Green Fireballs of 1949.] It appeared from behind one cloud bank, brightly illuminating all the clouds around it, Its size and hard-defined circularity made it just as if the Moon had turned green and was moving horizontally through the clouds. It disappeared behind another cloud bank, not to be seen again.

Well, how foolish, eh? The lady and her adult son were obviously seriously mistaken. The object surely WAS the Moon, and something about the atmosphere must have made it look green.

Nope. This lady was a founding member of the Barbados Astronomical Society, and she knew EXACTLY where the Moon would have been if you could have seen it that night. Whatever she saw, she and her Engineer son were sure that it was no Moon nor anything else they could think of.

Stahl was equally puzzled. His observatory was out observing that night and saw no Green Fireball. If there had been one, they too should have seen it. No reports anywhere in the island reached him. This was a locally limited phenomenon. Unless it was some kind of UFO, the only remaining hypothesis was a form of kugelblitz [ball lightning]. Kugelblitz usually isn't reported as brilliantly green, and especially isn't usually claimed to be that big [this would have had to be quite large to be going in and out of cloud banks looking like the apparent size of the Moon at the horizon.]

Stahl, in his paper, shook his head and punted. He said that kugelblitz was the favored hypothesis [he couldn't say "UFO" now could he?] and the distance must have been seriously misjudged --- though how excellent astronomical observers get going in and out of cloud banks wrong is "awkward".

So, the Universe punished him.

In late September 1980, he received another report.

On the 27th of September, 1980, a Queens College school teacher was picnicking on the veranda of her home. The sky was dark and overcast. That overcast blotted out the Moon and stars. [there were a few stars visible in the line of sight.] As she was staring in the direction of an old windmill on the southern end of the property, a spherical object "like a bright green headlight" descended from great height and disappeared beneath the trees standing to the windmill's left.

Ah! Another fireball no doubt. But there's a bit of a problem. She estimated the apparent size as equivalent to a 9 to 10" diameter ball held at arm's length --- try it, it's huge. It's particularly huge when you add in that the trees it disappeared behind were 100-150 meters away. At a minimum the thing would have to be wider than two+ ordinary houses. ... one heck of a fireball or a ball lightning.

So, Hynek, what's the answer?

Allen did what he always did when the going got tough....

He went to lunch.

Clearly there is one leading hypothesis...

The Moon is angry and is throwing pieces at us.

I have good Out Proctor evidence: I've seen Green Cheese --- obviously the explanation.

Peace, friends.

p.s. Marjorie Johnson's Faerie book is starting out to be very interesting reading.