Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (the Condon Report, complete, three volumes)

refuge when the supposed oceans of several rni Ilion ye8rs ago began to
dry up (Sull ivan> 1966, p. 1(9). There is no observatiop.al evidence to
support this idea. Continuing the same line of speculation Salisbury
(1962), after pointing out that the satellites were looked for in 1862
but not found until 1877, then asks, "Should we attribute the failure
of 1862 to imperfections in existing telescopes, or m?y we imagine that
the satellites were 1aundled between 1862 and 1877?" This is a slender
reed indeed l>'ith which to prop up so sensational an inference, and we
reject it.
11. Light Propagation and Visual PeI.:~el?tion
Most UFO reports refer to things seen by an observer. Seeing is
a complicated pr(lce~s. It involvt's the emission or scattering of light
by the thing seen, the propagation of that light through the atmosphere
to the eye of the observer, the fCI('I'llation of an image on the retina of
the eye by the lens of the eye, the generation there of a stimulus in
the optIC nerve, and the perceptual process in the brain which enables
the mind to make judgments about the nuture of the thing seen.
Uno~r ordinary circumstances all of t:lese steps are ~n fairly
good working order with the result that our eyes give reasonably ~ceu
rate information about the objects in their field of view, However,
each step in the process is capab Ie of malfunet ioning, often in un-
suspected ways. It is therefore essential to understand these physical
and psychological processes in order to be able to interpret all things
seen, including those reported as UFOs.
The study of propagation of light thIOUgl~ the atmosphere 1sin··
eluded in atmospheric optics or meteorolcgical optics, Although a great
deal is known about the physicl.l1 principles involved, in practicr~ it
is usually difficul t to IllHkf.' ~pecific stater:\ent~; about an UFO report
because not enough has been observed and rc.::ordcd al>aut the cond it i on
of the nzel (19:';2);
46