Random Notes
Astronomers And Flying Saucers—Big
nspots—Wetas—Prince Consort’s Advice
FELLOW of the Royal Astronomical Society, who says at Dunedin says that flying saucers have their basis in natural phenomena. He adds no astronomer has reported them.
Perhaps no established observatory reported them, but astronomers certainly claimed to have seen various phenomena which have no relation to the kind of thing they expected to see in the sky. Last night the summer of 1948, Ch. Tom, the discoverer of the planet, was sitting in his garden at home at Las Cruces, New Mexico. His wife and mother-in-law were with them.
They all saw quite suddenly something rushing silently overhead from south to north. They all agreed it was too fast for an aeroplane. All agreed it was some sort of a ship. But it was a type none ever saw before. Oval in shape, rolled off at the rear into a shape-luminescence. A blue-green glow about the whole thing. About half the windows were clearly visible on the front and along the side.
He added that the object looked like a long rocket-like ship. It bore resemblance to any known aircraft. There are others just as responsible astronomers who have made similar reports. On May 21, 1951, at 3:48 p.m., three technical writers for the physics department, U.S.A., were lying in a factory ground. Their names were Victor Black, Werner, E. J. Sullivan. This is their report:
Approximately 30 glowing meteor-like objects sprayed out of the east point about 45 degrees above the horizon, executed a right-angle turn swept across the sky in an upward vertical formation that resembled a tuning fork on edge. It took about 25 seconds to cross 30 degrees of the horizon before performing another right-angle turn westward. Estimated their diameter at 30 and their speed at 1700 miles per hour. They appeared as round, blue lights, and moved with the
Civil Aeronautics Administration, U.S.A., suggests that some flying saucers may be attributed to natural phenomena caused by temperature inversion. This may be the case, because only last August an American physicist stated he had succeeded in using in the laboratory objects which represented descriptions of flying saucers. By introducing molecules into air into a partial vacuum jar three feet high, orange red shapes were created and a variety of shapes, including discs and cones. Introduction of various gases produced other colours. Movement of the molecules outside the jar caused these to make flying saucers to dart about at fantastic speeds in all sorts of erratic directions.
At the time other experts did not consider these discoveries a complete answer to all reports made of flying saucers. However, it might explain the fact that flying saucers have been seen over a far longer period of time than of us know. As long as the night of September 17, 1947, an astronomer saw a glowing object over England. The object appeared and moved away “a great deal faster than a flash light” which was seen in a north-east direction. It moved vertically from horizon to zenith in about two minutes. When it was moving vertically above the horizon, it was an elongated object, its height estimated at 1835 feet and its speed at 10 miles per second. Moreover, it was seen by other observers and referred to it as “shuttle-shaped.”
---
Mysterious Light Bucks High Wind
INVERCARGILL, Feb. 3 (PA).—For a long time Mr. John Hanning, a Waikiki barber, has believed that flying saucers are genuine. Last night he saw one.
At least that is what he thinks he saw, and nobody else can give a better explanation.
He was motoring along the north road with his wife, heading in the direction of Waikiki at 9.45pm, when a light west of Invercargill attracted his attention.
He stopped the car near the Waikiki River bridge and had a good look. The light was very bright (just bright, not coloured) and was travelling steadily north-west.
Mr. Hanning guessed it would be in the direction of Riverton. Mr. and Mrs. Hanning watched the object for several minutes and, as it faded, drove a hundred yards further north and located it again.
It impressed them most of all that the light must have been powered by some power because it was flying east to west against a strong wind. No other reports have been received today, but it is known that the object was neither a weather balloon nor an aircraft.
At the time of the sighting the wind was blowing from the south-west up to 1000 feet at gale force. Its speed when recordings were taken was 82 knots, which accounts for the mystery of how a light could move against it.
---
No Evidence Of Visitors From Other Planets
WASHINGTON, December 26 (Rec. 6 p.m.).—The Air Force said it has no evidence that beings from some other world have visited this planet, but added that it would be unreasonable to deny that such a thing could happen.
A prepared statement said: “The Air Force has absolutely no evidence of visitors from space. As limited as man is in his knowledge and understanding of the universe and its many forces, it would be foolhardy indeed to deny the possibility that higher forms of life existed in space.
It would be utterly unreasonable to deny that intelligent beings from some other world were able to visit our planet, at least to travel within our atmosphere.
However, the Air Force desires to state emphatically that there is absolutely no evidence to indicate that this possibility has been translated into reality.”
---
“Saucer” Visited Invercargill
An Invercargill reader, Mr. Williamson, has written to the “Evening Post” to say that the “flying saucer” seen in Christchurch, Kyeburn and Waipahi on the night of December 17 was also seen by five separate people in Invercargill.
These reports, says, were published in the “Southland Times” but apparently were based on North Island papers. The Invercargill reports tally with the others—the object was a bluish disc which hissed.
Mr. Williamson saw the object at 11.30pm, four or five minutes after the observation at Waipahi, which is about 40 miles from Invercargill. According to this, the disc’s speed, estimated at 600 miles an hour from the information given by the Christchurch, Kyeburn and Waipahi reports, was maintained.
The “Southland Times” says a weather balloon was released at 11.30pm and its observers had carried out a vertical observation. It travelled at 600 miles an hour, but fast-moving objects would make it seem to travel even faster. To this, Mr. Williamson says: “I am sure the object was not a balloon. It was travelling very quickly, and was a definite, unmistakable flying object. My observation, if correlated with the other South Island reports, provides proof of the existence, speed, and course, of the bluish disc.”
The Director of the Carter Observatory (Mr. I. L. Thomsen) said the description given sounded like a meteor, especially the short time the object was visible. A meteor could be seen simultaneously at points between Christchurch and Invercargill. The reports given were different, but some observers—or their witnesses—were not as accurate as imagined.