Project Blue Book case review: January - June 1962
This is the latest edition of the Project Blue Book case review covering January through June 1962. Like the previous evaluations, I tried to examine each case to see if the conclusion had merit. I added comments to help clarify the explanation or if I felt it was not correct or adequate.
Summary
As usual, I found the reclassification of these cases challenging. The Echo satellite continued to play heavily in many of the sightings (35 cases or 18%). I continue to observe that there are significant amount of cases being reported by teens and per-teens. As I mentioned in the last issue, while some of these reports are pretty good, others have to be questioned based on the way they wrote their reports. Like the adults filing these reports, they were often influenced by reading some of the saucer literature.
Probably the most interesting case involved two sightings from Miami in January and March. My first thought was they were probably birds at night. However, this seemed to be disproved by one photograph that supposedly was taken of the second sighting. It showed four solid streaks on the film. I would think birds might not appear as bright or be in straight lines. After close examination, it appears the witness used a telephoto lens (probably a 135mm) based on his exposure time and length of the star trails. The field of view also looks small. The witness estimated the magnitudes as first to second magnitude but the streaks are far too strong for that. The witness did not list the film used but I suspect it was Tri-X (ISO 400) and my experience with fast moving objects of that magnitude is that they just don’t record that well. The lights all converge at a consistent rate as they move through the field. This indicates to me that what was photographed were very bright lights a fixed distance apart moving away from the photographer. This evidence suggests the witness photographed an airplane and not the individual objects his sighting described. Another possibility I considered was these were telephone/power lines that were illuminated by a flashlight or other light source. I want to think this possibility is unlikely because it would point towards a planned hoax rather than a case of mistaken identity. Without a better image and more information, this is the best analysis I can present.
Next issue, I will perform a check of the second half of 1962.
Quelle: SUNlite 2/2021