Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency memorandum, dated 1957 and released in 1975, forwards photographs of an unidentified flying object filmed by Ralph L. Mayher in 1952 on 16 mm movie film. It describes how the enlarged prints were processed and gives background from the source: a bright orange, saucer-shaped rotating object at an estimated 2,000 feet, in view for about three minutes. It notes that the original negatives are in Air Force hands.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
Case Photographs and Background on Unidentified Flying Object Seen by Ralph L. Mayher.
photographs of an unidentified flying object. The photographs are forwarded berewith and may be retained for 30 days.
2. The print marked "A" is an enlarged photograph of the original 16 mm movie strip on which Mr. Mayher took the photos in 1952. The size of the UFO may be gauged in relation to the perforations on the film which are of known standard size. The large print marked "B" is an outsized enlargement made from a stepped up negative of one of the original frames.
3. It may be of interest to know how the enclosed prints were processed. Pictures were originally snapped on 16 mm movie film from which a number of prints were made. Four by 5 negatives were processed from these prints, then 8 by 10 negatives were processed from the latter. The three 8 by 10 prints are contact prints of the 8 by 10 negatives. The large print, "B", is a blow-up of one of the 8 by 10 negatives.
## 4. Background information follows:
5. Camera used was a 16 mm movie, focal length of lens was 63 mm, speed 24 frames per second. Altitude of the UFO, as estimated by source and other observers, was two thousand feet. Maximum camera angle was estimated by source to be $ 4 5^{\circ} $ . The UFO appeared to have the shape of a saucer, i.e., a rotating oblate spheroid which seemed to flatten out as speed increased. The UFO was in view for about three minutes and was of a bright orange color. At the time the film was taken the lens aperture of the camera was f:2.7. Film emulsion was fast panchromatic. Time elapsed between photographing the first image and the sixth image (the first being the smallest at the top of the film strip) was approximately .25 sec.
6. indicated that he would be glad to make such negatives as he has available on a two weeks loan if they would serve a useful purpose. The original negatives are in Air Force hands; Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 2 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.