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This is a New Zealand Defence Force public release of RNZAF file AIR 39/3/3, "Flying Saucers," which covers 1952 to 1955 and was declassified in September 2010 under the Official Information Act. It collects sighting reports from the public and military personnel, press clippings, and a table of 1952 sightings. It also holds Carter Observatory opinions attributing some reports to meteors. A large part covers the inquiry into lights seen from National Airways Corporation Flight 108 on 31 October 1955, which the RNZAF could not fully explain as Venus.
“The Advance”22 pages
PRESS CU NG: From: "Domininn" Wellington, N.Z. Date: 22 NO. 1952 # Astronomer Says Flying Saucers Have Basis In Natural Phenomena DUNEDIN, November 21 (P.A.).—"Flying saucers!" say the uninitiated. "Natural phenomena", retorts Mr. W. D. Anderson, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a life-long sky gazer. In an interview yesterday Mr. Anderson In an interview yesterday Mr. Anderson scouted recent reports of unidentified objects soaring and swooping through space. "While not prepared to suggest that! "While not prepared to suggest that every observer has been mistaken in his identification of these mysterious objects, I am firmly of the opinion that all these apparitions have been in fact natural phenomena," he said. "It is surely significant that none of the recent reports emanated from an established observatory. Experienced sky-gazers who study the heavens as a matter of routine when conditions are favourable have reported nothing unusual," said Mr. Anderson. He went on to say that it was also significant that at the time of the reports at least two major planets had been prominent in the evening sky- Jupiter in the north and Venus in the west. Meteors and shooting stars could also be observed on most clear nights. Clouds, with wind and other atmospheric conditions, would account for the seeming movement of these planets. "To dub them 'flying saucers' is in my opinion natural enough but absolutely erroneous. Mr. Anderson said. Anyone who sees what he thinks is a flying saucer is at liberty to ring me up and tell me about it. I will try to give an accurate identification, using binoculars or a refracting telescope. "I am sceptical about these reports but I am very willing to co-operate in the matter of identification."
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