Project Blue Book file, part 1

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

## 11. (Continued)

1 hour, and moved in a SE. South direction. This coincided with the general location, elevation and movement of Mars for the one hour period in question. (NOTE: Mars, bright and red, was making the closest approach to the Earth in 32 years.)

Visual Airburner The two 47 pilots who were vectored to search the area, remained aloft for 45 minutes. Both stated that a very bright star was observed near the horizon to the east, which, quoting these pilots "could be mistaken for a UFO by visual observers."

Astronomical: Of considerable significance is the fact that an annual meteoric shower, the Perseids, was in prominence at that time (11-13 August). The first report (FT-403) states conclusively that ground observers reported that there was an unusual amount of shooting stars in the sky at that time. This undoubtedly accounts for some of the statements of ground observers that (quote) ... objects traveled at terrific speeds, stopping, and then changing course immediately.

Astro-Electronic: The part that meteoric showers may have contributed to the sightings imported for these periods cannot be determined conclusively. However, meteors can produce radar returns because of the ionization of their gaseous trail, which "trace" on radiometers.

CONCLUSION: On the basis of the above, and the limited data provided, there is no compelling reason to conclude that the radar UPO sightings were other than the result of anomalous propagation, which coincided with visual observations during this period. The inadvertent attempt to relate all the observations is not considered valid.