Documents / Report
This confidential progress report from the U.S. Naval Photographic Interpretation Center in Washington, dated May 1953 and addressed to the Director of Naval Intelligence, analyzes motion picture film of unidentified objects. The footage was taken in Utah on 2 July 1952 and in Montana in 1950. Analysts used frame plots and densitometer readings, and most of the group judged the images to be light sources. They computed velocities and accelerations that ruled out birds, aircraft and balloons, and concluded the objects could not be identified as natural phenomena or commonly known man-made objects.
From the source: Release of 2026-08-07 Incident: 1950, 1952, Montana, Utah. This file contains a memorandum relating to the U.S. Naval Photographic Interpretation Center’s assessment of two films allegedly depicting unidentified airborne objects, captured in Montana and Utah in 1950 and 1952, respectively. The file documents the Center’s analytic process, assumptions that constrained its confidence level, tentative conclusions, and recommendations for future research. The Center assessed, generally, that the objects depicted in the film demonstrated characteristics that were inconsistent with those of natural phenomena or commonly known aerospace technologies. The memorandum documents the Center’s recommendation for a more well-resourced investigation to corroborate its presumptive findings, citing a lack of funding and personnel. The accompanying charts compare the film’s luminosity with the apparent angular size of the phenomena, using contemporary mathematical modeling and photogrammetric analysis techniques.
Code 01/ffi-lW / (lt,11 .Jl.2 Serial: () r 1 5 8 ONFIBBU'flIAf. SECURITY INFORMATION Subj: Interpretation of Movies of Unidentifiea Objects; progress report on A preliminary detailed stud i of the Utah film was made and it was decided that: a. Brightly colored spots <;rf red and green lasting only one or tvo frames were not to be considered. b- Water spots could be detected easily and eliminated from the study. c. The color of the objects was fairly constant as blue-white. d. Size and luminosity of an object varied through-out the film. For convenience in interpretation, the film was divided into three parts, each part being considered an entity. Part I consisted of the footage taken at f8; Part II, the footage taken at fl6 with a panning motion; and Part III, the footage taken at fl6 during which the camera was held steady. Three det'inite groups of l i ghts were observed through out the film and plots were recorded as fol l ows: TABLE I PLOTS OF POSITIONS Utah Parts Control Chart I II III Holding to lower group Not enclosed I II Holding to one object 2 and 3 and ailinuth of another I Arbitrary 1/2 inch 4 correction per frame for panning III Hol ding to frame outline 5a and 5b I One image held to base 6 line. Every tenth frame to show changes withih . apparent formations Montana All Terrestial Objects 7a and Tb -80!ff' fBBff'HA¼,. 2SECURITY INFORMATION
Report, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 23 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.