Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“Nevers”43 pages
201 Mirages are not the only apparitions that appear to maneuver. I think I was the first person to point out that a special kind of reflection of the sun (or moon), sometimes called a sun dog (or moon dog), also can perform evasive action. Layers of ice crystals are necessary, like those found in cirrus clouds. An aviator flying through cirrus sometimes sees a peculiar metallic appearing reflection, a reflection of the sun or moon. He may elect to chase it. The apparition will recede if approached, or approach if the pilot reverses his course. The object seems to execute evasive action! As the pilot runs out of ice crystals, the UFO will seem to put on a burst of speed and disappear into the distance. But such behavior does not imply, as the UFO addicts argue, the presence of an intelligence pilot to guide it. No! It's like chasing a rainbow, which recedes as you approach it or advances as you move away. As we look over the Air Force files, we find that some 90 per cent of the solved cases result from the presence of material objects in the atmosphere. I list some of these objects. Reflections from airplanes, banking in the sun, simulate saucers. Momentarily, a bright reflection appears and then vanishes. The plane is invisible in the distant haze. An imaginative person concludes that an inter- planetary vehicle has come in fast, reversed course, and rapidly receded into the distance. Often the observers say "It couldn't have been a plane," because "no noise was heard" or because "it moved too swiftly." And yet careful study proves beyond doubt that the object was indeed an aircraft. The brilliant land- ing lights of a plane can almost dazzle a person on the ground. Sometimes such lights may appear to be very close only a few hundred feet away. You'd be surprised at the variety of mundane objects that people have re- ported as UFO's. Balloons, child's balloons, weather balloons lighted or un- lighted, and especially those enormous plastic balloons as large as a ten -story building, which carry scientific instruments to altitudes of 100,000 feet! Re- flecting full sunlight while the earth below lies in dim twilight, these balloons shine more brilliantly than Venus! Advertising planes or illuminated blimps frequently become UFO's. Birds, by day or night, often reflect light from their shiny 'backs. Wind-blown kites, hats, paper, plastic sacks, feathers, spider -webs, seed pods, dust devils have all contributed their share of UFO sightings. Insects single or in swarms. Saucer -shaped clouds, reflections of searchlights on clouds! Special space experiments, such as rocket-launched sodium vapor releases or balloons from Wallop's Island have also produced spectacular apparitions! Ball lightning and the Aurora Borealis occasionally contribute. Reflections from power lines, insulators, television antennas, radars, radio telescopes, even apartment windows! These, too, have produced realistic UFO's. I could add to this list almost indefinitely. But the chief point I want to make is that simple phenomena like the above have tricked intelligent people into reporting a UFO. But there are a few other phenomena that can produce UFO's of a type that, as far as I know, the Air Force still does not recognize. I quote from an article on "Vision" in Volume 14 of the McGraw-Hill Encyclo-pedia of Science and Technology. ". . . any observant person can detect swirling clouds or spots of 'light' in total darkness or while looking at a homogeneous field such as a bright blue sky." If you want to see flying saucers just look up.If you don't see them, you probably are not "observant." I see them most clearly in a dark room or on a moonless night with the sky even darker with heavy clouds. I find stars.somewhat distracting. Just lie down on your back, open your eyes and see the saucers spin. The show is free. You will almost surely see bright, irregular patches of light form. Most of them seem grey green, but I occasionally see silver or gold and occasionally red. I can imagine windows in some of them. As you move your eyes they will cavort over the sky. To speed up the action just rub your eyes like a person coming out of a sleep. Occasionally the whole field becomes large and luminous. Now, I ask you. How can you be sure that the UFO reported by an airline pilot is not one of these spurious images? And even if an alerted co-pilot confirms it, he might also be responding to a similar effect in his own eyes! The chemistry and physiology of the human eyes are certainly responsible for many UFO sightings. The eye responds in different ways to different kinds ofstimuli. A sudden burst of bright light, like that from a flash bulb, for example,exerts an enduring effect on the eye. The light from the flash produces an imme- diate change in the so-called visual purple of the retina. In a sense the retinal spot on which the image fell becomes fatigued. For some minutes after the flash 97-8180--68-14
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.