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.
“UFO Research Society”10 pages
4 61 ular magnification, the light exhibited finite angular diameter, so a telescope was used to examine it. In the telescope, it appeared as a composite of four smaller objects. There was a central sphere around which, "at a distance of two diam- eters, were three sphere resembling the one in the center." The outer spheresslowly rotated around the central sphere as the array gradually moved across the sky, diminishing in size as if leaving the Earth. After about 20 minutes' observation, the astronomers noted the outer spheres moving away from the cen- tral object, and by about 10:00 p.m., the entire group had moved so far away that they were no longer visible. Discussion. I have no first-hand information on this report, of course. The group of objects was seen at an angular elevation of about 60 degrees, far too high to invoke any mirage -effects or other familiar refractive anomalies. Further- more, the composite nature of the array scarcely suggests an optical distortion of the telescope, a possibility also rendered improbable from the observed angular velocity and apparent recessional motion. 5. Case 24. Kislovodsk, Caucasus, August 8, 1967 Zigel, who is affiliated with the Moscow Aviation Institute, reports in the same article (Ref. 38), a sighting at 8:40 p.m., 8/8/67, made by astronomer Anatoli Sazanov and colleagues working at the Mountain Astrophysical Station of the USSR Academy of Sciences, near Kislovodsk. Sazanov and ten other staff mem- bers watched an "asymmetric crescent, with its convex side turned in the direc- tion of its movement" moving eastward across the northern sky at an angular elevation of about 20 degrees. Just ahead of it, and moving at the same angularspeed was a point of light comparable to a star of the first magnitude. The crescent -like object was reddish -yellow, had an angular breadth of about two- thirds that of the moon, and left vapor -like trails aft of the ends of the crescent horns. As it receded, it diminished in size and thus "instantly disappeared". Discussion.—If we may accept as reliable the principal features of the sighting, how might we account for it? The "faintly luminous ribbons" trailing from the horns suggest a high -flying jet, of course; but the asymmetry and the reddish - yellow coloration fail to fit that notion. Also, it was an object of rather large angular size, about 20 minutes of arc, so that an aircraft of wingspan, say, 150 feet would have been only about five miles away whence engine -noise would have been audible under the quiet conditions of a mountain observatory. More sig- nificant, if it had been an aircraft at a slant range of five miles, and at 20 de- grees elevation, its altitude would have been only about 9000 ft above the ob- servatory. For the latitude and date, the sun was about ten degrees below the western horizon, so direct sun -illumination on the aircraft at 9000 ft above ob- servatory level would be out of the question. Hence the luminosity goes unex- plained. Clearly, satellites and meteors can be ruled out. The astronomers'observation cannot be readily explained in any conventional terms. Zigel remarks that the object was also seen in the town of Kislovodsk, and that another reddish crescent was observed in the same area on the evening of July 17, 1967.6. Case 25. Flagstaff, Ariz., May 20, 1950 Near noon on 5/20/50, Dr. Seymour Hess observed an object from the groundsof the Lowell Observatory. Although Hess' principal , field of interest has beenmeteorology, we may here consider him an astronomer -by -association, since he was at Lowell doing work on planetary atmospheres, on leave from Florida StateUniversity. Spotting an unusual small object moving from SE to NW, he had time to send his son after binoculars, which he used in the later portions of his observation. He said it looked somewhat disc -shaped, or perhaps somewhat like a tipped parachute. It had no wings or visible means of propulsion. Dr. Hess indicated to me that he probably had it in sight a total of about three minutes, during which it passed directly between him and a cloud, before disappearing (into a cloud Hess feels, though this point was not certain). From meteorologi- cal data bearing on the cloud-base height, Hess deduced that the cloud bases lay12,000 ft above terrain (vs. Weather Bureau visual estimate of 6000 ft above terrain). The zenith angle was about 45 degrees, so the slant range would havebeen 17,000 ft or 8,000 ft, depending on which cloud height is accepted. For its 3 minutes estimated angular diameter (dime at 50 ft. Hess estimated), the diameter would then come out of the order of 10 to 15 feet. His subjective im-pression was that it was possibly smaller than that. Discussion.—The possibility that this might have been a balloon or some otherfreely drifting device comes to mind. However, Hess noted carefully that the clouds were drifting from SW to NE, i.e., at right angles to the object's motion. 97-818-68 5
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