star gazing

[thaimad]

It occurred to me that Astronomers spend all night looking up at the stars, but you rearly hear of them reporting UFOs.

And when you consider how many observatories there are all over the planet..it kinda makes you wonder.

Are these people seeing things and just not reporting them ..or what?.

has any survey been done to find out what they have seen.? and are there any astronomers on this forum.??

[Ghost Ship]

When i stargaze and see a moving object i think its spacejunk or a satelite. I did though see a ufo once. It was quick. It was a silvery object that appeared and disapeared in the blink of an eye. I might have seen something but i can't be sure.

[PurpleStuart]

Astronomers are very used to recognising heavenly objects - something the untrained/unexperienced eye may think is a UFO they probably recognise as a weather balloon/satellight/space junk etc

[lost_shaman]

Astronomers, like everyone else, do in fact see UAP/UFOs.

Astronomers, like Airline Pilots, may also feel that reporting their sightings would threaten their credibility or their livelihoods.

J. Allen Hynek ( 1952 ) , and Peter Sturruck ( 1973 ) & ( 1977 ) conducted surveys of the AAS and AIAA where around 5% of Astronomers responding anonymously reported sightings.

[Synergy]

It occurred to me that Astronomers spend all night looking up at the stars, but you rearly hear of them reporting UFOs.

And when you consider how many observatories there are all over the planet..it kinda makes you wonder.

Are these people seeing things and just not reporting them ..or what?.

has any survey been done to find out what they have seen.? and are there any astronomers on this forum.??

One thing you should take into consideration is the amount of sky an astronomer may examine with his telescope at a time. With a telescope an astronomer can only observe an extremely small fraction at a time; the better the telescope the smaller the fraction of sky able to be observed at a time. As for astronomers sightings being rare, this is a common misconception. Studies have shown that UFOs are often viewed by trained observers such as astronomers, military and commercial airline pilots, engineers, scientists, physicists you name it. The only difference in the frequency of reports is in the frequency of those reports actually published, which is often very few. Often times these highly trained observers choose not to publish their sightings for obvious reasons such as fear of ridicule and loss of credibility within the scientific community. The unfortunate result of the unwarranted giggle factor that encompasses the subject matter. Accompanying such ridicule and loss of credibility, the individual risks losing ones job for speaking out. Your question is intelligent and logical, but your hypothesis based on the absence of wide spread sighting publication is premature.

[Ryo Ohki]

You have to be in the right place at the right time.

[K14PUCS]

Ive hear plenty of case from astronomers but proffesional probabally are skeptic and easily dismiss them.

[Stonewall]

Ive hear plenty of case from astronomers but proffesional probabally are skeptic and easily dismiss them.

Clyde Tombaugh was the American astronomer who discovered the planet Pluto. On August 20, 1949, he observed a UFO that appeared as a geometrically arranged group of six-to-eight rectangles of light, window-like in appearance and yellowish-green in color, which moved from northwest to southeast over Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Brititsh astronomer Edmond Halley spotted a series of unexplained aerial objects in March of 1716.

Dr. J. Allen Hynek was an astronomer.

February 2, 1990 Hamburg, Germany

A soundless flying triangle was observed near Hamburg, by the amateur astronomer Gutschke when he looked at the sky to observe the stars. The 70 meters long triangle was surrounded by a luminous dust. In the three corners there were pinkish luminous rings. The altitude was approximately 300 meters. In about 8 seconds the triangle moved from the zenith to the horizon, in the direction of the city of Hamburg, where it vanished in the dust.

[isis-999]

I think they choose not to say anything for fear people will think they are crazy and their rep will be destroyed......

[Isis2200]

It occurred to me that Astronomers spend all night looking up at the stars, but you rearly hear of them reporting UFOs.

And when you consider how many observatories there are all over the planet..it kinda makes you wonder.

Are these people seeing things and just not reporting them ..or what?.

has any survey been done to find out what they have seen.? and are there any astronomers on this forum.??

Thaimad, I used to stargaze with my family a lot when I was a young girl. It was very dark where I used to live so we always got a good look at the sky and could even identify most of the constellations. We saw satellites, and meteors and even witnessed an eclipse of the moon.

But I have never witnessed what people say they see nowadays. From what I've heard, these kinds of sightings of UFOs are occurring with more frequency now than ever before(even in the last couple months). My belief is that "yes" I think the astronomers and everyone else who looks into the sky sees these things. For one reason or another they don't want to report what they're seeing. From what I've read about military personnel, pilots, etc., they have a policy not to talk about it.

If I knew my neck would be on the line if my superior or a supervisor found out about my sighting, I wouldn't want to talk about it either.

http://ashiana.conforums.com/index.cgi

~ Isis2200

[the_UNKNOWN_DEAD]

In his forum, astronomer "Chicago Joe" seems to have more than a passing interest in UFO's and related subjects.

[skyeagle409]

It occurred to me that Astronomers spend all night looking up at the stars, but you rearly hear of them reporting UFOs.

And when you consider how many observatories there are all over the planet..it kinda makes you wonder.

Are these people seeing things and just not reporting them ..or what?.

has any survey been done to find out what they have seen.? and are there any astronomers on this forum.??

I posted these references before but I realize there are those who are new here.

Astronomers and UFOs

A list of sightings by astronomers

http://www.xdream.freeserve.co.uk/UFOBase/Astronomers.htm

Clyde Tombaugh, Discoverer of Pluto, UFO

"Summary: Clyde Tombaugh was the American astronomer who discovered the planet Pluto. On August 20, 1949, he observed a UFO that appeared as a geometrically arranged group of six-to-eight rectangles of light, window-like in appearance and yellowish-green in color, which moved from northwest to southeast over Las Cruces, New Mexico."

http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case355.htm

Edmund Halley, Discoverer of Halley's Coment, UFO

Summary: Edmund Halley, the astronomer who discovered Haley's comet, could recall two accounts involving unidentified crafts. His first experience was in March of 1676, when he saw a, as he said, "Vast body apparently bigger than the moon."

http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case492.htm

[thaimad]

One thing you should take into consideration is the amount of sky an astronomer may examine with his telescope at a time. With a telescope an astronomer can only observe an extremely small fraction at a time; the better the telescope the smaller the fraction of sky able to be observed at a time. As for astronomers sightings being rare, this is a common misconception. Studies have shown that UFOs are often viewed by trained observers such as astronomers, military and commercial airline pilots, engineers, scientists, physicists you name it. The only difference in the frequency of reports is in the frequency of those reports actually published, which is often very few. Often times these highly trained observers choose not to publish their sightings for obvious reasons such as fear of ridicule and loss of credibility within the scientific community. The unfortunate result of the unwarranted giggle factor that encompasses the subject matter. Accompanying such ridicule and loss of credibility, the individual risks losing ones job for speaking out. Your question is intelligent and logical, but your hypothesis based on the absence of wide spread sighting publication is premature.

I pretty much got the answer i was looking for, I know alot of professionals don't report, for credibility reasons.

When the sky is clear I make a point of spending a couple of hours outside gazing, usualy see the odd falling star, and aircraft as I live between an airport and a airforce base, so plenty of traffic.

but still the odd unexplanible light.

I did search this topic before posting btw.

[Eagle Eye]

One thing you should take into consideration is the amount of sky an astronomer may examine with his telescope at a time. With a telescope an astronomer can only observe an extremely small fraction at a time; the better the telescope the smaller the fraction of sky able to be observed at a time. As for astronomers sightings being rare, this is a common misconception. Studies have shown that UFOs are often viewed by trained observers such as astronomers, military and commercial airline pilots, engineers, scientists, physicists you name it. The only difference in the frequency of reports is in the frequency of those reports actually published, which is often very few. Often times these highly trained observers choose not to publish their sightings for obvious reasons such as fear of ridicule and loss of credibility within the scientific community. The unfortunate result of the unwarranted giggle factor that encompasses the subject matter. Accompanying such ridicule and loss of credibility, the individual risks losing ones job for speaking out. Your question is intelligent and logical, but your hypothesis based on the absence of wide spread sighting publication is premature.

Actually, that is incorrect Prophecy Guru. There's plenty of widespread sightings worldwide by astronomers. For centuries there have been direct sightings recorded of UFOs from classical astrologers, and many of the reports right up to this day have been recorded. those who practice astronomy are well-versed on the night skies.

You also do know that telescopes can be aimed at any part of the skies, yes? The entire breadth of the night skies are scanned regularly by astronomers throughout the world using excellent technical viewing telescopes that are quite large. The frequency of reports are recorded, no matter the response from others, or whatever so-called threats to reputation, etc., may or may not exist ~

A LIST OF SIGHTINGS BY ASTRONOMERS

This listing is developed from one that was published in U.F.O.I.C. Newsletter, Australia, and re-printed in the Fall 1973 issue of Flying Saucers. Sources of further sightings include: Richard L.Thompson 'Alien Identities' (orig.source 'The UFO Evidence'); 'Flying Saucers Over America' (collection of newspaper cuttings); Robert Loftin 'Identified Flying Saucers'; 'Flying Saucer Review's World Roundup of UFO Sightings and Events'; Desmond Leslie's section of 'Flying Saucers Have Landed'; Richard Hall 'From Airships To Arnold'; Harold T.Wilkins 'Flying Saucers On The Moon' and 'Flying Saucers Uncensored'; Jimmy Guieu 'Flying Saucers Come From Another World'; Kevin Randle 'Project Blue Book Exposed'; '165 Little Known UFO Sightings'; Loren E.Gross' series 'UFOs:A History'; Lt.Col.Wendelle C.Stevens (Ret.) & Paul (Moon Wai) Dong 'UFOs Over Modern China'; M.K.Jessup 'The UFO Annual'; Paris Flammonde 'UFO Exist!'; G.McWane & D.Graham 'The New UFO Sightings'; Michael Hervey 'UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere' & 'UFOs: The American Scene'; Wendelle C.Stevens & August C.Roberts 'UFO Photographs Around The World'; Michael David Hall 'UFOs: A Century of Sightings' ; Jan L.Aldrich 'Project 1947'; Peter Paget 'UFO-UK' & 'The Welsh Triangle'; Ion Hobana & Julien Weverbergh 'UFO's From Behind The Iron Curtain'; Charles Fort 'New Lands' & 'Book Of The Damned'; 'The Dictionary of Scientific Biography'; Irene Granchi 'UFOs and Abductions in Brazil'; Coral & Jim Lorenzen 'UFOs:The Whole Story'; Jacques & Janine Vallee 'Challenge To Science'; Nicholas Redfern 'A Covert Agenda'; Kenneth Arnold & Raymond Palmer 'The Coming of the Saucers'; Michael Hesemann 'UFOs The Secret History'; Paul Stonehill 'The Soviet UFO Files'; Roger H.Stanway & Anthony R.Pace 'Flying Saucer Report - UFOs Unidentified Undeniable'; George Leonard 'Somebody Else is on the Moon'; Richard M.Dolan 'UFOs and the National Security State'; Jenny Randles 'The Pennine UFO Mystery'; Arthur Shuttlewood 'Warnings From Flying Friends' & 'The Flying Saucerers' & 'UFO Magic In Motion' & 'UFOs: Key To The New Age'; Michael Hesemann 'UFOs:The Secret History'; Frank Edwards 'Flying Saucers - Serious Business' ; Fred Steckling 'We Discovered Alien Bases On The Moon'; William R.Corliss 'Mysterious Universe'; L'Astronomie Bulletin de la Societe Astronomique De France; Flying Saucer News; Mundo Monitor; The Emergency Press; Spacelink; UFO Chronicle; Uranus; UFO Universe; Awareness;

Bufora Journal; Understanding Yearbooks 1965 /68; Flying Saucer Review. Also: National UFO Reporting Center,edited by Peter Davenport (NUFORC) / UFO Roundup, ed.Joseph Trainor (UFORup) / Filer's Files, ed.George Filer (FF).

First version: 12.12.2000: 170+ sightings | | Second version: 28.12.2000: 220+

Version Three: May 11th 2001: 317+ | | Version Four: Oct. 17th 2002: 350+

Version Five: September 2nd 2004: 372+ sightings [1623 - 2000]

November 17th, 1623: 'A burning globe appeared at sunset - on 17 November 1623. It was visible in different places all over Germany. In Austria, it is affirmed a sound of cracking or crushing came from it, as if from a thunderbolt, which, however, I take to be groundless.' Johannes Kepler.

March 21st, 1676: The Italian, Geminiano Montanari, was knowledgeable in geophysics,biology, mathematics, ballistics, and meteorology; but his greatest achievements are considered to have been in astronomy. He reported this sighting to Edmund Halley, who commented - 'I find it one of the hardest things to account for, that I have ever yet met.'..... 'It appeared one and three quarter hours after sunset, coming over the Adriatic from Dalmatia. It crossed over all Italy, at a height of some 40 miles, and hissed as it passed, over Ronzare. It passed over the sea from Leghorn to Corsica, with a sound like the rattling of a great cart over stones. I compute that it travelled 160 miles a minute. It seemed to be a vast body apparently bigger than the moon!' (FSOM/DSB)

May 1677: '..the famous astronomer, Edmund Halley, Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford University, reported seeing a "great light in the sky all over Southern England, many miles high."'

July 31st, 1708: '..from 9 to 10 p.m., a similar apparition, thought to be 50 miles high, passed over Sheerness, and the 'Buoy at the Nore,' Suffolk, and London. It moved "with incredible speed, and was very bright. It seemed to vanish and left a pale white light behind it. There were no hissing sounds and no explosion."' (FSOM)

1715: Unusual phenomena were observed on the Moon, at the time of the solar eclipse, by Edmund Halley and J.E.de Louville - '..as it were a sort of flash or momentary vibrations of beams of light, as though someone were setting fire to gunpowder trails as used in mining. These bright flashes were very brief in duration and appeared now here, now there, but always in the shade.' (FSR 41-2)

March 6th, 1716: Halley saw an object illuminating the sky for more than two hours from about 7:00 p.m. onwards: 'A man could easily read print in the light thrown out by these spears from the same body. It did not change for two hours, and then it seemed as if new fuel had been cast on a fire.' / Similar phenomena were reported to Halley by other astronomers of his time, notably by astronomers Gottfried Kirch and Schlazius, at Leipzig, Germany re. an event on July 9th, 1686 and by Montanari an Italian mathematician and astronomer regarding a sighting on March 21st, 1676.

March 17th, 1735: 'A strange apparition of "an uncommon bright glade of light" was seen from the top of his house in Buckingham Street, off the Strand, London, by John Bevis, at 8.05 pm, on March 17, 1735, when he was observing Mars, in the west: "It was quite unlike the Aurora Borealis, being steady and not tremulous in motion. The stars could be seen through it. It was not a comet; for I could see no nucleus through my 17-foot optical glass. It gre dim in the middle in half an hour, and then seemed to split into two very luminous parts, which grew dimmer till about 9." (FSOM)

August 9th, 1762: Two Swiss astronomers saw an object in front of the sun. They were De Rostan in Basle and Croste in Sole. [Article in 18th Century Sightings]

May 1764: Astronomer Hoffman saw a large round spot traverse the sun from north to south. (MHervey)

June 17th, 1777: Charles Messier, famous for his nebula catalogue observed a large number of dark spots in the skies, disc shaped, which were unknown to him. In his log book he wrote - 'They were large and swift and they were ships, yet like bells.'

August 18th, 1783: Tiberius Cavallo, Italian chemist, inventor and writer on natural philosophy - a fellow of the Royal Society, saw at Windsor Castle what he termed a 'most extraordinary meteor...North-east of the Terrace, in clear sky and warm weather, I saw appear suddenly an oblong cloud nearly parallel to the horizon. Below the cloud was seen a luminous body... It soon became a roundish body, brightly lit up and almost stationary. It was about 9.25 p.m. This strange ball at first appeared bluish and faint, but its light increased, and it soon began to move. At first, it ascended above the horizon, obliquely towards the east. Then it changed its direction and moved parallel to the horizon. It vanished in the SE. I saw it for half a minute, and the light it gave out was prodigious. It lit up every object on the face of the country. It changed shape to oblong, acquired a tail, and seemed to split up into two bodies of small size. About two minutes later came a rumble like an explosion.' [Article in 18th Century Sightings]. Cavallo's book 'The History and Practice of Aerostation' was published, in London, two year later. He was buried in 1809 in St.Pancras Churchyard. (FSOM)

Also on August 30th an object was observed at Greenwich Observatory from which eight objects emerged, described as satellites. / Other reports by scientists named by Wilkins on the following dates: March 19, 1718 at Oxford, December 5th, 1737 and December 16th, 1742 - both in London.

William Herschel on Mars - '..From other phenomena it appears, however, that this planet is not without a considerable atmosphere; for, besides the permanent spots on its surface, I have often noticed occasional changes of partial bright belts.. and also a darkish one, in a pretty high latitude.. And these alterations we can hardly ascribe to any other cause than the variable disposition of clouds and vapours floating in the atmosphere of that planet.

[Result of the contents of this paper] ...And that planet has a considerable but moderate atmosphere, so that its inhabitants probably enjoy a situation in many respects similar to ours.

Datchet, Dec.1, 1783. W.HERSCHEL'

{On the remarkable Appearances at the Polar Regions of the Planet Mars, the Inclination of its Axis, the Position of its Poles, and its Spheroidal Figure; with a few Hints relating to its real Diameter and Atmosphere. By William Herschel, Esq. F.R.S.}

October 22nd, 1790: 'The famous astronomer, Frederick William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus and its satellites and the satellites of Saturn, was looking through a 20-foot reflector telescope.. when he saw, in time of total eclipse of the moon, many bright and luminous points, small and round. But "the brightness of the moon, notwithstanding the fact that it was in eclipse", did not permit him to view the phenomenon long enough to locate these points on the lunar surface. / He wrote to the Royal Society - "We know too little of the surface of the moon to venture a surmise of the cause and remarkable colour of these points."' [Article in 18th Century Sightings]. Previous sightings of lights on or near the moon were made by Herschel in 1783 and 1787. (FSOM)

May 1799: A luminous spot was seen moving across the disc of Mercury by Johann Schroeter, his assistant K.L.Harding at Lilienthal observatory , and other observers- 'In the transit of 1799.. Schroter and Harding at Lilienthal, and Kohler at Dresden, saw a small luminous spot on the dark disk. The spot was not stationary, for Harding saw it change its position, and later in the day Schroter saw it sometimes on one part of the disk, sometimes on another. Others saw, not one, but two small spots of a greyish colour.' (Monthly Notices 38, 1878/MU)

February 7th, 1802: An unknown body ['dark disc' DL]was seen crossing the sun by the Astronomer Fritsch, at Magdeburg, in central Germany. (NL)

October 10th 1802: An unknown dark body was seen by Herr Fritsch rapidly crossing the sun. (NL)

January 16th 1818: A Mr.Capel Lofft, astronomer of Ipswich, England, observed a strange object near the sun. It was visible for three hours and a half. (DL/NL)

June 26th, 1819: Three dark bodies crossed the sun together, observed by astronomer Franz Gruithuisen. (NL) Pastorff saw something near the sun, which he had thought was a comet; but could not have been, according to Olbers. (NL)

September 7th, 1820: Francis Arago, the famous French Physicist/Astronomer describes observations that day during the eclipse, at Embrun, of objects moving across the sky in a nearly military precision. He mentions also that a number of other scientists have seen similar events.

February, 1821: A bright point of light, like a star, was seen on the Moon, in the crater Aristarchus - on the 4th & 7th of February, by Capt.Kater; on the 5th, by Dr.Olbers. Star-like lights on the moon also observed that year in May and November. (NL)

October 23rd 1822: Astronomer Pastorff observes two unknown objects cross the sun's disc. (DL)

May 22nd 1823: Astronomer named Webb sees bright shining thing near Venus. (DL)

October 18th, 1824: 'At five o'clock, morning.. a light was seen upon the dark part of the moon, by Gruithuisen. It disappeared. Six minutes later it appeared again, disappeared again, and then flashed intermittently, from 5:30 A.M., until sunrise ended the observations.' (NL)

January 22nd, 1825: A star-like light was again observed in Aristarchus, on the Moon; reported by Rev.J.B.Emmett. (NL)

February 13th, 1826: Gruithuisen reported that on this date, two straight lines of light, with, between them a dark band that was covered with luminous points, was observed in the western crater of Messier.(NL)

July 31st 1826: Unknown object seen by astronomers. (DL)

May 26th 1828: Disc crossing the sun, seen through telescope. (DL)

September 6th to November 1st, 1831: At Geneva Observatory the Swiss astronomer Dr.Wartmann and his staff saw a strange luminous body practically every night. / In the years following there were reports by Pastorff (1834, 1836, 1837), Cacciatore (1835), De Vico (1837), De Cuppis (1837), and Glaisher (1844).

July 4th, 1832: W.L.Webb saw 'a brilliant display of minute dots and streaks of light, in the Mare Crisium..' on the Moon. (NL)

December 22nd, 1835: Another star-like light in the crater Aristarchus - reported by Francis Bailey. (NL)

May 15th, 1836: At Havana, Professor Auber saw many luminous bodies that seemed to move out from the sun, in diverse directions. (BoD)

1844: James Glaisher reported shining discs "which sent out quickly flickering waves of light." (UFOsTSH)

May 11th-13th, 1845: 'Erman sends me a report of Capocci about bodies, which he has seen pass in front of the sun on 11 to 13 May... he has also seen bodies of indeterminate shape like shadows pass, and for this reason the idea occurred to him that there could be nearer bodies and therefore that one must pull out the eyepiece further in order to see them clearly. In fact, when he pulled out the eyepiece 1 to 2 centimeters, he saw these bodies pass by with a very definite outline. They had irregular shapes. A few went quickly like shooting stars, others remained visible 2 to 3 seconds and so on.' (Letter from astronomer Heinrich Schumacher to mathematician Carl Gauss, Sept.18 1845)... ...G.A.Erman (1806-1877) worked chiefly in terrestrial magnetism and related fields, and also undertook many expeditions. His father-in-law was Bessel... Ernesto Capocci (de Belmonte) (1798-1864) was the first astronomer at the Capidomente observatory in Naples, remaining there until 1848. (I.Grattan-Guinness, FSR 23-2)

'Italian astronomer working at Capodimonte Observatory, Naples saw a number of shining discs, some star-shaped, others sporting a tail-like appendage. He considered them of smallish size. / Further reports in the following years came from Schmidt (1847), Brown and Sidebotham (1849) and Inglis in Switzerland in the same year.'

March 18th & 19th, 1847: Large luminous spots seen upon the dark side of the moon, and a general glow upon the upper limb, by Rev.T.Rankin and Prof.Chevaillier. (NL)

Summer 1847: Benjamin Scott and his five-year-old son both observed, through a telescope, a body that seemed to be the size of Venus crossing the sun. (BoD)

December 11th & 12th, 1847: A bright light that flashed intermittently, was seen on the dark side of the moon, by Hodgson. (NL)

September 11th, 1852: A bright shining disc was visible to people in Staffordshire between 4.15 and 4.45 p.m. Lord Wrottesley, who had an observatory at Wolverhampton, said it seemed relatively near the Moon. Others said near Venus. (FSOM)

June 11th, 1855: Astronomers, Ritter and Schmidt saw with their naked eyes a darkish body, unexplainable to both of them.

March 26th, 1859: Dr.Lescarbault, a French amateur astronomer, observed a body of planetary size cross the sun. Later given the name 'Vulcan' by Urbain Leverrier, who had become aware of five other seperate observations. (BoD)

September 1st, 1859: Richard Carrington, oberving through his telescope at Redhill Observatory in Surrey saw two luminous bodies, certainly not meteors.

April 1860: '..4 leading astronomers, Herrick, Buys-Barlott and de Cuppis of Great Britain, together with their Swiss colleague Dr.Wolf, watched from the Zurich Observatory as "a large number of small black discs which came from the east flew past." ' (UFOsTSH)

October 1862: 'Lockyer saw a spot like a long train of clouds on Mars, and several days later Secchi saw a spot on Mars..' (NL)

April 27th, 1863: Henry Waldner, a German astronomer, saw at Weinheim Observatory that day a great number of small luminous bodies travelling at great speed. He notified Johann Wolf (professor of astronomy since 1855 at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule and the University at Zurich, Switzerland. And through whose efforts an observatory was constructed in that city, in 1864). Dr.Wolf was convinced of the reality of the phenomenon, and told Mr.Waldner of the similar sighting by Sig. Capocci, 18 years earlier. (BoD/DSB)

October 19th, 1863: Astronomer Schmidt saw '..a bolide that was following an exceptionally slow course. He was able to study it through a comet searcher and stated that it was a double object.' (compare to Jan.3rd 1898 sighting)

March 8th, 1865: M.Coumbary, an amateur astronomer of Constantinople, saw '..a black point, sharply outlined, traverse the disk of the sun. It detached itself from a group of sunspots near the limb of the sun, and took 48 minutes to reach the other limb..' (BoD)

August 10th, 1865: An astronomer named Ingall spotted 'a most minute point of light glittering like a star' on the moon, just west of Picard. (Astr.Register, 3-189/UFORup, 2-44)

September 5th, 1865: Ingall again reported '..a conspicuous bright spot west of Picard.'

(Astr.Reg., 3-252/Fort/UFORup, 2-44)

April 9th, 1867: 'Thos G.Elger reported to the Astronomical Register, that, in the English sky, he saw a dark part of the moon suddenly flame out with a light like a star of 7th magnitude. This was at 7.30 p.m. At 9.30 p.m., it faded out. "I have seen lights on the moon before, but never so clear as this." ' Various other observations of anomalous features on the moon also detailed. (FSOM)

May 30th, 1867: Bird, a British astronomer observing Venus, saw a number of objects similar to Capocci and Waldner.

1867: Professor Eduard Heis saw a dark object slowly traverse eleven degrees of arc of the Milky Way. (BoD)

June 8th, 1868: A number of British astronomers at Oxford's Radcliffe Observatory saw a luminous object moving quickly across the sky, stopping and changing its course at least three times.

August 7th, 1869: Observing a total solar eclipse at Iowa Observatory Professor Zentmayer and Prof.Coffin saw a number of objects moving nearly parallel across the sky. Also Prof.Himes of this observatory when called observed some of them. They were unexplainable to all three astronomers.

October 17th & 18th, 1869: A keen amateur astronomer, Lieutenant Herschel while observing the sun saw, from noon on the 17th until about 7 a.m. on the 18th numerous dark shadows crossing the sun, and also luminous streaks going across the sky near the sun. They were nearly a continuous stream and all explanations could not solve these sightings. Some objects stopped and hovered before flying fast away.

May 13th, 1870: Multiple lights (4, 27, 28) observed from England in the lunar crater Plato - '..it was observed that, as one of these lights.. increased in brightness, another diminished. Then another light alternately shone and faded out...' (FSOM)

October 12th, 1870: 'The astronomer William F.Dennis saw at Bristol a luminous ball travelling faster than a balloon but slower than a meteor, and emitting sparks. The same object, or one quite similar, was seen at Wimbledon by a member of the Royal Society of Astronomy.' (Michel)

August 1st, 1871: A French astronomer, E.A.Coggia, known for cometary discoveries, saw, in Marseilles, an object slowly moving across the sky, he was unable to explain. According to his description, it appeared at 10:43 pm, and was a magnificent red object moving slowly eastward. At 10:52:30 pm it stopped, and then moved northward, until stopping again after a further seven minutes. Its next movement was once again towards the east, finally disappearing, or falling behind the horizon at 11:03:20 pm. (NL)

August 29th, 1871(?): Another leading French astronomer, Etienne Trouvelot, saw a great number of seemingly opaque bodies crossing the sun, and similar sightings for some days until September 1st, 1871.

June 17th, 1873: Dr.Sage, whilst watching the planet Mars, from Rybnik, Upper Silesia, saw a large object 'apparently issue' at incredible speed from the planet, and seemingly explode on reaching Earth's atmosphere. There were other witnesses reported on by a Dr.Galle. (NL)

1873: '..the royal British Society of Astronomy reported that for many months, flashing lights had been seen on the moon, which they took to be intelligent attempts by an unknown race from the moon to establish contact..' (UFOsTSH)

April 24th, 1874: Prof. Schaffarik of Prague Observatory saw an unidentified object crossing the moon. He reported that it was '..of such a strange nature that I do not know what to make of it. It was bright white and moved slowly across the face of the moon. I saw it even after it had left the disc of the moon. In other words, the object was no part of the moon because it left the moon behind and wandered out into space. What else can it be other than a flying machine?' (UFOsTSH)

December 1875-January 22nd, 1876: Rio De Janeiro Observatory reported '..a vast number of bodies crossing the sun, some of them luminous and some of them dark..' (BoD)

February 20th, 1877: That night, Etienne Trouvelot, French-born astronomer/scientist, resident in the U.S., saw a fine luminous line, like a luminous cable drawn across the lunar crater Eudoxus. (FSOM)

March 21st, 1877: An astronomer in England reported having seen a brilliant light in the lunar crater Proclus, which was not the reflection of the sun's light. / That month, another bright spot was observed in or near the lunar crater Picard. (FSOM)

June 17th, 1877: 'Professor Henry Harrison, in New York State, saw a light on the dark part of the moon which looked like a reflection from a moving mirror. Frank Dennett, in England, saw, at this time, a minute point of light in the lunar crater, Bessel.' (FSOM)

November 23rd, 1877: Dr.Klein reported to L'Astronomie - 'I saw a luminous triangle on the floor of the lunar crater, Plato. It may have been reflected sunlight.' On this same night, observers in USA saw flakes of light moving from all other lunar craters towards the crater Plato. They formed into a triangle on the floor of Plato. (FSOM)

July 29th, 1878: Reports from both Professor James Watson (from Wyoming) and Professor Lewis Swift (from Colorado) that they had seen two shining objects at a considerable distance from the sun, during the time of the total eclipse. (BoD)

April 12th-13th, 1879: A large luminous body, certainly not a comet, was seen by Mr.Henry Harrison, and a friend. (NYTribune/Scientific American 40, 1879/MU)

January 23rd, 1880: 'Something like another luminous cable, or like a shining wall' was observed in the lunar crater Aristarchus by Etienne Trouvelot. (NL)

August 25th, 1880: Marcel A.Trecul, a member of the French Academy reported that day an extremely bright yellowish-white, torpedo-shaped or cylindrical object "with slightly conical ends," and of small size. It dropped something that fell straight down, and then, itself, disappeared into the clouds. (BoD)

November 30th, 1880 (?): Ricco, an Italian astronomer, saw at Palermo Observatory while watching the sun a number of objects crossing its surface. (date uncertain - see Nov.30 1888)

January 13th, 1881: A light was seen in Marius, on the moon, by A.Stanley Williams, the astronomer. (FSR 3-4/English Mechanic)

May 4th, 1881: Trouvelot observed an unexplained light in the lunar crater Eudoxus. (NL)

September 27th, 1881: Colonel Markwick, in South Africa, saw an object moving rapidly near the moon. (FSR 3-4/Journal of Liverpool Astronomical Society)

July 6th, 1882: '..report by an astronomer, N.S.Drayton, upon an object duration of which seemed to him extraordinary, duration three-quarters of a minute, Jersey City..' (BoD)

November 15th, 1882: This letter was printed in The Times, November 20th, 1882. 'Sir,-It may be of some interest to your many scientific readers, to know that at the present moment there is an enormous spot on the sun's disc, not only unusually large, but making also very rapid transformations of shape. To those who have powerful telescopes these changes are of exceeding interest. I have not noticed so large a spot for many years. / The general contour of the "penumbra" is nearly circular and measures 56,037 miles in its longer axis and 51,106 miles in its shorter axis. The "umbra" is of an extraordinary shape from its numerous ramifications. The greatest length of this is 39,266 miles and its greatest breadth 23,052 miles. / The telescope used in these measurements was an eight and a half inch equatorial, by Messrs. Cooke and Sons, York. / I beg to remain, Sir, yours obediently, FREDERICK BRODIE, F.R.A.S. Observatory Fernhill, Wootton-bridge, Isle of Wight...'

November 17th, 1882: E.W.Maunder, Superintendent at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and others, saw a greenish object, torpedo-shaped and luminous. He definitely did not link it to an auroral display and after seeing zeppelins in the First World War, he linked it in shape to these airships.

February 23rd, 1883: Camille Flammarion, who is still very well-known in our day and one of the most known astronomical writers of all times, saw an object remaining stationary for some time, he could not link to anything known to him. He saw also at other times objects similar to this one: he even named them Bradytes.

April 15th & 25th, 1883: At Marseilles, Monsieur Bruguiere observed bodies crossing the sun that were 'irregular in form. Some of them moved as if in alignment.' (BoD)

August 12th, 1883: Bonilla, director of Zacatecas Observatory, Mexico saw whilst observing sun-spots, not less than 283 bodies crossing the sun. He admits the count was only approximate, as many appeared at the same time. Photos taken are still in existence - the earliest known UFO photos. Some objects were also seen the following day. (UFOsTSH)

February 5th, 1884: 'Mr.Lopez Morales, Director of the Meteorological Observatory of Almeria (Spain): On some luminous red points observed on the Moon. On the subject of an analogous observation by Mr.Jose Braziliano de Souza (Brazil), the writer recalls an observation of 5 february 1884: at 2 o'clock in the morning, a portion of the lunar cirque in the form of a crescent appeared luminous in the walls of the crater Kepler, near to Encke, the convexity directed to the South-East.' (Societe Astronomique de France, Seance du 5 mars 1890)

February 7th, 1884: Astronomers at Brussels Observatory, Belgium did notice from that day until Feb.16th, an extremely bright spot on the planet Venus, which moved away from it on the 16th February.

September 16th, 1884: Professor Haywood of Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio, USA, reported that between 3.30 and 4a.m., he had observed a bright glow covering the dark part of the Moon. Though considered by him to be an electrical manifestation - it was too bright to be earth shine and obscured the features of the surface of the Moon - he admitted 'This latter fact is puzzling and unsatisfactory.'

February 21st & 22nd, 1885: '..Lorenzo Kropp, an astronomer of Paysandu, Uraguay, writes that, upon Feb. 21, 1885, he had seen, in Cassini, a formation not far from Hercules, both of them in the northwestern quadrant of the moon, a reddish smoke or mist. he had heard that several other persons had seen, not a misty appearance, but a star-like light here, and upon the 22nd he had seen a definite light, himself, shining like the planet Saturn.' (NL)

August 22nd, 1885: Two amateur astronomers, Reveillere and Guiberteau witnessed at Saigon a phenomenon lasting about eight minutes, an object crossing from south to southeast, red in colour, certainly much slower than a meteor.

November 1st, 1885: A Turkish amateur astronomer, Mavrogordato, reported an elongated object, very luminous, near Adrianapole, 4-5 times larger than the full moon. The time was about 9:30 p.m. Another report on the next day near Skutari, Albania, forwarded through the same astronomer, described a blueish-greenish object, making a series of turns before falling into the sea after 90 seconds.

May 11th, 1886: Marseilles, France; 8pm. From sighting report by A.Fauchier - '..observing the Moon.. my attention was drawn to two points reflecting an extraordinarily brilliant light and of a kind that I had never seen there before that day and that I have never seen again since; this light was iridescent and surpassed by several times in brightness the most luminous parts of this heavenly body seen in the same light conditions in other instances...' These anomalous lights were witnessed at the south of Plato. (L'Astronomie 6) Complete report is in 19th Century sightings

1886: Dr.Max Wolf saw something obscure a star for three and a half seconds. (BoD)

November 30th, 1888(?): Palermo, Italy. Senor Ricci of the Palermo observatory saw "a number of spindle-shaped flying objects crossing the sun's disc at a great height."

(UFOsTSH - date uncertain, see Nov.30, 1880)

October 27th, 1890: From the Observatory at Grahamstown, South Africa, Eddie watched a comet-like body, that moved one hundred degrees during the three-quarters of an hour period of observation. John Dreyer at Armagh Observatory read of this sighting, and reported a similar observation (as did others). (BoD)

April 4th, 1892: A Dutch astronomer, Muller saw a large black disc slowly crossing the moon, unexplainable to him.

August 13th, 1892: Professor Barnard reported seeing an unknown object close to Venus. (FSOM)

March 7th, 1893: The French astronomer Raymond Coulon saw at Val de la Haye Observatory, France, a clearly defined object, looking like an elongated pear, of an iridescent and luminous nature. He could not explain it.

November 25th, 1894: 'A light-reflecting body, or a bright spot near Mars - seen..by Prof.William Pickering and A.E.Douglass, at the Lowell Observatory, above an unilluminated part of Mars - self-luminous, it would seem - thought to have been a cloud - but estimated to have been about twenty miles away from the planet.' (BoD)

August 11th, 1895: 'Remarkable Bolide. -- I was the witness Sunday 11 August, at 9 in the evening, to a curious phenomenon. A bolide traversed the sky in a west to south direction between Ophiuchus and the Scorpion. At the altitude of Ed Ophiuchus, the meteor split in two, and formed two glowing nucleii about 1 deg. distant from each other, and connected by a luminous trail. In that manner, the two bolides followed the same trajectory and lost themselves in the misty horizon. CHATELET, at Avignon.' (L'Astronomie vol.9)

September 16th, 1895: 'Celestial Phenomenon. -- Today, 16 September, at the time when a very clear sky adorned the town of Saint-Helier, I was watching, at 9.14 in the evening, from the window of my hotel, the giant constellation of Cygnus, which was at the time situated around the zenith altitude, when a sheet of intense and blinding light ran across the sky from North to South with breathtaking speed.

As a passenger on board the steamer Le Honfleur, I was stunned during the crossing, by the exceptional clearness of the firmament, made altogether more strange by a vaporous mist spreading out over the whole of the sea. Several people that I spoke to about this unknown light affirmed to me that they had likewise seen it and that it was not an electric light.

PAUL ROULAND, at Saint-Helier. Island of Jersey, September 1895.' (L'Astr. v9)

December 1895: Muller, of Nymegen, Holland saw a luminous object near Venus.

July 31st, 1896: At Smith Observatory, U.S.A., astronomers noticed a dark circular disc-shaped object going across the moon's surface very quickly, timed at about four seconds, which should prove its closeness to Earth. / Coming back to the moon and various observations of lights, etc., in England in the Seventies or so of the 19th century, an astronomer, Birt, deposited at the Royal Astronomical Society over 1500 observations of lights, moving objects and changes of brightness, mostly in the crater Plato, which is, with its about 60 miles diameter quite a prominent feature of the moon.

September 20th/21st, 1896: Echo Mountain, California, USA; evening. Dr.L.Swift observed a 'luminous object' about one degree above the sun - '..Going out on the veranda, the object was seen more distinctly. At first it occurred to me that it might be a small fire on the mountain, but this idea was quickly dispelled, as one-half of the sun's disk was still above the mountain, and the object still higher. Seizing an opera glass I saw that it had a very much fainter companion some 30' north, but it could not be seen without the glass. In about four minutes after the sun had set the two objects also disappeared behind the mountain. / Both objects were seen by some fifteen people... Last evening I began a search with the comet-seeker with the sun 10[degree sign] in altitude, but nothing was seen until fully one half of the sun had disappeared when I caught sight of it, but its faintness surprised me, for it was less bright through the telescope than with the naked eye the previous evening... / I only saw it for 5 seconds... I estimate that the object disappeared simultaneously with the sun's upper limb. / The only thing that perplexes me about this strange affair is, that the sun, object, and companion, were not in line, but must have deviated from it by 30 [degrees] or more.' (The Astronomical Journal XVII)

January 3rd, 1898: At 8.40pm, a Monsieur Georget observed something unusual in the sky while returning home - '..I saw in the northeast, at an elevation of 30-40 degrees, a luminous meteor, fairly bright, having the the same colour as the planet Mars, travelling at a relatively slow rate through the sky. It went away toward the north and disappeared at the horizon at a point that formed an alignment with the satrs Zeta and Eta Ursae Majris, behind the hills situated to the north of Vannes, about eight or ten kilometres away, and about 110 metres higher than the town itself. / It went through a trajectory of 45 degrees in five or six minutes, during which time it steadily lost brightness, as a luminous body would if it went away. About the time of its disappearance, one could see a yellow or reddish flash. / I was able to examine this meteor for a few minutes with a small telescope of 30 mm.. It seemed to be formed by two luminous bodies, A and B, situated at approximately the same elevation, the brighter one, A, being in front. Remarkable peculiarity: the motion of B was affected by sudden oscillations, which lasted about half a second. Four or five oscillations were counted per minute. These objects gave the appearance of two balloons linked together.' When published in the periodical Comptes Rendus, this sighting was compared to a sighting by Schmidt, on October 19th, 1863. (CTSc)

April 25th, 1898: Prof. J.Michailovitch of Belgrade Observatory saw for about six minutes an object hovering over Belgrade. He referred to it as a 'comet,' but it obviously did not behave like one.

June 29th, 1898: A French astronomer, Lucien Libert, who was in the habit of observing and recording meteors at every possible opportunity, saw - '..at 1hr. 03m.A.M., a bolide with very slow motion (that) glided in sixty seconds from Hercules to Ursa Major. Its diameter was 25 seconds of arc, and it was very bright and white in colour.' (CTSc)

July 4th, 1898: Lucien Libert - '..I was in my observatory when suddenly, at 7hrs. 10m. 18s., I saw a luminous body appear above a tree at the northern horizon. It was of a beautiful golden-yellow colour and perfectly spherical. Its apparent diameter was one-fourth that of the moon. This object started from the north-northeast, rose slowly in the sky, went through the zenith, then started losing brightness as it went down toward the horizon. It disappeared at elevation 30 degrees above the above the west-southwest horizon, near Venus, at 7hrs. 22m. 44s. Its duration, therefore, was twelve minutes, twenty-six seconds. It is by far the longest duration I have observed. A short time before it disappeared it increased its speed... A fairly strong noise of explosion was heard a few seconds after its disappearance.' (CTSc)

May 6th, 1899: Monsieur Libert, again - '..at 8:30 P.M., a magnificent bolide with a very, very slow motion, of yellow colour and surrounded with a shower of sparks, appeared in the constellation of the Scale. Night had not completely come and it was difficult to ascertain points of comparison. Only Jupiter and Spica were visible. This bolide had a completely peculiar shape, which I cannot compare to anything better than a tadpole's head. There was a very bright point in front, and a tail with extremely fast movements of undulation.' (CTSc)

June 7th, 1899: M.Libert - '..at 9 hrs. 25m. 32s. P.M., a yellow bolide, very slow, of the magnitude of Venus, leaving no trail, went from Ophiuchus to Scorpio in twelve seconds. (CTSc)

February 9th, 1902: M.Libert - '..at 7 hrs. 40m. P.M., I observed with MM.Schoux, Marcel Libert and Lucien Briand an extremely remarkable bolide, of the magnitude of Venus. It started from the position of Capella, at a point I estimate to be about five hours of right ascension and +45 degrees declination, and went on a straight line toward beta Persei, which it reached in about three seconds. Having reached the vicinity of this star, it suddenly changed direction, followed a sort of loop and went toward Aldebaran with a curved trajectory. When it was about to disappear it split into three or four objects of approximately second magnitude. The whole observation had lasted about twelve seconds. the point of disappearance was about 4 hrs. 50m. of right ascension and +20 degrees of declination. The bolide left a trail that lasted about one and one-half minutes.' (CTSc)

November 20th 1902: ' (At) 9.27 a.m., Mr.Griffiths, the assistant astronomer at Adelaide Observatory and colleague were taking weather observations when a "brilliant globular light" appeared to the SSE at about 45 degrees elevation. It moved slowly north and remained visible until 9.31 a.m., covering about 20 degrees of arc in that time, and was lost sight of about 45 degrees above the northern horizon. When it was near overhead it appeared elongated "and took an elliptical form" with its axis in the direction of motion. (FATA/Bill Chalker)

May 25th, 1903: A body was seen on the terminator of Mars, later reported by Professor Percival Lowell, of Lowell Observatory. (BoD)

December 24th, 1909: '..amateur astronomer, James Fergusen, of Limerick, Ireland, reported watching a brightly lighted object rise over the northeastern horizon, maneuvering generally southward for twenty minutes, then retracing its course and vanishing below the horizon at two minutes past nine...' (FS-SB)

May 22nd, 1911: 'Curious meteoric phenomenon - On the 22 May, about 11.49 (Konigstahl mean time), a feeble meteor was observed following an oblique 4 deg. trajectory, going from east to west. It passed over the star y of the Eagle with great speed. Its breadth was around 15' and it disappeared, leaving behind it a light trail that faded immediately. Nevertheless, the star remained invisible at least three and a half seconds after the meteor's disappearance, as if the light had been absorbed by the substance that this had abandoned in space. Dr MAX WOLF Director of the Observatory of Heidelberg.' (L'Astr. v25)

January 27th-28th, 1912: Astronomer Frank B.Harris wrote to Popular Astronomy and The Times that he saw "a huge object of some kind, moving across the moon's surface." He stated that the object was opaque, black, approximately 250 miles long and 50 miles wide, and close enough to the surface to cast a shadow on the moon. Observation spanned 10.30pm-2am. (PA 20, 1912/MU)

December 11th, 1915: At Glenorchy, Tasmania, astronomer Bernald Thomas saw "a particularly bright spot" on the north shore of the Mare Crisium that "looked like a star." (English Mechanic, 203-12)

December 1915: In the lunar crater Aristarchus, 'a.. new black wall that had not been there before..' was observed. It ran '..from the center to the rim..' (FredSt)

May 14th, 1916: At Cordoba Observatory, Argentina, astronomers Perrine and Glancy noticed an object, similar to a comet near the zenith, with '..proper motion of ten degrees an hour, visible one hour..' (BoD)

1918 approximately: Mr.Erwin Schoen, a native of Austria and (subsequently) a resident for many years in Australia, while hiking near the Austrian ammunition town of Steyr with friends, saw during the First World War, a round object, similar to the size of the full moon, cruising over Steyr. he was on a mountain at the time and remembers that the object seemed to rotate, afterward moving in one direction. Visible 2-4 minutes.

1922: 'Three long artificial looking mounds, or objects, appeared on the floor of the (lunar) crater Archimedes. Later, three more objects were discovered not far away, composed in the form of a triangle.' (FredSt)

circa-1936: The 100 inch telescope at Mount Wilson, USA, aimed at the lunar crater Cassendi, photographed '..a remarkable "tube system".. while some of these constructions were growing, others have been removed..' (FredSt)

October 1939: One night, at Wisconsin Rapids, in Wisconsin State, USA, '..an egg-shaped object with 8 spots like portholes was observed through an astronomical reflector telescope..' (FATA/NICAP)

May 3rd, 1947: USA; Nighttime - 'An amateur astronomer in Boulder, Colorado, after training his telescope on the moon, saw a dark object hurtle across the disk of the moon in a horizontal straight line path.' (Pr.N47)

June 24th, 1947: The same day that Kenneth Arnold had his sighting of "Flying Saucers", astronomer Fred Johnson in Oregon saw these objects, according to his later declaration.

July 3rd, 1947: Harborside, Maine, USA. At 2.30 pm, astronomer John Cole of South Brooksville, Maine, watched ten very light objects, with two dark forms to their left, for 10-15 seconds. They moved like a swarm of bees, and a loud roar was heard. (PrBBE) '..Air Material Command publicly explained it as birds or insects, although the Air Force's Project Grudge later listed the sighting as an "unusually well-supported incident" with no explanation..' (Dolan)

July 10th, 1947: An eliptical UFO was seen by astronomer Dr.Lincoln La Paz and his family near Port Sumner, New Mexico, (driving) by car with wife and child. He saw a luminous unknown object sort of oscillating beneath the clouds. Its brightness was stronger than the planet Jupiter and its shape regular and elliptical. The nature of this object was unknown to the astronomer.

Info from Life 5/5/52 article: 'The object "..exhibited a sort of wobbling motion" and then disappeared behind some clouds. It reappeared and "projected against the dark clouds gave the strongest impression of self-luminosity." The object then moved slowly from south to north and two and a half minutes behind a cloudbank. / According to the astronomer's calculations, confirmed by his wife, who with their two daughters was with him, the object was 235 feet long and 100 feet thick. Its horizontal speed ranged between 120 and 180 miles per hour and its vertical rise between 600 and 900 miles per hour.' (JGuieu)

June or July 1947: Jyvaskyla, Finland - 'A technician who was also an amateur astronomer was reading a book after midnight and saw a metallic cigar-shaped object flying at a distance of about two kilometers from northwest to southeast. A bluish light was seen at the end of the cigar. It was flying a lot faster than the airplanes of the time. the observation lasted about 30 seconds.' (Pr.N47)

1948: 'F.H.Thornton.. saw a brilliant flash of light at the western rim of Plato. He likened it to the flash of an antiaircraft shell exploding in the air ten miles away.' (SEMoon)

April 24th, 1949: Charles Moore, a highly qualified meteorologist, whilst launching a weather balloon saw an elongated object at White Sands proving grounds, crossing the horizon in about one minute. The sighting was seen by five others. Similar sightings were also at the same place earlier that month.

August 20th, 1949: Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto in 1930, saw at about 10:45 p.m. while sitting outside his home at Las Cruces, New Mexico, with his wife and mother-in-law, between six and eight greenish objects which were travelling soundlessly across the sky. He reported - 'In all of my several thousand hours of night sky-watching, I have never seen anything so strange as this. I was so astonished that my impression of it was somewhat confused. How I wished I could have had some binoculars at hand. No sound whatever.' (Michel)

Letter from Clyde Tombaugh to Richard Hall, dated September 10th 1957: 'Dear Mr.Hall: Regarding the solidity of the phenomenon I saw: My wife thought she saw a faint connecting glow across the structure. The illuminated rectangles I saw did maintain an exact fixed position with respect to each other, which would tend to support the impression of solidity. I doubt that the phenomenon was any terrestrial reflection, because some similarity to it should have appeared many times. I do a great deal of observing (with telescopic and unaided eye) in the backyard and nothing of the kind has ever appeared before or since.' (AId/TUE)

1949: Witness Bertrand Collin, New Zealand - 'My second sighting.. I was studying the stars through my telescope when suddenly four objects in doamond formation passed overhead. They had stubby flanges instead of wings, with short thick bodies. They looked dark, and did not shine. the next morning, the newspapers carried reports of mysterious cobweb-like substance falling from the sky and draping itself across fences and telegraph wires, which melted on being touched.' (MHervey)

Christmas Eve, 1949: Witness Mr.R.Henderson, Melbourne, Australia - 'As an ex-member of the Astronomical Society, and with considerable knowledge of the appearance of meteors, planets, etc., I know a UFO when I see one. The object I saw is still vivid in my memory... I first sighted, in my usual admiration of the stars, a UFO. At an angle of 30 degrees in a north-west direction, I saw a bright orange light travelling due east across the northern section of extreme northern suburbs; this is the opposite direction of travel of stars, etc. / The UFO stopped about 10 degrees east of north, at about a 30-degree elevation. It remained stationary for some time and pulsed with a regular steady beat of light, but now a dull red colour instead of orange it had whilst travelling along. / In its stationary position the dull red colour was almost hard to see; the UFO was still stationary but after about twenty minutes in this position it became brighter. It went from dull red to bright red, and then to bright orange. At a terrific speed it went from 10 degrees north to a position slightly north from my east viewpoint. It slowed down from bright orange to its usual red to its pulsating dull red whilst stationary again. It remained in this stationary position for about fifteen to twenty minutes. / From this position it went due south, to a position SSE and a bright orange whilst in motion, where it again became stationary and a dull red colour. This time it remained only a short time and proceeded in a north-westerly direction almost overhead across the city at a terrific speed and bright orange.' (MHervey)

February 16th, 1950: Mount Hamilton, Santa Clara County, California - 'Dr.C.D.Shane, an astronomer at Lick Observatory saw and made 8 photographic plates of a queer flying object very high in the sky and moving unusually fast. He considered it one of the most unusual objects sighted in the sky, and saw it only by chance.' (UFOPhATW/FSOM)

March 2nd, 1950: 'MEXICO CITY, March 11 (U.P.). The director of a Mexican observatory today produced a photograph of a flying saucer but it looked more like an amateur's snapshot of a klieg light. / The photograph was a black square with a diagonal band of light across it. The caption in the newspaper Excelsior said it was "possibly the only picture of a flying saucer which existed outside of the larger countries." / Luis Enrique Erro, director of the Tonantzintla Astronomical Observatory where the photograph was made, said: "The strange object crossed the sky March 2. Since that day we have wondered what it could have been. We don't know." / Meanwhile, dozens of reports of flying saucers poured into the capital from all over Mexico. The "saucer craze" began shortly after a Mexico City newspaper printed a series of articles which appeared in Time magazine.'

March 9th, 1950: 'Next day, March 9, the saucer again visited Durango at noon. This time its movements and appearance were carefully checked by a scientist. E.Nuncio, professor of astronomy in the technical school of Durango, studied the saucer through a telescope and other instruments. Afterwards he gave his data to the press. Nuncio said that the saucer maintained 40,000 feet altitude. It was shaped somewhat like a child's top, and had fracture bands around it where its material was joined together. The tip or point of the top was red, and was tilted down and toward the east. Its altitude over the horizon was 53 degrees 20 minutes and its position was southeast. While Nuncio checked, the saucer moved toward the last 3 degrees in each five minutes until it was out of sight. He pointed out that Venus and other heavenly bodies move to the west.' (True 6-50 in LG6)

March 11th, 1950: 'On that day, also, the astronomical observatory at Culiacan watched a disk-like object through the telescope, and in Tampico, Tamaulipas, amateur astronomer Gonzalo Ibanez reported watching a saucer through his telescope at 9 p.m. in the direction of the Great Bear Constellation. It moved toward the southeast at a great velocity.' (True 6-50 in LG6)

March 27th, 1950: Berlin, Germany - An inexplicable body of a brilliance that rivalled the North Star, was seen by astronomers zigzagging its way westward, occasionally pausing.

May 6th, 1950(?): Palomar Gardens, California - At 3.30pm, Amateur astronomer Mr.George Adamski '..observed and photographed a huge bright cigar shape crossing the face of the Moon..' He also '..shot a picture of 3 luminous UFOs near the limb of the Moon..' (UFOPhATW/CotS/FSHL)

May 20th, 1950: Seymour Hess, an astronomer at Flagstaff Observatory, Arizona, saw a metallic looking disc, unexplainable to him:

(From AId/TUE) '..between 12.15 & 12.20 p.m., Dr.Seymour L.Hess, a meteorologist, astronomer, and an expert on planetary atmospheres, observed a bright, at least partially spherical object in the sky from the grounds of Lowell Observatory. According to his account of the incident, which he wrote within one hour of the sighting, the object was definitely neither a bird nor an airplane, as it had no wings or propellers. Although it appeared to be very bright against the sky, as it passed between Hess and a small cumulous cloud in the Northwest its colour appeared dark. Based on the object's elevation and angular diameter as he perceived it through 4-power binoculars, Hess calculated its size to be approximately 3 to 5 feet. Judging from the movement of the clouds, which were drifting at right angles to the motion of the object, he estimated that the object must have been moving at about 100mph and possibly as fast as 200 mph. However, he neither saw nor heard any sign of an engine. Dr.Hess was head of the Department of Meteorology at Florida State University as of 1964.'

'Astronomer says disc he saw wasn't plane FLAGSTAFF, Ariz., May 23.- (U.P.) - Seymour L.Hess, Lowell observatory astronomer, said today he saw a bright disc cutting through the clouds and that it "definitely was not an airplane." / He said in a signed statement that he spotted the object in the southwestern skies around 12:15 p.m. last Saturday. / Through four-power binoculars, it looked at first like a parachute, he said. / "But this may have been just the section of one-half of a spherical object, the other half being in shadows. The object presented a visible disc to the naked eye. It definitely was not an airplane." / Williams Air Force base near Phoenix, Ariz., disclaimed any knowledge of the object. The Air Force repeatedly has denied the existence of flying saucers.' (FSOA)

May 27th, 1950: Palomar Gardens, California - At 8.30 pm '..George Adamski observed and photographed through his telescope two luminous objects seen against the Moon..' / At 10.30 pm, he '..observed and photographed two lens-shaped luminous flying objects in the sky an estimated 75 and 100 miles distant. He made the pictures through his home-made telescope and camera set-up. In the developed print two more similar objects may be seen much farther away.. the objects were leaving faint luminous trails behind them in the sky.' (UFOPhATW/CotS)

May 29th, 1950: Palomar Gdns. - 'George Adamski obs. & ph'd. 6 luminous UFOs in formation in the sky in the direction of the Moon. The Moon is seen in the background.' (UFOPhATW/FSHL)

One of a series of 5 stamps issued by Grenada, in 1978, to commemorate the 'Year of UFOs' - the picture on the right-hand side of this one is based on the formation photograph taken by George Adamski on May 29th, 1950. (UFOsTSH)

June 6th, 1950: Palomar Gdns. - At 2.30 am, 'George Adamski obs. and ph'd. a brightly luminous object in front of the Moon...' (UFOPhATW)

June 27th, 1950: U.S.A. 'Dr.J.C.Bartlett, a well-known American amateur astronomer recorded what appeared to be a conspicuous, bright central peak within the shadow-filled interior of the crater Herodotus without attaching any significance to it. Not until four years later, after resumption of observational survey of the region and referring to his earlier work did he realise that the floor of Herodotus is almost featureless and that it certainly does not contain a central elevation! Subsequent research and consultation with his observer colleagues revealed the following: - 1) It had previously been noted by him in Nov.1949 though unwittingly. 2) It was independently seen by the English selenographer Dr.H.P.Wilkins in March 1950. 3) Recovered again on July 27th, 1950. It has not been seen since by Dr.Bartlett. (Uranus)

August 25th, 1950: '(Patrick) Moore says that "flashes on the Moon are very rare indeed. However, some have been recorded, notably by the ALPO (Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers) observers and by Tsuneo Saheki in Japan, who, on 25th August 1950, saw what he termed a stationary yellowish-white flare lasting for quarter of a second." / Rare? Thousands of reports of flashes, glows, and flares add up to "rare"?' (SEMoon)

March 5th, 1951: Palomar Gdns. - At 10.30 am, 'George Adamski claimed he observed and photographed through his telescope a large dark cigar shape, seen launching smaller luminous domed disc shapes with bright lights all around the rims, until five of them are seen in the last picture together with the larger mothership.' (UFOPhATW/ITSp)

March 9th, 1951: Palomar Gdns. - At 9.00 am 'George Adamski observed through his 6" Newtonian telescope and photographed through the same device.. a large submarine-shaped spacecraft operating at very high altitude above Southern California.' (UFOPhATW/ITSp)

August 3rd, 1951: three miles south of Pinckney, Michigan, USA; shortly after 11pm. Professor Walter N.Webb, Chief Lecturer on Astronomy of the Charles Hayden Planetarium in Boston, was acting as nature counselor at a boys' camp on the shores of Silver Lake - '..He had been letting the boys observe various celestial objects through a small telescope.. (when) he noticed a glowing yellow or yellow-red light moving in an undulating path over the hills at the south end of the lake.. He quickly ruled out the possibility of its having been an inversion effect of some ground-based lights, because the conditions for such a phenomenon were nonexistent...' The light's wavelike trajectory and its very low altitude also meant that it could not be identified as either a plane or planet. (FS-SB)

December 1st, 1951: Palomar Gdns. - At 1.30pm 'George Adamski shot one picture through his telescope of a large disc-shaped object with something like a heatwave radiation coming from the aft rim.' (UFOPhATW)

December 7th, 1951: Sunbury, Ohio, USA. At 4.30 p.m., Carl Loar, an amateur astronomer, saw - through a telescope - a silvery sphere, with two specks on its sides. It seemed to explode and be replaced by a dark cloud and many specks. (PrBBE)

April 2nd, 1952: Fort Worth, Texas. 'A fiery, spherical object crossed the sky in a flat path, within fifteen seconds. Observed by an amateur astronomer who said it was not a meteor, and by two Convair aviation engineers who said that it could not have been an airplane because of its silence.'

April 16th, 1952: 10pm San Jose, California. 'Two glowing globular objects appeared hovering together in the sky. Under examination by a 45-magnitude telescope, they were two reddish glowing globes with a dark belt around each, moving up and down in the sky without horizontal movement. They appeared between Mars and Polaris, but were not stars, since they covered the stars when they moved near them. Two photographs were taken, and one showed an irregular twin track in the sky, that might have been caused by two luminous objects moving close together. Observed by five people, including an amateur astronomer. (DL)

May 1st, 1952: Palomar Gdns. - At 7.58 am 'George Adamski observed and photographed, through his 6" telescope, a large cigar-shaped object very high in the sky.' (UFOPhATW)

May 13th, 1952: National City, California - A Convair design engineer, an ex-Navy Pilot and an amateur astronomer observed a luminescent white, circular object that descended rapidly and circled the area.

Greenville, South Carolina - '..astronomers.. saw four oval-shaped saucers flying in a diamond-shaped formation, wobbling slightly as they flew.' (Dolan)

August 5th, 1952: Baltimore, Maryland - An experienced amateur astronomer observed two copper-like discs.James Bartlett saw, during a daylight observation of Venus, a flight of two discs with a diameter about 30 minutes of arc; passed overhead and turned east. Then two more discs with dome-like protrusions in centre. (NICAP)

September 15th, 1952: '..at about 8 p.m., there was a most interesting sighting by M.J.Grivel at Thies, Senegal, French West Africa. M.Grivel, an amateur astronomer, at once communicated his findings to the Astronomical Society of France which published them in the February number of its journal Astronomie under the title: "A Suspicious Object!" / On September 15, the report stated, a large really luminous spot appeared between the star mu of Scorpio, moving slowly and quite noiselessly eastward, passed near to khi of Scorpio and moved towards Sagittarius. Suddenly, when between the stars Delta and Gamma of Sagittarius, it stopped for a moment, then resumed flight northward and then westward and finally vanished near to Phi of Ophincus. There were no planes at all in the sky and no sounds whatever.' (JGuieu)

September 27th 1952: Inyokern, California, USA. Between 10-10.15 p.m., two couples, using a telescope, watched a single large round object, which went through the colour spectrum every 2 seconds, and flew in a level path. (Pr.BBE)

November 20th, 1952: Desert Center, California, USA. George Adamski's historic contact with Venusian. (FSHL)

December 1st, 1952: Palomar Gardens, California, USA; 1.30pm. 'Mr. George Adamski photographed a dark circular object moving in the sky and leaving a kind of misty trail seen to come from the aft part of the craft.' (UFOPhATW)

December 13th, 1952: Palomar Gardens, California, USA; 9am. 'Mr. George Adamski again shot pictures of the bell-shaped circular craft, taken this time through his 6" homemade telescope.' (UFOPhATW)

J.Allen Hynek polled forty-five fellow astronomers and discovered them all to be frightened of "jeopardising their careers" by showing interest in UFOs. (MDH)

1952: London, Ontario, Canada - W.Gordon Graham, astronomer saw an UFO "like a smoke ring, elliptical in shape, and having two bright pinpoints of light along its main axis, move overhead from west to east." (NICAP)

Gnivan, Ukraine. 'A triangular object raced across the clear summer evening sky.. and was observed by a Soviet astronomer, Mrs.Faminskaya of the Shternberg Astronomy Institute.' The object was yellowish, moved at great speed, and made no sound. (TSUFOF)

Pre-1953: New Mexico, USA - 'A few degrees north of the moon, I noticed what seemed to be a bright star, and then a second star appeared not far from the first... To my surprise, I could bring neither of these objects into clear focus... Both hazy discs shone with a slightly bluish light... We climbed out of the car just in time to see the saucers literally fade away as mysteriously as they had appeared... I have long wondered what it was that I actually saw... But at no time did I have even the slightest suspicion that the objects were of interplanetary origin.' Dr.Donald H.Menzel, Director of Harvard University Observatory. (FSR 9-1)

In a study of over 40 astronomers contained in Blue Book Report No.8 of December 31, 1952, five were found to have seen a UFO - thought to be a higher percentage than applicable to the general population at the time.

January 1953: Marham, Norfolk, UK; about 3pm. Marie L.Martin, who had 'a very great interest in astronomy and in any flying aircraft,' was gazing up at the sky. It was a brilliant afternoon. She noticed what she took to be a jet aircraft travelling extremely fast, and was then shocked to see what she assumed to be its two wings leave the fuselage. However, it then transpired that instead of the detached objects coming 'hurtling down' and the jet crashing, '..without any loss of speed, they went round, one behind the other, so that in a straight line they continued to race across the sky. Just as abruptly, they came to a halt in midair...' Mrs.Martin was then able to determine that the flying objects were '..round, shiny and metallic, glinting brightly in the rays of the sun...' (WFFF) For complete Marie L.Martin account, click here.

May 29th, 1953: New Zealand - 'An amateur astronomer at Palmerston North reported seeing an unusual object.. while observing the planet Venus. He described the UFO as being rather small and blue in colour. It dived and manoeuvred in the sky and then made off rapidly with an irregular motion. / Later he saw a large amount of filament-like substance floating down from the sky, which he examined under a microscope. They were white in colour and ashy in texture. The filaments were also seen by a reporter belonging to the staff of the Manawatu Evening Standard.' (MHervey)

July 29th, 1953: As John J.O'Neill '..was studying the moon's Mare Crisium, where earlier he had seen only "the clear sweep of the great sea," he saw something which spanned an estimated 12 miles distance, something that could only be called a "bridge."' (Understanding 4-68)

October 6th, 1953: Norwich, England; 7.15pm - Mr.F.W.Potter, a member of the Norwich Astronomical Society, was observing the night sky of Norwich with a 3.5-inch refractor telescope, when he saw a very bright object coming from the south-west: "I focused on it and found the light given from the object was not reflected sunlight, as I first believed, but an internal light being sent out from a fixed apparatus situated around the dome. The rays or beams of light could be seen distinctly from the dome and attached directly beneath it was a much larger and flattened dome with a protruding band running in a circumference around its edge. This was clearly seen in the telescope by the rays of light thrown out from the apertures in the top dome. The underneath of the large flattened bottom dome was hollow and appeared to be glowing red, but there were no vapour trails or gases to be seen. / It did not rotate but kept the same portion of the dome towards the telescope until it changed its angular course. Then it gave me a chance to visualise another of the apertures that previously had been hidden from view. It was then travelling to the north-east and disappearing from view." (ACA)

January 3rd, 1954: 'Mr.John W.Boyle, vice-president of the Victoria (Australia) branch of the British Astronomical Association, saw at 11 a.m.. visible for 30 seconds, what at first looked like a "piece of paper" blown by the wind, at a height of about 30,000 feet. But there was little wind, and the object resolved itself into something like aluminium, rocking from side to side and flashing in the sunlight. each time it flashed, a halo of purple shone round it.. If the object had been 30,000 feet up, he thought its speed might be 1,000 miles an hour, "five degrees a second," and its diameter about 60 feet. Mr.Boyle emphatically denies that what he saw was a cosmic ray balloon. He does not dismiss the theory that the object was interplanetary. "Anybody," he say, "who denies the possibility that these things may be visitors from other planets, is eother very frightened, or just plain stupid. Some people as I've seen myself at public lectures on interplanetary travel, become seized with screaming horrors if one talks of little men landing on the earth."' (FSOM)

May 5th, 1954: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Astronomy students witnessed a V-formation of UFOs. (The Temporal Doorway/TUE)

May 15th, 1954: Southampton, UK. An amateur astronomer viewed 18 UFOs in V-formation. "Windows" were visible in some of the objects through a telescope. (TTDoorway/TUE)

Berlin, Germany; about 10.15 pm - three round luminous bodies that flew at great height, on a zig-zag course, were observed by two amateur astronomers. The men, Wolfgang Kobski and Rudi Fibich said that what they had seen could not have been meteors, stars or an hallucination. (FSNews6)

June 11th, 1954: (Charleston, West Virginia - Atlanta, Georgia, USA) 'The late Percy Wilkins was among the world's foremost astronomers and, quite possibly, its premier selenographer... The English scientist is the source of a remarkable account. During a plane journey along the eastern seaboard he glanced out of his window at about 10:45 toward a cluster of cumoulous clouds a couple of miles away. Immediately above them, Dr.Wilkins sighted two radiant ovoids about which he remarked: "They looked exactly like polished metal dinner plates reflecting the sunlight as they flipped and banked around beside the clouds. Presently a third object came slowly out of a huge cloud, remaining motionless in the shadow of the cloud and therefore darker than the others. Presently it zipped away and plunged into another cloud mass. After about two minutes, the first two did the same manoeuvre and I did not see them again.' (PFl)

July 6th, 1954: Duluth, Minnesota, USA. Frank Halstead, his assistant at Darling Observatory, and sixteen visitors, all observed a straight black line on the floor of the lunar crater Piccolomini, that had not previously been there. The observation lasted for several hours, and was confirmed by observations made at Tulane Observatory, and by well-known amateur astronomer Frank Manning. (FS-SB)

July 8th, 1954: Wigan, Lancashire, England. British astronomer, Mr.Harold Hill, saw a silvery object with fifteen to twenty smaller satellite objects. (Ln) For Mr.Hill's personal account click here.

August 10th, 1954: USA - 'Amateur astronomer Edward Heinhold was observing Saturn with his four-inch reflector telescope, when he saw in that area six lights moving in a straight line. They were evenly spaced, except for two which were near together. Going east, they covered horizon to horizon in fifteen minutes - up to 11 P.M. His station is at Cedarhurst, Long Island. The front lights suddenly disappeared, then two more lights followed suit, and thirty seconds later, the remaining lights vanished while still above the horizon. Their altitude "must have been terrific."' (FSUnc.)

September 5th, 1954: USA - 'Three amateur astronomers at Rockford, Ill., claim to have seen through a six-inch telescope, a spherical object ascending from Mare Humboldt area of the moon, of a size estimated at one quarter of the diameter of the lunar crater Vlaco. velocity very great - over a 29 feet 30 inch arc in 40 minutes. They think it travelled under power, and was ascending in space. They estimate its length as close to two and a half miles.' (FSUnc.)

September 6th, 1954: Baltimore, Maryland, USA. An amateur astronomer saw 4 UFOs, three of which changed formation. (TTDoorway/TUE)

October 10th, 1954: 'In Alexandria, Egypt, observatories see cylindrical flying saucer, red and green.' (FSUnc.)

October 2-, 1954: '..it was on October 27, 1954.. that Yugoslavia officially announced that a serious investigation of UFOs would be undertaken in that country. On the preceding monday a strange object had been observed over that country by astronomers, meteorologists, and pilots, as well as average citizens.' (UFOWhS)

October 31st, 1954: India; 6pm - '..in Calcutta.. a mysterious object passed only five miles to the north of Dum Dum Airdrome. Reports described it speeding at more than 2,000 ft., around 500 mph. The unknown remained in view on a sraight course for about a minute as observers agreed that it made no audible sounds. An officer in the control tower described it as a bright object with a long luminous tail of diffused white light. Area astronomer Father F.Goreux of St.Xavier College Obs. and senior professor at Calcutta University stated that it could not have been an astronomical object. He added: "that is certain."' (MDH)

November 8th, 1954: 'Dr.Francisco Aniceto Lugo of Caracas, Venezuela, saw a reddish, star-like point of light at a spot close to the base of the western outer wall of the crater Kepler. It was obscured for an hour and described as artificial-looking and very obvious. Nothing similar has been seen here either before or since though often looked for. Clearly not an impact flare, it is difficult to imagine what it could have been. (Uranus, 12-60)

November 24th, 1954: England - 'White disc "like a small moon" moving across the sky - seen through two and a half inch telescope by a member of Southampton Astronomical Society (Mrs.A.Marley), at 12.15 a.m. It was not visible to the naked eye. It was moving dead south over Southampton Water - but suddenly turned on itself - and came back.' (FSNews8)

December 1954: Mr.Cloris Hamel of La Florida, Venezuela was viewing the moon through a 125-power telescope, when 'a fleet of opaque objects' showed up, crossing the moon's disc. (UFOWhS)

March 8th, 1955: 'Amateur astronomer, Mr.Lonzo Dove observed and photographed a round luminous object near the apparent edge of the Moon.' (UFOPhATW)

March 15th, 1955: 'University of Miami Senior Robert Leventhal, 200 SW 58th Street, an amateur astronomer, was out in his yard with a telescope at 10.50 p.m. yesterday when he saw a "round, oval-shaped, bluish-white disc." / It traveled quickly from southeast in "an irregular motion in about a minute," he told police. "It was bright as a second magnitude star." / "It wasn't a plane or meteor," he said, "and I don't have nay idea of what it actually was. But it looked like something I saw in the sky about two years ago in Ithaca, N.Y., along with thirty other people."' (TUAn)

April 7th, 1955: Two sightings by Bill Raub of San Jose, California: 'Mr.Raub has been most helpful with news items and personal sightings. He reported personally to your editor that on April 7th, 1955, at approximately 9:10 p.m. he observed the moon through 7 by 50 binoculars. The moon was at first quarter. On the dark side, near the edge farthest from sunlight, he saw a light which he describes as "much brighter than one of Jupiter's moons." He watched it for several minutes, and then, suddenly, it was gone. / On the same day, Mr.Raub and Leo Denny saw two black objects traveling very fast in the sky. Jets were nearby, and were of entirely different shape. Also, the jets left vapor trails, which the objects did not. / The UFO's disappeared when they got near the sun, but the jets were seen in silhouette against the sun.' (TUAn)

May 24th, 1955: Testimony from well-known British author/astronomer V.A.Firsoff - 'On May 24, 1955, on the southern horn of the 'sickle'-moon, two bright points were seen where the sunlight touched the peaks of the Leibnitz region. Between these two bright points there was a third light, fainter than them, and it (and only it) was jumping about and sparkling. Finally, a fainter shaft of light came out of it and shot up vertically into the sky above the Moon's surface, flaring in intensity as it climbed while simultaneously dying away at the base. Then it vanished. The total length of the shaft of light, exclusive of its projection, would have been some 100 miles, and its upward movement lasted for two seconds or possibly somewhat longer. I tried to check to see whether it could be illusory, maybe due to the telescope, but without success, and it does seem that the phenomenon was real.'

'..the Moscow astronomer V.I.Timkov.. from the outskirts of the town of Ordzhonikidze in the Caucasus.. at approximately the very same time, observed the upward movement of a similar shaft of light.' (Alexei Arkhipov, FSR 41-2 [trans:G.Creighton])

June 3rd 1955: Letter sent by Eugene Metcalfe of Paris, Illinois, USA - 'Dear Mr.Jessup: After reading The Case for the UFO, I have been scanning the skies more than ever with my three inch stellar telescope, mostly at the moon. You are right about the small planets between the Earth and Moon. I found this to be true on June 3, 1955. There are at least four such planets that are visible to the eye, but you have to look through a 'scope to see they are so near! I saw four shadows crossing the Moon and watched them from 8:30 until 11:30 p.m...' (TUAn)

June 16th, 1955: 'An aircraft of the flying saucer class was sighted last night from Waterbury (Connecticut, USA), according to a 12-year-old boy who said astronomy was his hobby. / The boy, Joseph Lamontagne, of 28 Dixie Avenue, said he was sure the object he saw was not an optical illusion, nor a conventional airplane. / Joseph related he was outside his home scanning the sky with a four-inch diameter telescope, when the noiseless object moved into his view. / Carrying four yellow lights on top, and one green light below, the aircraft seemed to be oval shaped, the boy said. He reported the object, in view about two minutes, moved fast from the south and disappeared over the western horizon. / Asked if he could have mistaken the yellow and green lights for recognition lights on a military aircraft. Joseph reiterated that he did not think the machine was of conventional type. He said his mother could see the lights after the location was pointed out. / A pupil in the seventh grade at Washington School, the boy has been studying astronomy to the point where he can pick out 15 of the 90 known constellations.' (TUAn)

mid-August 1955: Astronomer V.V.Yeremenko made these observations with a home-made telescope - 'Above the surface of the Moon, parallel to its rim and at a distance of approximately 0.2 of a lunar radius, there was flying a shining body resembling a star of the third magnitude. Flying one-third of the circumference (this took 4-5 seconds) the body then plunged downwards at a sharp angle and landed on the surface of the Moon.' (A.Arkhipov, FSR 41-2[trans:G.Creighton])

August 26th, 1955: '..I was observing the moon with my home-built 6-inch reflector, using an Erfle eyepiece and a Goodwin Barlow lens which gave a magnification of 200 times and a 20-minute field. At 7:51 p.m. CST, while examining the neighbourhood of the Apennines, I saw on the dark portion of the moon a bright flare that remained visble for about 35 seconds. It appeared roughly as bright as a 2nd-magnitude star does to the naked eye. The terminator region of the moon had been under survey for about an hour, and I am certain that the flare was not present for many seconds before I saw it. / The position of the flare, as estimated in terms of the diameter of the field of view, was in the neighbourhood of the Carpathian Mountains. this seemed to be too far inside the dark portion of the moon for the object to have been an isolated mountain peak catching the sunlight. The flare remained fairly steady in brightness, fading only slightly before it abruptly disappeared..' Letter to Sky & Telescope from K.E.McCorkle, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. (TUAn)

September 8th, 1955: 'Shortly after sunrise.. I was looking at the moon, high in the sky, through a small 20 power telescope. My attention was directed to the Taurus Mountains at the western edge of Mare Serenitatis when, at 7:35 a.m. EDT, I saw two distinct flashes of light, about a quarter second apart, that seemed to come from the edge of these mountains. / There appeared to be nothing that could have caused reflections in my telescope. The sun was hidden behind trees at the time, and there were no aircraft in the sky.' Letter to Sky & Telescope from W.C.Lambert, Ironton, Ohio, USA. (TUAn)

Morris K.Jessup's first book 'The Case for The UFO' was published in 1955. Here's a biographical sketch from the flyleaf of his later work 'The UFO Annual' - 'Explorer and instructor in Astronomy and Mathematics at the University of Michigan and Drake University, M.K.Jessup completed his Thesis for the Doctorate in Astrophysics at the University of Michigan. He erected and operated the largest refracting telescope in the Southern Hemisphere in South Africa, for the University of Michigan. His research program resulted in several thousand discoveries of physical double-stars which are now catalogued in the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society of London.'

November 1st, 1955: Mojave Desert, about 100 miles west of Las Vegas, USA; daytime. Frank Halstead of Darling Observatory was travelling on a fast train to California with his wife Ann, when she called his attention to an object moving parallel to the train, and at about the same speed, above a range of mountains. This apparent pacing lasted for four or five minutes. The appearance of the object was described to Frank Edwards during a 1959 interview - '..At the time I thought it was a blimp, you know, one of those cigar-shaped dirigibles.. But as I watched it I realised that it could not be a blimp - they are only about two hundred feet long - and this thing was gigantic. It was about eight hundred feet long. I could estimate that because it was so close to the mountain ridges where trees and clumps of trees were visible for comparison..'

While Frank and Ann Halstead were watching this object, a second object suddenly appeared behind it - '..It was a disc-shaped thing. In fact, both the objects were very shiny, we noticed.. (possibly) about one hundred feet in diameter - flat on the bottom with a low dome on the top side.. My wife and I watched the pair of them for two - possibly three - minutes.. Then they began to rise, slowly at first, and a few seconds later, much faster...'

(FS-SB)

'Elegant and immortal utterance by Dr.Richard van der Riet Woolley, F.R.S., the new Astronomer Royal, when asked for his views on space travel, after alighting at London Airport, January 3, 1956: It's utter bilge....' (Understanding 1-68)

January 24th, 1956: '..more recently a report came from a Brian Warner.. reproduced in "Saucers," sept.1956. The incident occurred on Jan 24th, 1956, just east of the crater Liebig, the flashes actually coming from the East wall of Cavendish. In describing the phenomenon, Warner states, "The flashes evidently began with a bright glare and continued very bright for almost three minutes." The light slowly faded over a further period of some 8 minutes before finally disappearing. Warner continues, "The frequency of the pulsating was approximately 11/2 flashes per second and between maximum brilliance the source could be seen as a point of light slightly more intense than the surrounding walls. There were definite indications of reflection from the west wall and the floor was faintly lit by the glare." Warner then goes into some detail in trying to explain the flashing light but he himself regards the occurrence as an unsolved mystery..' (Uranus, 7/8-58)

April 21st, 1956: Luanda, Angola - 'Astronomer C.M.Bettencourt, observing the moon through a small telescope, saw 8 luminous objects enter the eyepiece from the left proceeding from the left towards the moon's position in the sky. He estimated them to be over 500 kilometres distant and 200 to 300 metres in diameter. He used a Butenshon 64-magnitude telescope, holding his camera to the eyepiece' (to photograph the phenomena). (UFOPhATW)

September 1956: Baja, California, USA. 'Mr.George Adamski filmed 16mm movie footage of two very large round UFOs in close formation high in the clear blue sky.' (UFOPhATW)

November 26th, 1956: Alamagordo, New Mexico, USA; night. Astronomer and photographer, Robert E.Curtiss '..was making some test shots with.. a motion picture camera.. loaded with highly sensitized film and.. coupled to the rangefinder of his 16-inch reflector telescope. With this setup he was able to shoot pictures of the moon at speeds of 24 to 48 frames per second. The telescope was covering that portion of the moon around Fra Mauro.. between Parry and Copernicus. When Mr.Curtiss developed and printed his films he was startled by a peculiarity. Just to the left of the terminator, which is the dividing line between sunlight and shadow on the moon, there was a small white Maltese cross. It was on frame after frame and was unquestionably either on the surface of the moon or very close to it...' (FS-SB)

February 13th, 1957: Steve Papina, an amateur astronomer, was walking home in Placerville, California, at about 9:40 P.M., when '..he noticed off to his left the ionized track of what he thought was a shooting star..' Mr.Papina watched the trail, carefully noting its movements upward in the sky.. 'Suddenly a black disc appeared.. directly in front of the trail,' which was about equal in diameter to the width of the trail. The disc's surface was not smooth '..but appeared to be roughened by cross-checked canyons. In the southeast quadrant was an area which seemed to have a few canyons filled with a very black material. On the northwest quadrant another area was visible which had dark streaks but on a lesser scale..' The disc was very clear in the sky, and as it now traveled in a westerly course, it changed to a white colour, its diameter reduced by two-thirds, and it took off into outer space - as Mr.Papina put it, like "letting the air out of a toy balloon." (UFOWhS)

March 10th, 1957: 'Mr.Paul M.Cornick, of 205 Manor Road, Fishponds, Bristol, was observing Jupiter on Sunday, March 10, at about 7 p.m. He writes: "When I took my eye from the telescope, I noticed an extremely bright object that appeared to be due north of Jupiter. So bright was this object that I realised at once that it could not be a natural phenomenon. / I watched it for a few moments, thinking that it might possibly be some optical illusion, but far from it. It was moving! / My first thought was to focus my telescope on the object, and it resolved itself into two lights - one red and the other white. (The latter being on the left-hand side) Every so often a reddish flash danced from the red light to the white one. / By this time the phenomenon was clearly visble to the naked eye, and I could easily see the occasional red flash as well as the lights. the course of the object was going to take it between the Pole Star and Ursa Major. / The object was now almost directly overhead, and I listened intently for some sound, but none came. It seemed to float over like some ghostly shadow, and yet it conveyed the impression of power. / Abruptly, as it passed the Pole Star, it faded and vanished from sight. / It could not have been an aeroplane because of the absence of noise and the steady lights (they should flash) and they were the wrong colours..."' (FSRWR)

'..many professional astronomers are convinced that saucers are interplanetary machines... I think they come from another solar system, but they may be using Mars as a base.'

Dr.Frank Halstead, Darling Observatory, Duluth, Minnesota, USA. (Flying Saucers, 6-57)

May 3rd, 1957: At Forcalquier Observatory, France, 'Roger Rigollet, a specialist in meteor studies for the French National Center for Scientific Research' had set up a 'shutter that revolves in such a way' in front of a camera 'as to cause an interruption of the light beam eight times a second,' and also a second shutter to cover 'the instrument every four minutes.' That evening, two of these automatic camera arrangements were put in operation - one rotating and one fixed. When the results were viewed the next day, two luminous forms were found on the film, at 10:38pm & 10.41pm. (CTSc)

This photo is from the fixed camera - compare this photographed form to Harold Hill's illustration of the large object he observed on July 8th, 1954....

June 15th, 1957: near Mawdesley, Lancashire, UK; 6.06pm. Astronomer, Mr.G.Marsden - accompanied by his son - observed a point of light in the distant sky. Looking through his pocket telescope, he was able to view an aircraft somewhat resembling the planet Saturn, silver in colour, with a bluish tint. He estimated that this object was 25 feet in diameter, and travelling at 500-600 mph. (Uranus 4-1) For the original article click here.

June 18th, 1957: '..an object with a fiery red tail was seen high above Glasgow (Scotland). This UFO was well authenticated and seen by many reliable witnesses. One of these was.. a member of the Royal Observer Corps.. Mr.Arnot Thomson, of 157 Harlaw Crescent, an amateur astronomer, watched the UFO through a telescope. "I could see a black shape with a flaming tail," he said, "but couldn't make out any outline."' (FSRWR)

July 1957: "Auroras do not behave as the objects seen at Katoomba have apparently been behaving. There must be something at Katoomba. I do not think all those people could have hallucinations." Mr.W.Robertson, Assistant Astronomer at Sydney Observatory, NSW, Australia.

September 11th, 1957: Sicily - In the morning, Dr.H.Percy Wilkins, F.R.A.S., while studying Mt.Etna through binoculars, watched.. a brilliant oval mass, described by him as "an unidentified stationary object" poised above the edge of the crater of Etna.' (see earlier sighting by Dr.Wilkins on June 11th, 1954) (Creighton, FSR 14-4)

October 6th, 1957: At about 4.15pm, Earl Sydow, reportedly an engineer and a 'competent amateur astronomer,' saw a large, bright object over Tucson, Arizona, along with six other observers. According to his report sent to APRO, the object measured about three minutes in diameter along the major axis and about one minute along the minor axis - '..Smaller objects seemed to exit from the larger object as observations (using 'astro scopes') continued. A total of six objects were seen at one instant but other observers noted a total of ten objects.. (They) appeared to be a flat white to a silver white. The shape of the smaller objects.. to be somewhat semi-wedge-shaped. The objects moved from the southeast toward the northwest. The smaller objects disappeared from the field of the telescope until in the final phases of observations there was only one object still in the field of view. This object was the original object sighted and it slowly disappeared from view as if it were moving away from the observer. I would estimate the diameter of the smaller objects to be about fifteen to thirty seconds. the last object was observed at about 180 degrees azimuth and 80 degrees elevation.' (UFOWhS)

November 6th, 1957: 'Four astronomers at the Commonwealth Observatory at Mt.Stromlo, near Canberra, Australia, on "Sputnik watch" reported a strange object moving across the sky. It was a vivid pink and unlike anything seen before, it was stated. It remained in view for about two inutes, and disappeared under the moon. / "The strange thing is that it should disappear after passing under the moon as it was a perfectly cloudless sky," said Dr.Przybylski, who saw the object just after having completed observations of the passage of the passage of the two Russian satellites.' (FSRWR)

'On the same evening, a young astronomer, M.Chaupis (? see below account), at the French National Observatory at Toulouse, France, sighted an elliptical object in the sky. Other scientists said the brilliant canary coloured object could be neither a meteorite nor one of the Sputniks. The astronomer watched it through a telescope for about five minutes. He said it appeared from W.N.W. of Toulouse and it sped to where the sun had set an hour and a half earlier, made two sweeping turns, and then flew in the opposite direction. It then disappeared for 30 seconds, then appeared and descended almost vertically in a clear sky and vanished. / Then a similar, or possibly the same object was seen by observatories in two different European capitals. The object, whatever it was, and astronomers said it was not one of the satellites, was sen through telescopes and heard by radio monitors. / It appeared over Oslo hours before Russia's second earth satellite was due, and was travelling south at great speed. Signals were picked up differing from the Sputniks! The Hague Observatory also reported seeing a UFO. At The Hague, too, scientists picked up radio signals that were different from those of the two satellites..' (FSRWR)

'..many inhabitants of Toulouse observed a mysterious shining object in the form of a bright orange disc with something resembling a cupola on top. The disc was rotating and travelling rapidly across the sky. The astronomer I.L.Chapeux (?) watched the object through a telescope. Here is the note he wrote about it - "A shining yellow spot of the second magnitude, elliptical in shape, no twinkle whatsoever, its edges very clearly visible against the sky, and leaving a short trail behind it."' ( FSR 13-6)

1957: Letter to Flying Saucer Review, from Susanne R.Stebbing, 1961 - 'Sir,- you may be interested to know that now I am an active member of the British Astronomical Association. I come in contact with observers from various sections. / One observer, Mr.K.S.G.Stocker, F.R.A.S., of Wallington, Surrey, claimed a sighting of an unusual UFO during 1957. He has promised to let me have details, and does seem interested in the subject. He claims that good sightings are rather rare, but as the result of his experience he retains an open mind. Mr.Stocker's work for the B.A.A. includes colour photography of the stellar heavens and tracking of artificial satellites.' (FSR 7-6)

January 8th, 1958: 'An amateur astronomer and four witnesses sighted a luminous yellow-reddish object in the sky at about 8:50 pm. It was travelling in a northerly direction, then swung almost at right angles in a curve to the east. / Mr.B.Welstead, of Punchbowl, a suburb of Sydney, was looking for star clusters, and on observing the object with the naked eye, he called the attention of a colleague who possessed a telescope. It was then they called three other people in the house to observe the phenomena. / The observation lasted at least 30 seconds. the Australian Air Force later stated that there were no jets in the air on that night.' (MHervey)

August 4th, 1958: Coventry, UK; approx. 10.45-11.02pm. A unnamed schoolteacher observed five seperate unidentified aerial objects. He described them as '..stellar in appearance, giving a more or less steady light but seemed to waver slightly in the air. This was a very minute effect which was like the tiniest oscillation on their straight path..' He remembered them (twelve years later) as having passed in the same direction, WNW to ESE. The following was written during the observation - Approx 10.45 p.m. G.M.T.; pale (blue?) object passing.. magnitude approx.3, passed North of Altair.

+3 minutes. Mag.3.5., bluish object passed North of Altair as previous one (about 1/2 degree North).

+3.5 minutes. Mag.3. bluish object passed 1/4 degrees North of Altair.

+5 minutes. Mag.2.8. intense red object passed 2 degrees North of Altair.

+5.75 minutes. Mag.3.8. intense red object passed 1.5d. North of Altair.

Cloud interrupted after this and when, five minutes later it cleared, no more objects were seen.

(Peter Ashby/CUFORG, Syntonic 8)

c.early-October 1958: Japan. 'Dr.Kenzaburo Toyoda, of the Meiji University.. was scanning the surface of the moon with the aid of a powerful telescope when he suddenly focussed on two giant sets of letters under Mare Serenitalis, to the left of Mare Tranquilitatia, which read: PYAX and JWA. / The letters were black and easily discernable. Two of his colleagues were called upon to witness the strange writing. The mystery has yet to be solved.' (UFOs:ThAS)

November 5th, 1958: Mt.Palomar, California, USA.

'New Mystery Star Baffles Astronomers.. U.S. astronomers are mystified by a new, strange celestial body photographed by telescope. Two astronomers, Dr.W.J. Luyten, of Minneapolis, and Dr.G.Haro, of Tonantzintia, Mexico, discovered photographic records of the object made at Palomar Observatory, California, on November 5, 1958.

While a blue star was found in that position in 1950, it does not appear on Palomar survey plates made in 1954. The only observation made since the November record showed no star at that point.'

(FSR 5-3)

1958: The prominent Russian Astronomer, Dr. Nikolai A.Krozyen, sighted an oval-shaped object which hovered within the lunar crater Alphonsus, near the moon's surface. It '..radiated a weird glow. This report was quickly confirmed by two American astronomers - H.F.Poppendick and W.H.Bond.' (Understanding, 4-68)

1958: '..Quite recently we received a letter from Mr.Marsden.. in which he stated he had sighted a second UFO, once again through his telescope. He described it as being cylindrical in shape and moving across the face of the Moon from Mare Crisium to the crater Plato. Plato, we might mention has often been associated with flashing lights..' (Uranus, 7/8-58)

July 14th, 1959: Norman River, N.Queensland, Australia; approx. 6.40pm. Witnesses including C.A.Marshall Renou, F.R.C.S., F.R.A.C.S., and amateur astronomer Dr.Athol Quayle, observed a UFO for about 8 seconds. It made no sound, and moved parallel to the earth at about twice the speed of a jet aircraft. It had a head, body and tail. The head was a 'round.. iridescent, shimmering greenish-white light..,' while '..the body consisted of a wide and fairly long streak of intense white light..,' and the tail was a number of bright stars, which, during the observation period blew out of the body and disappeared. The whole UFO went out abruptly '..just as if someone had turned the electric light switch out...' (C.A.M Renou, FSR 6-3)

October 6th, 1959: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. 'A U.S.Army Colonel, his wife and their son saw an object making abrupt turns at high speed. The son had been studying astronomy and pointing out the stars.. His mother noted the object and pointed it out.. At first they thought it was a meteor. It was round and.. the colour between white and yellow.

(It) was first seen 70 deg. above the horizon at 15 deg. azimuth (S-SE). It moved north-northwest (330 deg.) for about 12 miles and then made a quick turn (90 deg.). Shortly thereafter.. it made another abrupt turn south (180 deg.).. It dimmed out and returned to bright several times...' (UFOIRC/O.Binder)

October 13th, 1959: Paignton, Devon, UK; approx. 7pm. '..While observing the Moon with a 36-inch telescope my attention was directed to the crater Aristarchus, then on the terminator, and brilliantly white in colour.. I was surprised to see a delicate yet bright reddish-amber glow in or near Aristarchus clearly outlined against the white background. It was visible for only a few seconds.. After it disappeared no trace remained to show it had been there.' (E.H.Rowe, FSR 6-1)

February 7th-8th, 1960: Hollywood, California, USA; about midnight. (Reports spanned four U.S. western states of 'a bright flash') '..amateur astronomer Floyd Rickores said he tracked a "red ball" - without a tail - for nearly five minutes with his 300-power telescope. "I was looking at the moon through my telescope when there was an explosion and a bright flash lighted the room."

He said that he and his wife heard a rumble. Immediately afterwards he located nearly overhead a red ball. "It seemed to stay stationary between two stars for three or four minutes, then took off with fantastic speed and disappeared. I'd guess it was several thousand miles off the surface of the earth and it was brighter than any star at at that time." ' (Oregon Statesman/FSR 6-3)

February 13th, 1960: Grand Blanc, Michigan, USA; nighttime. 'A colour photo of a UFO was taken after a full moon by Joe Perry.. whose hobby is astronomical photography. the UFO was disc-shaped with a dome and leaving a greeen trail. The FBI learned of the photograph after Perry, who runs a restaurant, showed it to some of his customers. Two agents from the Flint office were sent to investigate. Perry showed the agents several of his slides taken the same night.

"They did not seem to be interested until I showed this particular one," Perry said, "and then both of them jumped up." The agents took the UFO photograph and several others for study. Needless to say, the photos were not returned to Mr.Perry.' (UFOs:ThAS)

May 4th, 1960: Bedford, Massachusetts, USA; 9.15pm. '..a dark spherical UFO was observed in the eastern sky by Charles S.Oates, chief technician at Charles Hayden Planetarium in Boston, and his wife. / The sphere was sighted shortly after Oates saw two bright white lines appear and disappear quickly, one after the other, in the same area of the sky. The UFO appeared at an elevation of about 50 degrees in the east, near the constellation Bootes. It pulsated from red to white to red. While Oates tried to call other members of the Planetarium staff, his wife watched the object which vanished suddenly after about five minutes.' (UFOs:ThAS)

May 5th or 22nd, 1960: Palma, Majorca, Europe; 9.33 pm. '..various astronomers of the Palma, Majorca, Observatory reported seeing a "mysterious triangular- shaped object" manoeuvring over the region. The astronomers said that the object appeared to be spinning around on its own axis without deviating from its path and had the apparent size of the full moon.' (H.Ganteaume, FSR 7-1/NICAP)

late-October 1960: San Antonio, Texas, USA. 'A glowing, mystery flying object was reported that.. week in two other areas. In San Antonio.. a spokesman for Trinity University's moonwatch team said they had seen a UFO and it was reported over California.' (UFOS:ThAS)

A conversation in an observatory: 'The International Bulletin 11, the journal of the Netherlands Study Group for UFOlogy, prints in its November, 1960, issue the results of an interview with Mr.Damen Sterk, of the observatory of Utrecht. The questions and answers went as follows: Question: "Do you know the phenomenon of the so-called UFOs?"

Mr.Damen Sterk: "Indeed, scientists did observe a number of solid bodies during the last few years, which moved with an unexplained speed in the sky."

Question: "Were they aeroplanes or celestial bodies?"

D.Sterk: "No, decidedly not. Of about thirty of these bodies one couldn't explain the origin." Question: "Is it possible that they are space ships with beings of other planets?"

D.Sterk: "That is not excluded. In fact there are so many planets on which life and even higher evolved life than on this earth is present."

Question: "So it is probable that our earth is visited by space ships of other planets."

D.Sterk: " That is not improbable."

Question: "May we conclude from your words that the unexplained solid bodies mentioned by you are UFOs or flying saucers?"

D.Sterk: (after some hesitation)"The only conclusion can be a question mark!"

This interview was submitted to Dr.C.de Jager, director of the Observatory, and he answered: "The opinion of our librarian remains excusively the responsibility of our librarian."' (FSR 7-1)

November 27th, 1960: California, USA - '..a group of seven inhabitants of a trailer camp in California maintained a surveillance of aerial activity for more than a quarter of an hour. Among the company were two amateur astronomers, Mr. and Mrs.Lewis Hart, who subsequently submitted an excellent report to the Air Force. Amendations to that record were published by professional ufologist Lloyd Mallan. A brief portion, which was in response to a questionnaire supplied by the authorities, read - "In your opinion what do you think the object was and what might have caused it?" The Harts' answer - "It was unquestionably some kind of intelligently controlled air or space vehicle."...' (PFl)

1960: 'MYSTERY SPACE OBJECT SEEN AGAIN - The director of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago said that he has received reports of a mysterious object in orbit around the Earth. / The director, Mr.Robert Johnson, estimated the object to be about one-tenth the size of the American balloon satellite Echo 1 - which is about 100 feet in diameter - but travelling twice as fast. / First sighted by Mr.Johnson and two assistants last friday, it is neither an artificial satellite nor a meteor. It has not been seen on radar, he told reporters, but he understood that an aircraft company had used a ballistic camera to track its course. / Amateur astronomers in many parts of the United States had reported seeing it.'

"..it is by no means impossible that such phenomena exist and have existed for a long time. It is only recently that man has started observing the heavens constantly with highly developed instruments." Russian astronomer Basykin, of the Moscow Observatory, quoted in Swiss magazine (Zuercher Woche) article, June 1961.

May 18th, 1961: Jupiter, Florida, USA. '(On May 19th), the discovery that a mystery satellite was orbiting the earth was revealed by the Smithsonian Observatory at Cambridge, Massachusetts, which controls a world-wide network of tracking stations.

"Satellite tracking stations around the world were asked to help track an unsuspected, unpredicted bright satellite. The satellite was first spotted.. at Jupiter, Florida, and was reported as being about as bright as Echo One and could be seen easily with the naked eye under right conditions."

At Haleakala, Hawaii, Clifton Marsh, head of the local observatory, said Smithsonian officials had also alerted its network of high powered, telescopic cameras to spot and photograph the mystery satellite. / One unexplained factor was introduced by a Smithsonian spokesman who stated that they had "no reason yet to believe the satellite is anything new, because such orbiting mavericks are spotted with some regularity." ' (UFOs:ThAS)

June-August 12th, 1961: From June 1961, Jacques Vallee worked on the staff of the artificial-satellite service of Paris Observatory, at Meudon. in his diary entry for August 12th, 1961, he wrote - '..Occasionally we observe objects that remain unidentified. Thus on 11 July at 10:35 P.M. I saw a satellite brighter than second magnitude. I had time to log a few data points. On another occasion several of us recorded no less than eleven points. The next morning Muller, who behaves like a petty army officer simply confiscated the tape and destroyed it, although a similar object had just been tracked by other astronomers at Besanscon and by Pierre Neiriuck, a satellite expert based in Saint-Malo. / "Why don't we send the data to the Americans?" I asked him. / Muller just shrugged. "The Americans would laugh at us." / He seems terrified at the idea that the morning papers might come out with the headline PARIS OBSERVATORY TRACKING SOMETHING IT CANNOT IDENTIFY...' (Forbidden Science)

early-October 1961: While making a sweep to re-locate 19 Piscium in the constellation of Pisces, with a six inch Newtonian telescope, Derick Shelton observed an unidentified object cross his field of view for an estimated 5-10 seconds, under excellent observing conditions. Concerning the appearance of the object, Mr.Shelton later reported - '..I could see no lights.. but there was a seeming reflection of light from the upper part, which looked like a glow of some kind.. The object, though dark, stood out against the background of the sky quite clearly...'

Mr.Shelton, at the time of his report had been an amateur astronomer for 48 years since the age of 7. He was able to categorically rule out the possibility that what he observed could have been any known celestial phenomenon, a balloon, or a known type of aircraft. He later saw a report by another astronomer of an identical unidentified object, also in October 1961 - this man's sighting was, however, 15 to 20 minutes in duration. (Spacelink 6-4)

November 19th, 1961: Australia - 'A Somerton man has reported seeing mysterious flying objects over the Adelaide Hills at 6.15 p.m. on Sunday.. He is Mr.Guy Page.. an amateur astronomer. / "There was a cluster of about six to eight objects, due east of Somerton. They were crescent-shaped and travelling at high speed," Mr.Page said today. / "I had binoculars trained on the Adelaide Hills when they came into sight. They were not visible with the naked eye. I watched them for about ten minutes before they disappeared into cloud." / Mr.Page reported the sighting to the Bureau of Meteorology, but said he was mystified as "what I saw definitely wasn't a weather balloon. I didn't report this before because if you do people seem to think you're a crackpot. But when I read where two policemen saw something yesterday, I decided to report it."' (FSR 8-3)

April 4th, 1962: Wurtland, Kentucky, USA. G.R.Wells and J.Lewis, watched a small object through a 117 power telescope. Its brightness fluctuated, it gave off smoke, and didn't move for six minutes. (Pr.BBE)

July 1962: England - 'More reports of an "unidentified flying object" over Stratford last Monday night are sought by Mr.J.D.Llewellyn, who observed it twice through an earth satellite-tracking telescope. / Mr.Llewellyn was with another member of a Midlands interplanetary tracking team who keep a watch on earth satellites when he first saw the "flying saucer" type object at 10.40 p.m. at his home, 80 West Green Drive. / He described it to the Herald as an "extremely bright satellite-like object with what appeared to be a powerful searchlight on top. Slow-moving, it rose from the north-east horizon at about 40 degrees, and its radiance diminished until a green pinpoint remained. From the overhead position until its exit to the north-west, it resolved itself into a triangle of two orange and one green lights. / "I heard nothing but a faint whisper of sound, similar to a high-flying aircraft, when it was about overhead," he said. he saw it again at 11.20 and said both times in the early part of the flight it threw out a sort of beam of light which illuminated high-altitude cloud..' (FSR 8-6)

August 17th, 1962: Meloy, Norway '..planes from Bodo Air Station went up to have a look at a luminous object which was sighted.. above meloy. A pilot found the object and had a very clear view of it from underneath. It was, however, impossible for him to estimate the size and character of the object. he followed it, but it climbed, and at 33,000 ft. he had to abandon the pursuit... / There were no weather balloons in the vicinity, and, besides, the balloons in use would not have behaved in that way. / A lot of people in the district saw the object. For some time it made a vertical climb and then disappeared in a northerly direction. It looked like a luminous star, but seen through binoculars it had a triangular form. The object was sighted for two hours, (and) by some.. described as looking like a pyramid. An amateur astronomer who looked at the object through as telescope, was quite sure that it could not be a balloon. He also says that it had a pyramidal form and that on top it had a luminous cupola and at the bottom a luminous edge. Also the middle part.. glowed, but more weakly.'

(Dahle, FSR 9-1)

October 4th, 1962: 'An unidentified flying object was seen on Thursday evening by Mr. and Mrs.R.F.Wood, of Copsley, Shere Road, West Horsley (England). It was first seen by Mrs.Wood when she looked out of a bedroom window of her home at about 6.50 p.m. It was getting dark at the time, with the sun setting quite brightly in the west. / According to Mrs.Wood, the object - "an elliptical thing" - was due west of her home, about ten degrees above the horizon and at an estimated distance of twenty miles. "It was bright as the Moon," she said yesterday. / Mrs.Wood called her husband, who is an amateur astronomer. With his telescope he was able to pick up the object for a few seconds before it dropped behind a cloud. He described it as being similar to a ball flattened in the middle with two pieces protruding - one on each side. / Neither Mr. or Mrs.Wood can find a possible explanation for the object they saw. "It was definitely not an aeroplane," says Mrs.Wood...' (FSR 9-1)

March 21st, 1963: USA; 8.15pm approx. Sighting by an amateur astronomer, Larry Conner.

[see also April 4th, 1963] (UFOs:ThAS)

March(?) 27th, 1963: Norfolk, Virginia, USA; nighttime. 'A.. glowing object, streaking across the sky, was observed by several people.. Among them was an amateur astronomer, Professor Albert Godden, assistant director of Old Dominion College, Technical Institute. "It was a startling sight," Godden stated. "It was a solid white mass with the size and appearance of a full moon in the fall. It formed a red tail about twenty times as long as its diameter." ' (UFOs:ThAS)

April 4th, 1963: USA; 8.15pm approx. A thirteen-year-old amateur astronomer sighted a bright UFO twice within a fortnight - 'Larry Conner said the object appeared on the Thursday night.. and also on the Thursday about the same time two weeks earlier. The object, which looked like a large star and moving swiftly in a somewhat zig-zag course, was near the end of the Big Dipper when spotted by Conner. It was travelling from west to east both times. Although he possesses an 80-power telescope, the object was moving too swiftly to get a fix.' (UFOsThAS)

October 29th/November 27th, 1963: 'In the December, 1963, issue of Sky and Telescope, Lowell Observatory reports that on the night of October 29 it had detected two clusters of bright red lights north of the crater Herodotus; on the night of November 27, the red spots had vanished from their previous location and were clustered in an oval formation along the south rim of the crater Aristarchus!...' (FS-SB)

December 11th, 1963: McMinnville, Oregon, USA. At seven in the morning, W.W.Dolan, professor of mathematics and astronomy, and dean of the faculty of Linfield College, saw a bright, star-like light hover, slow, dim and flash during one minute.

December 28th, 1963: Hiroshima, Japan; 3.55pm. '..T.Sato, astronomer at the Rakurakuen Planetarium at Hiroshima sent the.. report.. The observation was not made by Sato himself, but by seven young Japanese astronomers using the 10in reflector at Rakurakuen.. They were carrying out observations in preparation for the lunar eclipse on 30 December.. at 15.55 one of the observers Y.Yamada, noted a large, distinct pink patch covering the southern part of Aristarchus, which was soon confirmed by the other six observers. It gradually spread toward Herodotus until 16.26 when cloud prevented any further observation. The patch was not markedly brighter or darker than the adjacent area...' (Spacelink 1-4)

January 7th, 1964: San Miguel, Buenos Aires, Argentina - 'At the private observatory owned by amateur astronomer Luis Ferro, this gentleman reported that he and several scientific friends, including an engineer and a chemist, had.. observed a reddish-orange coloured object traverse the sky from south to north. It travelled on an apparently level course and was in view for five minutes.'

(Creighton, FSR 12-2)

March 1964: 'Priest-Astronomer Reports 'Flying Saucers' - BUENOS AIRES (NC) - A Jesuit priest-astronomer here said he has seen unidentified flying objects - "flying saucers" - in Argentine skies. / Father Benito Reyna, is professor of mathematics at Salvador University in Buenos Aires and an astronomer with more than 30 years experience. / "The first time I saw UFOs I was in Cordoba," Father Reyna told newsmen. "With the help of my telescope I ws able to follow their flight clearly and to note their shape and color. Then last March I saw them on two successive nights in San Miguel. At the time Echo II was orbiting the earth and I believe the crew of the flying saucers was closely following the U.S. man-made satellite to study its characteristics.."' (Understanding 9-65)

April 5th, 1964: South Norwood, London, UK; evening. A 14-year-old boy, Lee Turner, walking his dog, saw an anomalous light in the sky.. '.."It moved too slowly for a shooting star and was definitely not a balloon or aircraft. It was like a star in the first magnitude moving north-north-east," he said. / Lee ran to his uncle's home.. Anthony Gittens, an amateur astronomer, said: "I have seen meteorites before. But this was unlike anything I have seen. It took about four minutes to move across the sky before it went below the horizon." / A group of people formed to watch the object as it moved past the ITV tower at Upper Norwood.'... Mr.Gittens had previously been "quite sceptical" about UFOs , but this event "really changed" his way of thinking. (FSR 10-4/Croydon Advertiser)

August 25th, 1964: 'WASHINGTON - Two scientists at the Goddard space flight center at Greenbelt, Maryland, reported that they had sighted through a telescope two reddish bands and one bluish band on the face of the moon. / Mr.Saul H.Genatt, astronomer and station manager for the Goddard optical research facility, said he and an electronic technician, Mr.Edwin Reid, saw the colored bands on August 25 from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m../ The bands were over the crater Aristarchus, on the north-west quadrant of the moon. / Mr.Genatt said that through a 16-inch telescope they saw two distinct reddish bands over the southern part of the crater and a bluish band over the northern part. / The bands were roughly parallel and the reddish bands were of equal thickness - about four or five miles. The longest reddish band was about 35 miles in length. It was the most southerly of the three. / The other reddish band, just above it, was only two or three miles away and about 30 miles long. / Mr.Genatt said: "Up in the northern part of the crater, about 20 miles from the northern reddish band, was a bluish band about 15 miles long. All the bands ran an east-west direction, roughly parallel to each other. The colors were very prominent at first - the reddish bands were really red and the other was quite blue. As time passed the intensity of the colors weakened." / Mr.Genatt said that he and Mr.Reid had been checking the mechanical operation of the telescope and Mr.Reid noticed the lunar colors by pure chance. / He had no basis for any speculation what the bands were.' (Understanding 4-65)

September 14th, 1964: At the Adarra (Adhara?) Observatory in San Miguel, Argentina - '..another impressive sighting was recorded at 10.55 p.m. on September 14, 1964. The flying object, its apparent size being twice that of the Moon, was seen with the naked eye passing across the constellation Lyra. the central part of it was white and fiery green, while the rear seemed to look like half-rings of an intense blue colour. Its speed was estimated at three times the speed of sound. the sighting lasted for three minutes, the object moving throught the constellation of Lyra in the direction of Jupiter. The witnesses were astronomers Luis Ferro and Renato Matteassi and three students of Astronomy.. the astronomers admitted that, whatever the object was, it could not possibly be an artificial satellite inasmuch as it had flown across the sky and then reversed.'

(Creighton, FSR 12-3)

October 17th, 1964: Rainhill, UK; 8.50pm. A letter from Mr.E.A.Fairclough -

'With reference to the report by Mr.Robert Kemp in the Daily Post regarding the two bright objects he saw in the sky on Saturday night. / I confirm that one of these objects was observed by my son Martin (aged 12 years) and myself at about the same time. We were in fact star-spotting with a home-made telescope when a star, as we thought, was noticed to be moving at a fairly rapid rate through the night sky...

..(We were) looking in a northerly direction from latitude 53.26 N. longitude 2.47 W. the object, of magnitude +0.7, was seen moving from west to east from 5hr 51m at 46 degrees for a period of 2 min. 30 sec., passing over Capella and then vanishing.

In size the object appeared about half the diameter of Jupiter.' (FSR 11-1/Liverpool Daily Post)

November 14th/15th, 1964: 'At midnight..astronomers at the San Miguel Observatory (Argentina) saw an elongated flat reddish-orange flying object which crossed the heavens first from east to west and then back again, at a speed estimated at approximately four and a half times that of the satellites usually seen. Nor was this the first occasion, as scientists at the..observatory had already experienced two similar sightings.' (Creighton, FSR 12-3)

c.December 1964: 'As this is being written Dr.Daniel W.Fry is approaching Albuquerque..his last scheduled lecture stop..The tour has taken him across the Midwest, to the East Coast, down to the South and Southwest, during a period of seven weeks. Understandably with driving days and lecturing evenings, there has been little time for personal reports, but mail from his various sponsors has been both interesting and encouraging..Attendance in many areas has surpassed expectations..(An) interesting letter was received from the young men of the Rissler Observatory in Philadelphia, which contained the question - What did you think of the UFOs that were overhead that Tuesday night?..' (Understanding 1-65)

July 3rd-7th, 1965: Amateur astronomer Ron Emanuel of Covina, California, observed a pulsating star-like image in the lunar crater Aristarchus, on July 3rd. The sighting was confirmed, during the next four days by others in a group known as the Argus-Astronets; and also by observers at Whittier College, who also reported a red colour in Theophilus' Central Peak. (Understanding 11-65)

July 25th, 1965: Castalia, Ohio, USA. 9.15 pm. A sixteen-year-old amateur astronomer, M.D.Harris, watched a bright blue "star" cross 90 degrees of the sky in 10 to 15 seconds. (Pr.BBE)

July 26th, 1965: 'Latvian astronomers Robert Vitolniek, Jan Melderis and Esmeralda Vitolniek were studying silvery clouds from the observation station of Ogra in Latvia. / At 9.35 p.m., in the gathering dusk, they spotted an unusually bright star slowly flying westward. Viewed through 8-power binoculars, the star appeared as a small flat spot. The telescope revealed a small ball in the centre of the lens-shaped disc. / The astronomers set the disc diameter at about 100 metres. Around the disc, at a distance of two doameters, there were three balls similar to the one in the centre of the disc. / the balls slowly rotated around the disc, and the whole system dwindled as it receded from the earth. / Some 15-20 minutes later, the balls began to depart from the disc in different directions. The ball in the centre also left its place and flew aside. / Finally, at 10 p.m., all these bodies, which emitted a greenish-pearly glow, faded into the distance.' (FSR 14-3/Soviet Weekly 2.1968)

'The Los Angeles Times of August 28th presents an interesting account of a group known as the Argus-Astronets interested in lunar observations. We offer a report of the group not only not only because of its goals and achievements but as a reminder that individuals and amateurs may still contribute much to learning although our civilization seems to be dominated by large corporations, foundations, and computers!' (Understanding 11-65) - Report here.

Summer 1965: Chongwen District, Beijing, China. A sighting on a clear night, by Song Jiandong, 19 year old student and lover of astronomy, and Song Jianmen, university student. They were observing stars in the night sky, when Song Jiandong saw a slow-moving star-like object, which was soon followed by a larger elliptical one, giving off a blue-green light. He quickly got his home-made telescope. The larger object suddenly dashed towards the 'star,' which rushed off too. They had begun to zigzag, and were judged not to be satellites. (Beijing sky is restricted airspace). (UFOMC)

"There is scientific evidence that strange objects are circling our planet. It is lamentable that Governments have drawn a veil of secrecy around this matter." Professor Gabriel Alvial, astronomer at Cerro Calan Observatory - quoted by Reuters 26.8.1965.

September 11th, 1965: 'La Razon, July 14, 1968. Valparaiso, Chile. The well-known astronomer and director of the private observatory at Villa Alemana, Mr.Carlos Munoz Ferrara, declared during an interview that flying saucers were harmless. When questioned whether he himself had seen any, he replied in the affirmative. / "On September 11, 1965, at 8:30 P.M. there appeared a strange moving light in the sky. It was not a star, nor a planetoid, nor any known object. It went from South to North. Later between Venus and Mars there appeared two disks which were transparent, for the bright stars could be seen through them. Many people who were with me saw them. When the disks came to the zenith one of them disappeared. Several minutes later we saw one of them again. It remained stationary at a certain height for five minutes. Photographs were taken, but nothing appeared on the negatives." Mr.Munoz Ferrara concluded - "Flying Saucers are harmless, but must not be touched, because one may be affected by a kind of strange power they possess." ' (Greinart, Understanding 10.68)

September 18th, 1965: 'At about 3 a.m., local time, in the night of September 17/18, three astronomers (at the St.Michel Observatory) who had finished work stepped out of the cupola to take a breath of fresh air. The night sky was clear and they were able to identify with ease the lights - very familiar to them - of the various villages, far and near. But towards the ESE... precisely in the direction of the peak marked 1577m. lying to the SE of the village of Aiguine, but much lower down, and on the exact level of the Valensole Plateau, they beheld a large stationary ovoid-shaped, orange-red light. They watched this light for 10-15 minutes without seeing any change in its position or its appearance, nor did it flicker as the flames of a fire would have done. A solid object emitting its own light would have looked no different. The three astronomers wondered what it could be, but none of them dared to suggest that they remain there until something happened and, feeling a bit uneasy, they went off to bed...' (Michel, FSR 14-1)

September 19th, 1965: Hay, NSW, Australia - '..The first time the object appeared was on September 19th, at about 9.30 a.m. One of the men who saw it was Mr.G.Hamm, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society and an officer in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve. He tried to measure the height of the object with a theodolite when he first saw it, but failed because of cloud. / He reported his sighting to the Canberra Headquarters of the R.A.N. The general concensus of opinion was that the object looked like an upturned saucer and emitted reddish flames.' (MHervey)

September 24th, 1965: Abhazia, Soviet Union - 'Astronomer-geologist L.Tshehanovici saw a small disc darting over the New Athos monastery and executing unusual manoeuvres. The monastery is high in the mountains in the middle of a number of gorges. The disc's movements - often spiral - were very complicated.' (UFOFBIC)

Novi Afon, Black Sea - '..astronomer Dr.Larissa Zechanovitch of the Moscow Planetarium was on holiday.. The sun had just set, and Larissa, still swimming in the sea, saw a black object in the sky.. a disc with a viewing window, from which (shone) a yellow light. It came down to about 300 feet above the water.. about 1,000 feet away from Dr.Zechanovitch.' (UFOsTSH)

c.early-December 1965: 'Objects from Jupiter - A Roman Catholic priest has claimed in Buenos Aires that he photographed three unidentified flying objects. / The priest, a Jesuit and Mathematics professor who directs an observatory, said he photographed the objects passing across the surface of the moon. He added they might possibly have come from Jupiter.' (165LKUFOS)

'UFOs SILHOUETTED AGAINST THE MOON - About a year ago the Reverend Father Segundo Benito Reyna, a Jesuit priest who is the director of the Adhara Observatory at San Miguel in the Province of Buenos Aires, held a press conference and showed the newsmen a sensational photograph taken with the powerful telescope of that observatory. / Father Reyna a distinguished scientist who holds the degrees of Doctor of Science, has kindly made a print of this photograph available for the FLYING SAUCER REVIEW. / The history of the picture is as follows: At 8.30 p.m. on December 1, 1965, the Observatory began to receive numerous phone calls informing them that there was something strange on the Moon and asking if they could see it. / As it happened, the staff of the Observatory were indeed occupied with the Moon, but they were taking photographs of it at four-minute intervals and were not looking at the Moon itself. / When however they came to develop the pictures, which had been taken with a camera affixed to the telescope, the sixth of the series was found to show what looked like UFOs, one of them somewhat bell-shaped like the saucer in the well-known photo by the late George Adamski. / There is no question whatever that these objects were either entering or leaving the Earth's atmosphere, as can be seen from their size. Furthermore, a few minutes after the photo had been taken, three strange luminous bodies passed very low over the city of La Plata, to the astonishment of hundreds of witnesses.' (Galindez, FSR 13-1)

1965: New South Wales, Australia. 'They crossed the State from north-west to south-east, passing Coonabarabran, Kandos and finally Sydney. Sightings came from many parts of the central west, including Orange, Molong and Bathurst... between 7.45 p.m. and 8 p.m., and an estimated 200 callers immediately jammed the "Herlad" switchboard reporting "white heads and long red tails."... Mr.H.Richardson, of Leppington said: "It was a weird sight. No sound, just a steady movement of eight lights in close formation. Too fast for planes and too slow for a meteor. I just couldn't make anything of them."... The lights passed almost overhead as 50 members of the Astronomical Society of N.S.W. were meeting at Belfield Observatory. / The director of the observatory, Mr.Gordon Patson, said later that all the amateur astronomers had seen the lights, and dozens more people had telephoned about them. / Mr.Patson said the lights, of which most observers counted about eight, were seen 30 degrees above the horizon, 25 degrees west of north.' (165LKUFOS)

1965: Caucasus, Soviet Union - 'Dr.Ludmila Tsehanovich, geodetical astronomer, saw a glittering disc with a dome in the form of a cabin.' (UFOFBIC)

April 25th, 1966: Canada-Northeast U.S.A. - 'At approximately 8:15 P.M...a brilliantly illuminated object flashed across the Canadian border and sailed majestically southward over the northeastern United Staes. It was seen by millions of people along the Atlantic seaboard. Astronomers and amateur photographers took excellent color pictures of it, some of which were later published in Life, Newsweek, and newspapers all across the country. It was so bright that it lit up the countryside like daylight as it arced gracefully overhead. / It was quickly explained as a meteor. The explanation made sense to those who saw it, and so the whole incident was forgotten. / However, I spent many months collecting reports of this object and assembling the whole story. Thousands of actual unidentified flying objects are erroneously explained away as meteors every year. Usually no one bothers to collect these meteor reports, lay them out on a map, and study them properly. Astronomers seem least interested of all...' (John Keel OTH)

August 1966(?): Chernigov, Ukraine - 'In August of last year, on a glorious starry night, I decided to watch for meteors. First of all I carried out a systematic search, then I sat down by the telescope for about an hour, studying the sky with the naked eye. Suddenly in the constellation Serpens, I caught sight of some object, of a conical shape. In two or three seconds, it moved into the constellation Aquarius. During that time, I could distinctly hear a sound similar to that of chirping birds. the object flew above Chernigov.' (BJ 2-3/Vassili Klemenko, Knowledge & Work No.1)

August 1966: 'Reading was visited last August. Amateur astronomer Mr.Alan Eker described "fast moving points of light in the sky in a square formation. They were not like anything I have seen before." / The same lights were seen 30 miles away at Oxford.' (FSR 13-1)

November 13th, 1966: Zanesville, Ohio, USA; afternoon. Barber and amateur astronomer, Ralph Ditter took three photographs (one underexposed) of an unidentified object that moved quite slowly around the sky over his home. It was about 20 feet in diameter, and rotating counter-clockwise. There was no accompanying sound.

1966: '5 UFOs in V-formation' crossing the heavens horizontally were sighted by Dr.Benito Reyna and his team at the Adhara observatory, San Miguel, Argentina. (UFOsTSH)

April 6th, 1967: Sofia, A.P. - 'On two days a mysterious celestial body has flown over the South-Eastern part of Bulgaria. The phenomenon was observed from the observatory at Stara Zagora on Thursday, April 6, at 6.30 p.m. The object, which was triangular in shape, was followed by a trail which was only just visible, and rapidly lost its luminosity.' (FSR 13-4)

Late-April 1967: Vastmanland, Sweden - 'Twenty people have seen a red-yellow object with a poerful light. Sometimes it has been stationary, at others it has moved horizontally and vertically with an incedible speed. One observer heard an aeroplane 'buzz' in connection with it. Another at first thought the red light, or glare, came from a fire. His son - an amateur astronomer - looked through a telescope and discovered three lights, two green and one red. A 'sighing' noise was also heard.'

(FSR 14-2/Expressen)

July 18th/September 4th/October 18th, 1967: '..At first, reports of sightings of UFOs in the Soviet Union were the field only of individual 'enthusiasts,' but last year a committee of scientists and other specialists was formed to make a systematic study of the reports... On July 18, September 4, October 18 and other days of 1967, crescent-shaped UFOs were seen over southern parts of the Soviet Union, according to reports from the Mountain Astronomical Station near Kislovodsk, from the astronomical observatory at Kazan, and from several private individuals. / The most characteristic type of UFO is a luminous orange-coloured crescent with a diameter of 15 to 20 ft. of arc.. flying with its outward bend first.. Sometimes a bright flaming disc preceded by a crescent is observed. And sometimes the crescent is preceded and flanked by what look like first-magnitude stars, which keep at a constant distance from it. / Kazan astronomers, who carried out their observations from two points simultaneously, set the diameter of the crescent-shaped UFOs at 500-600 metres and their speed at some five kilometres a second. / Assuming that the crescent is a luminous shock wave, the UFOs must fly at altitudes between 30 and 65 miles. Such objects could not have been made by man. They are definitely not sputniks or space rockets...' (FSR 14-3/Soviet Weekly)

August 8th, 1967: '..at 8:40 P.M., the astronomer Anatoli Sazanow of the Astrophysical station of the academy of Science at Kislovodsk in the Caucasus saw a huge UFO of 180 meters diameter. Many scientists working at the station witnessed this sighting.' (Understanding 12.68)

August 30th, 1967: Stoke-on-Trent, UK; 10.45pm. Mrs.Angela Becanin and her son Michael - a keen amateur astronomer - saw through a bedroom window three orange lights, which were about half a mile away '..in the fields opposite Hethersett Walk. Mrs.Becanin reported that two were near together and the other was further away. They stayed there until 11.15 p.m. flashing all the time, then became very faint and disappeared...' Michael told the investigators that '..the object had the appearance of an orange 2nd magnitude star but after a few minutes became a brilliant orange. After one or two minutes it rose and faded, and by 11.30 p.m. had disappeared. Michael spoke of a second smaller light which did not change in brightness, and said afterwards that there may have been a third, further from the other two. Most of the time both witnesses watched the lights through the telescope... They were certainly not aircraft.. and were not street lamps since these could be seen at the same time.. Finally, the lights rose and faded as though they were under control, and moved beyond the sight of the witnesses...' (FSR-UUU)

September 2nd, 1967: Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs, UK. A prominent British amateur astronomer made his first UFO sighting - a ten minute observation - '..The objects were two equally sized circles of light side by side and close together.. Magnitude greater than any celestial body other than the sun and moon. Colour.. yellow.. not quite white. Each was the size of a head of a pin held at arm's length. Reminded observer of the headlights of a landrover suspended from a helicopter.. No apparent change in position except perhaps a very slight drift north. Height estimated at approx.2-3,000 ft. Objects probably eventually obscured by cloud... No sound audible.' (FSR-UUU)

September 26th, 1967: (possible balloon) Statement by the El Turo del Home Observatory, Catalunia, Spain: 'Between 4.30 and 5.30 p.m. yesterday, at a great height directly above Mt.Minseny, an unidentified object was observed. It was white, shining brilliantly, and remained stationary there until hidden by clouds. Examined through binoculars, it was seen to be triangular in shape. It was higher than the cirrus-type clouds and its altitude can consequently be put at 10,000 metres above sea-level.' (Ribera, FSR 14-3)

October 25th, 1967: '..the Royal Observatory at Herstmonceux in Sussex announced - "There is something up there which is not a star or a planet."(Daily Express 27.10.67).. it seems that the disclosure was inspired by a sighting by amateur astronomer Peter Baker of Hastings, during the early morning... The bright object seen by Mr.Baker was on the earthward side of the clouds, and was farther north than Venus..' (Bowen FSR 13-6)

October 29th, 1967: In the early hours of the morning, an amateur astronomer in Hartlepool, Durham, England, was looking through his telescope, when he saw '..two white objects moving through the sky. Seconds later a third white object appeared - "They moved across the sky in a "V" formation and then stopped dead," he said. He watched them for an hour and they never moved. Then they started to zig-zag towards the moon, changing colour first to green, then to blue and finally a bright red. He could not see any details because the red colour seemed to enshroud them. It was very bright but he could see that they were oval in shape. When they "reached" the moon, all three objects disappeared and he could not pick them up in his sights again.' (Lloyd, FSR 14-3)

November 21st, 1967: Bulgaria; 5.30pm - '..a large unidentifiable object was spotted over Sofia shedding a bright, bluish light of the neon type.' It appeared at a height of 30km, and was subsequently witnessed by many people travelling slowly on a defined route. Appearance changed - '..bigger than the sun.. trapeze shape.. a parachute (below) a dark disc.. around which there was a phosphorescent-green halo.. parachute or "balloon," then grew bluish-silver, changing then to an orange shade..' / Professor D.Simetchiev of the hydrological and meteorological centre later stated that the object had flown against the wind, and had 'no perceptible influence' on their radar installations. Professor Bogomil Kovatchev, secretary of the astronomical section of the Bulgarian Academy said (in part) - 'First and foremost I would like to stress the fact that the object which appeared over our capital was not an artificial satellite of any sort known to us. It moved more quickly than a Sputnik and cast a brighter light... The colour-variations were perhaps a result of the setting sun which coincided with the disappearance of our object - the latter went out right in front of our eyes as if it had been extinguished.' (UFOFBIC)

1967: Montevideo, Uraguay. Professor Reyes Febles, chief of the Antares observatory - in the course of an observation lasting one hour fifty minutes - took 19 photographs of an unidentified craft. He first saw the object while looking through his telescope, with the intention of photographing the sun. He was soon able to make out that the unknown craft was oval-shaped with two bays at each end, steely in appearance, and spewing 'some gas towards the sun.' Professor Febles took some photos before a number of objects, of various colours, shot out from its left side. About 17 minutes later, these reappeared and entered the main craft through its right side. The craft then hovered at a height of 4,000 feet, before flying into a cloud. It ultimately '..disappeared into space at high speed.' (UFOsTSH)

1967/1968: Blaxter, far north of England, UK. 'Royal Observer Corps personnel and a member of the British Astronomical Association were among those present when unearthly wonders flew over Blaxter. C.O.R.S. Telfer and Messrs. F.Coulson, A.Coulson, J.N.McKie, F.Corbett, V.Grieve and G.Storey testified to the following recent sighting - Four fiery gems in formation, breaking off and heading in different directions later, featured in a series of exciting UFO displays one night. Speeds varied from almost stationary to fast moving, for the quartet of shining spheroids also hovering unblinkingly while in formation. Joe esimated that at maximum velocity they would have journeyed from horizon to horizon in anything between six and ten seconds. / They turned at fast speed and what could only be described as 'impossible angles.' Two observers detected a greenish tinge about one of the objects. Joseph said that, as far as he knew, no such phenomena are listed in any standard works of astronomy.' (WFFF)

May 17th, 1968: Andes Mountains, Chile; 1.35am. The team at El Infernillo observatory, which lies at a height of over 13,000 feet above sea level, managed to photograph a huge blinking, shining disc that had hung, high above the Andes, for an hour. El Infernillo is aligned with the University of Chile. Commented its chairman, Professor Gabriel Alvial Caceres - '..since October of last year, our logbook alone has registered 15 UFOs, unexplainable starlike objects which move in space and can come to a standstill right in the middle of flight. Now we have at last succeeded in photographing one of them...' (UFOsTSH)

July 30th, 1968: Mihai Beres (Romania) - '..observed a shing body, similar to a star, located slightly to the east of the rim of the New Moon.. with a jumping motion, the object performed a movement being in the shape of a quadrangle - most of this movement being on the lunar disc. As it did so, the "star" lingered for 2-3 seconds at the four corners of the quadrangle. After hanging for a while near the rim of the lunar disc, the object moved down towards the Moon and suddenly vanished, seemingly passing behind the western edge.' (A.Arkhipov, FSR 41-2[trans:G.Creighton])

August 2nd, 1968: Germany - 'U.S.Air Force jets chased a large brilliant object over Bavaria tonight. Whatever it was, it got away before it could be identified. Two F-102 jets were sent up from Ramstein Air Base after hundreds of telephone calls to observatories and police by people who saw the object, mostly described as dragon-shaped. It made a silver glare in the night sky. / The object, about 40 yards across, appeared at times like a giant balloon with a triangular shape suspended below it as it hung at about 75,000 feet, too high for the planes to approach. One astronomer said the object hung for several hours in one position.' (FS&UFOs1969)

September 5th, 1968: 'The sighting of a bright object in the night sky over Madrid caused a monumental traffic jam and sent a Spanish Air Force F104 jet scrambling to find out what it was. / An official Air Force announcement said the pilot climbed to an altitude of more than 50,000 feet and reported the object was still above him when he had to return to base for fuel. The pilot of another plane flying at 36,000 feet reported seeing the same object. Air Force radar screens tracked the Unidentified Flying Object and said it was flying at 90,000 feet and moving slowly. One reporter, sent to the Madrid Astronomical Observatory for a look through its powerful telescope, said the object gave off a "blinding light." A photo taken through the telescope revealed a triangular object, apparently solid on one side and translucent in some sections.' (UChron1)

September 21st, 1968: Russia. L.Tsekhanovich, astronomer and lecturer at the Moscow Planetarium observed a UFO for a period of one hour. (TSUFOF)

October 3rd, 1968: '..at 2:47 A.M., a flying disc, which looked like a hat, was seen over Thessaloniki, Greece. The observer said it appeared to be about 50 meters in diameter and was traveling east. / On October 3rd, a UFO which appeared to change its form was seen from 6 to 6:20 P.M. over Thessaloniki. The changing form of this object suggested to the observers that it was constantly switching its position, thus giving the impression of actually changing form. It was observed by two astronomers who described it as triangular shaped and golden in color. its estimated height was about 3,000 meters and it followed a west to east course..' (FS&UFOs1969)

December 21st, 1968: Belgrade, Yugoslavia; 6.50pm - 'A brightly-lit UFO was seen.. for a quarter of an hour by a group of young astronomers.. The orange-red object had a diameter less than that of the moon and was travelling south-east.' (UFOFBIC)

News report published February 18th, 1969 - 'Prague. As from today Czechoslovakia has a centre for UFO's led by scientists such as Dr.Josef Dvorak of the Medical Centre of the Air Forces, Dr.Jaroslav Sychra of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Dr.Svatopluk Kriz and Dr.Boris Valnicek of the Ondrejov Observatory. All information on the subject, whether from laymen or scientists, will be classified and analysed by the Centre - which unfortunately has very limited means at its disposal as yet - and the findings will be published. The Centre will work in close contact with the Czechoslovak Air Force and will have links with foreign UFO centres. The UFO Information Centre has been established at Panska 8, Prague 1.' (UFOFBIC)

'Jesuit priest, the Rev.Segundo Benito, of Argentina, and internationally recognised astronomer, issued a statement to the press not long ago saying: "Unidentified flying objects do exist. they are craft manned by living beings from another world. These alien beings are currently studying the earth and its inhabitants. Sooner or later they will establish formal contact with mankind.' (MHervey, 1969)

'..Aptly named Truth, a Melbourne newspaper asked its readers "What Was It?" in a front page story in the issue of October 25th, 1969. Photographs of a strange bright light moving across the sky had completely baffled one of their leading astronomers.. Professor David Marshall, head of Melbourne observatory and lecturer of the city planetarium, killed reports that the pictures showed the planet Saturn. The object could not possibly have been this, "but I have no idea what it is. I am baffled," he admitted. The photos.. were taken near Denilquin.. 200 miles north of Melbourne. They were not the sole evidence of mysterious flying objects in the district...' (UFOs: Key To The New Age)

'Do flying saucers exist? The chairman of the Irish Astronomical Society, Mr.Andrew Trimble, thinks they do, and last night put forward a strong argument in support of unidentified flying objects. In an illustrated talk Mr.Trimble said that many astronomers privately believed in UFOs but did not say so publicly because they feared ridicule.' (Belfast Newsletter 18.12.69/FSR 16-2)

February 13th, 1970: England - 'Several stationary "yellowish" lights in the southern sky were spotted by R.Beavan, of Paulsgrove, Portsmouth in Hampshire, at about 21.30 hours. he stood watching them for some minutes, noticing also that two people about 30 yards away were gazing in the same direction as himself. / The lights, numbering approximately 6 to 10, neither moved nor vaired in their intensity and were grouped roughly together, though not in any particular geometric pattern. They appeared sharply defined in the clear evening sky at an angle of 35-40 degrees above the horizon. / Mr.Beavan (23), who is something of a keen amateur astronomer, was puzzled for they bore no relationship to anything he could identify and said they "certainly did not originate from shooting stars, an aeroplane, or rocket stages etc." Keeping an eye on the lights he commenced to walk in a westerly direction and halted briefly at evry spot which afforded him an uninterrupted view. Gradually, lights began to disappear from among the cluster, until quite soon there were none visible at all.' (UFOChron6)

March 1st, 1970: Porto Alegre, Brazil - '..a family observed a roundish light of the brightness of the star Sirius which went through a series of complicated manoeuvres over the city for a period of 40 minutes. The principal witness and the head of the family is an amateur astronomer of 20 years standing..' (BJ 3-4/Apro Bulletin)

September 1st, 1970: Cradle Hill, Warminster, UK; 9.30pm. A skywatch party included 'amateur astronomer John Edwards, of the Bryn, Wyesham, Monmouth, a grassland development officer for South Wales..,' who was making his first visit to Warminster. One of those present '..spotted a fairly distant moving light.. glowing brightly. With his 200 mm magnification lens fitted in readiness, John - who has an eight-inch telescope at his home - was anxious to get his camera in action straight away, but we waited until the object gently glided closer, much closer.. At our estimated altitude of fewer than 200ft, the glowing sphere approached.. No sound came (from it).. as it swept gracefully towards north, then east-north-east to shoot over the top of Imber. here it dropped.. sharply.. through binoculars.. it was not circular but hemispherical..' There was a small round speck of light at the apex of its dome... A second object, similar but much higher followed. (UFOsKeyTTNA)

September 4th, 1970: Greenville, Texas, USA. '..Gary Graham.. was fortunate enough to capture a UFO on film. Graham, whose hobbies are astronomy and photography, combined both in obtaining his photograph. Using a 45-power refractor telescope with a 50-power eyepiece and a yashicamat 124 camera on a 5-foot tripod he was taking 1/2 second time exposure shots of the moon at 10pm and while waiting for the planet to rise at 11pm.

Though Graham himself did not see the object photographed, one of three consecutive 1/2 second exposures of the moon through his telescopic camera did record clearly 'a cigar-shaped UFO with rounded front and a tapered back which trailed some sort of exhaust' as it was caught on the film, silhouetted against the face of the moon.' (UFOsThAS)

November 1970: While studying the Archimedes area of the moon with a twelve and one-half reflector, Fred Steckling and his son sighted three very large cigar-shaped objects on the floor of the crater - two in the northern area and one in the south. Mr.Steckling and his son referred to the Air Force Lunar Sectional Chart of the Archimedes area, and found that no evidence of these objects was recorded. Based on an approximate diameter of fifty miles for the crater, it was estimated that the cigar-shaped objects - which remained in the crater for several hours - had to have been at least twenty miles long and about three miles wide. (FredSt)

February 24th, 1971: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK; 6.15am.

Four policemen were reported to have seen '..three single white lights in the sky.. moving at a great speed in a westerly direction towards Birmingham..' before turning northwards. Two days later, a follow-up report appeared:

'More on the UFOs from amateur astronomer, Steve Melvin of Nuneaton.

Steve, a worker at Coventry Power Station was on top of a tower at the same time as the three policemen reported seeing (mysterious objects) in the sky.

"I have been interested in astronomy since 1944 and have been 'skywatching' since then but.. never seen anything like these objects. / They made no noise and I can confirm that they were flying at about 30 degrees in a North Westerly direction. I have no answer for it, said Steve.'

(Mr.G.Coxon, BJ 3-4 / Evening Tribune)

June 1971: Jacksonville, Illinois, USA; 9pm.

Warren Davis observed from his doorway a bright light moving northwards in the sky...

"..on examining it through binoculars I discovered that it was oval-shaped, the front being indistinct because of three very bright white lights being situated there. It didn't display position lights or a rotating beacon as in the case of an aeroplane, just the lights in front which could also be observed from the side.. the sky was still fairly bright so it wasn't difficult to observe the object. It was at least a mile west of our position, flying at a speed of at least 300 miles per hour. Altitude was at least 3,000 feet. To the naked eye it looked like a satellite but it was distinct but very small.

I am an amateur astronomer and I am familiar with most aircraft and their lighting systems so I feel that I can distinguish between ordinary objects and objects of an unusual nature." (UFOs:ThAS)

August 25th, 1971: Lancashire, UK; 10.30pm approx. For two reports by astronomers (unknown to each other), click here.

September 1st, 1971: 'An amateur astronomer has joined the growing band of people who claim they have seen UFOs over North Staffordshire. / John Hancock, aged 21, of 122 Ashford Street, Shelton, made detailed notes of two unidentified flying objects in Weston Coyney last night. / One of the sightings, he said, was cylindrical in shape with a row of coloured lights. A middle light was green and it was flanked by red and white lights. / John's father, 44-years-old Mr.Norman Hancock, of the same address, said today: "We are deadly serious about these sightings. I was with John and I can verify what he saw. I must say I was rather shaken by it all." ' (FSR 18-1)

September 16th, 1971: region of Haute-Province, France; 8.46pm. '..the Observatory of Haute-Province.. began receiving telephone calls from nearby towns calling attention to a light in the sky. Several astronomers observed two small lights very close to each other moving together. Later they appeared as only one point of light, surrounded with a faint halo, and sometimes preceded, not followed, by a short luminous tail of yellow-orange color. Visibility was excellent without clouds or fog. The radar station at Marignane confirmed the object and said it was moving too slow to be a conventional airplane. For various reasons, satellites and weather balloons were ruled out. The possibility of a helicopter seems unlikely since there was absolutely no sound from the object at any time to any of the observers. Whatever it was, no identification was ever made, and the witnesses at the Observatory concluded they had indeed seen a UFO.' (Info Journal III,2)

1971: One night, at 11.30pm, a witness at Castleford, England, saw three objects in close line formation gliding across the sky, just below the cloud level. '..They approached from the north.. when they were almost directly above me you could make out the shape of them quite easily. They were completely silent.. No lights.. in..sight for I would say about three to four minutes. One of the objects on the outside of the three then made a perfect right angle turn away from the objects... At the time of my sighting I was interested in astronomy and was building my own 6" Newtonian reflector telescope...' (NUFORC)

February 2nd, 1972: Manchester, UK; 9.11pm. 'Young astronomer A.Darbyshire.. had just been studying Mars.. when he noted a peculiar red light in the east. "I put my 40 by 40 telescope to my eye and looked at it. It turned out to be a glowing red-orange light, spherical in shape. I took down my telescope to clean the lens for better viewing and, when I gazed again, it moved to the north of the sky," he reported.' (TFS)

March 1972: 'Mysterious red objects the size of tennis balls have been sighted in the sky over the North-West. / Amateur astronomer Mr.Les Morris, of Beechfield Road, Swinton, saw a strange red light in the sky while walking home with his daughter, Marlene. "It was as big as a tennis ball and looked to be 500 feet in the air," he said. / Mr.Morris, who works for Shell Chemicals at Carrington, phoned Manchester Airport and was told there had been no planes in the area for at least 15 minutes before he saw the object. / "I've seen shooting stars and other natural phenomena but nothing like this," he added. / Swinton schoolgirls Ellen Chapman and Fiona Cannon, both of Tennyson Road, also saw four of the 'flying red tennis balls.' / "One was continually flashing and seemed to lead the others about the sky," said Ellen.' (FSR 18-3)

July 6th, 1972: Kaitaia, New Zealand - 'Object In The Sky Puzzle. During most of yesterday a peculiar traveling light was observed over the Kaitaia Aerodrome. The object was discovered accidentally by a meteorological office man who came across it when tracking a weather balloon. "It is not fast moving enough to be a satellite and if it is a star it should not be able to be seen in daytime," said C.B.Michie who is a recognised authority on astronomy. "It was in the wong position to be Venus the only star visible in daytime."' (TEP, 10.72)

July 27th, 1972: '..At Paris, Ontario (Canada) an amateur astronomer, D'al Illes, and his friend George Peart were taking time-exposure photographs near the Nith River at about ten o'clock in the evening when the object appeared./ "It was a spherical ball of pale white light which slowly travelled across the sky," said the witnesses. "It lasted for fifteen or twenty seconds." / They said the object, which appeared to have a solid center and fuzzy edges, was about fifty-five degrees off the horizon. / Illes who has studied astronomy for seven years, claims that he saw similar objects in 1964 and 1966. This time his camera was set for a half-hour exposure, so he could not record the sighting photographically.' (TNUFOS)

October 4th, 1972: Winsford, Cheshire, UK; 10.25pm. 'Witness, Mr.Bryan Bishop, was on night shift, and while he was in the works yard he saw in the eastern sky a series of eight lights forming a diamond shape. (At first) only five lights were visible, but as the object moved almost overhead, eight.. were visible. The centre appeared hazy and it was not possible to discern whether this was eight objects or one.. / Mr.Bishop is an amateur astronomer and a keen meteor observer, he is familiar with the night sky and can recognise natural phenomena and satellites, etc.'

He described the lights as white, magnitude -1. Visible for four minutes, travelling into the distant east at a moderate speed. (Gordon Clegg, BJ 3-8)

'During an evening reception of several hundred astronomers at Victoria, British Columbia, in the summer of 1968, word spread that just outside the hall strangely manoeuvring lights - UFOs - had been spotted. The news was met by casual banter and the giggling sound that often accompanies an embarassing situation. Not one astronomer ventured outside in the summer night to see for himself. / Erwin Schrodinger, pioneer in quantum mechanics and a philosopher of science, wroye, "The first requirement of a scientist, is that he be curious. He should be capable of being astonished and eager to find out."' J.Allen Hynek 'The UFO Experience,' published 1972.

February 18th, 1973: New Zealand - 'Man Sees UFO, Clocks It At 1800 MPH. A UFO was sighted over Dunedin by several people last night. It was "huge," bright yellow and red, cigar-shaped and travelling at a minimum speed of 1800 mph. Two groups of people reported sighting the UFO at 11:20pm, one at East Taieri and the other in Gilkison St., Dunedin. From Gilikison St., two men, one a professional engineer, sighted the UFO travelling north for about 5-8 seconds before disappearing behind Flagstaff Hill. The engineer, also an amateur astronomer, calculated the minimum speed of the object to be 1800 mph "because if it disappeared behind Flagstaff it must have been at least 2 miles away and I allowed 3 in my calculations. "We watched it for 6 seconds during which time it travelled through about 60 degrees. This makes its minimum speed 1800 mph. the UFO was luminous and cigar-shaped with a ball of fire following it."' (TEP, 6.73)

Autumn (?) 1973: 'Frans de Bruyn of Adamayviewm Klerksdorp, Africa, was looking at the night sky when he saw a bright, luminous object moving from east to west at an angle of thirty degrees above the horizon. / Mr.de Bruyn, an amateur astronomer, ran in to call his father, who came out immediately. As they watched, the UFO moved upward at an angle of ninety degrees to its original course. It moved through the clouds, which de Bruyn judged to be at a height of about three thousand feet...' (TNUFOS/Skylook)

April 10th, 1974: UFO sighting by 'Jeff', who had become an amateur astronomer in 1965; had won the SVAS' Samuel S.Smythe Award in 1967, and was president of the Jr. section of the SVAS for two terms in 1968 and 1969. (source)

Pre-May 1974: '..it is distinctly odd to find an interesting UFO-related report in the Soviet Academy of Sciences' own popular-scientific journal Khimia i Zhizu (Chemistry and Life) No.5 (May 1974). / The item appears in an article reporting the views of some of the Soviet and foreign astronomers who participated in a Symposium on Extraterrestrial Civilizations, which was held during the recent congress held in Baku, USSR, by the International Academy of Astronautics... I.Kotnik, a Yugoslavian engineer.. made the following interesting statement - "But maybe contact has already occurred, and beings from other planets are already watching us? Now, look... I myself was a witness of such a happening in Zagreb, not long ago. / Suddenly the lights went out on several streets of the city... I was in the studio of the radio-station just at that moment, giving my regular weekly programme about extraterrestrial civilizations, when the lights started going out all over the place. I said, into the microphone - "Flying saucers have got nothing to do with this." / Then a listener telephoned to the studio, and suggested that I go down and try to start up my car. And, do you know, the car wouldn't move... and not only my car either... / We were told at the Power Plant that all their equipment there was functioning perfectly, and yet despite that, we were six whole hours without electricity. The people of Zagreb were quite convinced that 'saucers' were flying around overhead. / Well, there's an inexplicable story for you..." ' (Creighton, FSR 20-3)

May 23rd, 1974: Vernon(?), Illinois, USA - 'Two boys, both 11, david Dorn and friend Troy Warren, about 5:30 pm left home to play basketball and had a camera with them. They noticed a dark object in the sky and David, an amateur astronomer, took six pictures of it as it came closer, dropped to a height above the tree tops, hovered slightly and then rose up through the clouds and disappeared. When developed, a classic type saucer appeared. They took it to the sheriff, who submitted it to Allen Hynek, self-styled civilian UFO expert, Dept. of Astronomy at Northwestern University.. who ruled out the possibility of a hoax. He termed the photographs convincing evidence of a UFO sighting and said the boys were reliable witnesses. How times have changed! (a kodak x-15 camera was used). (MM, 10.74)

August 14th, 1974: Cheltenham, UK; 1.55pm. An eight minute observation by Brian Savoury and his father - 'The weather was hazy over the hills around the town; otherwise.. clear.. I was observing Jupiter from the bathroom roof through 16 by 50 binoculars. Turning to observe Sirius, I noticed red and green lights, alternating and bright, coming through the haze over Leckhampton Hill, part of the Cotswolds. They travelled south to the north-east and moved slowly towards where I was standing, right up to a point directly facing me. By this time I had a perfect "fix"; and it was a riot of red, green, blue, orange and white. The structure.. was a distinct crescent, and on the top.. a spherical dome...

Gently it swung to and fro like the pendulum of a grandfather clock, then rose slightly into the air before it descended to its former position. The UFO eventually moved away slowly to the south, and I feel sure it was not of earthly origin. My father and I will never forget what we saw sparkling in the sky that night! I am a regular watcher of the night sky and have seen many unexplained lights not falling into the satellite category, including some at Warminster...' (UFOMIM)

August 10th, 1974: Gunard, Isle Of Wight; 9.17pm.

'Aquarius Viewpoint includes a sighting by an astronomer in its Oct.1974 edition.. from the Isle of Wight, out with his telescope, watching for Perseids (meteors), but one object he picked up, far from rapidly burning out as meteors usually do, C.Laing says - "It continued to completely traverse the firmament and disappeared below the southern horizon while exhibiting some singular characteristics which leave me in confusion and doubt as to its nature & origin. It is my firm belief it was not of human construction.. emitting an orange glow, travelling great speeds, and as it went overhead it was clearly defined as a disc or sphere." - It altered its course after it passed Laing, to eastward in a manner no natural phenomenon could do. he can only suppose it was under some form of control, but he would not care to speculate...' (MM, 7.75 + BJ 4-4)

December 31st, 1974: A second UFO sighting by amateur astronomer 'Jeff.' (see Apr.10th, 1974)

January 31st, 1975: Southampton, UK; 8.35 & 9pm. '..these observations come from a young astronomer, out star gazing and well equipped with star atlas and binoculars. The first object was red/orange and moved in stops and starts. After minutes it was only visible through binoculars. The second sighting consisted of two hazy white nebulae moving on parallel paths faster than a satellite, but slower than an aircraft..' (BJ 4-9)

March 7th, 1975: Southampton, UK; 8.30pm. A young astronomer out star gazing (see also 31.1.75) saw '..a swift moving fuzzy white light the apparent size of a pea. It glided through the sky "like a ghost." Satellites and other phenomena were all logged by him and he made very accurate measurements of flight paths of the unknown objects.' (BJ 4-9)

March 18th, 1975: Waterdown, Ontario, Canada; 1.30pm. Amateur astronomer, Patric McCarthy, aged 19, had gone to an abandoned quarry to try to photograph some wild birds - "Suddenly I saw this massive circular object in the sky. I had been focussing my camera on a tree branch when I saw this thing like a frisbee zig-zagging around above me. I just started snapping away as fast as I could.' Although Patric had difficulty keeping the fast-moving aircraft in frame, he did succeed in getting three good shots in a sequence of four attempts.

The third of Patric McCarthy's photographs of the huge craft that flitted about in the sky over the quarry.

Credit: UFO Photographs Around The World Volume 2.

June 1975: 'Amateur Stargazer Spots UFOs Dashing Around The Sun & Moon. Oscar Carter, a retired salesman and baker in St.Petersburg, Fla., has developed an an interest in astronomy and grinding his own lenses, assembling his own telescope, noting UFOs circling the Moon, making criss-crossings and reversing directions. Authorities, of course, won't believe him.' (MM, 7.75)

1975: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 'The square, Praca General Osorio, was recently mentioned again in a report given to me by a man, E.V., who studied astronomy at the National Observatory. He, too, was at this square when he made his observation in 1975.' (I.Granchi)

Clyde Tombaugh, speaking with reference to his 1949 sighting, from an interview printed in Science Digest, August 1975: '..I was working at White Sands, and I knew we didn't have anything that could do that, so I reported it to the FBI and asked them not to make my report public... But it leaked out, and I have gotten thousands of crank letters since. I was accused of having hallucinations. I don't have hallucinations. I've actually seen two other strange phenomena since, but I didn't bother to report them. I don't want any more to do with it. It has become ridiculous. / It is still a very open question. But I can't have my career or reputation damaged by any more association with the UFO question.' (MM, 9.75)

late-summer 1976 (?pre-1979): Chard, UK; nighttime. Ed Harris, observing the constellation of Ursa Major through his bedroom window, focused on Etz, then moved on to look at Arcturus. Then, he became aware of a 'star' shining to the left of his field of view, and was amazed to see that it was moving. It was a 'faintly yellow object,' and Mr.Harris watched through binoculars as it crossed over Polaris before stopping a little below Cassiopeia.

As the object remained in this one position for close to ten minutes, Mr.Harris was able to observe it through his three-inch refractor, and was considerably excited by the appearance of '..a perfect example of a UFO - circular with raised roof..' It seemed to revolve on its axis, with its luminosity's colour changing from yellow to light orange.

When increasing magnification to 120-power, the (apparent) craft filled the telescope's field of view, and Mr.Harris realised that it was descending. He then rushed out of the house, with his binoculars. Lieing on the grass watching the craft hovering at an altitude of no more than 200 metres, his whole body relaxed, and a drowsy feeling of 'complete contentment' passed over him.' (UFOMIM)

19th November, 1976: Llanelli, Dyfed, Wales; 5.20pm. 16-year-old Brian Jones, 'something of a student of astronomy,' observed a very bright white light moving slowly across the sky:

'It varied in brightness as it moved. I realized that what I was looking at was definitely not an aeroplane, a helicopter, or any other aircraft because it travelled low and made no noise. I began to get so excited about the object that I ran to my house, and as I came to our side entrance I looked up behind my shoulder and there, closer to where I was standing, I saw that the light had brightened to a yellowish, round fireball with, underneath, a bright emission of sparks. As I was excited and a little frightened about it, I ran in at our backdoor and told my mother about the light, for her to see it. But when she came outside, it had completely disappeared.' (TWT)

November 1976: Sea Palling, Norfolk, UK. 'Did anybody see what looked like a UFO over Norfolk early on Wednesday week? If so, eleven-year-old Karl Rose, a Sea Palling boy, would like to hear from them. Karl, a pupil at the Paston School, North Walsham, saw what he thought was a flying saucer, low in the sky, as he looked through field glasses outside his house. Karl, a keen student of the stars, saw lights flashing on and off as the object passed the lower right of Venus. It made no noise and appeared to be descending slowly. His mother, Mrs Janet Rose, said that Karl often sits on the lawn at night studying the sky. Bright lad!' (North Norfolk News 26.11.76/UFOMIM)

Late-November 1976: Warlingham, Surrey, England - 'An evening of no moon, broken cloud, about 10:30 p.m. I went out into the garden. I glanced at the sky to observe Venus, large and bright with Jupiter laying low on the horizon in an easterly direction. / I have been interested in astronomy since a boy of twelve years of age. I am now sixty-nine years old, and still very active, and know the difference of what I see. / Into the heavens there appeared two red discs; not a briiliant red, more of a glow. They were about three inches in diameter, spaced about a foot apart apparently, travelling from south-south-west to north-north-east. The time of the sighting and leaving my vision was no more than nine to ten seconds, disappearing over the rooftops at a reasonable speed. At what height I am at a loss to say, it was a dark night, but I can say they were below the cloud ceiling.. I can say with absolute certainty that no aircraft of any kind was visible in the sky that night. / The night was quiet, and to see two glowing discs moving across the heavens silently, being held in a horizontal position, by what? Was there a solid body between them? Who knows? / It has puzzled me much. One thing I am sorry about and that is I have night glasses and a five-inch spectroscope; owing to it not being a good night for stargazing they were not at hand. Who is ever prepared when strange things occur! / Stars, galaxies, nebulae, meteors, these I can explain. What I have tried to describe I cannot explain. The number of known galaxies are many thousands and the stars contained in them billions upon billions. If only one star in these galaxies is a world like ours, then there are millions of worlds, larger, smaller; intelligent, some not so intelligent. / If we are capable of sending a robot on a journey of many billions of miles or light years distant, to fall or orbit a planet of which nothing is known, some insignificant globe in a far-off galaxy, then reverse this theory. And why not?' (UFO-UK)

pre-June 1977: Grantham, Lincolnshire, UK. Pensioner Donald Taylor wrote to Arthur Shuttlewood - 'I have been interested in astronomy for many years and have passed many a cold night with my stepson watching the planets. On one of these occasions I was to see my first UFO. We had been looking through an old theodolite which I used, and a semi-toy telescope which was his.

Suddenly an orange-coloured object swung into our vision. We both spotted it at the same time. The speed with which it had approached was phenomenal! Before we could recover our breath it had made a right-angled turn and - as quickly as it appeared - it vanished. This was the beginning, and I have now experienced many more sightings made in the Lincolnshire area...' (UFOMIM)

July 26th, 1977: Chengdu, Sichuan province, China. Observation by Zhang Zhousheng of Yunnan Observatory. He saw a 'spiral-shaped' UFO. (A.Huneeus, UFO Universe, Summer '89)

September 12th, 1978: Paignton, Derbyshire, UK; approx.11pm. An amateur astronomer was watching the stars in Cassiopeia through his telescope. He was amazed when 'a diffuse grey object of a precise cubic shape' swam into view. No matter what focal length the witness tried, he could not get the object into sharp focus. Suddenly, it split into two seperate forms which moved off in opposite directions, and he could only track one of these for a time until it went out of sight.

(Awareness, Autumn 1978)

'A 1977 poll of American astronomers (conducted by Peter Sturrock), published in JSE, showed the following. Out of 2611 questionnaires 1356 were returned. In response to whether the UFO problem deserved further study the replies were: 23% certainly, 30% probably, 27% possibly, 17% probably not, 3% certainly not. Interestingly, there was a positive correlation between the amount of reading done on the subject and the opinion that further study was in order.' 'UFO's and Mainstream Science' by Bernhard Harsch, Ph.D Five per cent of the respondents had experienced sightings that they could not explain.

April 16th, 1979: At 1 a.m., Amateur astronomer Dave Darling sighted a large cigar-shaped object close to the crater Isidorus, near the Sea of Nectar, while observing the moon with a 121/2 inch reflector. The object was '..about ten miles in length, and 11/2 miles in diameter.. silvery metallic, casting a distinct shadow onto the lunar surface.. (It) landed about fifty miles from the sunset terminator...' (FredSt)

August 12th, 1979: At 3.45 a.m., Dave Darling observed a cigar-shaped object beside the rim of the lunar crater Romer. It was '..over twenty miles long.. silvery metallic.. bearing two wing-type appendages which protruded out of each side.. Later, the object disappeared...' (FredSt)

A statistical analysis of UFO observations produced by the Institute of Space Research of the Academy of Sciences, USSR was published in 1979. The report stated that 7.5% of UFO witnesses are astronomers.

December 30th, 1979: Kunmin, China; 7.40am. A sighting by astronomers attending an astronomical congress was reported by Zhang Zhousheng - '..the weather was magnificent. Many comrades and I were observing the clear sky from the Yunnan Observatory. Suddenly, the astronomers discovered at 20 degrees below the zenith a strange object flying from west to east. It's velocity was similar to that of an aircraft at high altitude. We could not distinguish the shape of its nose since the object was too high in the sky. What caught our attention was that on its back there could be seen flowing three flames of physical particles, very brilliant, with an orange-yellow colour. From a distance, this object seemed like an electric arc. At a moment when the sun had not yet risen, an object of such luminosity emerging from the deep blue sky offered a spectacle truly magnificent.' (A.Huneeus, UFO Universe, Summer '89)

April 13th, 1980: Munich, Germany; 10.55pm. Engineer and amateur astronomer, Mauro Venturini observed 'Eight light yellow-coloured discs with fuzzy-looking peripheries (which) appeared at the level of the constellation Bootes and flew slowly.. from.. northeast.. to southwest...' Commented Mr.Venturini - "Since the UFOs were flying in such a peculiar formation, the confusion with something else is ruled out.. before I saw this I never believed in UFOs but I honestly say that I have changed from Saul to Paul and am now convinced of their existence.." (UFOsTSH)

June 9th, 1981: Tao-yvan, Taiwan - '..Mr.Tsai Chang-hsien, Director of Taipei Yuan-shan Astronomical Observatory, said he noticed (the) array of 15 light spots yesterday when he was driving along Taipei Bridge, and he hurried back to the Observatory at once to study the singular astronomical phenomenon. / He said due to the regular rotation of the universe, there should only be two planets, Venus and Mercury, in the western sky of Taiwan at this time of the year. Unfortunately, as the elevation angle those 15 light spots formed was too low, the telescope of the Observatory could not reach them. / In spite of his consultation with other observatories and the information that several citizens supplied over the phone, till 12:00 a.m. last night, Director Tsai was still unable to provide an answer. / However, as he pointed out, the so-called unidentified flying objects were not necessarily flying saucers, but only mystery beyond our current knowledge..' (UOMCh)

June 15th, 1981: Taipei, Taiwan; Afternoon - 'Fifteen light spots again appeared over taipei. They were seen positioned in a straight line at equal intervals of separation. They were sighted also by Cai Zhangxian, director of the Taiwan Observatory in North Taiwan. / A similar array of UFOs was spotted by Yunan Observatory at about the same time.' (UOMCh)

late-October 1981: Bradford area, UK - 'Amateur astronomer David Roberts, a former sceptic, revised his opinions on seeing two fireballs that drifted together across the moors. He remarked to the press, "I am convinced that professional astronomers should come to observe the strange things that are now happening at Woodside. I believe that young and older people on the estate could get worried if scientific observations are not carried out and an answer found soon." ' (PUFOM)

early-1980s/1970s: Presquile and The Sandbanks Provincial Parks, Lake Ontario, Canada. '..Throughout the years, on clear starry summer nights, being amateur astronomers, we would stare up while sitting around the campfire. We would see aircraft lights, satellites and the occasional meteorite fly by. On a number of evenings, we would witness what at first appeared to be the familiar white light of a satellite. The only thing that would set it apart would be its ability to stop dead and change direction (90-180 degree turns), with no change in speed (which was already faster than a conventional aircraft). Sometimes, we would see a formation of lights doing this and on one occasion, that I can recall, we were looking at what appeared to be the Pleiades Cluster, but then split apart into seven separate lights that flew off in two different directions...' (S.R.Liddle, UFOUn, Winter '95)

1982: Chinasaki, Japan. While riding a train, amateur astronomer Yasumo Mizushima, and many other people, sighted a cylindrical "..bright orange object very bright in the sky."

(A.Huneeus, UFO Universe, Spring '93)

1983: Japan. Yasumo Mizushima reported that, while looking through his telecope, he saw "many objects pass across the southeastern part of the Moon. Five objects shaped like a small piece of 'rice' crossed the lunar surface..," and that "..other people back then caught this object at the same time in other places." Mr.Mizushima estimated that the objects had a diameter of about 400-500 metres. In the years to come, he was to observe these objects cross the moon a further seven times. (A.Huneeus, UFO Universe, Spring '93)

July 3rd, 1984: South Coast of England. 'U.F.O. mystery baffles South' article here.

pre-August 15th, 1984: Darlington, England; Night. Christopher Wardell saw 'triangle-shaped series of green lights' through his telescope - 'Chris spots UFO!' article here.

May 4th, 1985: Japan. Yasumo Mizushima filmed an anomalous object near the moon. (UFOsTSH)

October 1985: Japan; 12.30am. Yasumo Mizushima had been filming the moon, with his video camera connected to two Celestron telescopes (C-14 and C-8), when he noticed and filmed two unidentified objects 'manoeuvring around the southeast side of the moon's surface. Their shadows on the moon were clearly discernable, which excluded the possibility of their being somewhere "out in space" between the Earth and the moon. They flew close above the sea of craters..' Later, Mr.Mizushima estimated the objects to be 1,200-1,500 feet in length. (UFOsTSH)

Summer 1987: Trenton-Lake Ontario, Canada. '..I was sititng at a park in the vening with my fiance.. We looked up and saw a formation of lights travelling completely silently from the direction of CFB Trenton towards, yet again, the Lake. The following week, there were reports of similar formations causing problems for the local airbase. They were witnessed hovering at a high altitude over the airbase on different occasions, always causing the searchlights to come on and aircraft to be scrambled...' (S.R.Liddle, UFOUn, Winter '95)

May 1989: Yokohama, Japan. Akira Ishiguro photographed three black oval objects over the surface of the sun. They changed position from one shot to the next. (UFOsTSH)

April 1991: Yokohama, Japan. Akira Ishiguro while making test photographs of the sun using a Polaroid camera attached to a telescope with a 60mm diameter lens and a 660mm focal lens, obtained a single shot of an unidentified object that has been described as '..something like a huge space station.. above the disc of the sun, a space platform on which apparently 5 cigar-shaped objects had docked...' (UFOsTSH + A.Huneeus, UFO Universe, Spring '93)

September 8th, 1991: About 40 miles east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; approx.2pm. '..an astronomer who was a passenger on board a commercial aircraft reported seeing three disc-shaped objects moving at tremendous speed and flying in a spread-out triangular formation..' (Stan Gordon)

March 15th, 1992: Moscow astronomer E.V.Arsyukhin saw something extraordinary on the Moon - 'At 1645 hrs, and lasting for 21/2 seconds, I observed the rapid flight, over a zig-zag course, of a square black body. This body appeared literally "out of nowhere". It flew at first towards the east, and then towards the west, and then it vanished in the bowels of the Crater Alphons. The length of its flight was about 500 kms, and its speed was in the neighbourhood of 200 kms per second. The length of the body was about 5 kms. Its speed was uniform. I am totally confident of this. The quality of the viewing at the time was excellent.' (A.Arkhipov, FSR 41-2[trans:G.Creighton])

October 7th, 1992: Kharkov, Russia. Yu A.Lutsenko saw something mysterious on the Moon - 'At 23.14 and 40 seconds, against the background of the Sea of Rain, I saw an extremely bright patch, with an assymetrical outline, which was moving. It was seen slightly to the south of Plato and it travelled almost along the meridian... for 41/2 minutes. When it vanished, it was not instantaneous, but lasted some 2-3 seconds, dying out as it were.' (A.Arkhipov, FSR 41-2[trans:G.Creighton])

March 31st, 1993: 1) Truro, Cornwall, UK; 1.09am. Phillip Young, "astronomer for some years," observed, for 30-40 seconds, two very bright objects travel from the area of Ursa Minor, going parallel with the pointers in Ursa Major. They were blue-white and "..left a ropey trail, like a vortex from a plane wing, though.. it was not a plane because it had no navigation lights and was.. silent..."

2) Sligo County, Ireland; 1.10am. 'Seen by Astronomer NW to SE.. two bright orange stars leaving fiery train behind them. Other smaller, fainter objects with trails also.' (Aw 19-2 & 19-3)

March 24th, 1994: Ossett, Yorkshire, England; approx.9pm. A father and son, both astronomers, made an observation through a telescope set up in their garden. 'There seemed to be hundreds of these lights moving together. As I focussed the telescope on them, I suddenly saw that the lights were attached to much larger objects. There were seven cigar-shaped objects - enormous. Three lines of small yellow/white lights appeared to be running along the full length of them. At the front was a small red light. This continued for at least thirty minutes. I have never seen anything like this in my life.' (UFO 7/8-94)

May 11th, 1994: Brooklyn, New York, USA; 10pm. 'While viewing the full moon through my Tele Vue Genesis-sdf refractor telescope, I saw a small, perfectly round, black object pass over the lunar disk. The object took approximately 10 to 15 seconds to make the transit. The object was in sharp focus, not fuzzy at all. The moon was also in focus at the time. It appeared as if out of nowhere on the eastern edge of the moon, travelled across the moon's face from east to west, then disappeared into the black sky at the moon's western edge. I looked to see if it was visible with the naked eye after it had passed the moon, but it was not. I do not recall exactly which eyepiece I was using at the time, but I am sure the magnification was somewhere in the 30 to 60 power range. I am currently 34, and I have been an amateur astronomer ever since receiving my first telescope at age 7. I am thoroughly familiar with the night sky, and I have perfect vision.' (NUFORC)

June 15th, 1995: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA; 7.30pm. '..Three disk shaped objects were observed to the north of the city and moving to the south. Objects were arranged in a triangular formation and appeared blue in color, almost matching the color of the sky. When objects reached the zenith they abruptly veered to the east and rapidly disappeared from view. When close to this observer, the objects were approx half the full moon's diameter. This observer is an amateur astronomer and has been for past 40 yrs. Prior to my retirement i have been employed as an electro mech design engineer at various firms for over 40 yrs. I have been furnished a Q clearance while employed at the Sandia corp during the early '50's.' (NUFORC)

December 19th, 1995: Joliet, Illinois, USA; 3.20pm. 'While driving east on U.S. Highway 30, an observer well versed in astronomy and weather saw two objects in a clear sky, hovering. One.. appeared to float around the other. They were coloured dull aluminium on top and black on the bottom. Both the tops and bottoms of the objects were less than perfect circles. (They) were observed for about 8 miles of travel.' (J.Rath 'The I-Files')

1995: North Vancouver, Canada. An astronomer told the RCMP that she had seen "a dark arrowhead-shaped object - three times the size of a jumbo jet - with orange-yellow lights at the tips." She reportedly told the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics that there "..was absolutely no sound, and the speed was incredible. This was no aircraft or weather balloon. I found the experience a little disconcerting to say the least." (Can.Nat.Archives/UFORup, 1-7)

February 13th, 1996: Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland. 'Amateur astronomer Alan White, 17, saw the object through a friend's telescope.' (UFO 5/6-96)

February 18th, 1996: Brighton, England; 10.40pm - 'I know that UFOs exist - two orange discs flew over my house.. These had the apparent size about two-thirds the diameter of the full Moon, and were travelling at about 1,000 ft and a speed of 200 miles per hour. They were completely silent. / I've spent a lot of time stargazing as an amateur astronomer and have seen some very unusual sights (green meteors etc.), but these objects were totally different and inexplicable. They were in sight for about 12-15 seconds and I could estimate their altitude and speed from the height of the mist which was spreading across the sky at the time. However, I have severe doubts about the extraterrestrial hypothesis..' (Dr.Alan P.Morse, UFO 5/6-97)

April 10th, 1996: near Huntsville, Alabama, USA; 8.30pm. A female amateur astronomer and her six-year-old daughter looking into the sky directly overhead saw "..a fuzzy white light.. like the Comet Hyakutake" descending in an arc toward the horizon, moving very rapidly. It stopped falling just above some trees, and the woman viewed it for 15 minutes with her telescope. It "..did not decrease in its intensity" as a meteor would, and was "much larger than a star." The UFO stopped, travelled horizontally to the left, stopped again, travelled to the right a short distance, stopped once more, then moved straight up and straight down. Finally, it veered leftward and was gone. (UFORup, 1-9)

May 5th, 1996: Wayne, New Jersey, USA; 10.12pm. A party of amateur astronomers set up their telescope on a hillside, hoping to get good views of Venus, then prominent on the western horizon. The first astronomer peering through the telescope's eyepiece saw "..a bright flash near Venus." S/he said, "At first I thought it was some sort of meteor exploding in the upper atmosphere." Another member of the group described the explosion as "A whitish-green colour."

When the first astronomer looked again, s/he could make out a grey saucer shape with "..two bright lights on the top of the dome. It was about the size of a two-bedroom house." There were two transparent "glass blisters" fore and aft of the object's dome. While in view for about 20 seconds, it hovered and then flew away to the north very fast. (UFORup, 1-13)

"I've been stargazing since the age of six. I'm now 73 and in all that time I've not seen one UFO. Astronomers don't generally see UFOs. We leave that sort of thing to housewives and policemen." "Anyone who believes in UFOs must also believe in Father Christmas." Patrick Moore, 1996.

"UFOs are a figment of the imagination." Richard Taylor, President Interplanetary Society, 1996.

early-November 1996: Bombay, India. '..In the Thane-Panvel district of the city, eye-witness Ms. Brooks spotted a glowing "frisbee-like object" seen moving in an arch around 9.00pm.. / "It disappeared in a few seconds but not before emitting a beam of light. I had my binoculars and telescope which I use for star-gazing from my farm, but before I could get to them it vanished. / I am a regular skywatcher and I know what an artificial satellite looks like - something like a zero candle bulb. This was something else - brighter, golden without the blinking, coloured lights you see on aeroplanes. It was something like the planet Saturn seen from the side without its rings," said Ms.Brooks.' (G.W.Birdsall, UFO 3/4-97)

May 22nd, 1997: Tillsonburg, Ontario, Canada; 10.30pm. Amateur astronomer Nicholas K. set up his Schmidt Cassegrain telescope in his backyard. He was looking "to find galaxies in the Big Dipper" when he noticed "a giant white cloud and against it as a background.. a cigar-shaped object about the size of an aeroplane, black or brown in colour."

The UFO was "unlit (and) it had four or five wings at right angles to and along its body. Flew at speed of plane. No sound.. No idea of height but beneath cloud. It hadn't rained.. Didn't see craft through telescope..." (Joe Daniels/UFORup, 2-23)

July 31st, 1997: Barrie, Ontario, Canada; 10.10pm. An amateur astronomer observed an unusual meteor with "a brilliant green trail and a trail of sparks like conventional fireworks...It made a noise as it passed overhead. Not a whistle, not a whine, a rushing noise and a series of pop, pop, pop noises, like an out of tune car engine backfiring. As an amateur astronomer, I know meteors are usually silent unless they are bolides and explode in the atmosphere or on impact. I have seen lots of meteors before, and all were silent." (UFO Times 45)

October 5th, 1997: Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA; 7pm. An amateur astronomer witness, who spends many hours observing the sky, noticed a 'comet' heading north. It looked like it was moving at the speed of a satellite, with the tail fading to nothing - 'I know comets don't move like this.'

( NUFORC)

December 24th, 1997: Kimsar, Rajahstan State, India; 11pm - 'A Swiss family and a dozen local residents watched as a UFO performed aerobatic manoeuvres high above the town of Kimsar.. Eyewitness Alex Carrara said his family had left their home in Geneva, Switzerland to spend the Christmas holiday in India. Alex was standing outside their rented home with his parents, brother and sister when they saw a crowd of a dozen or so local people looking at the sky. / "We were struck by the sight, and there was no sound," Alex said. The UFO was bright yellow or orange and seemed to be surrounded by a yellow-orange aura as it followed three different courses. "I know the sky well and have been studying astronomy for years," Alex said. "I know this was not a star." / Alex also pointed out that it couldn't have been a distant electric light because "there are no lights in Kimsar - there is no electricity."' (UFORup, 3-3)

March 2nd, 1998: Rosario, Santa Fe province, Argentina. '..the Rev.Pizzi, astronomy professor and director of the Colegio Cristo Rey observatory in Rosario, reportedly saw "a strange object of a yellow colour with an aura of the same magnitude as the planet Venus." / Rev.Pizzi said the condit ion of the sky was clear as he peered through the eyepiece to watch the object which "hovered in the sky for a period of ten minutes" before shooting off at speed towards the Andes. / The professor declined to call the object a 'UFO' but did concede: "Evidentially there is an enigma in the skies of our planet." (UFORup, 3-10/UFO Argentina)

March 24th, 1998: Another UFO sighting by long-time amateur astronomer 'Jeff.'

(see Apr.10th&Dec.31st, 1974)

April 29th, 1998: Singleton, W.Australia; around 7.30pm. Two families '..reported seeing a strange orange-yellow object travelling quickly across the sky in a southeasterly direction. The light was quite large, made no noise and was travelling at quite a low altitude. One of the.. witnesses is an amateur astronomer.' (UFORup, 3-23)

July 12th, 1998: Sutersville, Pennsylvania, USA. An amateur astronomer doing some backyard observations sighted a UFO. The witness '..owns a telescope and is familiar with the planets' and states that he was watching some aircraft when he saw a "bright, star-like source of light approx. west-southwest.. in the generally clear sky."

After fetching/focussing his telescope, the witness could see "..what appeared to be a solid white globe, but the centre of it appeared to be more transparent." It didn't move, but there was another smaller sphere just above it "..making a continuous back-and-forth motion, in a somewhat circular fashion.. (This one) moved from a 10 o'clock position to a 2 o'clock position and then would reverse the motion.. continued for over two minutes." (Stan Gordon/UFORup, 3-29)

July 25th, 1998: Aalst, Belgium. "I'm a 14 year old amateur astronomer that was observer with the Aalst Astronomy Club on July 25, 1998. Suddenly, there were some objects with green lines visible in our telescopes in the constellation of Sculptor. These objects were also visible in the finderscopes. They were slowly moving away. Their structure was irregular (something like aeroplane gases). Magnitude: about m7.0. heaven-horizon. They were about 10-13 degrees long. we saw four of them. P.S.: I'm not very interested in UFO's, but this was something strange." (Lennart/J.Thompson, ISUR)

October 22nd, 1998: Mordialloc, Victoria, Australia. 'Witness is an amateur astronomer who described three orange lights larger than star but with less magnitude. The lights had no sound and maintained a regular formation for the 5-10 seconds that she could see them. They were no longer visible when she reached another window to follow the object. She knows of meteorites and other astronomical phenomena. She also mentioned that the lights were lower than local aircraft in and out of Moorabbin Airport.' (Diane Harrison/Ufomind)

November 6th, 1998: Bend, Oregon, USA; 5.55pm. A formation of five sky objects in a straight line following one another, was seen by 50 year old ex-Air Force Weather observer, who had been an amateur astronomer for about 15 years. (NUFORC)

November 16th, 1998: Austin, Texas, USA; 2.30am. 'Triangular object w/three hemi-spherical 'projections' from the bottom, travelling N-S reflecting pink glow of city lights... I am an amateur astronomer with a degree in Physics. I am very sceptical about what I saw, but have no explanation. I have to count out normal balloons or weather balloons due to the extremely fast movement of the object and the lack of any wind whatsoever. I was very startled to find a similar report in your database dated 10/8/98, also in Austin.' (NUFORC)

November 18th, 1998: Stafford, South Australia; 3.20am. During the Leonid Meteor Shower, an amateur astronomer saw "a bright light going from left to right, then straight up."

January 13th, 1999: Northern Territory, Australia. Astronomer Matthew Pearce, 23, spotted a UFO with his telescope while skywatching - "I observed an object due south, around 10 kilometres from Yulura. The object resembled a star, silvery blue in colour. I heard no noise. Height around 15 degrees, southeast of Yulura, near Uluru. Visibility clear. It looked like a planet where there shouldn't be one. I watched it for around two minutes, then the object blinked out." (UFORup, 4-7)

July 6th, 1999: Kankauna, Wisconsin, USA; 10.50pm. 'A silent, triangular shaped object with a faint reddish light in each of its 3 corners flew directly over me... I am & for over 30 years have been a backyard astronomer. I have always had a fascination for the night sky. As a boy I spent many weekends & summers in the remote north woods of Wisconsin learning the night sky. I know more about the stars & planets than the average person so there is no mistaking what I saw, the only question I have is, what did I see?' (NUFORC)

July 10th, 1999: Sunshine, Victoria, Australia. Four witnesses, including two policemen, observed four orange-red lights about magnitude +1-0, for about 15 minutes.. The objects were moving SW to SE at a distance of 50 (..) from the observers. They faded off into clouds in formation. One policeman commented, "That is freaky!" Another witness with an astronomical background stated: "Those objects did not look normal and the police officers were alarmed as well."

(Australian UFO Bulletin/Auforn 18)

August 28th, 1999: Bronx, New York, USA; 10pm. '..I had decided I was going to try to video tape the moon thru my Meade ETX90 telescope.. I was looking thru my 8mm camcorder, which is looking thru the scope at 48X.. The moon was East/SouthEast at the time.. approximate point in the sky.. was Right Angle 0hr15.0m and Declination -3*37 degrees.. I then see a round object with no lights or distinguishing marks move across the face of the moon in a straight type of motion. It made no sound, no strange anything at all, just a round/disclike object going across the moon.. I was recording, so I have it on tape..' Witness continued to observe the moon, and saw the same thing or an identical object cross the moon in the same direction. Both were '..round, black..' and recorded on tape. Stated the witness - '..I do not claim this to be a spacecraft, or meteor, or satellite.. or anything else. I am just a amatuer astronomer who saw something weird. I have tried to use some deductive reasoning to come to some conclusion. And my conclusion is that it simply is a UFO. No doubt about it.' (NUFORC)

October 11th, 1999: due south of Kirbyville, USA; 8.35-10.35pm. A detailed sighting by a very serious amateur astronomer; his friend with years of shared stargazing - who called from 60 miles distant; (the reporting witness's) daughter, and at least five others. (NUFORC)

October 12th, 1999: Three Rivers, Michigan, USA; 7.40pm. The witness has been an amateur astronomer since 1970. Saw two 'jet contrails,' then spotted 'two round star like objects about 10 or 20 degrees above the horizon.' They had the same colour - 'pinkish orangeish' - as the jets. Witness does not believe they are stars or planets and took photos. (NUFORC)

November 30th, 1999: Cumming, Georgia, USA; 10pm. 'A brilliant amber, circular object trailing sparks moving from zenith to western horizon (traveling approximately due west) very quickly, in about 1 second. One object trailing sparks or debris, surprisingly large, the circular shape was clearly visible. 1/8th the approximate diameter of the moon? debris trail cover about 15 degrees of arc. Observer is a civil engineer, amateur astronomer.' (NUFORC)

December 1st, 1999: At Santo Domingo, it was 11pm, when an experienced amateur astronomer '..saw through a 5" telescope a black tear shaped object against the moon's disc. It moved spinning its backward directed narrow end..' (NUFORC)

April 23rd, 2000: Sighting at 9.30pm, from Scarborough, Toronto, Canada. 'I was looking west watching a commercial jet overhead and noticed three disc shaped objects that formed a triangle move quickly and silently north... I am 36 years old, married and have been an amateur astronomer for 2-3 years now...' (NUFORC)

May 3rd, 2000: Toonagabbie, NSW, Australia; 6.35pm. Stuart saw a white/silver ball emitting light. It was moving 3 to 4 times faster than a plane, and travelled in a straight path for about 3 seconds to a position behind trees, about 200m distant. 'It appeared to be sitting on a hill and Stuart could align telegraph poles with the object.. (it) appeared small with no tail or sonic boom. Stuart is an amateur astronomer.' (K.Burden, UFOR(NSW)/Auforn 19)

October 1st, 2000: near Shackleton, W.Australia; midnight. John C. was camping with his friend, when he noticed '..a 45 degree triangular formation of star-like objects all with the intensity and brightness of Sirius. The three.. objects were perfectly still and about 15 degrees above the horizon before just fading out over a period of one or two minutes. As an amateur astronomer he knew there were no stars in that area of the sky. John continued to watch.. but they did not reappear.' (D.Moffet, AUFORN/OZ Files)

[Alienated Being]

Holy crap, Theodore! That's one huge list of UFOs sighted by astronomers!

[Tundra Man]

It occurred to me that Astronomers spend all night looking up at the stars, but you rearly hear of them reporting UFOs.

And when you consider how many observatories there are all over the planet..it kinda makes you wonder.

Are these people seeing things and just not reporting them ..or what?.

has any survey been done to find out what they have seen.? and are there any astronomers on this forum.??

I do look a lot at the sky , even had a 4" reflector but the mirrors aint so good anymore . Once saw a bright dot going towards the moon, brighter than a satelite and slower, strange thing was it didnt get swalloved by the moons brightness until it "hit it " and didnt get out on the other side either !!

[icet925]

what kind of telescope does the astronomers use?

[Jjbreen]

Something that most do not realize is just how much different "Things" orbit the Earth.

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/kids_space/sat.html

How many man-made satellites are currently orbiting the Earth?

Well, that depends on how you define satellite! One definition of the word satellite is a body that orbits a larger body. If you take this as the definition of satellite then the answer to our question is millions! This includes actual spacecraft, and any man-made debris that has been made during the past 30 years of space exploration.

People call this debris "space junk". "Space junk" orbits at a speed of roughly 7.5 kilometers/second. That is close to 17,000 miles/hour! Think of the damage even a small speck of paint could do to the space shuttle if impact occurred at such high speeds !

Another definition of satellite is a manufactured vehicle intended to orbit the Earth. This definition makes our count much less because it includes only spacecraft and not debris that orbits the Earth. The Goddard Space Flight Center's lists 2,271 sate llites currently in orbit. Russia has the most satellites currently in orbit, with 1,324 satellites, followed by the U.S. with 658.

Now imagine how many real UFO's that is!

[Eagle Eye]

Holy crap, Theodore! That's one huge list of UFOs sighted by astronomers!

I know, and that's the short list! I posted it because you get these statements by some uninformed people out there who just don't know what they are talking about when it comes to the facts of the matter. Skeptics are always the first to pop up and make things up, but very few of them actually cite the historical facts ~ either because they just don't want to know, or are just plain lazy to do some fact-checking themselves before stating their own personal opinions as fact ~ when this is not the case at all.

[Eagle Eye]

Something that most do not realize is just how much different "Things" orbit the Earth.

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/kids_space/sat.html

Now imagine how many real UFO's that is!

Astronomers do, and advanced sky watchers. Satellites don't perform the kinds of aerodynamics in space that the unidentified flying objects (UFOs) do. The satellites up there are identified, so there's no need to imagine how many real UFOs that is Jjbreen. Plus, some of those "Things" don't follow Newtonian laws of physics, that have been filmed by our astronauts for decades, as well as by scientists, and our satellites with cameras.

Edited February 19, 2007 by Theodore

[Eagle Eye]

what kind of telescope does the astronomers use?

There are many kinds of telescopes, of different shapes, sizes, and observing power.

[badeskov]

I do look a lot at the sky , even had a 4" reflector but the mirrors aint so good anymore . Once saw a bright dot going towards the moon, brighter than a satelite and slower, strange thing was it didnt get swalloved by the moons brightness until it "hit it " and didnt get out on the other side either !!

Could it have been a small meteorite impacting the moon? Such impacts happen regularly, to the best of my knowledge.

Best,

Badeskov

[badeskov]

Astronomers do, and advanced sky watchers. Satellites don't perform the kinds of aerodynamics in space that the unidentified flying objects (UFOs) do. The satellites up there are identified, so there's no need to imagine how many real UFOs that is Jjbreen.

Sure, satellites, space debris and so on is cataloged, however, a lot of small pieces of rock flit by in close proximity of the earth each day, if not impacting (burning up in the atmosphere). Thus there is always something to see with a good telescope and some luck

Plus, some of those "Things" don't follow Newtonian laws of physics, that have been filmed by our astronauts for decades, as well as by scientists, and our satellites with cameras.

Uhm, we don't know that they are not following Newtonian physics, it just appears so. At least the few cases I have seen were so ambiguous that distance, size, etc would obscure their true trajectories and velocities. I have probably overseen some, so please point me in the direction of some. But I would just guess that if there was really any meat on that bone, scientists would be all over it.

Best,

Badeskov

[lost_shaman]

I have probably overseen some, so please point me in the direction of some. But I would just guess that if there was really any meat on that bone, scientists would be all over it.

The director of NARCAP say's that despite having the readily available location, no-one seems willing to make the trip out. Doesn't matter though because other Scientists are moving forward here anyway.

[Eagle Eye]

Sure, satellites, space debris and so on is cataloged, however, a lot of small pieces of rock flit by in close proximity of the earth each day, if not impacting (burning up in the atmosphere). Thus there is always something to see with a good telescope and some luck

Uhm, we don't know that they are not following Newtonian physics, it just appears so. At least the few cases I have seen were so ambiguous that distance, size, etc would obscure their true trajectories and velocities. I have probably overseen some, so please point me in the direction of some. But I would just guess that if there was really any meat on that bone, scientists would be all over it.

Best,

Badeskov

Well, check out the NASA film of these craft out in space just above, and within the Earth's atmosphere. That way, you can see for yourself.