New book alert - Kasten

Dear readers

It's my day off, so I am browsing the net at my local library.

Just came across another new book. "The Secret History of the Extraterrestrials" by Len Kasten. Published by Bear & Company-Inner Traditions. Rochester, VT in the USA.

If you are into the German time machine, Nikola Tesla; the Serpo saga; Iraq's stargate, and other similar things then this one is for you.

For more information click here.

New book alert - Dolan

Dear readers

A beautiful cool summer's day today, which started off with a light shower of rain, and a top of 21 degrees celsius expected.

Another new book for your Xmas wish list. This one is by Richard M Dolan and Bryce Zabel. The title is "A.D. After Disclosure: The People's Guide to Life After Contact. Keyhole Publishing. 2010.

With a premise "What happens when the powers-that-be publicly admit that fact? How will the truth change our society and your life?"

Click here for more details.

Grace Hopper

Dear readers

In a series of previous posts, my co-blogger, Keith Basterfield, shared some of his own thoughts from 40 years of UFO research, as to how best to maintain an active interest in UFO research. After reading a recent book from my bedside pile, I'd like to offer some suggestions myself.

Grace Hopper:

The book is titled "Grace Hopper and the invention of the information age" by Kurt W Beyer. Published by The MIT Press, Cambridge. 2009. ISBN 978-0-262-0130-9.

Who was Grace Hopper? Grace Murray Hopper played a pivotal role in creating the foundation for the computer industry. She is said to be "The Grandmother of COBOL" and was a mathematician par excellence. She joined the US Navy and rose to the rank of Admiral. Her contributions to the early information age are numerous.

Pointers from Hopper:

1. Empower youth:

"Hopper had the habit of assigning the most difficult technical problems to the youngest and least experienced members of a team." (p314.)

Why did she do this? She found it worked! "...as Hopper glibbly explained, young people did not know that they were expected to fail." (p315.) Beyond that she reasoned that senior people's "Education, traditions and community culture create a stable mental framework that helps to explain reality yet also hinders one's ability to see alternative approaches..." (p315.)

Comment:

I appreciate people who will involve younger people in attempting to solve problems. In addition, how many senior UFOlogists do you know who are locked into a single chain of recurring thoughts on the UFO phenomenon?

2. Learn from the margins:

"Since youth is fleeting, Hopper discovered that one could maintain a 'youthful' creative outlook by constantly broadening one's own knowledge base." She read up "..on subjects as diverse as astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, biology, zoology, economics, philosophy and the history of scientific thought." (p315.)

Comment:

Besides reading on UFOs and my own professional areas, I also digest science magazines coming the whole spectrum of scientific topics. I find this often leads me to insights into some aspects of the UFO subject.

3. Proactive invention: inventor as salesman:

Hopper played two roles "...during the development of what she referred to as automatic programming." (p318.) She invented something and then marketed it.

Comment:

I recall reading somewhere that the inventor, Nicola Tesla was a genius at inventing something but very bad at marketing his inventions. When I come up with what I think is an original thought about some aspect of the UFO phenomenon I blog, so I guess this is my marketing.

Have readers any ideas of their own to share?

More on green fireballs

Hi all

Introduction:

In a recent post I mentioned the just published research work of Stephen Hughes, of the Department of Physics, Queensland University of Technology. He published a paper titled "Green fireballs and ball lightning" which received a large volume of media interest. I have now had a chance to read the entire paper.

Summary:

The paper reviews numerous reports of three green fireballs seen over Queensland on 16 May 2006. It provides data on one luminous green ball seen near ground level, and presents an hypothesis that the passage of one fireball provided energy which created the ground level event.

Detail:

In this post I wish to focus on the luminous green ball observation, rather than the fireball. This is because Hughes writes (page 20) "If confirmed, this hypothesis may be able to explain previously unexplainable UFO sightings and the so-called foo fighters and other aerial phenomenon."

The ground level ball:

Don Vernon, a farmer from Greenmount, 28km south of Toowoomba, Queensland reported the observation "...just after he saw the fireball passing over the Great Divide." (p10.)

After the fireball went out of sight, "...a green ball, about 30cm in diameter was seen rolling down the slope of the range about 1km from the witness...the ball was a soft phosphorescent green...and faintly illuminated the ground out to a few metres...the green ball took between 2 and 3 minutes to roll down the hill...The ball was seen to stop and restart on its journey down the hill and was seen to bounce over a rock..."

The connection:

Hughes writes (p 13.) "The above account is strong evidence for a connection between a meteor and a luminous green ball rolling down a hillside. It is difficult to imagine any other explanation for the luminous ball if it was not connected to the meteor sighting."

"One possibility is that the green ball was some kind of ball lighting." (p13.)

"Could the witness have seen some kind of ball lightning (or some other electrical phenomenon akin to ball lighting) concurrently with the fall of the meteor?" (p14.)

Hughes discusses the possibilities, preferring to argue that "The observations described above are circumstantial evidence that there was some connection between the aerial fireball and ball lightning phenomenon of some kind on the ground." (p15.)

Hypothesis:

"The hypothesis presented in this paper is that the passage of the fireball over Greenmount momentarily reduced the resistance between the ionosphere and ground increasing the flow of current providing energy for the observed ball lightning phenomenon." (p15.)

"It is possible that in the case of the Queensland fireball, some of the plasma surrounding the green fireball broke away from the main object and descended to the Great Divide, possibly following an ionization trail produced by one of the fragments seen to break off the main object. The fact that the ball rolling down the hill was the same colour as the fireball would seem to be evidence in favour of this scenario." (pp15-16.)

Mechanisms:

"There are five possible mechanisms that could have reduced atmospheric resistance (i) thermal ionization; (ii) chemical reaction; (iii) corona discharge; (iv) trail of neutral conducting atoms, e.g. carbon or metal, and (v) fracture charging and tribocharging. It is possible that all five mechanisms could have been involved, with different mechanisms dominant at different altitudes. " (p16.)

Conclusion:

"Momentary electrical connections between the ionosphere and ground created by the passage of a meteor are probably very rare and fleeting. However, the observations described in this paper do provide circumstantial evidence for this and five possible mechanisms are suggested. All five mechanisms probably have to be involved at different points for a conductive path to be maintained even for a few seconds or minutes." (p19.)

My comments:

The ground level, luminous ball observation is certainly anomalous. One point I'd like to make is that at 1km distance (presumably the known distance to the hill the ball moved down) I don't think that it would be possible to accurately estimate the diameter of the ball as 30cm. It is not described as a point source, so apparently had an angular size. However, the paper makes no mention of the witness' estimate of an angular size.

Another question is "how did the witness know the ball was 'rolling' down the slope? " Did they see markings on the ball which allowed them to see it was actually rotating? I think the more appropriate description would be that the ball "descended" the slope.

Despite these two points, the timing of the passage of the fireball and the ball seems to point to a connection.

UFOs:

As to the suggestion that some UFO sightings might be explained by the hypothesis described; I note that even the author himself points out the ionosphere/ground connections "...are probably very rare..." This rarity, and the necessity that "All five mechanisms probably have to be involved at different points..." seems to me, an unlikely explanation for even a small percentage of reported UFOs.

It would be prudent though, to conduct a review of any UFO reports which have in the past occurred close the passage of a fireball. The aim would be to see if one could find any more ground level green ball observations.

From my own memory, and I have collected multiple observations each, from at least three major fireball events, in my own state of South Australia, I don't recall any such green ball sightings.

What do readers think of this?

UFO conference in Darwin 2011

Hi readers

There is to be a second Australian UFO conference in 2011, This one will be held in Darwin, and is being organised by Darwin UFO researcher, Alan Ferguson.

For details click here.

The new "UFO Matrix" magazine

Dear readers

Adelaide's unusual rainy summer and below average summer temperatures continues into the sixth day. Barely 20 degrees Celsius was our maximum yesterday, so I went for a trip into the City. Border's bookshop in Rundle Mall was my target.

I was delighted to find Volume 1 Issue 2 of the new United Kingdom magazine "UFO Matrix" (click here.) I was even more delighted to note that the magazine's Australian contributors are Lee Paqui and Sheryl Gottschall of UFO Research Queensland.

Their Australian contribution this issue, is a piece on UFO Research Queensland itself as an organisation. The piece starts off telling us that UFORQ "...has recorded over 5000 reports since it was first established in 1956."

Illustrating the quality of Australian reports, are brief details of the world known 1966 Tully, Queensland, "saucer nest" case (click here) and the 1959 Boianai Mission CE3 event (click here.)

A number of other Queensland events are described, including close encounters near Brisbane and Rockhampton, of which I had not previously heard.

Besides the Australian piece, the issue contains pieces by Nigel Watson on abductions; Albert S Rosales on types of beings encountered in the UFO field; Yvonne Smith's personal journey; more from the "Alien Autopsy casebook" and much more.

The Australian price is $11.95 for a 100 page quality issue, packed with some old but much new material. In my opinion,this mag provides you with a much better coverage of world news and world class researchers than does our local "UFOlogist" (click here) so I will be spending my spare dollars on this rather than the "UFOlogist" in future.

Highly recommended reading.

1964 Woomera UFO movie solved - cold case

This post explores the 5 June 1964 British Pathe Film of a UFO taken at Woomera, South Australia. This case has often been regarded as a classic and is said to have been linked to the famous English, Solway "spaceman" photograph taken on 23 May 1964. It is now solved.

Introduction:

Over the years I have compiled a number of specialised Australian case catalogues of UFO reports. One of these is a "Catalogue of Australian Photographic UFO reports."

I stopped compiling this particular catalogue in 2005, when digital photography, and sophisticated software packages made it very easy to produce hoax images. In addition, with the number of digital images being produced and available on the net, I just couldn't keep up with all the claimed images, even just for Australia.

One of the cases which is in the catalogue, has the following entry:

"5 June 1964 Woomera, South Australia
This photograph was taken at the launching of a Blue Streak rocket, and shows an oval blob of light near the rocket. A black and white print in the FSR source was apparently from a colour movie."

The primary source was the English Flying Saucer Review Sep/Oct 1964 page 4, which carried one black and white photograph.

By 2003, when the Disclosure Australia Project commenced, I hadn't come across any further information.

Disclosure Australia Project:

The Disclosure Australia Project took a five year time frame to locate and document the Australian Government's UFO file holdings (see http://disclosureaustralia.freewebpages.org)

One set of possibly relevant files on which detail about the 5 June 1964 sighting may have been found, was file series 580/1/1. This was the RAAF's master set of UFO reports. Part four of this series covered the time frame January 1963 to 4 December 1965. An examination of this file revealed that there were no recorded UFO reports for the entire month of June 1964.

Over the years the Project uncovered about 150 UFO files related to UFO research, and examined the majority of these.

One discovered file was D174/SA5281 held by the Federal Government's Department of Supply. This Department was responsible for the operation of the Joint United-Kingdom -Australia Weapons Research Project which operated the Woomera rocket range. As the 5 June 1964 photo/movie involved the launch of a Blue Streak rocker from Woomera, this was a promising lead. However, file D174/SA5281 turned out only to cover the period 1952-1955.

A search was therefore conducted for other Department of Supply files, or other files related to Woomera. A second file was located, with the date range being 1952-1968, therefore covering the year 1964. It was hoped that this file, D250/56/483 might assist. It was titled "Reports on unidentified aircraft, strange occurrences etc" and was held by the Weapons Research area of the Department of Supply. Unfortunately, despite and extensive examination there was nothing on this file relating to the 5 June 1961 photo/movie.

We came across no other files which covered Woomera in 1964. However, we did locate, on the National Archives of Australia's website, a reference to a series D897, Unknown objects - DSTO WRE (A-K 1948-1957) - Australian Archives. The series notes stated that the "Series contains approximately 4800 colour and black and white slides. Controlling records for this series (D896) indicates there are some 6200 slides registered between 1947 and 1961. The whereabouts of the missing 1400 slides is not known...These are slides of Skylark launches, Jindivik trials, Blue Streak movements and some unidentified objects..." This then was another promising lead.

The Project located a register for these slides in the Adelaide office of the National Archives of Australia. Archives staff produced two bound volumes which contained dates, reference numbers and details of the photographs. A close examination of these details of hundreds of pictures, revealed none of a Blue Streak launch for 5 June 1964. However, later, Disclosure Australia Project staffer Dominic McNamara located a still photograph at the Adelaide office which paralleled the one from the FSR. (Source: Telephone conversation between Dom and Keith, 10 December 2010.)

This then, was the sum total of Disclosure Australia staff knowledge which could be added to the available information. If a sighting report of the 5 June 1964 UFO had been made, we could find no record of it.

The Solway Firth photograph:

The 5 June 1964 Woomera photo/movie has been related by some researchers to the famous 23 May 1964 English Solway Firth photograph. What was the connection?

Jim Templeton took three pictures of his daughter. The middle picture showed what looked like a "spaceman" behind his daughter's head.

"A Blue Streak launch at the Woomera test range, using Cumbrian-built weaponry, had been aborted because of two large men seen on the firing range. Technicians at the time did not know about Templeton's sighting until it appeared on the front page of an Australian newspaper,and they said that the figure in Cumbria looked the same as the ones they had seen on the monitor at Woomera. Templeton told the BBC that technicians considered the two figures to be 'exactly the same type of man: same dress,same figure, same size as in the original photograph.'" (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solway_Firth_Spaceman )

So, the connection is said to be, on an unknown date, people at Woomera involved in a Blue Streak rocket launch saw two figures the same as the figure in the 23 May 1964 Solway photograph. Do we have a date for the Blue Streak launch?

"Not long afterwards the editor of the Cumberland News newspaper contacted Jim and asked if he could borrow the negative to send a copy out to Australia. Apparently the photograph had appeared in the press there and staff working at the Woomera test range area in Southern Australia had seen it. Jim was told that the day after he took his photograph,a Blue Streak space rocket was due to be launched from Woomera in Australia..." (Source: http://www.ufologie.net/htm/solwayfirth64.htm )

So, the date of the aborted Blue Streak launch, according to this source was 24 May 1964, and not 5 June 1964.

Some background:

ELDO - the European Launcher Development Organisation - was established to develop a satellite launcher for Europe. Tests were based in Woomera.The cancelled British "Blue Streak" ICBM became the first stage of the launcher. The second stage was built by the french and the third stage by Germany.The first launch was on 5 June 1964, and involved the first stage only.
This is the date of the UFO photo/movie. (Source: http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~woomera/eldo.htm )

A link?

Thus, there would appear to be no links between the 23 May 1964 Solway photograph and the 5 June 1964 UFO photo/movie. The 5 June 1964 photo/movie stands alone.

1996 and 2010

I was unaware that English ufologist Jenny Randles in a 1996 TV documentary "Tales of the paranormal" reported on the 5 June 1964 footage, but found the relevant film canister missing from the British National Archives. An English MP, John Fraser, saw the documentary and launched an inquiry into the incident and the missing footage.

In 2010, David Clarke, senior lecturer in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, examined newly released files from the British Minstry of Defence, and found material related to the 5 June 1964 photo/movie. "When they actually looked at the papers back in 1964, British Pathe Film, who were actually there at the rocket launch and made the film, they wrote into the MOD and said, 'yeh there was soemthing on the film but it's quite clear to us looking at it that it's an internal camera fault, like a reflection in the lens.' The missing canister of filmed 'evidence' had been stored at the Imperial War Museum instead of the National Archived." (Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/outback-flying-saucer-a-trick-of-light-not-a-ufo-says-british-government-files/story-fn3dxity-1225901495970 )

Film found on the net!

That seemed to be the end of the story, but as I prepared this post,on a whim, I searched the net using the terms "british pathe blue streak 1964." This took me to the website of British Pathe Film and the very movie which is the subject of the post -the 5 June 1964 UFO movie!

The video clip on the site is titled "Woomera, Blue Streak - Two, One, Zero" and is listed as from canister 64/48. The issue date was 11 June 1964, and since the only Blue Streak launch had taken place on 5 June 1964 it must be the movie of the UFO.

Indeed, as I ran the video,( source: http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=43301) it clearly was. There, on the left hand side of the rocket is a classic internal lens reflection.

Case solved.

Conclusion:

Sometimes, it takes an aweful long time to get to the actual facts behind a UFO story. In this instance, the fact that the film canister in question was missing in 1996 added an air of mystery. However, research has now lead to a copy of the original film, and the UFO in question is clearly a classic internal lens flare, and the case can therefore be removed from the "UFO" category.

P.S. For far more interesting UFO cases from Woomera, do take a look at the Disclosure Australia website at http://disclosureaustralia.freewebpages.org Check out the Newsletters and the two part final report.