UFO sighting in Texas

[ksbluesfan]

On MSNBC, there is an article about the dozens of people in Stephenville, TX that saw a UFO.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22656172/?gt1=10755

To me, it sounds like the Stealth bomber -- very large and quiet without seams or bolts. There is a reward if you can provide photos or video footage.

I have to wonder why alien spacecraft would need red and white lights.

[grayman]

I have to wonder why alien spacecraft would need red and white lights.

Navigation Lights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_light).

Red on the port side, white on the rear. I'm sure that if the UFO circled the witnesses would have seen a green light on the starboard side.

[Locknar]

I have to wonder why alien spacecraft would need red and white lights.I think it is a FAA rule, lights on air craft alien spacecraft...ET is just trying to get along and abide the law; I for one commend their law abiding ways and wish them a pleasant Corn Dog day on their visit to Earth.

[kosai]

You will know the real UFOs have come when you see this pattern of lights...

Red, White, Yellow, Some New Color You've Never Seen Before, Blue, Green, Aqua, Red, White....

[DrBaltar]

I don't get it. As the news says, there are 200 reports of UFOs per month. What makes this one special? I don't even see any pictures.

[Cello Man]

I think the strongest case against visitation by super-intelligent aliens is that out of all the places on Earth they could buzz at low altitude, they pick Stephenville, Texas.

My wife's extended family has a get-together there every year, so I've been obligated to see the town before. Many more times than I would choose to, I might add. Just trust me when I say: it's (capital letters) Nothing Special.

[Astrophotographer]

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[Astrophotographer]

Hard to say what it was based on the information available. However, based on past experiences with these sorts of sightings, my guess would be two aircraft (planes/helicopters/ultralights/etc) close together. Some of the things that indicate this are:
1) The pattern of lights changed
2) Several people tried to look for a shape connecting the lights and could not (even though I have seen some stories talking about a massive craft being behind the lights)
3) Colors of the lights. It appeared to one witness as red light and the bright flashing light.
There is very little information there but I am sure UFOlogists will find cases of "missing time" and "a massive object too large for a conventional aircraft" after interviewing excited witnesses. I wonder if any experienced amateur astronomers saw the event. They might be able to shed some light on the matter.

[Safe-Keeper]

The disturbing part:"People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times," said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts.":jaw-dropp

Fundamentalists.

[m_huber]

The campus newspaper at LSU covered this story. I thought about writing a letter to the editor, then I decided it was futile.

[Skeptic Guy]

The disturbing part::jaw-dropp

Fundamentalists.

I was going to point this part out, too. It certainly suggests an active fantasy life.

[Magic 9-Ball]

In the article: "the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide."

Right. No mention that it blocked the entire view of the sky?

That's bigger than the spacecrafts on the movie "Independence Day". You could fit two movie theatres, tennis courts, basketball courts, running track, and a wave pool with room to spare. The aliens must be here to rob the Dick's Sporting Goods store.

[alfaniner]

"I couldn't see any seams or bolts." How close do you have to be to see those? I can't see any bolts on my car when I'm standing right next to it!! And certainly no seams from 100 feet or so.

[Ashles]

What are these aliens up to?

The travel interstellar distances using unimagined exotic physics, just to fly low over hick towns with all their lights on.

What are they getting out of this?

And who are the people in this town?
Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 300 feet over a pasture behind his Dublin home. But he decided to come forward after reading similar accounts in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune.

"You hear about big bass or big buck in the area, but this is a different deal," Sorrells said.

Obviously an amateur scientist - he has the impressive ability to identify the difference between a fish or deer, and a flat metallic object hovering 300 feet in the air?
"Ayup. That sure ain't no deer."

Sorrells said he has seen the object several times. He said he watched it through his rifle's telescopic lens

That's one of the funniest things ever! Bill Hicks would be so proud.

Let's finish with I think a definitive and evocative account from Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan that is so crystal clear in its detailed explanation that I can visualise the strange craft almost perfectly:

"I didn't see a flying saucer and I don't know what it was, but it wasn't an airplane, and I've never seen anything like it,"

[Just thinking]

Well, you know you've got reliable reports when ...Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.

... followed by ...Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night of Jan. 8, when most people reported the sighting.

... along with ...Officials at the region's two Air Force bases — Dyess in Abilene and Sheppard in Wichita Falls — also said none of their aircraft were in the area last week. The Air Force no longer investigates UFOs. (I take this to mean they don't initiate any chases.)

I guess they's all in cahoots!

[m_huber]

The Air Force did investigate UFO's with project Blue Book (http://www.bluebookarchive.org/), but they quit that some time ago. Recently, a group tried to pressure the AF into resuming Blue Book, but good sense prevailed.

[Just thinking]

Also ... someone said it was a mile long. And no radar blips showed anything unusual that night from any airports?

Wouldn't something that large show up somewhere once inside the moon's orbit?

[godless dave]

It's pretty much impossible to estimate how big something is that's up in the air. There's nothing to compare it to for scale, and no way of knowing how far away it is.

It's like when I witnessed a car accident and the police officer asked me how fast I thought one of the cars was going. How the hell should I know? Do I have radar detector implants in my eyes?

[Just thinking]

It's pretty much impossible to estimate how big something is that's up in the air. There's nothing to compare it to for scale, and no way of knowing how far away it is.

True enough ... and I never believed there to be anything so large up there ... if anything at all. But it's the absence of any rational thought that goes into the making and reporting of such claims that I was trying to bring attention to. It seems that no one does any basic thinking before speaking anymore.

[EHLO]

It's pretty much impossible to estimate how big something is that's up in the air. There's nothing to compare it to for scale, and no way of knowing how far away it is.


That's not entirely true - I just saw a plane fly over head and the moon was visible near by. As such I can confidently say that the length of this particular aircraft was about 2/3 the diameter of the moon (about 1400 miles) :)

[Wolverine]

Courtesy of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/412497.html):

On Dec. 11 -- more than a month ago -- a Scottish writer and evangelist wrote exactly what would happen.

Catherine Brown, 43 and a mother of four, wrote about a heavenly vision predicting a "stunning star" over Texas that would make "front-line news."

...

Brown has never seen Texas in her life, she said Tuesday by phone from her office at Gatekeepers Global Ministries in Ayrshire, Scotland.

"I saw this huge light over Texas," she said. "It was actually just a short vision. When I saw the news today, I thought, 'How interesting.'"

Whee! Bonus woo (http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word/5954). (Except the article was dated Dec. 10th and the nebulous "vision" is dated November 11th.)

[Astrophotographer]

Also ... someone said it was a mile long. And no radar blips showed anything unusual that night from any airports?

Wouldn't something that large show up somewhere once inside the moon's orbit?

You bet. But you see UFOlogists like to play the stealth card. This even though some of their "classic cases" use radar contacts as evidence of UFOs. Apparently in the the 1950s, UFOs did not have stealth. Fifty years later, when we develop Stealth technology, the aliens managed to develop it too.

[Linda777NJ]

I saw a segment on Good Morning America this morning,......Musta been a slow "real" news day!

[calebprime]

On MSNBC, there is an article about the dozens of people in Stephenville, TX that saw a UFO.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22656172/?gt1=10755

To me, it sounds like the Stealth bomber -- very large and quiet without seams or bolts. There is a reward if you can provide photos or video footage.

I have to wonder why alien spacecraft would need red and white lights.

I live in the Boston area, and, a few months ago, I was startled by a very loud, very unusual jet flyover noise. I looked out the window just in time to see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETAvxh47Czg

It was a B2 stealth bomber. From the Cape Cod air show. (I'm not too sure what was so stealthy about it, it was as loud as h*** and very visible...)

[m_huber]

My brother is a pilot, and he used to take me to air shows when we were growing up. I've seen stealth fighter and bomber, lots of small planes, and many of the major US war planes. I've seen things flying overhead in New Mexico, and I've heard far-off sounds. Somehow, with all of the attention I've paid to the skies and to aircraft, I've never once seen anything suspicious.

If they open a tourist trap with UFO information, then I understand. Roswell is a fun place to go to specifically because of the woo. Otherwise, the people are nuts.

[Linda777NJ]

My brother is a pilot, and he used to take me to air shows when we were growing up. I've seen stealth fighter and bomber, lots of small planes, and many of the major US war planes. I've seen things flying overhead in New Mexico, and I've heard far-off sounds. Somehow, with all of the attention I've paid to the skies and to aircraft, I've never once seen anything suspicious.

If they open a tourist trap with UFO information, then I understand. Roswell is a fun place to go to specifically because of the woo. Otherwise, the people are nuts.

A few years ago, I witnessed something that left me shaking so bad I had to pull off the road. It was a ball of molten fire and looked to me about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. It was close and big. For a split second, I thought it was a plane crashing. I quickly dismissed that when it wasn't coming down, it traveled from my right heading left and kept that same trajectory. Then, I thought for sure whatever it was, it was surely going to crash not too far from where I was. I figured it was a meteor and turned on a talk radio station.

You would not believe what other people were reporting it looked like and where it landed and what was happening at the landing sight! It was an enlightening experience in my life and the first time I realized that most people that listen to talk radio are idiots or liars.

BTW I never did hear a credible report that it ever landed.

[LA woman]

I heard this story on NPR - apparently I can't post the link because I haven't posted enough here. You can visit npr.org if you want to read the article or listen to the interview.

I caught my attention because I was told a similar story several years ago by a coworker. He was a normal, rational person, who described witnessing an object as large as a football field hovering in the daytime sky - I think it was in New York, if I remember correctly. He said that hundreds of people witnessed it, including several police officers, who apparently refused to get out of their cars. He only told the story once, after overhearing others in the office casually debating if UFOs exisited. His story stuck with me because it seems that one would have to be completely delusional to look up in the sky in broad daylight with hundreds of others and "think" you saw something the size of a football field. I realize that none of this is proof of anything, but it's interesting nonetheless.

[Ashles]

I realize that none of this is proof of anything, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Well, if that's what actually happened.

Are there any news reports about this? There should be.

[Babbylonian]

Well, if that's what actually happened.

Are there any news reports about this? There should be.
And pictures! Something the size of a football field over New York - during the day, no less - would have so many cameras turned on it that the increased weight (I've heard that the camera adds 10 pounds) would make it fall like a rock.

It sounds to me, though, like someone was having an Independence Day flashback.

[Ashles]

He said that hundreds of people witnessed it, including several police officers, who apparently refused to get out of their cars.

Don't Police cars have cameras in?

[Wolverine]

Oh noes, it's an invasion.


Do These Photos Capture UFO Over Central Texas? (http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=251D602B4967E4FC02B1679F18C41EC1 ?contentId=5513730&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1)

You may remember the story earlier from Stephenville, Texas of locals claiming to have seen a UFO. Now, a central Texas man is claiming to have seen one over Lake Travis, and he’s got pictures (http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_gallery.jsp?contentId=5506223&version=1&locale=EN-US) to back up his claim.


Lake Travis is essentially my backyard. Should our new alien overlords involuntarily transport me to Gliese 581 C, it's been nice knowing you all.

[Ashles]

Oh noes, it's an invasion.


Do These Photos Capture UFO Over Central Texas? (http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=251D602B4967E4FC02B1679F18C41EC1 ?contentId=5513730&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1)


And, bizzarrely, he wasn't actually taking a photo of a UFO. He was taking a photo of a sunset and only when he was looking at the pictures later was he "kind of surprised to see something in the pictures, something more than the sunset"

Must have been a real impressive UFO to have been completely missed while actually photographing it.

[Ashles]

Here is the photo.

9802

And this generated an actual news story.

I mean, wow.

[LA woman]

Well, if that's what actually happened.

Are there any news reports about this? There should be.

It was 12 years ago that I was told the story, and it had been a number of years earlier that it had occurred. If I remember correctly, he said there were no news reports about the event.

I don't know if the police had cameras in their cars back then, but certainly there weren't cell phone cameras and the kind of technology we have now. He did say that the police would not get out of their cars and talk to the people who were watching.

I don't believe he said that it was directly over New York City, but I think it was in the state of New York, in a well-populated area. At the time I heard the story I didn't search the internet, having neither a home computer or internet access at work. A

As I said, I'm not offering proof of anything, but it caught my attention because the description of what people saw in Texas was so similar to what he described.

Meh.

[DrBaltar]

Here is the photo.

9802

And this generated an actual news story.

I mean, wow.

Oh it can get so much worse: http://www.zetatalk.com/teams/tteam342.htm

[Steve H]

Oh it can get so much worse: http://www.zetatalk.com/teams/tteam342.htmNancy never met a lens-flare she didn't like.

[Darth Rotor]

Here is the photo.

9802

And this generated an actual news story.

I mean, wow.
I love watching sunsets over Lake Travis.

One of the best places to watch one is at the Oasis restaurant, high up on the lake's eastern shore.

A plate of nachos, a few margaritas, and sunset.

Best show in town.

DR

[Wolverine]

I love watching sunsets over Lake Travis.

One of the best places to watch one is at the Oasis restaurant, high up on the lake's eastern shore.

A plate of nachos, a few margaritas, and sunset.

Best show in town.

The view is a little nicer at The Oasis (that's where the "UFO" photos were taken, by the way), but I much prefer the food and environment
at The Iguana Grill (http://www.iguanagrillaustin.com/). Yummy!

[alfaniner]

An earlier post said the Texas sighting was on Jan 8 -- the article I read said the 14th. I know the celestial dome won't change that much over the course of a few days, but if anyone reads about the specific time, date, and direction that video was taken it would help me run the simulation again.

[Beerina]

In the article: "the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide."

Right. No mention that it blocked the entire view of the sky?

That's bigger than the spacecrafts on the movie "Independence Day".

Actually, no. The "city ships" were 15 miles in diameter. So the ID4 ships would make 'em their bi4ch35.

[bruto]

It just seems odd that so many people saw this and nobody thought to take a picture. Some reports even had people watching for a while, and then going into the house to get their family to come out and look, and nobody thought to grab a camera? Now, in a time when a significant percentage of the people you meet on the street have cameras built into their cell phones, and nobody thought to snap a picture? Or are there pictures that we haven't seen? I just find it mind-boggling that that many people saw a thing in the sky that they describe as that big and that clear and that unusual, without there being dozens of camera-phone shots and at least a few just plain photographs.

[ksbluesfan]

I live in the Boston area, and, a few months ago, I was startled by a very loud, very unusual jet flyover noise. I looked out the window just in time to see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETAvxh47Czg

It was a B2 stealth bomber. From the Cape Cod air show. (I'm not too sure what was so stealthy about it, it was as loud as h*** and very visible...)

When it is approaching, it is very quite. On a mission, you wouldn't have the opportunity to hear how loud it is flying away.

They're all at Whiteman Airforce Base in Johnson County, Missouri, just east of Kansas City. For all missions, they leave and arrive at Whiteman AFB, so I see them ever so often en route.

It's a creepy feeling to have something like that sneak up on you. Very surreal.

I know they were the source of many UFO reports in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

[DRBUZZ0]

Well here's my take on it. I found a video (cell phone maybe) online which reports to be of the object and I believe it's likely legit because this is exactly what the wittinesses reported...

AfwGqvg82mw

[Bluegill]

Thank you Dr. Buzzo, that was pretty cool. Whether the video shown is actually from the Stephenville sightings, I don't know, but it's a very good lesson in looking for prosaic explanations.

[calebprime]

When it is approaching, it is very quiet. On a mission, you wouldn't have the opportunity to hear how loud it is flying away.

They're all at Whiteman Airforce Base in Johnson County, Missouri, just east of Kansas City. For all missions, they leave and arrive at Whiteman AFB, so I see them ever so often en route.

It's a creepy feeling to have something like that sneak up on you. Very surreal.

I know they were the source of many UFO reports in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Thanks. It was pretty impressive. Back in the 80's, I might have thought it was a UFO.

[Astrophotographer]

That was a great clip. If that video is what the witnesses saw, I think it is pretty much a wrap on solving this one. It demonstrates (again) how excited and uncritical witnesses can be mistaken about what they report and what they actually saw. I am sure UFOlogists will come back with the witnesses stating that they saw something but it wasn't any blimp but if the blimp was in the area at the time, it makes complete sense.

[Wolverine]

More "me too!" articles...

Trucker with a cellphone (http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/418344.html)

Texas Tech student (http://www.kcbd.com/global/story.asp?s=7738129)

[DrBaltar]

More "me too!" articles...

Trucker with a cellphone (http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/418344.html)

Texas Tech student (http://www.kcbd.com/global/story.asp?s=7738129)

The first one is a picture of 'Sun Dogs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dogs)'. The picture with lights in the second one was the explained UFO sighting in Phoenix, and completely unrelated to the recent TX sighting. I noticed the media were using the Phoenix images in other reports on the TX sightings, which I thought was very irresponsible. Many viewers might conclude that 1 - the phoenix video is a video of UFOs in TX, and 2 - that the phoenix video might actually be a video of UFOs when it has been in fact explained (that would be an IFO - Identified Flying Object).

[Wolverine]

The first one is a picture of 'Sun Dogs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dogs)'.

When I looked at the first one, I thought "surely he doesn't mean the sundog", and figured it was one of the specks of crap on the windshield.


The picture with lights in the second one was the explained UFO sighting in Phoenix, and completely unrelated to the recent TX sighting. I noticed the media were using the Phoenix images in other reports on the TX sightings, which I thought was very irresponsible. Many viewers might conclude that 1 - the phoenix video is a video of UFOs in TX, and 2 - that the phoenix video might actually be a video of UFOs when it has been in fact explained (that would be an IFO - Identified Flying Object).

Did you see the video from the second link? They include a snippet of shaky-cam video which isn't good for much. If he was filming to the east before sunrise, he probably managed to catch Venus. Of course neither article bothers to mention specific details, so they're rather pointless.

[Astrophotographer]

Did you see the video from the second link? They include a snippet of shaky-cam video which isn't good for much. If he was filming to the east before sunrise, he probably managed to catch Venus. Of course neither article bothers to mention specific details, so they're rather pointless.

I was unimpressed but it wasn't Venus. Venus is a morning sky object these days. Assuming the object was not moving significantly, my guess is it may have been a bright star. In the few seconds they showed, I saw it twinkling. Planets normally do not twinkle but stars do. Being in Texas, it could have been Sirius or maybe Canopus (which would be very low near the horizon for Lubbock). Without any details such as direction, time, etc. It is hard to say what was recorded.
It seems that once the news media reported the first UFO, people in Texas are looking up and seeing what is up there. Unfortunately, many people do not have a clue what a satellite, meteor, planet, or even a bright star scintillating looks like. When they encounter them in their first attempt to seriously look at the night sky, the observer becomes confused and the objects suddenly become UFOs.

[Wolverine]

I was unimpressed but it wasn't Venus. Venus is a morning sky object these days. Assuming the object was not moving significantly, my guess is it may have been a bright star. In the few seconds they showed, I saw it twinkling. Planets normally do not twinkle but stars do. Being in Texas, it could have been Sirius or maybe Canopus (which would be very low near the horizon for Lubbock). Without any details such as direction, time, etc. It is hard to say what was recorded.

I'd watched the KCBD video before getting properly caffeinated this morning, and didn't notice on the first viewing that the video was not made by the Texas Tech student featured in the interview. It instead looks to be this clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMfSoXpXnrw), shot "on the evening of 1-14-08 near Alvarado, TX".

The only detail provided about the student's "sighting" is:

For a brief moment Tuesday morning, Texas Tech student Brian Callahan says he felt as though he'd entered the twilight zone.

"The light was so brilliant it was like a white light I've never seen," says Callahan.

...which obviously doesn't say much, but I misinterpreted the two different claims as being the same. Perhaps he caught a pre-dawn satellite of some sort.

It seems that once the news media reported the first UFO, people in Texas are looking up and seeing what is up there. Unfortunately, many people do not have a clue what a satellite, meteor, planet, or even a bright star scintillating looks like.

Yep, and that's most unfortunate.

[Astrophotographer]

...which obviously doesn't say much, but I misinterpreted the two different claims as being the same. Perhaps he caught a pre-dawn satellite of some sort.

I missed the part about it being in the early morning. In that case it might have been Venus. Of course it could have been a number of bright stars as well. Venus is attention grabber for most people. It is always brighter than any star in the sky and looks a lot like a landing light for an airplane except it does not move (other than the normal motion due to the earths rotation and its own orbital motion both of which can't be noticed in a short period of time to a naked eye observer). I recall reading about one ATC who had mentioned they tried to talk in and "land" venus one time thinking it was an aircraft on approach!

[Gord_in_Toronto]

This is being "investigated" on the Larry King show right now. :rolleyes:

Same old crap.

"At least as big a story as the Phoenix Lights." Why. yes, you are right!

"They burned up." You mean like toy hot air balloons?

Are the nice ladies lying? Well. Yes, they are or at least they are confused.

Is the kid with the telescope lying? Well. At least he looked with a telescope.

[Steve H]

This is being "investigated" on the Larry King show right now. :rolleyes:

Same old crap. Good for Larry!! He's not the only one who realizes that retroactive "investigation" of anecdotal "evidence" is absolutely vital if one hopes to get that UFO "smoking gun" to finally quit firing blanks.

[Ravenwood]

well, one thing's for sure. I'll be a lot more careful when firing white stars from my 37mm launcher (hey, what else do you do with them when they are past the expiration date)

[UnrepentantSinner]

I believe MUFON is having some sort of press conference/todo down there today.

Last night on C2C, Linda Multon Howe discussed the sightings.

They've also been getting a lot of press locally.

The guy who was out hunting says he saw something black that covered sky above the glen he was in (out deer hunting) and it was 3 football fields (this is Texas) in length.

[Wolverine]

In browsing the headlines this morning, I noticed this guy (http://www.pr.com/press-release/68333) is seizing the opportunity to hawk his woo (http://www.amazon.com/Your-World-Future-Bible-Prophecy/dp/0741443287/).

Gotta love the local marketing (http://cbs11tv.com/local/UFO.Fever.Stephenville.2.633468.html) in Stephenville, though. The video's a hoot.

[Tricky]

Predictably, UFO buffs have descended on the town of Stephenville (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5468588.html). And look! They really do wear tinfoil hats! http://images.chron.com/photos/2008/01/18/9612406/311xInlineGallery.jpg

Really though, it appears that most people believe it is a joke and are just having some fun.

But some are very serious. This is Texas, after all, and some folks want to build a fence across the sky to keep the aliens out.

[Wolverine]

Really though, it appears that most people believe it is a joke and are just having some fun.

Tinfoil hat on the cow statue = win.

[Astrophotographer]

Most UFO "investigations" are meant not to find the source of the "UFO" but in trying to hype the event. The media will not cover "it was just a blimp" but they will cover "it was something extraordinary". MUFON officials get some much needed airtime to hype their UFO stories and locals, who probably saw nothing, can get their little bit of fame by talking about mysterious lights and dark spaceships so huge that they could not possibly be made by earthlings.
Don't kid yourselves, MUFON is not interested in solving a case. Back when the Phoenix lights became a big item, there was one MUFON investigator who was saying the videos were probably flares over the Barry Goldwater Range. He said this in April-May 1997 shortly after the event (march 1997). Local MUFON officials called him a "debunker" and accused him of all sorts of nonsense. MUFON got egg on their faces when in July 1997, an AF public affairs officer revealed they were flares. MUFON still denied it was possible. They did a TV show about the Phoenix lights in November 1997 and demonstrated the lights were distant. Again, MUFON denied they could be flares. The final nail in the coffin occurred in 1999, when somebody actually did triangulation on all the videos and demonstrated they were over the Barry Goldwater range and probably were flares. You would think that simple triangulation could have been done in 1997 and not 1999. The reason it was not done in 1997 was because it would explain the case. Like I said, MUFON does not investigate, they hype and get some very much needed press to peddle their aliens are coming nonsense.

[UnrepentantSinner]

Wolverine and Tricky have given me so much fodder for snarky comments but I only have time and bandwidth to comment on - myself... look at me!! ;)

A number of years ago I joined MUFON as a skeptic and enjoyed a number of their news magazines where they dissected sightings, crashes, abductions, implants, etc. if, at least not completely skeptically, with the scientific method in mind.

Here is where my problem starts. I recall ending my association with MUFON when one of my news magazines had the cover "We know they're abducting us, now we need to figure out why". The problem? I've searched the Web over and never found a copy of the news magazine making that claim though I swear it appeared in my mailbox.

I long since sent my copies of the MUFON newsmagazine to the recycler, but the fact that I can't evidence that assertion by the organization is more frustating to me than I imagine it is for UFO claimants who have no photographic, video or physical evidence of their supposed encounter.

O.K. I admit, since I work nights, smoke and am outside quite freqently over a major metropolitan area, I have a particular suspicion for claims of UFOs, but isn't it an indightment of the UFOlogists when I agonize more over disposing of a news magazine with a claim I cannot evidence than UFOlogists do over claims of supposed alien spacecraft?

[Steve H]

Did MUFON ever address the issue as to why "alien abductions" are never caught on film, especially when some claim it happens to them repeatedly?

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Did MUFON ever address the issue as to why "alien abductions" are never caught on film, especially when some claim it happens to them repeatedly?

I don't know what MUFON has to say but the True Believers explain that the aliens like Mandrake the Magician have the ability to gesture hypnotically and ever effort to record abductions is thus thwarted.
:D

[UnrepentantSinner]

Did MUFON ever address the issue as to why "alien abductions" are never caught on film, especially when some claim it happens to them repeatedly?

I heard a guy on Coast to Coast one night discuss this and he said, basically, that things happen like people who are being videoed will leave the room where the camera is and come back after their "lost time" or the equipment will malfunction for X minutes and that's when the abduction occurs.

It's ad hoc at it's best.

[Corsair 115]

This is being "investigated" on the Larry King show right now. :rolleyes:I think I saw a part of that.

While Larry was blathering on to someone, they showed some videos of purported UFOs. What got me about the two clips I happened to see (they were older clips) was that they were both clearly fakes. I mean clearly.

The way a small, light object moves when close to the camera looks different from the way a large, heavy object far from the camera moves. It's subtle, but definitely different. And I spotted that right away — the UFOs moved like small, light objects closer to the camera.

I can't believe how many folks it seems can't pick up on this, especially since such motion differences seem so obvious to me. Maybe it comes from having grown up watching a lot of old science-fiction and monster movies where the special effects were all done with model spaceships and whatnot.

[m_huber]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/01/21/pkg.ufo.meeting.kdaf

is there really nothing better for news agencies to cover?

[Wolverine]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/01/21/pkg.ufo.meeting.kdaf

is there really nothing better for news agencies to cover?

"It's fire of some kind. I mean, it's not a light."

In the two weeks that's passed, nobody's managed to explain to the trucker that he photographed a sundog (http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/418344.html)? Oy.

[Skeptic Guy]

Well, I feel better. Larry King will get to the bottom of it, if anyone can.

[Maxie]

Going to try this again, since I don't know what happened to my last post. After the Stephenville sighting, we had one here in the Arklatex. A woman took a video and gave it to a local tv station. She said this thing hovered long enough for her to go back inside the house to get her camera. She filmed it for awhile then it slowly moved off. She made it clear she does not believe in UFOs but wanted someone to explain what it is. It was large with lights and in the bottom had what looked like a strobe light, red and rotating.

The local station contacted Barksdale AFB and asked them to comment, they would not. Then the station asked them to view the video, they declined. It could be some sort of new Air Force Technology, who knows?

[Wolverine]

Going to try this again, since I don't know what happened to my last post.

Your post (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?p=3352276#post3352276) was on this thread (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=103664).

[Maxie]

Thanks, still finding my way around. Sorry for the double post.

[Wolverine]

After the Stephenville sighting, we had one here in the Arklatex. A woman took a video and gave it to a local tv station. She said this thing hovered long enough for her to go back inside the house to get her camera. She filmed it for awhile then it slowly moved off. She made it clear she does not believe in UFOs but wanted someone to explain what it is. It was large with lights and in the bottom had what looked like a strobe light, red and rotating.

The local station contacted Barksdale AFB and asked them to comment, they would not. Then the station asked them to view the video, they declined. It could be some sort of new Air Force Technology, who knows?

Probably not necessary to invoke ETs or new USAF technology for this one. I found the story you mentioned (http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?s=7700063) after you provided a bit more detail than in your previous post.

The BCS Championship Game (college football) was held at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans the night before the woman's "sighting", and despite it being a domed stadium, FOX (who carried the game) provided aerial coverage from a blimp. I forget which was overhead, and was paying much more attention to the game itself, but it shouldn't be too difficult to track down. Surely she caught it on its way out of the state.

[Wolverine]

From the story...

So we called in an expert, Lee Gunther who works at the Shreveport airport.
...
He also says it's not a blimp because blimps lights are not that spread apart.


AB5GMAlmZFA

Vp6EgYMfClY


Expert fail. :p

[Maxie]

Well yeah, those are obviously blimps. I just wish for once "I" could see something in the sky. Too may darned trees around here to even see many stars on a clear night.

[Wolverine]

Well yeah, those are obviously blimps.

The examples posted look quite consistent with what's shown in the home video featured on KSLA. I'm in the process of sending out a few inquiries to find out for certain.

I just wish for once "I" could see something in the sky. Too may darned trees around here to even see many stars on a clear night.

Have you ever considered seeking out a local astronomy club? They'd surely be more than happy to give you a tour of what's up in the sky (http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/tonights_sky/).

[godless dave]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/01/21/pkg.ufo.meeting.kdaf

is there really nothing better for news agencies to cover?

If by "better" you mean, important for citizens of a republic to know, then yes.

But that's not what news magazines are in the business of reporting. What they want is news that gets ratings in the demographic groups advertisers want, without upsetting large numbers of people in those demographics. By those criteria, there's not much "better" than a UFO story, unless some young white woman gets abducted or murdered.

[UnrepentantSinner]

I only caught a few minutes of it this morning, but local radio personalities from KLII went to the area of the sightings (I think they went to Stephenville or Dublin) to be part of the media circus and they wound up talking more about the Mexican resturaunt they ate at than any of the MUFON/sightees activities so I'm guessing there's much ado by believers, but apart from the periodic interview, not much serious journalism going on.

What I'd really like to see is an interview by a serious UFO investigator of the hunter who cliamed to have seen the giant object that covered the sky.

[m_huber]

I only caught a few minutes of it this morning, but local radio personalities from KLII went to the area of the sightings (I think they went to Stephenville or Dublin) to be part of the media circus and they wound up talking more about the Mexican resturaunt they ate at than any of the MUFON/sightees activities so I'm guessing there's much ado by believers, but apart from the periodic interview, not much serious journalism going on.

What I'd really like to see is an interview by a serious UFO investigator of the hunter who cliamed to have seen the giant object that covered the sky.

I come here looking for info about UFO's, and I leave salivating and craving Mexican food. Thanks.

[Maxie]

Wolverine, please let me know how your inquiries go. The video on KSLA showed the red light under the bottom of the craft. That is from what I saw of it. Good suggestion on a local astronomy club. May try to locate one...