Are UFO sightings becoming rarer?

[edthedoc]

Is there an official register of UFO sightings that gives yearly total numbers of sightings?

I ask this because I have a feeling that UFO sightings are becoming less common (Edge, this doesn't include you), despite the huge increase in hand-hend cameras/video cameras which would surely make recording of UFOs more common.

What do you think?

[The Don]

Maybe run it as a poll along the lines of:

Reported UFO sightings are decreasing because:

- JREF is suppressing the evidence
- There are fewer UFOs around since they opened the hyperspace bypass (sorry for the plagarism DA)
- More of the UFO sighters are being abducted by UFOs
- More of the UFO sighters are being abducted by the new world order
- The news media can't be bothered to report UFO activity
- People are less credulous
- There are fewer experimental aircraft flying around in plain view

[psy kick]

More people are realizing that what they are seeing are not aliens or spacecraft, but real objects, unknown.
Maybe just maybe, people are becoming smarter?

[tcwolf]

You know, I live in Savannah, Georgia. From people that I run into every day - may it be the mailman or the people I work with - there is always at least one person that has seen a UFO.

None of the people here report them, though. I mean, I'm sure there is some that call the police, but for the most part they go unheard - except by word of mouth.

Recently there has been a surge of people who have experienced UFOs. A few being my mom, a good friend, and a girl that I recently dated (along with a few people in the car with her). The sightings all happened within a few weeks, and because we are near an airbase makes it all the more spookier.

I was driving home in the car one day and I happened to gaze up at the sky - and wouldn't you believe it - there was a BRIGHT white light levitating in the sky. I slowed down, stared at it for a minute, and in the bright spectacle of it all, I knew what it was.

An Ultra-Light! We have a club or something that builds them, and as of late they have all been making their Ultra-Lights out of transparent materials. I've seen them flying around at day (and they look really cool) and at night they look more like a UFO than anything I've ever seen.

Of course for me, the determining factor between Ultra-Light and UFO was the sound of the lawn mower engine...

[sadluxation]

Originally posted by The Don
Maybe run it as a poll along the lines of:

Reported UFO sightings are decreasing because:

- JREF is suppressing the evidence
- There are fewer UFOs around since they opened the hyperspace bypass (sorry for the plagarism DA)
- More of the UFO sighters are being abducted by UFOs
- More of the UFO sighters are being abducted by the new world order
- The news media can't be bothered to report UFO activity
- People are less credulous
- There are fewer experimental aircraft flying around in plain view

You missed out the lack of metal pie dishes, most of them are plastic and don't make impressive UFO's.

[Michael Redman]

People getting smarter? Less credulous?

No, they're spending all day indoor watching Q-ray bracelet infomercials, putting magnets in their shoes, and drinking water that has it's particles lines up.

[Soapy Sam]

tcwolf's tale has me wondering... There must be someone out there with a violet ultra light. Come on, 'fess up...

[Wolverine]

Originally posted by edthedoc
Is there an official register of UFO sightings that gives yearly total numbers of sightings?

I have no idea how "official" the information presented in their database may be, but if this would be helpful in any way, here's a URL for The National UFO Reporting Center (http://www.nwlink.com/~ufocntr/)

There may be additional information on the MUFON (http://www.mufon.com) and CUFOS (http://www.cufos.org) web sites.

Make sure you're wearing appropriate levels of tinfoil before viewing.

[Andonyx]

Well, if we're to go by those numbers...

The records haven't really been kept long, but the trend seems to be sharply and definitely upward.

Anyone else notice the cyclical nature of the sightings per month? For some reason the 7th and 8th month always seem to be higher than the year's average by a considerable margin,

Anyone know of any atmospheric, or astronomical phenomena that may account for this?

[SimonJohnMorgan]

Maybe because it's summer, so it's warmer, and people are out more? In other words, not because there are more things to see, but more people to see the things?

[Houngan]

I do recall the UK's largest UFO group disbanding because of "lack of interest." Promising, but not the whole enchilada yet.

H.

p.s. Perhaps it's a result of increasing sophistication regarding photography and special effects?

[fishbob]

You are going to miss them when they are gone. There is nothing more entertaining than a good UFO sighting report.

[MRC_Hans]

*snip*
girl that I recently dated (along with a few people in the car with her). Wow, talk about a hot date :eek: Shame on you!:rolleyes:

Hans

[kittynh]

Philip Klass reports in his books that UFO sightings tend to go in cycles. Have a good UFO movie, on TV or in theatres and you get UFO sightings. The Barney and Betty Hill tv movie used aliens that looked like the little grey men most people think of as aliens...but this image didn't become popular until after the movie airerd. Plus, the movie started the whole alien abduction thing..

[SimonJohnMorgan]

It's a good job we don't live in a world where struggling authors suddenly get abducted and write best selling books about it isn't it. Otherwise I'd be overwhelmed with cynicism. ;)

Does anyone have any stats on the relationship between films and reported sightings. Close Encounters, ET, Communion, Muppets from outer space, etc

[Andonyx]

Originally posted by SimonJohnMorgan
It's a good job we don't live in a world where struggling authors suddenly get abducted and write best selling books about it isn't it. Otherwise I'd be overwhelmed with cynicism. ;)

Does anyone have any stats on the relationship between films and reported sightings. Close Encounters, ET, Communion, Muppets from outer space, etc

No, but the same History of Psych proff, who had a great refutation of alien abduction stories claims that before war of the worlds was released UFO sightings were almost universally cigar shaped. This based on an RAF pilot's report of a cigar shaped UFO, and most claims that followed, followed suit.

In WOTW, apparently the ships were suacer shaped, and the reports that came in after that were almost universally saucer shaped.

[kookbreaker]

The answer? Proliferation of Video cameras.

Times were, all you needed as good evidence for UFO nuts was a few photos of a pie tin or an eyewitness account. These days, if you didn't have a video camera with you (like everyone else does, keep up wi'the Jones already) and shoot your UFO, nobody is going to waste their time.

Thing about videos is that, apart from a few technical anamolies (which usually get called rods or orbs by woowoos) most videoed UFO's aren't too hard to figure out. No, sorry, that's a mylar baloon, no, sorry, that's not a rectangluar UFO, its the shape of the camera's Iris when you've zoomed in to the camera's max on a point of light (Venus). What's left is pretty sad. Its little wonder that 90% of UFO 'discussion' invlolves cases from 30-40 years ago. Most of which are bent by UFO nuts beyond recognition.

[SimonJohnMorgan]

In the '53 WOTW I think they were more flat triangles with a ray gun like an angle-poise lamp.

I don't when Earth Vs The Flying Saucers (or some similar title) was out, but I think you guess the shape then! :p

[billmi]

Kookbreaker...

You are forgetting my all time favorite - one I saw multiple times on the Fox "Sightings" show.

That is, pointing out the visual distortion of the cloudy sky trailing around and behind the object in question and saying it's evidence of a gravitational drive bending light, when it is actually the image artifacting caused by the motion JPEG compression of the computer used to slow down and magnify the video.

-Bill Mills

[edthedoc]

Does anyone know of a good photography website that deals with debunking woo-woo photographs of aliens/ghosts/ectoplasm etc?

I'm interested in the technical side of things explained by people who know what they are talking about so even a good photography site that deals with technique/photographic errors would do.

[Filippo Lippi]

A few years ago I was being driven through Lincolnshire (very flat county in the UK). The sun was going down, but over head were very black thunder clouds. About a mile away, lit by the sun behind me and in stark contrast to the dark clouds behind, was an elipsoidal, silver shape that was hovering about 200 feet above and it remained there for about 30 seconds.

Only as we got closer did the true nature of the craft become evident. No doubt you've already guessed it was a plane, a grey Hercules transporter. The bright silver colour and the shape were down to the relative positions of the car, the plane and the sun. The hovering and the strange shape were down to the movements of the car and plane relative to each other.

So, I remain very sceptical about UFOs. My cousin Jimmy is utterly convinced. However, he's from Ohio and very active in the local NRA so...

[kittynh]

Joe Nickell has a really good book for the lay person called, "Camera Clues"
You can get it though Amazon and sometimes on ebay really cheap.
It goes over dating photos and all that too, but he's really quilte good at what he does. He was a private detective, and writes articles for Skeptical Inquirer magazine. He also teaches classes sometimes on "debunking".