Dear Sir,

First, I’m an amateur astronomer and have seen all kinds of (explainable) “things” recorded through scopes and camcorders, including objects thrown by someone into the scopes field-of-view, animations added later, etc. When analyzed, these can be detected.

And I don’t have the time or desire to fake something that I think is as important as the possibility of advanced life visiting us.

Ok, that said…

I was attempting to use different filters and attachments for these daylight conditions without much success as achieving good focus on the Moon with the rapidly deteriorating conditions were making it impossible. That’s why the Moon is out of focus. But that put the object a little more in focus. I was recording 30 second clips of the Moon passing through my fov in an 8” Schmidt-Cassegrain when at 18 seconds, an object streaks by. (I wasn’t looking at the video screen at that time and started slewing the scope down after it passed)

I have captured many (identifiable) objects through a scope and camcorder; planes, birds, satellites, balloons and even some guy’s radio controlled airplane that looked very much like a full size plane because of its distance.

All of these objects have their own characteristics such as; planes leave a heat signature that lingers for several seconds in its wake. Wings, tail and fuselage are detectable. And the contrail in the right conditions, not to mention lights. Not only that, all air traffic at that time was well below my fov and could be seen without optical assistance. And the flight paths run diagonal to this objects direction.

Satellites captured with this scope can clearly see solar panels. They pass by slightly slower too, making them easier to identify.

Birds flapping wings. Unless the bird is "seagull size" or larger, they look like dark, blurry, small "sticks" streaking by and much faster. They also have to be close to be detectable at all.

This object is interesting to me because it doesn’t have any of the characteristics of the ones mentioned above.

I estimate its altitude at 45 to 50,000 feet based on air traffic seen below it. I estimate its distance from me to be a minimum of 10 miles knowing my scopes capabilities. If these figures are close, then it could be 10 to 30 meters in diameter depending on its actual distance. The consistent Sun reflection along its top edge suggests a metallic skin. There is also an odd dark area near the center of the object.

It almost looks like a hole. I don’t think it’s a shadow because the Sun is behind the scope and to the left and slightly higher than the Moon. A shadow should be forward (the direction it’s heading) and slightly left of that position.

It also leaves quite a bit of air turbulence after passing by signifying it’s in the atmosphere, however there isn’t enough distortion for it to be a heat signature. Jets, large and small leave a blast of hot exhaust for several seconds in its wake.

At 30fps, the object was captured on 7 frames. The first frame, only shows the front edge and the next frame was duplicated. So only 5 frames show each new position.

Anyone with video software can break down the video into frames.

Cropped from a 30second, 650Mb avi file. Available on CD free but need a mailing address. Anyone wanting a copy just ask. I would like a professional editor or investigator to check it out.

 
Scope: Orion 8” SC, tracking off
Focal Length: 2032mm
Camera: Orion StarShoot Solar System Color Imaging Camera II
Sensor: 1/2 inch, color CMOS progressive scan, IR filter
Res: 1.3mp 1280x1024 pixel layout
Software: Maxim DL Essentials Photo/Digital Video Capture
Recording Settings: Video Capture at 640x480, 30fps, 30 seconds
Blue “light pollution” filter attached to an adjustable polarized filter at 20%
Time: 08:33, 04/09/07
Direction: Facing SSW about 40 degrees above horizon.

Jack Arneson

Santa Cruz, CA 95060

by Joel de Woolfson

UFO sightings are being investigated by the Ministry of Defence.

Two experienced airline pilots on separate flights saw something up to a mile wide off the coast of Alderney on Monday afternoon. Surprisingly, Jersey radar equipment did not pick up the object, although an air traffic controller said he had received simultaneous reports from the Aurigny and Blue Islands pilots.

Aurigny's Captain Ray Bowyer, 50, said he saw the strange object during a flight from Southampton.

He spotted a bright-yellow light 10 miles west of Alderney while his plane was about 30 miles from the island and at 4,000ft.

"It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area. It was 2,000ft up and stationary," he said.

"I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a 737."

A 737 is slightly smaller than a jumbo jet.

"But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide."

As he continued his approach to Alderney, Capt. Bowyer saw a second identical object further to the west.

"It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey."

The sightings come days after reports that scientists have discovered outside our solar system an Earth-like planet capable of supporting extraterrestrial life.

"I can't explain it. At first, I thought it might have been a reflection from a vinery in Guernsey, but that would have disappeared quickly. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes."

The sightings happened at about 3pm. Capt. Bowyer, who has flown commercial planes for about 20 years, said he had described the objects to air traffic control and filled in an incident report.

"As I got closer to it, it became clear to me that it was tangible. I was in two minds about going towards it to have a closer look but decided against it because of the size of it. I had to think of the safety of the passengers first."

He added that the experience had been quite scary.

"I"m certainly not saying that it was something of another world. All I"m saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying."

Paul Kelly, 31, the air traffic controller who was on duty, said the Blue Islands pilot had made a similar report, but nothing had appeared on his radar.

"The pilot from Blue Islands was en route to Jersey at the same time and as he went past Sark he described an object behind him to his left," he said.

"The description was very similar to Captain Bowyer's and they described it as being in exactly the same place. But they were looking at it from opposite sides."

The pilot told him the object had been 1,500ft beneath his plane.

The Blue Islands plane was at 3,500ft at the time so, again, both pilots placed it at the same altitude.

"If the object was stationary, our equipment would not have picked it up because the radar would have screened it out."

Tue Apr 24, 7:00 PM ET

WASHINGTON - For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."

The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a "red dwarf," is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.

There's still a lot that is unknown about the new planet, which could be deemed inhospitable to life once more is known about it. And it's worth noting that scientists' requirements for habitability count Mars in that category: a size relatively similar to Earth's with temperatures that would permit liquid water. However, this is the first outside our solar system that meets those standards.

"It's a significant step on the way to finding possible life in the universe," said University of Geneva astronomer Michel Mayor, one of 11 European scientists on the team that found the planet. "It's a nice discovery. We still have a lot of questions."

The results of the discovery have not been published but have been submitted to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Alan Boss, who works at the Carnegie Institution of Washington where a U.S. team of astronomers competed in the hunt for an Earth-like planet, called it "a major milestone in this business."

The planet was discovered by the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile, which has a special instrument that splits light to find wobbles in different wave lengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.

What they revealed is a planet circling the red dwarf star, Gliese 581. Red dwarfs are low-energy, tiny stars that give off dim red light and last longer than stars like our sun. Until a few years ago, astronomers didn't consider these stars as possible hosts of planets that might sustain life.

The discovery of the new planet, named 581 c, is sure to fuel studies of planets circling similar dim stars. About 80 percent of the stars near Earth are red dwarfs... continue at Habitable Planet Found.

Source & References:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070424/ap_on_sc/habitable_planet

Information gleaned from the Virtual Updates boards:

This is an old footage released by researcher Paola Harris in the US at the MUFON Symposium in 2005 and also at the IUFOC in Laughlin. Paola lives in Italy and is a prominent researcher and journalist.

The YouTube and Google copies were taken from Paola's lecture at MUFON 2005 that is for sale on DVD. According to Paola, a seventh generation copy was given to her in Italy by an anonimous source under mysterious circumstances.

There are still many obscure issues surrounding this footage and the case remains unclear. Paola Harris asked me to forward her response to this controversy.

Santiago

From Paola Harris:

The Truth

This old film footage I have been showing for 3 years and it was given to us, Italian Researchers... not by the Air force. It is our technology. I had a cassette examined in Hollywood by my friends Rob and Rebecca Gordon who had the connections and money to do it. It was a 7th generation - copied 7 times - cassette. It was given to us with no explantion. It is a real object in the film. It has been shown in my MUFON and Laughlin Presentations and someone put it on You-TUBE and Google!

This all takes place in the Veneto region of Italy at a place called Ponte di Giulio, near Aviano NATO Base. It is a dry river bed where the military does maneuvers and the photographer was on a tripod waiting for the object to come out of the woods. I doubt aliens appeared there!

Paola Harris

Source & References:

UFO UpDates - Toronto - ufoupdates@virtuallystrange.net

A UFO & Related Phenomena E-Mail List operated by Errol Bruce-Knapp

UFO UpDates Archives are available at The Virtually Strange Network:

http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/

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