Recommended Reading

For anyone really wanting to get to grips with the thorny topic of UFOs, the internet will have much information but will not always be reliable - and yes I am conscious of the irony of stating this in a blog! This is where good old-fashioned books can come to the rescue. There are still earnest individuals out there who are prepared to put in hundreds or thousands of hours into volumes of work which contain a rich mine of solid information on the subject.

Hence here is one of my more 'organic' posts which I will be developing as I go along simply because of the many books on UFOs that are out there. I certainly can't claim to have read all the available worthy material on the subject but here are my top choices, in no particular order, of (relatively) recent publications.


Open Skies, Closed Minds by Nick Pope

An excellent book on the phenomenon from a writer with a unique perspective on the subject - as a former M.O.D. official. It includes intriguing cases from the post-war period to the late nineties, many of which are based on eyewitness accounts by military personnel. In my view, it's a must for any reader interested in the subject of UFOs.







UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record by Leslie Kean

Written by Leslie Kean who is a U.S. journalist with impressive credentials, this book is the result of ten years research and engagement with credible professional and military witnesses. To me this gives a thorough American take on the subject and also includes fascinating cases from other countries such as Belgium, Brazil, England and France.






The UFO Files: The Inside Story of Real Life Sightings by David Clarke 

David Clarke is a senior lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University with former experience as a press reporter for local newspapers and press officer for local government. The book is an objective,  comprehensive and detailed study of the subject which includes many key UFO cases and others less well known.






UFO: The Complete Sightings Catalogue by Peter Brookesmith

From an author experienced in writing about 'paranormal' subjects, another objective and detailed repository of UFO sightings up to the mid-nineties which nobody interested in the subject should be without.  It methodically lists hundreds of cases complete with the author's own assessment of each incident.

Disclaimer

None of the above authors are personally known to me and consequently none of them have asked me to endorse their books. I am promoting these of my own volition and purely out of wish to signpost interested parties to well-written material by (in my view) serious and credible authors.

What has happened to NARCAP?

Hello and a Happy Easter to you all.

In drafting my cluster of initial posts, I wanted to review the content of the NARCAP web site. NARCAP stands (or at least stood) for the National Aviation Reporting Center [sic] on Anomalous Phenomena.

Set up by Dr. Richard Haines, a retired NASA research scientist, its aim was to allow 'pilots, air traffic controllers, radar operators and other aviation professionals to report, in confidence, an observation or incident involving unidentified aerial phenomena or UAP'.  Each report would be rigorously investigated and recorded adding to the body of data about phenomena in the sky that could subsequently be explained and prepared for by aviation professionals. NARCAP's key concern was with finding ways to improve aviation safety, especially in the context of a number of alleged hair-raising 'near-misses' between unidentified aerial phenomena and civilian or military aircraft.

Dr. Haines' background and credentials gave him unprecedented access to and cooperation with official and commercial stakeholders in the aviation community. This access allowed for a large body of solid, reliable data to gathered on UAP incidents. As an intriguing by-product, data was gathered on thousands of cases (over 3000 I read somewhere recently) for which there is - as yet - no conventional explanation, the most famous of which remains the O' Hare International Airport incident. 

Rather oddly,  the NARCAP site currently appears to be off-line with no apparent explanation. After having carried out an internet trawl, I've yet to see information about the apparent closure of this site.  The cached snapshot is supposedly as it appeared on 3 April 2012. I hope this is just down to a technical issue and not anything more ominous or final.

In the meantime, here is a clip of one of Dr. Haines' video interviews about a specific case.

Still no news on UFOTOG

UPDATE 10 September 2012

See Douglas Trumbull's response to my email to him about UFOTOG here

In June 2010, Douglas Trumbull, the visual effects expert famous for his work on Hollywood blockbusters like 2001 A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters of The Third Kind made his UFOTOG project public via his website.

In his video Mr Trumbull explains that he is, of course, very well qualified to spot bogus or fake UFO video or photo footage given that he's been a leader in the business of visual - including digital video - effects for many years.  He then demonstrates how easy it is to fake reasonably convincing UFO footage using just cooking utensils as an example.

What really interested me was his project - presumably at considerable personal expense - to fit his own personal Humvee with state-of-the-art telescopic video cameras complete with night sight, infra-red and ultraviolet spectroscopic functions (amongst others) and computer tracking, identification and recording software. The vehicle which he dubs 'UFOTOG' could deploy in areas of reportedly high UFO activity and track the sky for anything unusual, whilst being able to filter out 'noise' in the form of all the usual man-made or natural activity.

I really liked the idea of this project potentially being able to triangulate, monitor and record UFO activity. I thought that - at last - we might be looking at a comprehensive field study of the phenomenon from individuals with extensive and industry-standard filming and video expertise (and with considerable financial backing too it seems). The hope for many would be that solid, reliable data could be gathered that could withstand rigorous scientific scrutiny which would then be the subject of a documentary or film. This would make a welcome change from the vast mass of poor amateur - and mostly fake - footage clogging up the net and lacking any serious analysis.

So I waited with baited breath to see what the coming months after the introductory video's posting would reveal.

Now I can understand that Mr Trumbull is likely to be a very busy man and may not have had much time to devote to this particular project, although I'm assuming he has various friends or colleagues supporting him in the gathering of footage and data. In addition, the project will take time to bear fruit when considering that UFOTOG has to go to various locations, film over a period of hours/days with the resultant footage having to then be analysed, filtered and catalogued.

However, so far there hasn't been a single update on this project. Not even anything saying whether UFOTOG has gone on any field visits at all. Given that 21 months have passed since the intro video's posting this seems a little odd, especially as a lot of time and effort already appears to have been invested in this project.

I've used a couple of search engines to see if there is any more news elsewhere on this but so far there is nothing.

If anyone has seen anything that suggests what is going on with this project (if anything) I would be interested to hear from you.

The key One to Five per cent

As discussed in Is it a bird? Is it a plane? there are numerous UFO sightings that can be explained away by normal man-made objects or natural occurrences. The world famous Roswell incident has its sceptics who firmly believe that the events being described could be attributed to the then top-secret projects Mogul and Skyhook.

I personally remain firmly on the fence where Roswell is concerned. The difficulty with that case is the passage of time. Given that the events at Roswell took place before many of us were born and that the number of individuals with direct knowledge of the event are diminishing, it will become harder to prove what actually happened.

However, there are still many intriguing and much more recent public cases of sightings by credible witnesses which should be the focus of attention for serious UFO study.  Proponents tend to agree that once the majority of sightings are eliminated as man-made or natural phenomena, this still leaves something like a key one to five per cent of reported UFO activity that can't be explained conventionally.

I will expand on some of these in future posts.

It's also worth noting that such percentages only relate to those incidences that are reported. There may be many such cases which never see the light of day.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

As I'm sure most of you will be aware, there are phenomena both natural and man-made that at first are considered as UFOs but which, on closer examination, are easily explained or identified.

Aside from airships, party balloons, birds, Chinese lanterns, helicopters, planes, and shooting stars there are other less obvious examples. I have listed some of these below with a brief explanation and accompanying imagery where possible.

Flares

As used in air displays and these being sighted in a UFO context is not uncommon. This was in fact the basis of the official explanation for the well-documented 'Phoenix Lights' incident. Many witnesses to the event have subsequently pointed out that this explanation was flawed.

Laser displays 

As used in concerts and other external events. Having seen some of these myself it's easy to see how these could be picked up as UFO sightings, especially when viewed from a distance and where the sharpness and spread of the beams may vary depending on prevailing atmospheric conditions

Lenticular clouds

Though static these can sometimes form weirdly familiar shapes such as the one in this picture. Caused when stable moist air flows over a region of high ground, a series of large-scale standing waves may form on the downwind side. If the temperature at the crest of such a wave drops to the dew point, moisture in the air may condense to form these 'lens-shaped' clouds.

 
Mini-Camera Drones

Effectively a small remote-controlled 'copter with a mounted camera. I recall seeing a recent BBC article which says that the police in England will be rolling out the use of these in the coming years - so expect more supposed UFO sightings connected to these.



Rockets (and other space junk)

The explanation still being given for this weird spiral display over Norway in 2009 is that of the exhaust trail of a failing rocket. Pieces of man-made space junk, including parts of rockets and satellites with a decaying orbit that eventually fall to earth, are sometimes the source of UFO sightings.

Sun dogs

A rare weather effect that can make it appear as if there is more than one sun in the sky. This is caused by ice crystals acting as prisms, bending or refracting light passing through them.  Random patterns of these crystals can form a complete ring or 'halo' around the sun. However, where such crystals sink through the air they become vertically aligned, so sunlight is refracted horizontally forming 'sun-dogs'.



The star Sirius

Also known as the 'dog star' is the brightest star in the night sky, often to be seen very shortly after sunset and - although following a very slow path through the night sky - it has sometimes been reported as a UFO.

The planet Venus

Frequently used as an explanation for UFO sightings by sceptics down the years, it still prompts sighting reports. Only last month people were reporting sightings of Venus accompanied by Jupiter - viewed as a smaller companion 'star' in relation to Venus - in the night sky. To those not familiar with the recent position of these two planets in the night sky this must have seemed an unusual sight.

Obviously the above examples are not exhaustive. Where I come across others I will post these too.

Why "UAP" not "UFO"?

The term "UFO" was first coined in 1952 by a Captain. Edward J. Ruppelt, who led Project Blue Book, - the only official and public investigation into the UFO phenomenon by the United States Air Force (USAF). Ruppelt's term was quickly adopted by the USAF, which initially defined UFOs as 'those objects that remain unidentified after scrutiny by expert investigators'.

The term UFO is often used for any unexplained sighting irrespective of whether it has been investigated. Because of its immediate association for the general public with aliens or extraterrestrials and the media ridicule often connected with the subject, an increasing number of investigators now prefer to use other terms such as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (or UAP). 

My own personal view is that it is unfortunate that the term UFO has now become so commonly associated with supposed flying craft containing 'little green men' (or 'space aliens' as my wife jokingly prefers to call them), especially when balloons, Chinese lanterns, lenticular clouds, meteorites, satellites, sun dogs - and many other earthly but ultimately explicable phenomena - could just as easily fall into the category of being 'UFOs' prior to being identified. So 'UFO' was quite useful as a scientific term until it (rather too quickly) fell into general misuse.

Consequently, those who generally say they 'believe in UFOs' are really saying they believe in the existence of craft of extraterrestrial or extra dimensional origin, which is far more dramatic than saying they believe in any flying object that has yet to be identified but which could be amongst the shortlist of explicable phenomena above.

To help sky watchers in identifying some of the less-obvious phenomena I've listed above I will include brief explanations of these (and others) in another post with corresponding images.