Mufon ufo journal 1976 3. march - skylook

"We tell it as it is"

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SKYLOOKThe UFO Monthly

$1.00

March, 1976

OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF MUFOHlJ MUTUAL UFO NETWORK, INC.

New analysis of Denmark photos—page 8

Founded 1967

SKYLOOKThe UFO Monthly

26 Edgewood DriveQuincy, Illinois 62301

Dwight ConnellyEditor

Carolyn ConnellyBusiness Manager

Walter H. AndrusDirector of MUFON

Ted BloecherHumanoid/Occupant Cases

Joseph M. BrillEditorial Assistant

The Rev. Dr. Barry DowningReligion and UFOs

Ann DruffelCalifornia Report

Lucius FarishBooks, Periodicals, History

Majorie FishExtraterrestrial Life

Stan GordonCreatures & UFO's

Richard HallInternational Coordinator

Mark HerbstrittAstronomy

Rosetta HolmesPromotion/Publicity

David A. SchrothSt. Louis/Mass Media

John F. SchuesslerUFO Propulsion

Norms E. ShortEditor-Publisher Emeritus

Len StringfieldCommentary

Editor's ColumnCooperation is on everyone's

lips, but not in everyone's ac-tions. In recent weeks we havegotten excellent cooperationfrom APRO, as well as fromGround Saucer Watch (GSW), Pro-ject Starlight International(PSI), and many MUFON-relatedgroups around the country andworld. We have not had anyreason to request the coopera-tion of NICAP, so this is anunknown.The organization which should

be the most cooperative hasbeen the least cooperative, Irefer to the Center for UFOStudies (CUFOS), headed by Dr.Allen J. Hynek.

Despite cooperation fromgroup to group, not includingthe Center, our present systemis inefficient in terms of bothresearch and dissemination.There is a real need for some

sort of central clearing housefor UFO reports--something con-trolled by and for UFO researchgroups (such?as APRO, CUFOS,GSW, MUFON, PSI, and NICAP),but immune from control by anyone group.

Cases could be coordinatedthrough this centralized clear-ing house and assigned to the

most appropriate investigators»regardless of group affilia-tion. Perhaps each UFO re-search group could specializein one or more, areas of re-search, as suggested at the Ft.Smith Conference.Case reports- and photos could

be stored -at the clearing housefor 'immediate ' dup.litiatS.0ji, anddistribution to interested re-«searchers for a small fee torcover the eo'sts.

Expenses . re;quired for thebenefit of all- groups could be :.shared by all groups. • -

The Center for UFO Studiesat one time seemed to holdpromise as a central clearing "house, chiefly because Dr.Hynek's name is well known, buttime has eroded Oiar initial '..hopes. .CUFOS has become a vac-uum- -where reports go in, butdo not . come out. It is obvi-ously closely controlled by Dr.HyneR for his own . unknown pur-pose ? . • ,• .

A new start in coordinationand cooperation is needed--andthe Center should be only one ;part in any new concept of aClearing house—and then onlyif Dr. Hynek changes his defin-ition of cooperation.

In this issueOccupant sighting in New Jersey % - •• • " 3Las Vegas occupant report by country singer requires study 7Denmark photos appear to be clever hoax 8Fargo, ND, woman reports abduction and examination 10NICAP report on Walton case inaccurate ". 11Travis and Duane Walton pass polygraph tests : 12Alabama women report being chased by U FOs IfThe Stringfield Report by Len Stringfield 14New York woman says she drove beneath a UFO 16In Others' Words by Lucius Farish 18MUFON Director's Message by Walt Andrus : .. 19Recapping and Commenting by Richard Hall 20April Sky by Mark Herbstritt 20

The contents at SKYLOOK are determined by the editor, and do not necessarily represent theofficial position or judgment of MUFON. Opinions of contributors are their own, and do not necessarilyreflect those of the editor, the staff, or MUFON.

SKYLOOK THE UFO MONTHLY is published monthly by Dwight Connelly, 26 Edgewood Drive,,Quincy, IL 62301 USA, Subscription Rates: $8.00 per year in U.S.; $9.00 per year foreign; single copy, $1.00:Advertising rates: $5.00 per column inch. All ads subject to approval of the publisher

Copyright 1976 by SKYLOOK THE UFO MONTHLY, 26 Edgewood Drive, Quincy, IL 62301. Permissionis hereby granted to quote from this issue of this magazine, provided not more tnan 200 words are quotedfrom any one article, provided that the author of the article is given credit, and provided that the statement"Copyright 1976 by SKYLOOK THE UFO MONTHLY, 26 Edgswood Drive, Quincy, IL" is included.

Second Class Postage paid at Quincy, IL 62301.

Page 2

\,

Digging holes in the ground

- Occupants sighted in New JerseyDate: January, 1975 (possible related

case on Jan. 15,1976).•Location: North Hudson Park in North

Bergen, New Jersey, just across HudsonRiver from New York City.

Witnesses: George O'Barski, principalwitness; and Bill Pawlowski, possible cor-roborative witness. (Additional witnessesin possible related sightings.)

Type of sighting: Occupants, object,electro-magnetic effect, possible groundtraces.

Investigated by: Ted Bloecher,MUFON state director for New York;Budd Hopkins; and Jerry Stoehrer.

George O'Barski, 72, had lefthis place of employment and was'driving through North HudsonPark on the New Jersey side ofthe Hudson River when staticbegan to interfere with his carradio. It was just past 2 a.m.(estimated). The window on thedriver's side was partiallyrolled down, since the tempera-ture was miId.on this Januarynight in 1975.

Says O'Barski: "I begin tonotice my radio....Got scratch-ing in it, and it's a tinnysound; it's just like, youknow, something is loose, youknow? And I thought it wascoming from my radio! And Iturned up a little more volumeand I got more scratching, youknow? The radio stops! Thereain't nothing, see?"

O'Barski continues: "Rightnow, here's this—this droning,like the noise of a refrigera-tor, coming, and I seen thisthing coming like that, justlike that. It was a floatingthing, and here I am here, you.know, and I figured, where inthe hell will I go?"

O'Barski said the objectseemed to be round, about 30feet in diameter and six toeight feet tall, with some sortof dome on top. The object wasdescribed as being dark, with aseries of lighted vertical win-dows around the main body. Eachwindow was .estimated to be a-bout one foot •_ wide and fourfeet high, spaced about _one

Sketch based on description by O'Barski.

foot apart. The witness said hesaw nothing in the windows ex-cept light, which he describedas being about the color of or-dinary household lights. Hesaid there was also a lightedstrip around the object at thebase of the dome (or upper partof the main body).

After moving into the park,parallel with -O'Barski's auto,the object stopped about 100feet away. At first it was a-boiit ten feet off the ground,then it moved to about fourfeet above the grassy area. Thewitness could not tell whetherthe object was resting on somesort of legs or landing gear orwhether it was hovering withoutmechanical support.

Occupants Appear

Suddenly a "square, lightedopening appeared on the craft(it is not clear exactly whereon the object the opening ap-peared) and some sort of me-chanical steps extended fromthe opening.. Quickly, nine toeleven occupants came" down thesteps "like kids coming down afire escape."

The occupants, about "threeto four-feet.tall, were dressedthe same--"like little kidswith snowsuits on." Each oc-cupant "had. some kind of thing"on his head, like some sort ofhelmet. O'Barski said the hel-met was round and the same, darkcolor.as the rest of- the uni-form. The occupants also ap-

peared to be wearing gloves.As the occupants came down

from the object, the witnessnoted that each was carrying asmall dark-colored bag and asmall shovel (or spoon). Eachbag seemed to have a string orsome sort of handle. "When theycame down, they knew what theywanted to do, they done it, andthey were gone, just thatquick," says O'Barski.

"What they wanted to do,"apparently, was to collect soilsamples, since the witness ob-served them digging in variouslocations near the object andplacing soil in the bags,. O'-Barski, following the curvingroad, was now within 75 feet ofthe object and occupants.

The witness said the occu-pants appeared to move-normal-ly, not like robots. He wasmost impressed by their appar-ent efficiency. "They weredigging away," he explains,"and as .far as they were con-,cerned .they didn't know I ex-ist. They came down.the steps.,as though they had one missionin their entire life—to fillthese little bags they had withthese little spoons, or shov-els, they .had. The minute theygot down, - they, started' work-ing." .. --.•'.'.. I

Occupants Return to Craft

After about one minute, onthe ground,- the occupants .re-turned to the object, apparent-ly climbing the same steps back

Page 3

into the object through thesame opening they had come outof. (The opening was describedas being wide -enough for twooccupants to enter the objectat the same time, but the wit-ness did not indicate that theyhad necessarily reentered in•this manner. "They went up,just like normally.")

O'Barski said that althoughthe occupants had ignored hispresence, he was still veryfrightened and apprehensive."Someone is running thisthing," he explains, "and Ifigured maybe they're watchingme, and I figured at the' endthey're gonna say...they'regonna get that old bird, youknow? I'm 72 years old, but Iwas scared to death. Cause I'mpoking around they might havesaid, 'let's have that old sonof a bitch of a guy that's nos-ing around here.' They wassitting over there and I waspractically stopped, you know?So I'm thinking maybe they'llpress a button that'd blow meup here, or something, youknow?"

O'Barski said that after theoccupants returned to the ob-ject "this thing here, it'slike the icebox started up a-

Poge 4

gain, you know? The motor'sstarted up, out there now thatnoise was a-humming." .

' Sees Bottom of Object :

As the object left, O'Barskisaid he could see the under-side, which was dark and "itseemed to be as though it washollowed out underneath, youknow? It looked like a depres-sion in there, you know? I saidgee, there must be a big fan inthere, or something, that runsthis thing, you .know? And I'mlooking,, but I can't see.noth-ing,". He said the object grad-ually, but quickly, rose anddisappeared from sight. - ;

O'Barski said the,object hadlifted and disappeared within20 seconds 'after the occupantshad gone back aboard.' "Whenthey went, it was just likethat," says the witness. "Rightstraight like this, tcheopo!Just that fast.."As the object left, his radio

again started playing—afterbeing off for the approximately2h minutes the UFO was in thearea. ., . .

Instead of going to a res-taurant at Fort Lee,, as he hadoriginal ly intended, ... 0' Barski

went straight-home.; The ownerarid manager ' of a small liquorstore in Chelsea (though hedoes not drink), he explainsthe extent of his fear by say-ing. "I've been held up-in thestore lots of times in 30 yearsb.y men' with pistols and knives,and I've been plenty scared,but nothing like this, ever. Iwas petrified."

O'Barski said he was sweat-ing when he got:home, pulledthe shades, made some' tea,started to listen to the radio,then decided not to stay up(normally- he would .stay up)."I went to bed. I was thatscared.. I pulled the _coversover- my head. I"figured thewhole damn world had come to anend....I didn't know what thehe 11 to think I thoughteither I'm =: going . crazy orthere's something awfully wrongdown there." " . "

Finds Holes

The next'morning, still up-set, he went to the scene ofthe sighting and found severalsmall holes in the ground, eachabout, five or six inches ' deep.He relates, "You know, when Iwent there and. saw those holes

I got even more scared. I'lltell you something. I evenfelt those holes. I didn't be-lieve it looking at them. Iput my hand in one."

During the subsequent inves-tigation of the site, investi-gator Gerald (Jerry) Stoehrernoted that, even after 10months, eight to ten patches ofground at the site, devoid ofgrass, seemed to indicate thatholes had been dug at that lo-cation. The patches were in anarea about six feet by eightfeet. While the patches formedno particular pattern, Stoehrersaid "they seemed to appear asdefinite triangles, with clear-ly defined edges, and of rough-ly the same size." He said thelength of each triangle rangedfrom five inches to eight inch-es on each side.

One of the investigators,Budd Hopkins, has been casuallyacquainted with O'Barski since1958. Says Hopkins of O'Barski,"He is street-wise, astute, andreflective. He and Bill Burns,his partner, have been myfriends, my evening cashingservice, and the source of mydinner wine for over 17 years.They are truthful-men."

O'Barski told no one excepthis son (O'Barski is a widower)about his experience for manymonths. His son advised him tokeep quiet, since people wouldthink he had become mentallyunstable. O'Barski also wonder-ed if the occupants "would comeand get me" if he told aboutthe experience. Finally, onNov. 19, 1975, he mentioned thesighting to Hopkins, althoughhe did not know that Hopkinswas a UFO investigator (O'Bar-ski had never shown any priorinterest in UFO's). O'Barskihad delayed reporting the ex-perience so long that he is nowunsure of the exact date.

Other Witnesses?

In an effort to locate otherwitnesses to the O'Barskisighting, personnel at thefashionable Stonehenge, a tallapartment complex located at8200 Kennedy Blvd. East, about

300 yards east of the locationof the alleged sighting, werequestioned. The west side ofStonehenge has an excellentview of the alleged sightingarea, and the main entrance tothe apartment building, manned24 hours a day by a doorman, ison that side.

Eventually a man by the nameof William Pawlowski, a formerdoorman at Stonehenge, was un-covered as a possible corrobor-ating witness. Without knowl-edge of the O'Barski report,and without coaching, Pawlowskirecounted an episode that hetermed "frightening."

The Pawloski Sighting

While on duty at Stonehenge—he thinks it was about 2:30 or3 a.m. on Jan. 12, 1975--he wasattracted by very bright lightsin the vicinity of North HudsonPark. "When you look out," ex-plains Pawlowski, "you see aview of the park, and all of asudden I see something outthere—lights, you know? Andit looked like they were spacedabout two feet" or maybe threefeet apart, in a round circle."

He ignored the lights atfirst, thinking perhaps therewas a string of cars in thepark facing toward him. Heestimated there were eight ornine lights in a horizontalrow, but he was not sure of thenumber.

As he made a phone call toone of the residents of Stone-henge (the call was not relatedto the sighting) he began tothink that the lights could notbe cars because they appearedto be above the ground.

At this point he wondered ifhe•was observing a UFO (he saysthat he and his wife had seenone in the summer of 1970 or1971 over a meadow). ExplainsPawlowski, "I'm looking at itand I'm talking to the party(on the phone), and I'm think-ing to myself, what the devilis that?"

Suddenly, while he was stillon the phone, he heard a loudreport and the large plateglass window he was lookingthrough cracked at one corner

near the floor. He quicklyhung up the phone and investi-gated the crack, which hethought might have been causedby a rifle shot--perhaps fromthe area where he could see thestrange lights.After investigating the glass

and finding only a smallchipped area along the 12-18-inch crack on the outside, helooked back toward the park andthe lights were gone. He called"the police, who investigatedthe crack and said it had notbeen caused by a bullet. Paw-lowski told the police he hadseen lights in the park area,but did not tell the investi-gating officers of the suspic-ious nature of the lights.

He did, however, tell Lt. AlDel Gauidio of the North BergenPolice Department of his sus-picions, since this officerlived at Stonehenge. OfficerDel Gauidio, contacted later byHopkins, verified Pawlowski'sdescription of the events, butadded that he did not believeany of them "because you can'tbelieve things like that."

Del Gauidio said he had re-turned to Stonehenge from hisnight shift about 6:30 a.m. andnoticed the broken window. Hesaid Pawlowski had mentioned a"flying saucer" or "UFO," butsince "such things are impossi-ble," Del Gauidio thought thedoorman had somehow broken theglass and had made up the storyto cover an accident. He saidhe had no evidence of this, butthat he believed Pawlowski wasa heavy drinker—though he didnot think Pawlowski had beendrunk when he saw him at 6:30a.m.

Tree Split?

In addition to the window,Pawlowski reported that a treebetween Stonehenge and the lo-cation of the lights (on thehill opposite Stonehenge) hadsplit or been split that samenight. This was one of a clumpof three trees which had grownfrom a common stump. The treehas since been sawed.

Pawlowski has expressed some

Page 5

confusion as to the exact loca-tion of the lights. While heindicated while revisiting thearea that they were in the samelocation as O'Barski's sight-ing, he also felt they were be-hind a flagpole (which hassince been removed).

In a drawing from memory, hehad located the flagpole be-tween Stonehenge and O'Barski'sobservation area, but a checkat the scene indicated that theflagpole had actually been lo-cated some distance to thesouth. Investigators surmisedthat Pawlowski had confused astreet light or other objectwith the flagpole on the nightof the sighting, but the wit-ness still felt he had seen theobject behind the. flagpole.

Pawlowski's description ofthe light from the object doesnot exactly match that of O'-Barski, since O'Barski indicat-ed the light was more like thatproduced by incandescent bulbs,while Pawlowski seemed to. feelit was more like light producedby flourescent .bulbs.

Still another difference inthe two reports is the state-ment by O'Barski that theweather was mild (he had thecar window partially down),while Pawlowski thought theweather had been cold. (He hadhad a run-in with the manage-ment of Stonehenge because theywould not allow doormen to wearcoats in the winter--he hadquit after losing the argument—so this may have had somebearing on his general feelingthat the January sighting datehad been cold.) Weather recordsindicate that the temperatureat 2 a.m. on Jan. 12, 1975, was56 degrees—rather mild.

Overall, however, the twoindependent reports are remark-ably alike in terms of the des-cription of the object,.the lo-cation of the sighting, and theduration of the sighting.

It is, of course, only con-jecture that O'Barski and Paw-lowski saw the same object atthe same time, since O'Barskiwas not certain at all of theexact date of his sighting.Pawlowski's date is more exact,

Page 6

Sketch by Pawloski of what he saw from Stonehenge Apartments.

Sketch by Gonzales of what he saw from Stonehenge Apartments.

but not completely confirmed.

Gonzales Sighting

While the Pawlowski sightingwas being checked, the currentsuperintendent of Stonehenge,Amaury Perez, said that anotherformer employee and personalfriend, Frank Gonzales, hadtold him of a sighting in Jan-uary of 1975.

Ted Bloecher talked by phonewith Gonzales, who said that hehad seen "something round, verybright" like, an aluminum planewith windows, in the park infront of Stonehenge at 2 or 3a.m. on a Monday in early Janu-ary, 1975. Gonzales said thatafter seeing the light he wentto the door, opened it, , andwent into the. driveway. Thenhe heard a noise "NOT like ahelicopter, something DIFFER-ENT. Something like a buzzing,like when a jet takes off.Whooooh. Whoooooh. Then I wasafraid." He says he went backinside and closed the door,then saw the light go straightup.

Gonzales could not estimatethe distance to the object hehad seen, but said it was di-rectly in front of Stonehenge

in the direction of the park.He thought the object wasround, with windows around thebottom. The light from thewindows was bright, "like acool white tube."

Gonzales said his sightingtook place, he thought, beforethe plate glass window had beencracked. This would probablyput his sighting on Jan. 6, a-bout six days before the Paw-lowski (and O'Barski?) sight-ing, although none of the datesis known for certain. Gonzalessaid it was a cold and clearnight.

Daliz Sighting

While video taping the Paw-lowski and O'Barski statementson Jan. 17, 1976, the investi-gators were told by the currentdoorman at Stonehenge, WilliamDaliz, that he had sighted astrange light in the vicinityof the park just two days ear-lier—on Thursday, Jan. 15, atabout 2:30 a.m.

In a subsequent interview,Daliz said he was attracted bya strange light in front ofStonehenge, even though he waswatching TV with his back to

the front door. He said thelight was "big," and that theleft side^ was orange and theright side was red.

He said he rang for the se-curity officer downstairs, butthe officer at first did notwant to look. "Well, by thetime Roberto went to look out,I seen this light just go rightup," Says Daliz. "I even openedthe door and walked out. I seenit just go straight up. Oh, itwas really fast."

Daliz said the color of the.illumination became lighter asthe object was near the ground,but got darker as.it lifted in-to the sky. . .

Security Officer RobertoPerez was contacted later, andhe verified the fact that Dalizhad ..called . him . about thestrange .light, 'but he looked-too -late to- see the object him-self.

A Strange Mist?

Another doorman at Stone-henge, Edward Oberterbessing,told investigators that in theperiod beginning in late Janu-ary and continuing into May(1975) he had often seen a fogor mist that would gather atthe spot where he had seen theinvestigators standing (the 0'-Barski landing site).He said the fog was extremely

localized and would be dissi-pated after being "swirled a-round by the wind." He said itwould appear both in the dayand night. Investigator Stoehr-e'r says he feels this witnessdid observe what he claims, andis not just "jumping onto thebandwagon." Oberterbessing re-portedly had a 1961 observationof several anthropod figures atRidgefield, NJ.

Investigation Continuing

The total investigation iscontinuing, since, there havebeen additional indicationsthat other residents of Stone-henge may have seen something.Stonehenge Superintendent Ama-ury Perez, . who has been verycooperative, has given the

names of the investigators toseveral residents, but says hecannot give investigators thenames of the residents unlessthey ask to be contacted.

Summary

The sighting by the principalwitness, O'Barski, seems tohave been at least partially ortentatively collaborated by atleast one other sighting, pos-sibly more. The scene des-cribed by O'Barski is, ofcourse, common to many otheroccupant sightings. It is,however, unusual for a sightingof this type to take place insuch a heavily populated areaas metropolitan New York.

• CorrectionMiss Margo Metegrano, office

manager of the Center for UFOStudies, has informed SKYLOOKthat a statement in the Febru-ary issue of SKYLOOK regardingthe amount of her salary asCUFOS secretary which was paidby NATIONAL ENQUIRER is incor-rect.

The incorrect account in theFebruary issue stated, "Half ofMiss Metegrano's salary was re-portedly being paid by the NA-TIONAL ENQUIRER."

The correct information, assupplied by Miss Metegrano, isas follows: "In the very earlydays of the Center, for severalmonths, the Enquirer did make adonation to the Center fromwhich a small part of my salarywas paid."

Las Vegas occupantreport requires study

An alleged occupant case nearLas Vegas, NV, on Jan. 30 in-volving a country and westernsinger is being withheld bySkylook, pending additional in-vestigation. . . :

MUFON investigator MikeSchutz told Skylook he is high-ly skeptical of the case, re-ported in the Las Vegas SUN,for various reasons. If addi-tional significant informationdoes become available it willbe printed in a future issue.

MUFON Symposiumspeakers announced

Henry H. McKay, MUFON pro-vencial director for Ontarioand regional director for Can-ada, has been added to the listof featured speakers for .the1976 MUFON Symposium at Ann Ar-.bor, MI, June 12 and 13,.

McKay, a veteran researcher,will speak on "Canadian LandingTrace Cases."

Other featured speakers atthe symposium will be Dr. J.Allen Hynek, director of theCenter for UFO Studies; WilliamSpaulding, western director ofGround Saucer Watch, who willspeak on analysis of UFO pho-tos; Ray Stanford, director ofProject Starlight Internation-al, who will speak on the PSIinstrumented research project;Jacques Vallee; and Dave Webb,co-chairman of the HumanoidStudy Group, who will speak onhumanoid cases.

The 1976 Symposium will behosted by Bob Stinson and theMichigan Section.

Illinois woman reportsstrange encounter

The Associated Press reportsthat an investigator from theCenter for UFO Studies ischecking into a case involvinga woman who encountered uniden-tified "beings" in SouthernIllinois.

Authorities said the middle-aged woman was driving on acountry road northwest of Nash-ville, IL, on the night of Feb.25 when she encountered two"humanoids" who flashed a bluelight at her before she spedaway. The woman described twovery tall humanoids "with largefeet and no necks." The woman'sidentity was being withheld.

NEW CUFOS ADDRESS

The Center for UFO Studies(CUFOS) 'has moved into a three-.room suite outside the .businessarea of Evanston, IL. .The newaddress is 924 Chicago Ave.,Evanston, IL 60202.

Page 7

Denmark photosappear to beclever hoax

Additional analysis and in-formation is now available re-garding the two Odense, Den-mark, photos which have createdconsiderable interest over aperiod of several months. (SeeDecember, 1974, and January,1975, SKYLOOK; note also thatone of the two photos appearedin the January section of the1976 SKYLOOK calendar, Novem-ber, 1975, issue.)

This latest information sug-gests that the photos are prob-ably clever fakes.

This conclusion, which iscontrary to the earlier evalua-tion of the photos by formerMUFON consultant Adrian Vance,is based on the following evi-dence, none of which was avail-able to Vance when he conductedhis analysis.

GSW Photo Analysis

The most objective evidencenow available is in the form ofa comprehensive evaluation justcompleted by Ground SaucerWatch of Phoenix, AZ, of twocolor slides (the original pho-tos were color negativeprints). The GSW analysis forMUFON included three computertechniques: edge enhancement,color contouring and profiling,and digitizing (computer en-hancement) .

Following is a portion ofthe report by William H. Spaul-ding, director of the WesternDivision of GSW:

"A majority of the technicalcamera data, once again, had tobe gained by studying the filmfrom its apparent densities,etc. because this important in-formation was never includedwith the pictures. GSW's photoconsultant, Fred Adrain, aidedthis preliminary analysis.

"However, some items neces-sary for his evaluation (f-stop, lens manufacture, etc.)were based on mathematical

Page 8

Copy of the first of two Odense, Denmark, photos allegedly taken June 22, 1974.

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Ifc^V.;, ^?-' f^^^^•^T; J:;'i -- i i i

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The reproductions above and below are from a computer analysis of the Denmarkphotos. The analysis indicates the photos are not of ufos, but of small modelsof wood or plastic.

elimination, and are in allfairness to Fred, fairly ac-curate, although they must beconstrued as subjective assump-tions. It would be easier, orshall I say^, a prerequisite, ifall photographs submitted forevaluation had the technicalfilm/camera data."STEP ONE--Edge Enhancement—

Both pictures were edge en-hanced to gain the detail ofthe 'object1 and the surround-ing sky area, for the physicaldata on comparative densities

' (Z) recorded-on the film base.These negative densities can be

j related to relative illuminan-ces on the film plane andtherefore to relative bright-nesses of the; object that wasphotographed.

"The relative shapes and theplacements of the images alsocontain data on the relativesizes and directions, to theobject photographed. In photoI (GSW) the details of theedges (boundaries) are well de-fined, including the cumulusclouds in the background. Theobject has a relatively lowgrey value (density) except thearea where the sun is strikingthe UFO.

"The densities profile intoa non-metallic surfaced object,possibly a skin texture ofplastic or painted wood.

"STEP TWO--Color Contouring/Profiling—this was utilized to

i determine exact shape and sub-l stance. Note Photo II (GSW)

which reveals a common (bland)^ color, indicative of a 'low1

reflecting object. The aspectratio (height to width) is 2 to4 and disc-shaped; however theobject is small in relativesize because it is closer tothe camera/witness.

"STEP THREE--Digitizing—Thisrevealed a sharper output(clearer picture), although thesame negativeness is projectedwith regard to size and dis-tance .

"CONCLUSIONS AND ANALYTICALRESULTANTS--The following datapoints are concluded with the

interpretation of the computerresults:

"1) The color film is of amedium speed, probably an ASAof 160. This data was derivedfrom a micro-examination of thetransparencies (grain size re-lation)

"2) The shutter speed is be-tween jjjQ - and j~nn of a second(to capture the data on thefilm, with relation to move-ment)

"3) The witness most likelyused a 101 to 135 mm (short)telephoto lens.

"4) The UFO is within 50 to100 feet of the camera.

"5) The extreme density (Z)variance in background (sky),comparing slide #3 and #11, isinterpreted as exposures takenat different times (not withintwo seconds as the witness re-lates) . Even with a 50-70%overexposure factor, occurringwhen the slides were duplicat-ed, the densities do notequate. Neither does the sky(cloud) information. It ispostulated -that over an hourdifference is. the time span be-tween the exposures. (The angleof refracted lumines (i.e.,light from the sun) has an ap-preciable difference in itstotal grey value). The comput-erized pixel (picture cellscan) reveals an obvious majordensity change.

"6) The object measures lessthan 12 inches in diameter. Thedepth of field data formula andthe measurement of the luminessupplied this information.

"7) The grain structure onthe two films is completelydifferent. Even allowing forduplication errors of exposureand other anamalous inconsis-tencies in color film manufac-turing, the data represents twoseparate rolls of film. Thiscould be verified with the or-iginals and an electron micro-scrope scan. (GSW can performthis test with the originals)

"The pictures, although clearand detailed, unfortunatelyoffer very little solid data to

the continuing effort of scien-tific Ufology. At best, it onlysharpens the senses of the pho-tographic interpreter and of-fers another bit of data forcomputer imaging methodology."

The Witnesses

The photographer, Mr. JormaViita, claimed that when hetook the two photos on June 22,1974, three other witnesses al-so saw the object. He providedthe names and . addresses ofthese three witnesses, a Germancouple living in Paris and aJapanese youth.

Douglas Bonner Jr., a lawyerliving in Paris, attempted tocheck on the two Germans forMUFON, but reported that theaddress provided by Viitaturned out to be a general ad-dress, rather than a specificone. A check of directoriesalso failed to turn up the al-leged witnesses. The addressfor the Japanese youth was evenmore general. .

Hoax Suspected

The photographer, Mr. Viita,has claimed to have taken anumber of other UFO photos overa period of time, and has re-ported making contact with oc-cupants. Sources in Denmark nowdiscount these photos and Vii-ta 's claims, and suspect thatthe objects photographed weremodels.

The independent report fromDenmark that the "UFOs" may bemodels matches very well withthe GSW evaluation that "thedensities profile into a non-metallic surfaced object, pos-sibly a skin texture of plasticor painted wood."

(EDITOR'S NOTE—GSW has in-formed SKYLOOK that it is cost-ing GSW $20-25 for each compu-terized enhancement output, andthat "in the future we must re-ceive a minimum of $15 per en-hancement made, which is a bar-gain considering the time en-volved." We agree.)

Page 9

\

sketchMrs. S.L., of Fargo, ND, says she was taken aboard a UFO, stripped, and examined. The witness has reportedly viewed thisteh, which was distributed by United Press International, and indicated that it is generally accurate.

Fargo, ND

Woman reports abduction, examinationDate: Aug. 26,1975.Location: near Fargo, N.D.Type of case: abduction, physiological

effects.Witnesses: Mrs. S. L.; possibly two

other main witnesses; possibly twoadditional corroborating witnesses.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is apreliminary report, compiled from var-ious sources. It should be emphasized thatthis case has not yet been thoroughlyanalyzed by trained investigators. Hope-fully, additional information will be avail-able for the next issue of Skylook. Thename of the principal witness is not beingused because of the nature of the case,even though her name has been used inthe media. Information on this case hasbeen compiled by Joe Brill and assimi-lated by Dwight Connelly.

Mrs. S.L. of Fargo, N.D.,has related, under hypnosis,that on Aug. 26, 1975, she andtwo other persons were abduc-ted by UFO occupants, that shewas given a strange and thor-

Page 10

ough examination, and that shehas experienced certain physi-cal effects as a result.

The experience began, saysMrs. S.L., about 3:30 a.m. asshe, her daughter Jackie, andher daughter's boyfriend Terryleft Fargo, N.D., heading weston Interstate 94 toward Bis-mark. As they reached a point39 miles west of Fargo, theyheard "a big noise,." describedby Mrs. S.L. as "louder thanany thunder imaginable," but"like thunder."

Says Mrs. S.L., "Then thesky lit up and eight or tenglowing objects came down outof the sky. They were round,orange, glowing balls."

Mrs. S.L. continues: "Thenwe realized that there, weretail lights in front of us. Sowe pulled up alongside of themand I rolled the window down.I said, 'Did you see that?1 And

the guy said, 'Yeah.' And Terrysaid, 'Well, pull over, we wantto talk to you.' The passengerin the camper said, "We're get-ting the hell out of here.'They never did stop."

Time Lapse

Mrs. S.L. said that it was5 a.m. when they reached TowerCity, about 40 miles from Far-go. "When we got there I did-n't realize where we were, andI didn't know what time it was.It was later that we realizedthat there must have been somekind of time lapse."

When the trio reached Bis-mark at 8 a.m., Mrs. S.L. no-ticed that she was having anunusually heavy menstruralflow, though it was not at atime when menstruration wouldnormally occur. (Editor's note:this has been reported in at

least one other case currentlyunder investigation.)

Eventually, Mrs. S.L. wasplaced under hypnosis by Dr.Leo Sprinkle of the Universityof Wyoming.Under hypnosis, she said that

she had been taken aboard aUFO, stripped naked, and given"a complete medical exam" by acreature "with elastic bandagesfor a head, or elastic bandagesaround its head." According toUnited Press International, thecreature's body looked like"brown vinyl." Mrs. S.L. des-cribed the occupants as "mummylike."

Mrs. S.L. is quoted by UPIas aying, "Even our heads wereopened and all parts of ourbrains looked at...we were dis-sected like frogs."However, Dr. Sprinkle phrases

it somewhat differently: "Shesaid it were as if she were afrog being dissected. Now thisis the kind of statement wehave gotten from other peoplewho claim to have been abduc-ted. It's a sort of feeling ofindifference. Perhaps, benevo-lent indifference. They don'tseem to mean any harm. They'relike scientists coldly doingtheir work."

Sinus Cure?

Mrs. S.L. stated under hyp-nosis that some sort of knife-like or needle-like instrumentwas pushed up her nose duringthe examination. She says thatseveral times during the exam-ination her nose was swabbedwith something. She claims thatprior to this she had a chronicsinus condition which has sincecompletely disappeared.

There was apparently also anexamination of Mrs. S.L."s sex-ual organs. She also said, un-der hypnosis, that a brightlight was placed on her faceand about her head. She saidthat during the examination theexaminer frequently pushed somebuttons on a panelboard.

Mrs. S. L.'s 15-year-olddaughter Jackie was also hypno-tized, but apparently had notbeen taken aboard the UFO. She

Says, according to UPI, thatshe felt as though she had been"left stranded in a field."She seemingly lost track of theothers during the experience.The daughter's boyfriend has,

as of this writing, refused toparticipate in the investiga-tion, although Mrs. S.L. hassaid that he, too, had beentaken aboard.

There were reportedly twoadditional independent witness-es to the sighting of the glow-ing objects on Aug. 26 who ap-parently called the Air Forcebase at Grand Forks to reporttheir sightings. At this timetheir identity is not known bySKYLOOK. .A report of the ac-tual sighting was made to theNorth Dakota State Police.

Jerry Clark, one of the in-vestigators, working on thecase, evaluates the witnessesas follows:

"The one thing that I'm per-sonally convinced of, havingbeen involved with the peopleconcerned for some time, istheir sincerity. I think theyreally believe what they'resaying. I believe they sawsomething they couldn't ex-plain. Beyond that, I wouldhesitate to speculate. But Iwill say this: it is a verystrange story—as strange asany I've encountered in my in-vestigations."

Dr. J. Allen Hynek of theCenter for UFO Studies alsoparticipated in the investiga-tion. A Chicago TV station(WLS-TV) paid Dr. Hynek's ex-penses to Fargo as part of aprogram the station was doingon the conduct of UFO investi-gations.

Dr. Hynek's reaction to thecase, according to UPI: "She(Mrs. S. L.) seemed to livethrough a frightening exper-ience (i.e. through hypnosis).I believe she thinks she wastaken aboard a UFO. I don'tthink she is lying, in otherwords."

Concludes the main witness,Mrs. S.L., "I didn't make this .thing happen. If I wanted tobe'a star or something, I thinkI'd go about it another way."

N 1CAP report erredin Walton case

EDITOR'S NOTE: Additional informa-tion continues to become available con-cerning the Travis Walton abduction casereported in the December and Februaryissues of SKYLOOK.

Last month we quoted from reportson the case published in the APROBULLETIN and the NICAP INVESTI-GATOR, noting that APRO and NICAPhad come up with opposite conclusionsconcerning the case. In the meantime,Ray Fowler has checked into NICAP'spublished report and clarified the situa-tion. Fowler sent the following report toDr. J. Allen Hynek, with copies to J. Acuff,W. Andrus, and W. Webb:

The NICAP position outlinedin the UFO INVESTIGATOR and itsnegative outlook appears tohave been influenced by the as-sertions that

(1) Travis Walton contacteda radio talkshow about theprospects of his appearing as a"contactee" prior to the al-leged abduction incident.

(2) Travis Walton is an avidUFO buff, and

(3) The section of the poly-graph test dealing with the UFOmight have been negative, butthe non-related sections mighthave been positve, thus givingthe impression that the poly-graph test as a whole was posi-tive.

Since the NICAP article wassupposed to have been based up-on a "thorough job" and "fac-tual information," I queriedNICAP by phone on 9,and 11 Feb-ruary, 1976, to obtain the doc-umentation for these asser-tions .

To make a long story short,NICAP based its article upontwo letters from NICAP Investi-gator Dr. William Bickel, Phy-sics Department, University ofArizona (Office: 602/884-2524and Home: 602/792-9304). NICAPcould not identify the radiostation mentioned, nor. didNICAP have the polygraph rec-ords .

I talked to Dr. Bickel byphone 9 February, 1976. He toldme that he was surprised by theNICAP article ..as he had notperformed a formal investiga-

Poge 11

tion. He merely had writtentwo letters to NICAP recountingwhat he was reading in thenewspapers and what he hadthought he had heard SheriffCoplin tell Mm.

However, he told me thatSheriff Coplin denied evertelling him about the "radioshow" story and that TravisWalton apparently was not a UFObuff. Dr. Bickel did not in-vestigate the Walton report be-cause he assumed another NICAPinvestigator named Jordan wasdoing a good job. Unfortunatelyfor NICAP, Jordon never submit-ted his report, and Dr. Bickelsaid that Jordan turned overthe material to APRO.

I explained to John Acuff(NICAP director) that the NICAParticle took undue literarylicense and that it might pos-sibly hamper present and futureenquiries into the incident, asthe data contained therein wasnot necessarily factual and notbased upon a "thorough job" asstated. John explained thatthe article was published inthe manner of a "news item"rather than a thoroughly re-searched report in order tokeep NICAP members abreast ofthe -situation.

He assured me that futurepositive and/or negative datawould be published in follow-onarticles. Apparently NICAP hasknowledge that Travis Walton'smother is an avid UFO buff whohas, in the past, expressed adesire for personal UFO abduc-tion. Perhaps if the wholefamily had been taken, we wouldnot be mixed up in this confus-ing case intermixed with con-flicting organizations, person-alities, undocumented state-ments, etc.

In all fairness to NICAP, Dr.Bickel's letters were ratherdogmatic and negative and prob-ably convincing. It is regret-able that Dr. Bickel did notfollow up these letters withthe information he gave me overthe telephone. Some kind oflesson should be learned fromall this.

Women chasedThe following account by

Jerry Harris appeared in theFeb. 20, 1976, edition of theTalladega-Sylacauga, Alabama,DAILY HOME. . The case has notbeen checked by UFO investi-gators. (Submitted by RobertE. Conner)

TALLADEGA--TWO frightenedwomen say they were chased morethan 18 miles Wednesday nightby a fleet of unidentified fly-ing objects.

The women—Miss CharlotteStaples and Mrs. Geneva Carruth—said five "reddish-orange ob-jects" hovered over and near

their car as they traveled athigh speeds trying to get help:

Both women are employed atSpecial Technical Facility inTalladega and have been des-cribed by their superiors as"sober, respectable individualswho don't tell tales like thisunless there's something toit."

Miss Staples said theirplight began at 8:30 p.m. Wed-nesday on Highway 77 at Easta-boga.

"We were on our way homefrom Gadsden, and were ridingalong talking when I saw this

Waltons pass polygraph examThe Aerial Phenomena Research

Organization (APRO) has re-leased the results of polygraphtests on both Travis and DuaneWalton. Both "passed" the test.

The tests were administeredby George J. Pfeiffer of theEzell Polygraph Institute,which is certified and licensedin Arizona. Pfeiffer, an ex-police officer, is a licensedand experienced polygraph oper-ator, according to APRO.

Ezell Institute was selectedby Dr. Harold Cahn, APRO's con-sultant in parapsychology andphysiology, to give the tests.Following are the "pertinent"questions asked of Travis, a-long with his answers, as re-ported by APRO:

1. Before November 5, 1975,were you a UFO buff? Answer:No.

2. Since November 1, 1975,have you . used any illegaldrugs? Answer: No.

3. Have you been truthfulwith Mr. Lorenzen in the ac-count of your UFO experience?Answer: Yes.

4. Were you struck by ablue-green ray on the eveningof November 5, 1975? Answer:Yes.

5. Are there approximatelyonly 2 hours you recall duringyour UFO experience? Answer:Yes.

6. Did you find yourself ona table in a strange room? An-swer : Yes.

7. Did you see three strangecreatures in the room? Answer:Yes.

8. Did you conspire withanother to perpetrate a hoax inthis matter? Answer: No.

9. Have you been reasonablyaccurate in describing your ex-perience? Answer: Yes.

In regard to charges thatNavajo County Sheriff MarlinGillespie or Undersheriff KenCoplan had said that Travis hadattempted to get on a radiotalk show to discuss UFO's be-fore the alleged incident, APROcomments that the sheriff's of-fice denies that such a state-ment was made.

Says APRO, "Gillespie, whilemaintaining a neutral postureto the press, has privatelytold friends and associatesthat he believes Walton."

APRO also says that Traviswas not a UFO buff prior to thesighting. Comments APRO, "Ourfindings are that he has ahealthy curiosity about manythings, including UFOs, but hadnever bought a book on the sub-ject or joined a UFO organiza-tion—in fact, he did not knowthat such organizations exist-ed."

Page 12

by UFOslight over" to my left, in thewoods kinda, real close to theroad," she said."I wouldn't have thought any-

thing about it except for itscolor. I've never seen anythinglike it before in my life. Itwas about the size of a numberthree washtub, oval-shaped, andwas an orange color that-didn'tscatter—like regular lightdoes.

, Mrs. Carruth, a teacher at. the Facility, said she observed'_ the light and "told Charlotte

it must have been a plant (in-dustry) of some type that wasall lit up."

Miss Staples said she hadslowed the car to about "fiveor ten miles an hour" when shelooked in her rear view mirrorand saw a glow in the sky,"like a woods fire or some-thing."

When they looked, however,they saw another object, "aboutsix or eight feet above theother one.

"Then while we were lookingtwo more appeared."They didn't come from the

sky or from the ground, theyjust popped up in front of us,like a light switch • was turnedon.

"We weren't scared then, butthey glided out to the highwayand started coming towards us."They got within two to three

hundred feet from us and werecoming straight towards thecar. By this time there werefive of them in all. We gotscared and took off real fast."

According to Mrs. Carruth,who was a passenger, the ob-jects hovered over, alongside,and eventually in front of thecar, even though Miss Stapleswas driving, about 80 miles anhour.

"I kept trying to laugh itoff, to rationalize and consoleCharlotte until those things

- started hovering around the carlike that. There wasn't another

. car on the road, either. I'mtelling you, we were justscared to death there for a

News photo by June Winters

Miss Staples, right, says, "It was big and round and floated over the treetops."Miss Carruth looks on.

minute. I've never seen any-thing like it in my life.

"Whatever they were, Ihonestly feel like they weretrying to catch us, and I'mtelling you the honest truth.When we couldn.'t see ;hem wecould still tell where theywere because the sky and areaaround the car stayed lit upthe whole time," she said.

Miss Staples said she had aCB radio unit in the car andcould not get in touch withanyone.

"It 'was weird; there wasnothing on the radio at all. Imean, those things have staticand noise going on all thetime,'and you can monitor otherpeople talking constantly, butwe couldn't pick up anybody."

According to Mrs. Carruth,the objects "were flying toolow and too close to be. regularaircraft."' She said no soundwas obvious at any time. Theobjects were observed "at least30 minutes.""I was trying my best to find

another car or house or some-body on the road, I was eventrying to get a ticket just sosomebody else could see thosethings," said Miss Staples.

"They were never higher thanthe tree tops, and they fol-lowed the car so close .thatwhen we made a turn at a curve

or something, they turned rightalong with us."

The objects "just disap-peared" as the two women leftLincoln City limits.

After reaching Talladega,the two women tried to convincepolice they had an honest.andterrifying experience, but tono avai1.

"They asked us if we weredrinking or taking drugs orsomething," Miss Staples said."But everybody who knows usknows we do not drink, that wedo not tell wild stories likethis."

Dempsey Byrd, .public rela-tions executive at the Facil-ity, vouched for their charac-ter."Miss Staples- is an interpre-

ter in our deaf and blind Sun-day school class at the Facili-ty,, and I have known her for 13years or more. I believe whatshe has described is just exac-tly what she saw. I've neverheard her tell anything but thetruth," he said.

Today the two women arecalmer, but no less convincedwhat they saw was real.

"I finally got my wish, andthen some. I'd always wantedto see one of- them things untilWednesday night," Miss Staplessaid.

Page 13

The Stringfield Report

By Len Stringfield

It has been 20 years sincethis trenchant pen has cut itsway into print to report andcomment on ufological affairs.When I stopped publishing themonthly CRIFO/ORBIT newsletter,in March, 1957, followed by myprivately published book,"Saucer Post 3-0 Blue," Septem-.ber, 1957, I thought that I hadbowed out of the editorialphase of the UFO controversy.

During those early days, thetask of publishing was not onlyfraught with problems of costsand unbelievable time consump-tion, but the aggravations ofdealing with a growing newbreed infiltrating UFO research--the coteries of buffoons withextra far-out philosophies, themachinations of money-mindedopportunists, the parasiticalpests who leeched valuabletime, and the pixie personali-ties who liked to snip or slan-der, rather than sleuth down agood report.

This breed, feeding on theweaknesses of ufology as a re-sult of official cover-up,double-talk and ridiculingsighters of the UFO, too oftenparroted by the press, were notcontent to clutter my mail withtheir drivel, but veritably putmy home under seige with suddenvisits from everywhere USA.Needless to say, it made thejob of trying to edit an objec-tive paper a questionable en-terprise.

Bock Again

But, here I am again, willing

Page 14

to do a column in one" of themajor research UFOzines. Whilemy tenure in this endeavor maybe tenuous for other reasons intoday's more sophisticated,scientific-oriented, but stilldisunified research, I will tryto keep readers posted on UFOnews from the many sound re-searchers in the field withwhom 1 have established cordialrelationships. •"

While this column will;havelittle appeal in' filling,, theneed of scientific disciplines,it hopefully will serve to keepUFO news aflow, news that isnormally exchanged between ahandful of researchers, or newsthat normally gets buried inthe filing cabinets" of'the ma-jor research groups.

Most researchers know that Ibelieve in open-end communica-tions. Information, unless itis stricly confidential, orproprietary, is useful onlywhen communicated. Without itsdialogue there will never beunity between the major re-search groups, and without it,not even unity WITHIN groups.While efforts have been madetoward some workable detente,unity remains as elusive as theUFO itself!

UFO research belongs toeverybody willing to put fortheffort: the scientists, theprofessional writer or lectur-er, the "old hands," the"hooked" newcomer, the teenagerperhaps untrained but willing,and the . countless citizenseverywhere who have hiddenwithin themselves a strange orfrightening experience with aUFO, but will not surface forfear of ridicule.

Of the latter group more andmore persons—responsible per-sons—with stories to tell ofabduction, of close encounterswith humanoids or revealingunusual physiological effects,etc., are beginning to lifttheir heads from the sands.More will surface once seriousUFO research gets just as ser-ious in working together in

some degree of unity, or atleast detente.

Strength in Unity

In unity there is strength,and to be strong, there mustfollow support—at least moralsupport from the media; andfinancial• from sources confi-dent to provide needed funding.Summarily, if we fail in com-munication, which can only fes-ter the rancor among some ele-ments of research, causingtheir best data to be sup-pressed, then we are the unwit-ting tools of the official si-lencers who prefer secrecy bydesign.

Ideally, I wish I could offera regular technical column fora .scientific-oriented SKYLOOK,using the best of the UFO caseshidden in research or secretedin military files. Surely,these cases, postulating thestrongest evidence, would openthe eyes.and win the respect ofthe media and the hard-nosedscientific and business commun-ity.

Alas, realistically, thisjournalistic plumb is beyondour reach for obvious reasons--the dearth of scientificallyendorsed UFO cases submittedfor publication, underscored bythe prohibitive cost of pub-lishing a slick professionaljournal. Instead of pipe dream-ing, here's a beginning atkeeping the news channels open.

The Military and UFOs

From a reliable source inSouthwestern U.S., I havelearned that our military isconcerned sufficiently aboutthe UFO incursion to establisha newly designed, sophisticatedradar system in strategic areasfor the sole detection of UFOs.Coupled with this ground-to-skysystem it was further revealedto me that the Navy's atomicsubmarines have also beenequipped with new instrumenta-tion- -recording magnetometers

and cameras, etc. which can de-tect UFOs while submerged.

UFO Refueling Operation?

From a well-qualified highschool teenager I received aUFO report, although notunique, which warrants furtherinvestigation. However, thismay never happen. My informantstated that a fellow teenager,while • driving to visit hisgirlfriend in Milford, Ohio,near Cincinnati, on Dec. 16,1975, was baffled by the sightof two blue . luminous oval-shaped crafts linked togetherby a tube, at low altitude,over a golf course as though"refueling."

The witness said he thoughtthe two lighted crafts wereplanes refueling, but his ac-count described the two craftsduring the link-up as hoveringmotionlessly, and- making nosound. This seems to rule outaircraft. The boy, who won'tallow his name to be used, wasdescribed as "white as a sheet"when he arrived at his girl-friend's house. The boy, stillfrightened, refuses to talk a-bout the incident and is un-reachable for more needed data.

Abduction Cases

In a recent phone chat withCoral Lorenzen of APRO . in Tuc-son, AZ, while.discussing theincreasing number of abductioncases, some new, some surfacingafter several years of silence,she had this comment:"The answer to the UFO puzzle

may ultimately be in the abduc-tion cases. They can providethe most information if relia-ble, but we must carefullyweigh all the evidence to makesure they are not planted orfalse. In this phase of re-search we are making progress,or let's say were turning acorner. Sometimes . one cornerleads to.another corner, but we.have hopes for finding an endin the road." . . -

On Feb. 9, Mrs. Lorenzencalled to relate - that bothTravis and brother Duane Walton

have passed 100% a polygraphtest by a professional firm inPhoenix, AZ: Attending the in-terviews for evaluation withJim Lorenzen, director of APRO,was Dr. Leo Sprinkle, psycholo-gist, and Dr. Harold Cahn, phy-siologist.

Specimens of Travis' hairwere sent to a laboratory inCalifornia to determine what he

" had ingested during his allegedperiod of abduction.

Miscellaneous Reports

The following UFO incidentshave been received by MUFONfrom various sources. They arepresented in brief to .keepreaders informed of the generalUFO activity.

Triangular UFO

Gene Lundholm of Superior,WI, relates an EM effect inci-dent .caused by a UFO witnessedby a person in his employ, withhis two brothers, during thesummer of 1975. While drivingnear Ogena, they spotted ablinking light near the road atlow elevation.

At first the UFO crossed theroad ahead of them, then hov-ered. The driver, pulling offthe road, got directly underthe object. One witness gotout of the car for a good look,observing that the UFO was tri-angular with a light•on the tipof each corner. The object in-stantly moved away, parallel tothe highway, then stopped a-gain, hovering on the edge ofthe. road.

Said the principal witness,"Following the encounter, ,the..car's speed control wouldn'twork. Later we found that allthe transistors had been burntout." Comments Lundholm, "Hostinteresting is that it was tri-angular- -matching the sightingsin Gordon and Two Harbors."

John Schuessler of Houston,TX, sent in a UFO report datedOct.'9, 1975, occurring in ElLago about 7:30 p.m. The lonewitness, Eileen Cahill, whiledriving her car home, spotted amotionless object forming a

triangle, with a red, white andgreen light at each corner.

As she approached the UFO,she' said it moved forward slow-ly and stopped again. Finally,she drove almost under it andshe estimated its elevation atabout 200 ft. The UFO's sizewas about that of a jet fight-er, appeared metallic, and madeno sound.

Protruding Legs

On Sept. 22, 1975, Clara.Tappan of Jackson, WY, reportedthat an object that looked likean electric light crossed thevalley from east to west anddisappeared about 5:30 a.m. TheUFO was as large as a full moonand, as it neared the witness,four protruding legs were ob-served. There were other UFOreports the same night in Utahand Wyoming. (JACKSON HOLENEWS, Sept. 25, 1975)

Portholes Reported

On Sept. 29, 1975, three mem-bers of a Manoa Valley familyin Honolulu witnessed a crystalwhite cigar-shaped object withportholes above their home a-bout 5:30 a.m. Through binocu-lars, at least four portholeswere seen emitting light beams.During the UFO's departure, itmade a loud noise like a rockettaking off, leaving a red ex-haust flame. The object wasobserved for about an hour per-forming in tight maneuvers inthe. Valley area. (HonoluluSTAR-BULLETIN, Sept. 29, 1975)

Colorado UFO

Aug. 25, 1975, two wedge-shaped, lighted UFOs, fright-ened two Aspen, CO, campersfor a four-night period at the10,000 ft. level in Upper Hunt-er Creek. The UFOs were alsoseen by 30 policemen and hun-dreds of residents. Alsofrightened by the nearness ofthe UFO was the campers' GermanShepard.

The witnesses described thewedge or triangular-shaped ob-jects as having a row of white

Page 15

lights on the bottom edge and arow of bluish green lights onthe upper edge.. The UFOs werefirst seen flying in formationat dusk, then hover, becomedark, then reappear with lightson again at a new location. Atone time, one of the UFO's ap-peared close to the campsiteand sent down a beam of light.About midnight there was a tre-mendous boom and the objectsdisappeared. A deputy sheriffand family saw one object flyinto a field and disappear be-hind a farm building. (Aspen,CO, TIMES, Sept. 25, 1975)

Ground Traces

Aug. 31, 1975, Burnt Prairienear Fairfield, IL. No UFO re-ported, but evidence suggeststhat something came down toland causing an electrical out-age. Twice in one week, a mys-terious circle appeared, in theyard at the Ivan Phillips home.The first sighting of strange"happenings" occurred Aug. 31when Mr. Phillips discovered aperfect circle of burnt grassabout 4 inches in diameterwithin a larger disturbed areain his yard.

Three days later, .anothercircle, the same size, .ap-peared, this time in the drive-way. The inner circle of thedisturbed area again was per-fectly round and about 4 inchesin diameter. The surface near-by also appeared burnt andthree "tripod leg prints" werenoticeable outside the circle.Said Phillips, "A UFO investi-gating group came to take pho-tos and samples. One was for-merly a government operative."Possibly coincident with thesecond "landing" incident wasan electric power failure last-ing for 3 to 4 minutes. (WayneCounty PRESS, Sept. 8, 1975)

I have a large backlog ofUFO. reports on my desk to pre-sent in future columns. To keepthe two-way street news aflow,I invite all readers to send menews briefs or sighting reportsfor future review in SKYLOOK.Address: 4412 Grove Avenue,Cincinnati, Ohio 45227

Page 16

New York state

Woman drives beneath UFOLocation: north of Catskill, NY.Date: Feb. 12, 1976, about 11:45 p.m.Witness: Mrs. Sandra Maldonado.Investigated by: Harold Bates and

Gary Levine.Submitted by: Ted Bloecher.Following is an account by

Mrs. Sandra Maldonado, who withher husband Edward operate theStep-2 Boutique and beauty par-lor in Catskill, NY:

"I left Catskill, where Ihad been with friends, at about11:30 p.m. on the night ofThursday, Feb. 12, 1976, anddrove north alone on VosenkillRoad on my way home, a distanceof about 4% to 5 miles. Thenight was clear but dark—nofog--and I had my radio play-ing. Vosenkill Road is a sec-ondary paved road, very windingand full of small sharp hillsand dales. I was wearing myprescription tinted glasses be-cause my eyes are sensitive tolight."I had just passed under some

tension power lines and wasproceeding up a small rise whenI saw a flashing red light di-rectly ahead of me and a shortdistance away. My first thoughtwas an airplane in trouble andattempting, to land, but as Ireached the top of the rise andsaw the entire object, I thenthought it might be a helicop-ter."As I got near it, I realized

(with some developing fright)that it was neither a plane nora "copter. I slammed on mybrakes, turned off my radio andstared, unbelieving, for a mom-ent or so. There the "thing"was, hovering motionless di-rectly over the road, just a-bove the utility poles andtrees.

"It was as wide as the road(estimated: 25') but was dis-tinguished by a tall mast-likestructure on top of a rounded'dome which made it seem out ofproportion to its width. Atthe top of this skeleton-likemast, was a square "box" (with

transparent sides) in which ared light revolved (like ourfiretrucks).

"This was the only lightsource I saw on it at any time.This light, as it streamed outof the box in all directions,became a soft, but very bright,white light. The object waslow enough in my headlights(particularly as I came up overthe rise) for me to make out ametallic hull similar in ap-pearance to pewter.

"The configuration was likean inverted bowl on a plate(except for the mast). I sawno openings, hatches, trap-doors, ports—no break at allin the skin. I did notice, how-ever, two concentric half cir-cles of a very intricate designon the side facing me. It stoodout in bold relief (see sketch#2).

"By then I was thoroughlyfrightened, and started up,passing" beneath the object andaccelerating as fast as Icould. I drove at such a break-neck speed to reach my home'some 2 to 2 miles farther upthe road, that I now wonder howI kept the car on the curvyroad!

"From the moment I passedunder it, it followed me, stay-ing directly overhead, andbathing the area all around mewith such bright light that Ireally did not need my head-lights . .Just before I reachedmy driveway, the object.seemedto be gone (or at least thelight went out) as I raced frommy car to my home, withoutlooking back.

"I was unable to rouse mydeep-sleeping husband, so Iwatched out of my bedroom win-dow (facing south). The objecthad reappeared, and was drift-ing up and down Vosenkill Roadat about the same height andwith the white light bathingbelow. It did not come northas far as my home, but it wasin view for about %. hour.

Sketch by Sandra Maldonado of the object she reported .seeing, in the:Athens/Catskill area of New York state, . . . . . . - . - ; - . - -

"During this time, an air-plane flew south—and as it.ap-proached, "and "until it had dis-app'eared'in the distance, theobject's light .was out, "butcame on after the • plane hadpassed. Shortly thereafter, theobject drifted slowly .south-west and finally settled downand out of . sight in a somewhatswampy area. My hiisband esti-mates the distance between Vos-

enkill Road .and: the NY Thruwayas l/3'to;i/2 mile. ." - ' - - - -

"I watched "for 'some . littletime longer, but saw nothingmore. Then I went', -to bed andwent to sleep easily without,any feeling of fe.ar, but in themorning I had; uneasiness - .and!nervousnessr-perhaps a delayedreaction. ; , '.'"" .. ~:'_ ,, .'"•.'

"During" the'time that theobject was over my car,. I"had.

no physical' sensations at all.There-was ,ho interruption of mycar's operation-nor of my car'slights. My radio, ' as I'.'_ saidearlier, had been turned offbefore I drove under '.it.1

"During the entire experi-ence, T-did not see any sparksor other exhaust, nor did Ihear/anything,- nor did I smellanything. -I'did not see it re-,volve.-..(If it did), :and the en-tire sighting- was ;of a slowlydrifting:?object, with.no. stopsand go, and slightly changingaltitude: as it. drifted, over theuneven contour -of;the^road, al-ways just. ; above .the trees andutility'.poles. There -'.was noobserved changel. in;;: :the, Inten-sity nor .color -of..the ,1-ight.-Whether -the. obj:ect .landed whereI last saw>. it;v or -continueddrifting : southward,• -I- \ do -notknow." .. .;,-_.. .. ,;,. .-. . ,,:.;•, •:•

• Mrs. Maldonado called the NYTroopers barracks -• in Leeds ; themorning after her.experience tosee if there had been.any otherreports;, (negative)-, but -she .didnot tell 'them of her experi-ence. She did, however, reportthe: experience to the Catskillpolice, who gave her investiga-tor Gary Levine's number;-••- She.then contacted Leyiner

She-also" related, the exper-ience to the publisher of theCATSKILL: DAILY MAIL,.-a formeremployer, and acquaintance,, dur-.ing a chance meeting.:.. She toldinvestigators that, she has noobjection to the report.appear-ing in a .UFO journal, but washesitant about..it. appearing inlocal newspapers, perhaps fear-ing crank.calls,and letters.

Conclusion

] "I think we can say-,that webelieve-.the story," says inves-tigator. Bates, although it ishard to understand why her hus-band couldn't be roused, to calm"and "comfort his excited wife,,and to view .the"object with herfor the. next half hour or so...,-especially, when she~ said shetried .to rouse him. . Also inthe house at the... time was. San-dra? s. younger sister arid theMaldpnadps' -youngster/'!'

Rage 17

In Others* WordsBy Lucius Parish

Kevin D. Randle's article inSAGA's March issue deals withseveral instances where AirForce jets have fired on UFOswith both conventional and nu-clear weapons. Other "shoot-ing" incidents are also de-tailed.

The April issues of STAG andMALE contain questionable arti-cles pertaining to UFOs. As arule, articles in such maga-zines should not be given muchcredence, unless the allegedfacts can be checked out withmore reliable sources.

The April (#7) issue of OF-FICIAL UFO has its usual excel-lent lineup of articles by suchresearchers as Joe Brill, CurtSutherly, Don Berliner, HaydenHewes, Raymond E. Fowler, Wen-delle Stevens, Richard Hall,George Friendrich, Don Worleyand more, including yours tru-ly. Fowler's article on crashedUFOs is perhaps the outstandingarticle in this issue. Bernie0'Conner does good work!

John A. Keel's THE MOTHMANPROPHECIES is scheduled forMarch release in a paperbackedition from New American Li-brary (Signet Books).

The February 3 issue of NA-TIONAL ENQUIRER featured an ar-ticle on UFO sightings in Cali-fornia during August of 1975.The same issue told of a uniquecollege course in Florida, whichprepares students' for a "prob-able meeting" with creaturesfrom outer space. The February10 ENQUIRER reported on yet an-other South American teleporta-tion case involving a Brazilianprofessor who disappeared forfour days and was found some1200 miles away.

THE STAR for January 20 toldof a UFO "tracking station" setup near Bellaire, Michigan by ayoung electronics expert. TheFebruary 17 issue of THE STARhas a brief item on Lake City,PA.'s plans for a Bicentennial

Page 18

UFO landing pad, plus a reporton some pseudo-UFO sightings inNorth Carolina which generatedsome excitement.

A new magazine, TRUE FLYINGSAUCERS § UFOs QUARTERLY, hasjust recently appeared on thestands. The first issue isnothing but rehash and thequality will have to improvegreatly if the scheduled quar-terly issues are to see print.Collectors of UFO literaturemay want this one, but data-seekers are advised to lookelsewhere.

The latest SAGA ANNUAL (notthe 1976 UFO ANNUAL) contains areprint of an article by AnnSlate which appeared in one ofthe 1975 SAGA issues. The 1976UFO ANNUAL should also beavailable on the stands short-lv-

The March issue of IN THEKNOW features an interview withAlan Landsburg, author of THEOUTER SPACE CONNECTION and pro-ducer of the movie bearing thesame title.

An interesting report of aUFO sighting over Chicago ap-pears in the March issue ofFATE.

The March issue of PROBE THEUNKNOWN contains an article byCurt Sutherly on some airship-like UFOs seen in/around Leban-on, PA, and the "coincidences"surrounding the sightings.

A November 1975 sighting ofa large glowing UFO seen in thearea of Madison; Ohio, is feat^ured in the March 2 issue ofNATIONAL ENQUIRER. The ENQUIR-ER issue of March 9 containsstatements by NASA scientistson the probability of intelli-gent life in outer space.

An article in the March 2issue of THE STAR focuses onthe pro-UFO opinions of astro-nauts James McDiyitt and GordonCooper. Their opinions are pre-sented in a new Columbia rec-ord, "UFOs: The CredibilityFactor." A three-part seriesof excerpts from Erich von Dan-

iken's new book, MIRACLES OFTHE GODS, begins in the March 9issue of THE STAR, continuingthrough the March 23 issue.Von Daniken believes religious"visions" can be attributed toextraterrestrial intelligences.The March 16 STAR has a smallitem concerning psychic PageBryant's book, PSYCHIC IN THEDEVIL'S TRIANGLE, written withJames Paul Chapin, and availa-ble from Zebra Books for $1.75.

Writer Ila Zeibell tells ofUFO sightings and other para-normal phenomena experienced inthe company of Uri Geller in anarticle for the January/Febru-ary issue of PSYCHIC. More ma-terial for the Geller file.

The April issue of SAGA pre-sents another article on the"Devil's Sea" of the Pacific.This contains some questionablematerial. John Keel's columnin this issue deals with thelegend of Lucifer and the sup-posed exploded planet betweenMars and Jupiter.

The April issue of UFO REPORTis the first bi-monthly issueof this magazine and containssome interesting material, asusual. Contributors include B.Ann Slate, Jerome Clark, Char-les Bowen, Brinsley Le Poer

. Trench and others.Excerpted material from Brad

Steiger's MYSTERIES OF TIME ANDSPACE appears in the May issueof BEYOND REALITY.

The May issue of PROBE THEUNKNOWN contains a rehash arti-cle on the Travis Walton abduc-tion case.

Another excellent additionto the ranks of UFO magazinesis UFOLOGY, -the quarterly pub-lication of the InternationalUFO Registry. The Spring issueis now available on the largernewsstands. Very nicely-done,with slick covers and good ma-terial, UFOLOGY is also availa-ble by subscription ($4.00 peryear) from: P. 0. Box 3073 -Munster, Indiana 46321. Highlyrecommended.

Director's Message. . •• ..' :' ,..\: "-.O

Foreign Reports

Richard H. Hall, internation-al coordinator, is preparing aone-page information sheet thatwill be mailed to all of MU-FON's foreign representatives,listing the names and addressesof specialists in the differentfields of UFO research.

Cases will be mailed direct-ly to the specialists for pre-liminary screening. Each willin turn provide comments notonly to the originator of thereport, but to Richard Hall andto the international director,Walt Andrus, with suggestionsfor more detailed study or fol-low-up .

The following people havebeen designated at this time toreceive such reports. This listwill be revised periodically asthe need exists.

David F. Webb, humanoid/oc-cupants; Ted Phillips, physicallanding traces; James M. Mc-Campbell, electro-magnetic ef-fects; John L. Warren, Ph.D.,artifacts for physical/chemicalanalysis; William H, Bryce, M.D., physiological/medical ef-fects; Grey M. Woodman, M.D.,physiological/parapsychologicalcases; William H. Spaulding,photographic analysis; RayStanford, instrumentation/radarcases; and Lawrence A. Lacey,D.V.M., animal effect cases.

A current list of foreignrepresentatives has been devel-oped to reflect those who havebeen actively involved throughthe combined efforts of JoeBrill, Carolyn Connelly andRichard Hall.

As director for investiga-tions, Ray Fowler has proposeda State Director's Monthly UFOReport Form as a means of se-curing a tabulation of the UFOreports investigated or pendingin each state. Ray has beengiven a current list of thenames and addresses of all ofthe state directors. In those

By Walt Andrus

states where a state directorhas not been appointed, thename of a state section direc-tor has been submitted as analternate.Each of you will be contacted

directly by Ray to initiatethis much-needed program. Ray,in turn, will prepare a compos-ite report for publication inSKYLOOK for use by consultantsand investigators. We solicityour cooperation in making thisessential research successful.

State Meetings

The success of MUFON, as anorganization, may be attributeddirectly to the leadership ef-forts of state and state sec-tion directors. State meetingsconducted by the state direc-tors to specifically trainfield investigators and statesection directors have beenconducted throughout the UnitedStates as well as by the MUFONCentral European Section inMuni ch, Germany.

On Sunday, Feb. 22, Lou Ma-sonick and Ronald Anderson,state directors respectivelyfor Minnesota and Wisconsin,conducted a fine training meet-ing at Lou's home in St. Paul,as reported by Ray Warren,state section director. Suchmeetings have also been held bythe Massachusetts, New Jersey,New Hampshire, and New Yorkstate directors.We encourage all directors to

consider this means of train-ing their people and to getbetter acquainted. Teamworkand cooperation in UFO researchwill make greater stridesthrough these meetings. ActiveNICAP and APRO field investi-gators have also attended thesemeetings as a means of exchang-ing their knowledge and ex-perience with MUFON personnel.

Mini-symposiums planned

In addition to MUFON's Na-

tional 1976 UFO Symposium inAnn Arbor, MI, on June 12 and13, other "mini-symposiums" orconferences are planned fromcoast to coast.

MUFON of Kansas City, underthe guidance of Stan Fouch andTom Nicholl, is having a pro-gram on Saturday, March 27, atthe Midland Theater featuringDr. J. Allen Hynek and TedPhillips as speakers. Your di-rector will chair the questionand answer period for both themorning and afternoon sessions.

Another is planned in thenear future at the Universityof Vincennes in Indiana and al-so Foothills Community Collegein Los Altos Hills, CA, to namea few.

Rosetta and Dick Holmes willbe hosts with the UFO StudyGroup of Greater St. Louis attheir annual picnic and sky-watch on July 10 and 11 at Car-lyle, II.

New Personnel

New state section directorsappointed this month includethe following: A. V. McDowell,P.O. Box 1545, Big Spring, TX79720 for Howard, Glasscock,Martin, Mitchell, Borden andSterling Counties. He is aformer state section directorfrom Montana and may be contac-ted by telephone at (915) 263-7150.

S. Thompson Viele, 31 LongSands Road, York, Maine 03909;telephone (207) 363-2704, forYork and Cumberland counties.In Pennsylvania, William Mecca,1527 Madison Avenue, Dunmore,PA 18512; telephone: (717) 346-3635, has been assigned toLackawana and Wyoming counties.

Commendations

We would like to commend thefollowing state directors fortheir annual reports and com-munications to their members:

Page 19

Joe Santangelo, Massachusetts;David F. Webb, New Hampshire;Elmer Krai, Nebraska; and PaulCerny, for Northern California,

Film, TV Program

Wplper Productions in LosAngeles has recently completeda 30-minute UFO film to be syn-dicated for television featur-ing Dr. J. Allen Hynek andJames McDivitt. MUFON submit-ted the Bill Fisher motion pic-ture footage of a UFO and colorprints of the Delphos, KS,landing site for their use. Itwill be titled, "The UFO Con-nection."

David Dunn Productions inHollywood and Las Vegas hasfilmed their first weekly syn-dicated television program, un-titled as yet. It will be 30minutes in length, consistingof 3 or 4 segments per show,with at least one segment de-voted to UFQs in a news/docu-mentary/interview format. GeneMarvin is program coordinator.Gene and his wife attended theMUFON exhibit and-lectures atthe "Electronics World Exposi-tion" in Kansas City, MO, twoyears ago.. MUFON has pledgedits support to this ambitiousundertaking also.

Deputy Director Resigns

It is with deep regret thatMUFON accepted the resignationof John F. Schuessler as deputydirector. His "open letter" 'waspublished in the February issueof SKYLOOK voicing his dissat-isfaction and disappointment inthe progress to date in resolv-ing the UFO phenomenon.He was instrumental in found-

ing MUFON in May, 1969. A newdeputy director will be electedat our annual corporate meetingin Ann Arbor, MI, on June 13,1976.

John will continue to attackthis perplexing problem throughall channels at his disposal.He plans to maintain his asso-ciation with MUFON, ..serving asa con-smltant in astronauticsand as a field-investigator inthe Hous>ton>.,Vjexas,' area.

Page 20

Recapping and comroBy Richard Hall

Reports of humanoid and not-so-humanoid creatures are oneof the more baffling aspects ofthe UFO mystery. They requrie

Surely the Acevedo case(April 14, 1974, Tandil, Argen-tina) must be one of the mostremarkable UFO cases on recordin terms of the significantfeatures it contains (lightbeam, paralysis, levitation,heat, physiological effects,physical evidence and E-M ef-fect, and a related humanoidreport). The "semi-illiterate"witness is, in a way, an advan-tage since if this descriptionis valid it is not likely thathe is familiar with UFO litera-ture. Also, from the quotesattributed to him, he is notunintelligent. With all thisdetail, physical evidence, par-tially confirming and separatewitnesses, the case seems de-serving of being written up infull, complete with documenta-tion from the, electric company,and with , maps and diagrams.Perhaps the!.QtlFE group in-•Tan-dil has alre'ady done this; ifnot, I hope.they will,thorough, > cross-disciplinaryinvestigation and, more so thancomparatively routine reports,validation. The MUFON special-ists in this area, Ted Bloecherand Dave Webb, 'are taking acommendable appyoach by compil-ing naturalistic observations,cross-checking, the data insofaras possible, and avoiding unduespeculation.

The luminous humanoids re-ported near Alton, Illinois,last October are not withoutprecedent. Bloecher and Webbprobably can cite other paral-lels, but the following refer-ences from THE HUMANOIDS (Reg-nery, 1969) indicate a historyof luminous beings sometimesassociated with UFOs:

October 20, 1954, near Como,Italy, a 1.3 m tall being in aluminous suit aimed a beam atthe witness, who was paralyzed(p. 51). October 10, 1957, near

Quebracoco, Brazil, an ovai. lwas seen with seven small be-1'1

ings in luminous steits gazingdown at the witnesses throughan open "hatch" (p. 100). Aug-ust 20, 1965, Cuzco, Peru, tWbeings of "dazzling brightness"emerged from a silvery disc lhm in diameter (p, 119). ASthese examples show, the lum-inous humanoids also displayother familiar UFO features.

The stiff-legged gait andsingle-file depa*e;ur.e in theIllinois case are features thathave also appeared* in previoushumanoid reports. The stra%eAsilence is a feature worth not-ing; any indications of changes .in atmospheric pressure, sound,temperature, etc. in the pres-ence of a UFO event could beimportant clues. Nbte the No-vember 4, 1975, "silence" casereported by Len Stringfiel'd 'Onpage 6 of this issue.

NotesBy Mark R. Herbstritt ""< —

April SkyMercury--is in superior con-

junction on the 1st, and by the27th it is in greatest easternelongation, a very favorable"one, at which time Mercuijy- is19 degrees above the westernhorizon at sunset.Venus--rises in the east just

about half an hour before theSun. On the 15th it is magni-tude -3.3.

Mars--is in Gemini. It ispast the meridian at sunset and:sets after midnight.

Jupiter--is visible low inthe west just after sunsetearly in the month, but by the27th it is in conjunction withthe Sun.

Saturn--the ringed planet isclose to the meridian at sunsetand sets after midnight.

The Lyrid meteor shower oc-curs from the 19th to the 23rd.