Page last updated: April 13, 2007 11:03 AM
SKY THING - occurred 1960
At this point I'm going to present what I believe qualifies as a
tantalizing, solid piece of "documented evidence." It certainly
qualifies as data. I think it will give us all something to think
about in the background as we journey through my next six essays.
I am fairly certain it has a connection to Cooper's Edward's AFB
claim even though it (the incident in the articles below) occurred
approximately three years later. We will eventually discover,
assuming Mr. Oberg's date is correct, whether it is possible this
episode is related to a similar incident which occurred in 1957,
approximately six months *after* the Edward's claimed event.
Oberg ¶ 46 When I called John ("Jack") Gettys, one of
the witnesses, he sent me a file of material on the
sighting, which had occurred on May 3, 1957.
The following articles, occurring 18 years prior to our
aforementioned UN discussion on UFOs, were reported quite
accurately in the media and apparently gave scientists "pause for
thought." They are reprints from two Long Island, NY newspapers.
I had cut them out of the papers as a teenager expecting to
eventually find some rational answer. I never did.
I gave this incident the name, "SKY THING (occurred 1960),"
derived from Bob Caro's title, when I posted it on alt.paranet.ufo
earlier this year. No one having any explanation replied to the
post at that time, so I thought I'd try it here in this forum.
Perhaps I had missed someone's posted answer.
(Readers can check the articles for accuracy by going to your
libraries and examining microfilms on same. Some of you in various
parts of the world may have supporting articles of your own. If
you do, please let me know. I believe you could be contributing
to something really important here.)
<begin articles>
Newsday 8/31/60 & 9/1/60
Long Island Press 9/1/60
[Brackets] and interior CAPITAL LETTERS are mine.
Article #1: 8/31/60 THEY WONDER WHAT'S UP (Newsday)
Chicago (AP) New sightings of a mysterious unidentified object
circling the earth were reported yesterday.
Data concerning the object was being compiled by Robert L.
Johnson, director of Chicago's Adler Planetarium, who sighted the
object for the first time Friday with two assistants. Johnson
said he had received reports of sightings Saturday and Sunday
nights from Georgetown University observatory, Washington, and
semi-official space associations. Amateur astronomers from coast
to coast and from Michigan to Missouri have reported seeing the
object, Johnson added.
He said [ "the object appears to be 1/10 the size of the Echo I
balloon satellite and traveling about twice as fast. It isn't an
artificial satellite or a meteor" he asserted. ]
--------
Article #2: 9/1/60 EXPERTS CLOUDY ON IDENTITY OF SKY THING
(Newsday) By: Bob Caro
It's not a satellite and it's not a meteor. Any astronomer can
tell you that. And he can tell you its color and, to some extent,
its speed.
[There's just one thing he can't tell you - what it is. He can't
even guess.]
That's the status at the moment of the "week-long nationwide
attempt to identify the mysterious REDDISH object that has been
circling the earth since last Thursday." Astronomers all over the
country admit that they're puzzled. One, Frank Judson of
Chicago's famed Adler Planetarium says "I've been watching it for
days and I don't have the faintest idea what it is."
Even taking a picture of the object hasn't helped. [ The Grumman
Aircraft Engineering Corp. announced yesterday that a tracking
camera at the Bethpage plant had photographed the object at 8:51
PM last Thursday. But, a Grumman spokesman added, "all the
picture shows is a white line, so we still can't even begin to
make an identification." ] The white line, difficult to detect,
was barely visible even after the photo was enlarged.
Expert observers and just plain citizens have been catching
glimpses of the mysterious object in Long Island, Chicago,
Washington, Boston, New Haven, Chicago and points west. But the
few conclusions that they are able to draw about its behavior only
heightens the mystery of what it is.
Judson, who has been studying the object in conjunction with
Robert L. Johnson, director of the Adler Planetarium sums up the
conclusions about the thing this way:
"It's not a meteor because it's much too slow. And it's
not an artificial man-made satellite, of that we're
certain. THE OBJECT TRAVELS FROM EAST TO WEST...EVERY
ARTIFICIAL SATELLITE EVER PUT UP HAS TRAVELED FROM WEST
TO EAST. THAT'S THE ONLY WAY IN WHICH THEY CAN TAKE
ADVANTAGE OF THE EARTH'S ROTATION."
" 'THE OBJECT,' JUDSON SAID, 'DOESN'T EVEN HAVE THE
DECENCY TO MAINTAIN A REGULAR SCHEDULE, LIKE ANY OTHER
HEAVENLY OR MAN MADE OBJECT HE'S EVER SEEN.' 'WE DON'T
KNOW WHEN TO WATCH FOR IT.' he says." It appears some
nights, and some nights it doesn't.
Usually it appears at about the time (the) Echo I (balloon
satellite) does going in the opposite direction and about twice as
fast.
What could it possibly be: "Between you and me, I just don't
know," Judson said. Then he was asked an inevitable question:
"No," he replied, "Definitely not, I do not believe in flying
saucers."
--------
Article #3: 9/1/60 GRUMMAN FILMS MYSTERY SPHERE (L.I. Press)
A mysterious REDDISH object circling the earth has been
photographed by a tracking camera of the Grumman Aviation
Engineering Corp., in Bethpage, it was disclosed today.
Grumman said the photograph was taken by a special tracking crew
which has been on watch.
[ The flying object appears to be about a tenth the size of the
Echo I balloon satellite and traveling about twice as fast.
Sightings from amateur astronomers and others have been received
from throughout the United States.
Robert L. Johnson, director of Chicago's Adler Planetarium, is
compiling data on the object. He says it doesn't appear to be an
artificial satellite or a meteor. ]
[ An added touch of the unusual is the east to west trajectory of
the object. Satellites launched by the United States and the
Soviet Union have followed the opposite trajectory, west to east,
to take advantage of extra speed provided by the earth's rotation.]
<end articles>
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<·>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
J.C. Again, I respectfully ask : After all these years, does
anyone have a reasonable explanation that the majority of us can
accept as to what this was? If you give an answer, perhaps we
can have other astronomers, aeronautic specialists, etc. comment
on same. If it was one of ours, it wouldn't hurt to have someone
that was actually there say it, along with a definite date and
place of launch and a conformation from some official body this
is accurate. I'd personally like to see someone that was actually
there say it. I think if we think about it, just saying "oh yes,
we could have done it" leaves something to be desired. And if we
were simply tracking the shot, why would we shoot the "tracker"
in the opposite direction?
My own thoughts were: Captured meteorite? Doesn't it have to
come in at an angle and flow with the earth's rotation so the
earth's gravity can grab and hold it? I distinctly remember
newscasters and scientists talking at that time about how we were
necessarily using the earth's rotation as a slingshot to shoot
things out of our gravitational field to keep the weight down in
the rockets which had definite limits as to the weight they could
lift out of our gravitational field. I believe "payload" is still
a major consideration, even today. A side lobe? If it was,
the echo satellite must have had a rocket-propelled, detachable
skin. The description given by the tracking stations does not seem
to fit the definition Mr. Oberg gave regarding same. Some kind of
atmospheric reflection? (not much atmosphere up there by the
satellites and nothing to reflect off)
Secret military device? Here's a the key question for me. We were
using our best equipment to get our satellites into orbit,
competing with the Russians. If it was a spy camera, whatever,
put into orbit going almost twice as fast in the opposite
direction of the Echo satellite, then why didn't it keep a regular
schedule? It was clearly stated the object did not keep a regular
schedule and was going the WRONG WAY, twice as fast. And it was an
object, not just an electronic reflection because ... they took
pictures of it. If no one wants to talk about it openly because
it's very secret, you can tell me personally and I'll go away
quiety on this; I'm good at keeping secrets. (BTW, If you _can_
answer this go on to the next case and see if you can knock that
one out too. They get harder as they go. I only included this last
one to indicate that Hynek may have been thinking about it too.)
[11/26/04 I found proof he was. Please click immediate link above.]
It seemed impossible but...the documented record demonstrates it
was photographed and analyzed by the aforementioned minimum of three
tracking stations: Adler Planetarium, Grumman Aviation Engineering
Corporation (famous for building the lunar module and various
types of military hardware), and Georgetown University observatory,
Washington D.C. If one were to consult newspapers from other parts
of the country around the dates in question, one might possibly
find other tracking stations that observed this as well. Perhaps
others reading this might supply this too.
Now, when it comes to reprints of stories that add details without
substantiation, I am as suspicious as the next person. But...when
three major tracking facilities report something of this sort, if
someone doesn't have a really good answer as to what it was after
all this time (35 years later), I would say that it definitely
qualifies as documentation of a verified UFO, just outside our
atmosphere. Granted, this alone does not prove what UFOs
are....only that they certainly exist and we have, at the very
least, seen and photographed them. If still unsolved today, it is
one of a growing number of pieces of evidence
(6/30/2006)which
must be considered in the total picture.
Additionally, in ¶ 24 & 25 Mr. Oberg states:
Oberg ¶ 24: By 1967, Frank Edwards gave these
details of the event (in Flying Saucers -- Here and Now!,
Lyle Stuart, New York). To the question, "Who was the
first astronaut to see a UFO in orbit?", Edwards
responded: "On the record it was Major Gordon Cooper,
over Muchea Tracking Station near Perth Australia, on his
final orbit of Earth on a night in May of 1963. The
object which approached him was also seen by the two
hundred persons at the tracking station. It was reported
twice on the NBC radio network before Cooper had been
picked up by the rescue craft. He was not permitted to
comment on it."
Oberg ¶ 25: Other details appeared in Is
Something Up There (Dale White, Scholastic Book Services,
Doubleday, 1968): "The astronaut radioed the tracking
station that he had sighted a greenish object moving east
to west. This is contrary to the orbits taken by man
made satellites. Nearly one hundred persons, some of them
technicians, saw the UFO appear on the Australian radar."
Even if the above statement was "story-built" the above "SKY
THING" articles prove there was a legitimate reason for one to
assume, rightly or wrongly, that the story reported could be true.
As I said, I was amazed to discover later, the above "SKY THING"
case was preceded by a similar incident that happened in 1957. I'll
detail both this and how I found it as a finale to everything else
I will be presenting. It should suffice to say at this time that
Dr. Hynek had been in charge of satellite tracking for the
Smithsonian and probably was aware of those tracked events
previously mentioned. Combining those events with anomalies
scientists had observed in the Baker Nunn network (I'll present
this next), information he already had from Blue Book cases, and
the fact that an object had actually been photographed, it would
have been a logical assumption on his part that the accounts
regarding Cooper could be accurate. Therefore, this indicates,
at least to me, that any mistake on Hynek's part was most likely
*not* premeditated.
I'll give everyone some time to ponder this, go to the library &
check out the articles I presented and also perhaps come up with a
plausible solution to "SKYTHING (occurred 1960)", before I focus
on Dr. Hynek's career, proof of the Baker-Nunn anomalies, and
Hynek's significance to our accumulated knowledge concerning UFOs
and what the Air Force most certainly knows about them.
End: Oberg/Cooper rebuttal.2
To: O/C rebut.3a
SKYTHING (occurred 1960)
Respectfully submitted,
Jerry Cohen
E-mail: rjcohen@li.net
cohenufo@optonline.net
Go to:
O/C rebut.1a - Introduction
O/C rebut.1b - Intro. (continued)
O/C rebut.2 - "Skything 1960"
O/C rebut.3a - Hynek, from skeptic to "qualified
believer"
O/C rebut.3b - Hynek, from skeptic to ... (continued)
O/C rebut.4a - UFOs, a synopsis of.... history
O/C rebut.4b - UFOs, a synopsis of.... history
(continued)
O/C rebut.5a - Hynek takes us inside Blue Book
O/C rebut.5b - Hynek takes us inside..... (continued)
O/C rebut.6 - Who is, and isn't studying the UFO Phenomenon & Why
O/C rebut.7a - Sebago & Stokes
O/C rebut.7b - Kirtland
O/C rebut.7c - Krtlnd conclusion, B. B. &
Condon errors, summation
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