Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
02-03-2014
Did H.G. Wells Predict Roswell Crash and UFO Disclosure?
Did H.G. Wells Predict Roswell Crash and UFO Disclosure?
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
Top 20+ UFO Sightings Of 2013! Best Footage From Around Planet Earth!
Video: Top 20+ UFO Sightings Of 2013! Best Footage From Around Planet Earth!
Top 20+ UFOs Of 2013! BestFootage From Around The World! Incredible Year For UFO Sighting Join Blake and Brent Cousins Founders Of Thirdphaseofmoon As They Discuss The Top UFOs Of The Year 2013!~ Subscribe Now For More Updates For 2014!!!!
YOUTUBE DESC: Interpretation of the stone monuments of the ancient land of Egypt has been more or less the sole domain of what are called Egyptologists for more than 100 years. However, local indigenous knowledge, combined with observations by engineers, geologists, physicists and other experts are presenting a new story; that Ancient High Technology existed before the pharaohs
Even though many folks may somewhat feel that they cannot trust our government on many (or, most) issues, at least on this particular issue, it is my feeling that the White House (office of Scienceand Technology Policy), to the best of its knowledge, is telling the truth when it stated (in 2011):
(QUOTE)
“The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race.
In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public‘s eye.
Many scientists and mathematicians have looked with a statistical mindset at the question of whether life likely exists beyond Earth and have come to the conclusion that the odds are pretty high that somewhere among the trillions and trillions of stars in the universe there is a planet other than ours that is home to life.
Many have also noted, however, that the odds of us making contact with any of them – especially any intelligent ones - are extremely small, given the distances involved.
But that’s all statistics and speculation.
The fact is we have no credible evidence of extraterrestrial presence here on Earth.”
(UNQUOTE)
I also totally agree with my colleague, Tomas Scolarici who said:
“The UFOphenomenon is not a threat to our security.
The same phenomenon neither was a threat for the Sumerians or Romans, or Indians”.
“There is no such thing as a cover-up, and the authorities know as little about the nature of the UFO phenomenon as ourselves.
They learned however that the UFO phenomenon is not a threat for our Security”.
(Despite the often reported “mischievous”, “oppressive”, “tricky”, “deceptive” nature of the phenomenon, in addition to their rather “primitive” modus operandi, such as their alleged “abductions” of humans, definitely not a sign of any physical visitation of highly advanced, intelligent civilizations from outer space……in fact, it almost seems to me that it all tantamounts to “demonic activity” of some kind and, if so, the government would not touch it with a 10 foot pole!! ).
“Many UFO reports seem to pertain more to accounts of poltergeist and….psychic manifestations….I cannot accept the ‘obvious’ explanations of UFOs as visitors from outer space“ - Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Scientific Advisor to the U.S. Air Force.
“An impressive parallel can be made between UFO occupants and the popular conception of demons“ -
“Many of the UFO reports now being published in the popular press recount alleged incidents that are strikingly similar to demonic possession and psychic phenomenon that have long been known to theologians and parapsychologists” - Lynn E. Catoe, Library of Congress Senior Bibliographer.
Perhaps these could be the reasons why the government cannot officially make any comments, aside from the likelihood that they are unwilling to make any statement that goes beyond our present knowledge of empirical science, going into such areas as “paranormal phenomena” and “religious manifestations” (including “beliefs”).
Could the phenomenon be a momentary, holographic intrusion from some type of a “parallel s or intelligence”?
Could it be some form of “time-slip”, interdimensional “accident”?
We just don’t have the answers.
And the government is not in the business of going into these areas!
Could the entire phenomenon be some form of religious manifestations or religious manipulations by a power which we cannot comprehend simply by physical pursuit, a power which apparently is capable of presenting an “instant” (but only temporay) “appearance” or “illusion” of being a physical phenomenon to the observer?
If so, then the government will never make any statement of that nature.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
UFOs chased by military planes above Texas in 1983
UFOs chased by militaryplanes above Texas in 1983
UFOs chased by military planes above Texas in 1983
We recently received an email from someone who witnessed an interesting high speedchase in 1983. The events took place in Roanoke, a town in Denton County, Texas and part of the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex.
The witness remembers driving to work at 4 or 5 AM (this was in 1983, so exact details may be a little blurry) and noticing “these swiftly dancing whiter than white objects”. While trying to get a grip and figure out what was happening, “military jets appeared out of no where”. “That was the scary” remembers the witness. The mysterious jets were loud and they were flying low.
Our witness is sure that they were after the UFO. They didn’t succeed in their attempt to get close to the UFOs, “the crafts took off at a higher speed then the 3 jets”. We do not have any pictures or videos of the events. Here is the full, unedited part of the submission that was published: It was approximately 4-5 am, driving to work, I sighted these swiftly dancing whiter than white objects (sometimes hovering) lights in the sky.
It seemed about 1 mile or less above. By the time I could get a handle on ‘these are UFO‘s’…. Military jets appeared out of no where! That was the scary, then curious part……extremely loud and extremely low. Faster then 2 blinks of an eye it was all over. They obviously where after the crafts, 4 of them I think. The crafts took off at a higher speed then the 3 jets.
Fasinating to say the least!! I was quite stymied the entire day and never said, ‘hey, guess what I saw on the way to work today’?
The story was submitted to us at UFO Spottings. Florin – UFO DIGEST
02-03-2014 om 11:26
geschreven door peter
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
Bizarre UFO encounters over the US in 1949
Bizarre UFO encounters over the US in 1949
Bizarre UFO encounters over the US in 1949
Prior to the first visitation by the US Navy’s Nautilus nuclear powered submarine beneath the northern polar ice cap in 1957, the newly formed USAir Force was forced to patrol the skies over the North Pole, Bering Straights, and Aleutian Island Chain that ran perilously close to the Siberian border of the Soviet Union. B-29 Super Fortresses, the same bomber that had carried the plutonium or A Bomb to Nagasaki and Hiroshima to end World War II, now conducted aerial reconnaissance over the Arctic.
In these vast regions of ice fields and frozen arctic oceans the carefully guarded boundaries of the Soviet Union and United States maintained a tense peace time patrolled by bombers, first generation targeting radars, and the navies of the two super powers as the “Cold War” played out. Everyday Air Force bomber crews maintained vigilance over thousands of miles of ice and snow fields occupied by tiny Inuit villages in the most remote and brutal conditions that man could claw out an existence in.
In 1949 Wendell Stevens commanded one of the early warning patrols that scanned the skies and frozen terrain for enemy movements, threats of invasion, or attempted aerial intrusion into American air space. These men flew long hours in sometimes treacherous conditions to insure a safety for the American homeland that only vigilance could insure in the face of hostile political ideologies that threatened to clash at anytime. As the Russians developed their plans for their first nukes and began building huge rockets from captured V-2 plans using German scientists prisoners, the American military, being the first to ever deploy nuclear bombs was now locked in an arms race with the Soviet Union.
However, as reported by former Air Force Colonel, Wendell Stevens, something even more bizarre was manifesting itself out there in the frozen altitudes of the northwestern frontier. Something that would change his life forever, and make him aware of another reality that was every bit as real as the Cold War, but much more mysterious and less easily monitored than anything the Russians were capable of deploying.
As arctic surveillance crews cruised the northern altitudes seeking contact with possible Russian bomber crews a strange thing happened over and over again.
These huge reconnaissance bombers were rigged for photographic intelligence work, fitted with wing to wing camera arrays designed for recording any enemy movements that could be interpreted as aggressive or militarily oriented as threats. However, they came face to face with something else. As each crew flew their lonely missions they began to capture video footage of something strange and bewildering!
Disks were seen and photographed that sat on the arctic ice, took off from the frozen surface, and even plunged into the frigid arctic ocean! This was captured on their wing mounted cameras. Sometimes the B-29 crews found themselves followed by these amazing unconventional aerial craft that were elliptical in shape with mirror-like metallic skin. These unknown airborne crafts would sometimes fly alongside aircrews while they frantically photographed the strange aerial intruders who made no radio contact while seemingly testing the capabilities of the USAir Force aviators.
Wendell Stevens and his men would hustle over to beneath the wings of the B-29’s as they landed and begin downloading the precious film data that revealed someone else was out there. Someone more advanced, someone whom we knew nothing about, yet seemed to be able to master our airspace with their incredibly elegant disk shaped vessels that easily outdistanced the US B-29’s at will making photographic study sometimes difficult even with high speed cameras.
Each time the crews landed, Colonel Stevens was there with his ground crews off loading the valuable filmed evidence and rushing it to the proper intelligence channels while keeping the fantastic sightings a under wraps. If it wasn’t the Russians who had designed and built these advanced vessels, Stevens often wondered, then who? The possibilities were maddening as each successive aircrew brought in their gigantic bombers now fitted for surveillance with camerafilm that revealed a new friend or foe up their in those high and vast stretches of frigid air space. Colonel Stevens finally came to the conclusion that an intelligence that exceeded man’s capabilities was out here in the frozen fringes of the arctic, ready to flash across the windscreens of the pilots at fantastic speeds, or just fly alongside the bombers pacing them as they flew.
The B-29 crews were mystified by what they’d seen. Yet, they were ordered by high command not to discuss or divulge what they were witnessing while they flew over the northern ice cap in air search mode for any seemingly hostile Russian aircraft or war ships in the narrow arctic seas that remained passable during some months in spring and summer. This was the beginning of SAC (Strategic Air Command) now being developed under the tutelage of General Curtis LeMay, who, years later, would make a public admission to an interviewer that there were things his air crews had encountered that could never be explained pertaining to UFO’s.
The year before in July 24,1948 2:45 AM Captain C.S. Chiles and Officer Whitted flying on Eastern Airlines Flight 576 from Houston to Montgomery, Alabama encountered a cigar or rocket shaped object that they met on a head on course. The unknown object turned at terrific speed in front of their prop driven airliner revealing what appeared to be a row of portholes or windows as the tail of the craft burned a cherry red. The two pilots, another pilot onboard, and a passenger, along with two other aircraft in the area all reported a flying saucer at that time sequence. The sighting left both pilots shaken up. Wright Patterson air intelligence questioned the witnesses along with Doctor J. Allen Hynek’s Project Sign personnel who also investigated.
In the very same year of 1949 thousands of miles from where Air Force officer, Wendell Stevens was busy with his polar reconnaissance command, an alarmingincident took place in Texas. The pilot of a Mustang P-51 was flying near San Antonio when he encountered a hostile UFO that dove on his aircraft time and time again forcing the stunned pilot to execute one radical evasive maneuver after another to avoid a collision with the unknown craft. Finally, the Air Force pilot was able to make an emergency landing at San Antonio Airfield, the air control tower there had listened to his hysterical voice transmissions prior to his landing. Upon setting down on the runway and landing, the frantic pilot was immediately met by intelligence officers for a debriefing on the incident. It seems in the year of 1949 there was an unprecedented amount of unknown and potentially dangerous air traffic in the skies of the United States, and the Air Force simply did not know who or what was responsible for the spine tingling encounters that were being experienced all over the skies of the nation.
Extra information about the article: 1949 was a year in which post war confusion and the sudden appearance of UFO‘s created chaos.
Doc Vega
02-03-2014 om 11:20
geschreven door peter
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:News from the FRIENDS of facebook ( ENG )
Video: The Unexplained UFOs NASA Files: Are We Alone?
Video: The Unexplained UFOs NASA Files: Are We Alone?
Once again, the Science Channel is reprising its popular extraterrestrial-themed Are We Alone? week.
As previous years have demonstrated, the Science Channel does an incredible job packing the first week of March with highly entertaining and provocative shows exploring UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
As the network explains, “This March, Science Channel returns with its programming event dedicated to one of mankind’s most pressing questions with ARE WE ALONE? – a week-long campaign dedicated to satisfying viewers’ appetite for aliens.” Science Channel’s executive vice president and general manager, Debbie Myers, states, “So many people are obsessed with the existence of aliens . . . ARE WE ALONE? ignites their imaginations with bold new questions, and engages current research happening in the field of extraterrestrial life. It’s programming that asks questions and makes you think. We hope ARE WE ALONE? advances the conversation even further.” . . .
Bright UFO recorded over Bangor, North Ireland on 20th February 2014
Bright UFO recorded over Bangor, North Ireland on 20th February 2014
Amazing video footage of a huge bright UFO light recorded in the sky above Bangor, North Ireland on 20th February 2014.
Witness said: A mysterious shiny object appears on a security camera bikers garage and their movement seems to be intelligent in nature. Bright lighting the area shown on the UFO moves up and down several times while out of sight towards the nearby sea. What was it? Alien – Human!
UFO followed by a helicopter over Anaheim Hills, California on 27th February 2014
UFO followed by a helicopter over Anaheim Hills, California on 27th February 2014
New interesting video footage of a bright UFO light recorded while hovering in the night sky above Anaheim Hills, California on 27th February 2014 and followed by a helicopter.
Witness said: I heard a military helicopter coming from the east at about 7:30 p.m. February 27th 2014 in Anaheim Hills, California. A large bright white orb was being followed or escorted by some type of military helicopter. The path was mostly straight with only the sound of the one helicopter heard. Thet both went over head and continued west. The front white glowing orb slowly vanished from view as I caught it all on video. Then the object seemed to have jumped to the right hand side of the sky instantly; being seen glowing in the clouds that are due for rain. Helicopter continued until out of sight on its own.
Amazing UFO photo taken over Minden, Canada on 22nd October 2013
Amazing UFO photo taken over Minden, Canada on 22nd October 2013
Amazing UFO photo taken on 22nd October 2013 and reported in February 2014 of multiple UFO lights taken while hovering over Minden, Canada.
Witness said: Photo of six sets of lights above horizon, no sound heard, headed directly toward my position. This picture was taken by my cellphone camera. Late afternoon. The view is looking east south east from the back deck of our cottage. The setting sun is behind me and it was illuminating the sky and clouds which i thought was a nice picture. I did not look at the picture immediately but about one month later. I did not notice the lights (shown in photo) over the horizon at the time. Nor did I observe any aircraft in the area or passing over my position. Our lake consists of mostly seasonal cottages and as a result is very quiet at that time of year, late october. I did not hear any sounds such as aircraft. There is a Canadian forces base about 150 km south east of our cottage. I was quite surprised when i looked at the picture as I didn’t notice anything abnormal at the time the photo was taken. There are six sets of lights in formation all about the same elevation and the appear to be parallel with each other. When the picture is enlarged the lights are dual, like headlights.
Huge UFO recorded next to Jupiter in February 2014
Huge UFO recorded next to Jupiter in February 2014
New amazing video footage of a huge mystery UFO recorded next to Jupiter in February 2014.
News said: Incredible object caught near Jupiter, which seems to have a core shaped like the number “8″. The four frames (gif) indicates it has a flight path, this rules out lens flare in my opinion. Whatever this object is, its huge in scale, and its heading our way, so further sightings of this mysterious object should be forthcoming. What could it be? Alien Mothership, Extraterrestrial Biosphere, or something else? As always you decide.
At first it seemed like an airplane approaching my place with unusually bright light (VERY BRIGHT). However, it was same color, from anticipated wingtip to wingtip; orange to yellow, VERY bright. I thought it was a plane, just unusual and VERY bright lights, and wanted to take a picture, but it was short past sunset. Although still like normal day for the eye, the camera only got darkness with a glowing thing. It came closer and thus I saw more of its shape, got confused, ran for the magnifying hunting glass I had stored away. Through the glasses, it had the size of a 1 or 2 EURO coin. However, at that time it was almost over me. To my big surprise, no more lights – and no wings. It was a round disc in dark gray, similar to how military forces would paint their crafts. Since it looked on approach like a plane, it must have been a quite flat disc. It definitely lost a lot of height between first spotting the bright light and the flyover. The only sound I heard was some sort of humming like of a generator in the distance – and that may well have been it. I’ve heard similar sounds a lot here and never got the source. Probably the ironworks, train line or somethng else. So my best guess is, all was silent. I’m close to two airports. I’ve seen many and very unusual planes, but that turned out to be a surprise. I don’t know any disc-shaped planes and all planes still have visible lights when they fly over me. I checked flight radar and there was no matching aircraft registered for that time period and flight path (west to east). I could provide the photo, but better not. The camera completely failed. It wasn’t dark and it just got a bright orange dot with camera shake trail while to the eye it wasn’t a dot on that distance plus clouds as well as trees/leaves in the distant were easy to be seen. NOTE: The above image is a rendering.
A new video published to YouTube on March 1, 2014, documents a stunning UFO incident recorded by one local astronomer’s triple-camera array from the deck of a Yaletown apartment in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Former skeptic now leading local UFO videographer Charles Lamoureux custom-engineered what he calls his “Skywatchers Mobile Unit” (SMU) imaging platform while anticipating nights with clear skies filled with mysterious objects.
According to the witness, the UFO shown pulsating in the video during its initially slow-moving descent over West Vancouver’s Cypress Mountain was not anticipated by online satellite tracking applications, including Heavens-Above. The incident reportedly occurred at 8:44 p.m. PST on the night of Friday, February 28, 2014.
Initially spotted at 50 degrees above the horizon, Charles Lamoureux offered a comparison between this object’s luminous performance with that of a Fourth of July fireworks display in an email sent to this reporter that evening. Such a brilliant display as the one shown in the video raises the possibility of other potential witnesses in the region who may have resolved this event either with the naked eye or by using their own camera systems.
Readers of this column who witnessed this event are invited to contact Charles Lamoureux directly via comments on his YouTube channel, linked below.
Watch the Video
Click here to watch “Bright UFO Feb 28 WOW!” on YouTube, produced by Charles Lamoureux: “Please watch in HD and my commentary is from filming with Panasonic, other two cameras in sync. Finally able to capture UFO with all three cameras. This bright UFO was not a satellite or anything else as per heavens above and other satellite applications, not iridium flare, etc. Sighting occurred at 8:44 p.m. over Vancouver north descending behind the local mountain range in the Cypress park region. I must have seen over a dozen in a hour descend exact same area, some flashing, faster, but this one was so bright for sure there were more witnesses. Anyways if it’s a satellite it's a spy unknown or space junk but it was really moving way too slow at the onset. Two days prior in Whistler BC, I captured 6 plus objects just above peak of Blackcomb mountain sky hill after I heard couple dogs barking like crazy, of course I brought my Luna with me but had difficulty picking up the objects as I did not bring proper connections, recording was not viewable, nevertheless these objects were there and real, 1 hour and half north of this sighting…I believe UFO s are traveling from south to our local mountain range by the dozens every night for whatever reason!! I will find out soon enough!”
Skywatchers Mobile Unit
The SMU imaging platform combines off-the-shelf technologies in a redundant array that allows near-infrared and visible spectrum observation and recording operable by a single user. Monochrome and color digital night vision devices are optically calibrated alongside a high-magnification HD camcorder on a single tripod base with signals routed to an external monitor that allows switching between images from each of the devices for real-time study of local UFO phenomena known to populate skies over the Vancouver region.
Click here to view a brief walk-through of Charles Lamoureux’s custom UFO imaging array, the “Skywatchers Mobile Unit” on YouTube: “My new Skywatchers Mobile Unit set up not finished yet, still some tweaking and additions to come. Luna optics digital night vision! Yukon night vision and Panasonic v510 camcorder with 80x optical zoom.”
Components and Specifications
In designing the SMU, Charles Lamoureux has carefully selected from a wide variety of options available to consumers in the videography and sports optics marketplace. Here’s a closer look at some of those components and what makes them especially suited to the task of resolving UFOs in the night sky.
Panasonic HC-V510
The Panasonic HC-V510 Full-HD camcorder is a consumer-series high-definition palmcorder emphasizing affordable high-magnification HD imaging via Panasonic’s Intelligent Zoom function.
According to the manufacturer, Intelligent Zoom features 80x magnification power to draw distant subjects up close to the observer. While this camera’s tiny single 1/5.8″ BSI MOS Sensor and small-diameter 28mm-equivalent objective lens may offer some diminishing returns in terms of image over-sharpening and limited low-light sensitivity, the telephoto reach for something so small and portable (far lighter and more space-efficient than a telescope) remains very impressive.
Click here to watch a brief step-through of Panasonic’s Intelligent Zoom function used to image the moon at full 1080 HD resolution.
Yukon Digital NV Ranger 5×42
The Yukon Digital NV Ranger 5×42 is a reliable and inexpensive night vision optic that uses a digital sensor to resolve near-infrared images beyond the range of visible light. With a fixed 5x telephoto objective lens this monocular’s night vision sensitivity makes it a great spotter scope to aid in acquiring images with less-sensitive but higher resolution systems like the HC-V510 described above. Built-in NTSC video output capability allows for recording direct from the Ranger’s SD sensor to external portable DVRs and other devices.
Luna Optics LN-DM50-HRSD
The Luna Optics LN-DM50-HRSD is a relatively new product first introduced in 2013 that has captured the attention of UFO skywatchers (including members of the UFONV forum) offering a built-in 720p HD recording capability as well as switchable black and white and low-lux color night vision images in HD resolution.
Both affordable and innovative, the LN-DM50-HRSD’s low-lux color recording feature positions this device as a potential solid-state replacement for the legendary tape-based 0 lux professional series Panasonic AG-DVC30 “Ghost Hunters” camera. In simple terms of cost of operations, continued reliance upon purchasing MiniDV tape as a necessary consumable for operating the DVC30 is superseded by the convenience of the DM50’s ability to record digital files directly to inexpensive SD memory cards.
In an email response to this reporter’s inquiry, Luna Optics, Inc. President Vladimir Savchik states further how his company will begin to release “a full-line of high quality digital products with even better resolution and image sensors and in a variety of shapes (monoculars and binoculars) with never-before utilized features and options” sometime in the near future.
With new video from Charles Lamoureux already sparking the imaginations of UFO videographers on YouTube, the future for affordable do-it-yourself skywatching appears to be a very bright and promising one indeed.
On the night of February 25, 1942 an incident occurred over the city limits of Los Angeles, California. Some say that there were visiting spacecraft from another world, or dimension, that hovered over a panicked and blacked-out LA in the middle of the night just weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack. Others were convinced that this huge ship was some unknown Japanese aircraft. It was attacked as it hung, nearly stationary, over Culver City and Santa Monica by dozens of Army anti-aircraft batteries in full view of hundreds of thousands of residents. This was the Battle of Los Angeles.
The sudden appearance of the enormous round object triggered all of LA and most of Southern California into an immediate wartime blackout with thousands of Air Raid Wardens scurrying all over the darkened city while the drama unfolded in the skies above…a drama which would result in the deaths of six people and the raining of shell fragments on homes, streets, and buildings for miles around.
Dozens of gun crews and searchlights of the Army’s 37th Coast Artillery Brigade easily targeted the huge ship which hung like a surreal magic lantern in the clear, dark winter sky over the City of the Angels. Few in the city were left asleep after the Coastal Defense gunners commenced firing hundreds and hundreds of rounds up toward the glowing ship which was apparently first sighted as it hovered above such west side landmarks as the MGM studios in Culver City. The thump of the batteries and the ignition of the aerial shells reverberated from one end of LA to the other as the gun crews easily landed scores of what many termed “direct hits”….all to no avail. Here now, is what the night skies of LA looked like at the height of the firing.
Pay close attention to the convergence of the searchlights and you will clearly see the shape of the visitor within the illuminated target area. It’s a BIG item and seemed completely oblivious to the hundreds of AA shells bursting on and adjacent to it which caused it no evident dismay. There were casualties, however…on the ground. At least 6 people died as a direct result of the Army’s attack on the UFO which slowly and leisurely made its way down to and then over Long Beach before finally moving off and disappearing.
WITNESS ACCOUNT:In February, 1942, Katie was a young, beautiful, and highly-successful interior decorator and artist who worked with many of Hollywood’s most glamorous celebrities and film industry luminaries. She lived on the west side of Los Angeles, not far from Santa Monica. With the outbreak of the war with Japan and the rising fear of a Japanese air attack, or even invasion of the West Coast, thousands of residents volunteered for wartime duties on the home front. Katie volunteered to become an Air Raid Warden as did 12,000 other residents in the sprawling city of Los Angeles and surrounding communities.
In the early morning hours of February 25th, Katie’s phone rang. It was the Air Raid supervisor in her district notifying her of an alert and asking if she had seen the object in the sky very close to her home. She immediately walked to a window and looked up. “It was huge! It was just enormous! And it was practically right over my house. I had never seen anything like it in my life!” she said. “It was just hovering there in the sky and hardly moving at all.” With the city blacked out, Katie, and hundreds of thousands of others, were able to see the eerie visitor with spectacular clarity. “It was a lovely pale orange and about the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. I could see it perfectly because it was very close. It was big!”
The U.S. Army anti-aircraft searchlights by this time had the object completely covered. “They sent fighter planes up (the Army denied any of its fighters were in action) and I watched them in groups approach it and then turn away. There were shooting at it but it didn’t seem to matter.” Katie is insistent about the use of planes in the attack on the object. The planes were apparently called off after several minutes and then the ground cannon opened up. “It was like the Fourth of July but much louder. They were firing like crazy but they couldn’t touch it.” The attack on the object lasted over half an hour before the visitor eventually disappeared from sight. Many eyewitnesses talked of numerous “direct hits” on the big craft but no damage was seen done to it. “I’ll never forget what a magnificent sight it was. Just marvelous. And what a gorgeous color!”, said Katie.
Explosions stabbing the darkness like tiny bursting stars… Searchlight beams poking long crisscross fingers across the night sky…Yells of wardens and the whistles of police and deputy sheriffs…The brief on-and-off flick of lights, telephone calls, snatches of conversation: ‘Get the dirty…’ That was Los Angeles under the rumble of gunfire yesterday.
RESIDENTS AWAKENED
Sleepy householders awoke to the dull thud of explosions… “Thunder? Can’t be!” Then: “Air Raid! Come here quick! Look over there…those searchlights. They’ve got something…they are blasting in with anti-aircraft!” Father, mother, children all gathered on the front porch, congregated in small clusters in the blacked out streets — against orders. Babies cried, dogs barked, doors slammed. But the object in the sky slowly moved on, caught in the center of the lights like the hub of a bicycle wheel surrounded by gleaming spokes.
SPECULATION RIFE
Speculation fell like rain. “It’s a whole squadron.” “No, it’s a blimp. It must be because it’s moving so slowly.” “I hear planes.” “No you don’t. That’s a truck up the street.” “Where are the planes then?” “Dunno. They must be up there though.” “Wonder why they picked such a clear night for a raid?” “They’re probably from a carrier.” “Naw, I’ll bet they are from a secret air base down south somewhere.” Still the firing continued. Like lethal firecrackers, the anti-aircraft rounds blasted above, below, seemingly right on the target fixed in the tenacious beams. Other shots fell short, exploding halfway up the long climb. Tracers sparked upward like roman candles. Metal fell. It fell in chunks, large and small; not enemy metal, but the whistling fragments of bursting ack-ack shells. The menacing thud and clank on streets and roof tops drove many spectators to shelter.
WARDENS DO GOOD JOB
Wardens were on the job, doing a good job of it. “Turn off your lights, please. Pull over to the curb and stop. Don’t use your telephone. Take shelter. Take shelter.” On every street brief glares of hooded flashlights cut the darkness, warning creeping drivers to stop. Police watched at main intersections. Sirens wailed enroute to and from blackout accidents. There came lulls in the firing. The search lights went out. (To allow the fighter planes to attack?). Angelinos breathed deeply and said, “I guess it’s all over.” But before they could tell their neighbors good night, the guns were blasting again, sighting up the long blue beams of the lights.
WATCHERS SHIVER
The fire seemed to burst in rings all around the target. But the eager watchers, shivering in the early morning cold, weren’t rewarded by the sight of a falling plane. Nor were there any bombs dropped. “Maybe it’s just a test,” someone remarked. “Test, hell!” was the answer. “You don’t throw that much metal in the air unless you’re fixing on knocking something down.” Still the firing continued, muttering angrily off toward the west like a distant thunderstorm. The targeted object inched along high, flanked by the cherry red explosions. And the householders shivered in their robes, their faces set, watching the awesome scene. – Marvin Miles (Los Angeles Times)
The following are excerpts from the primary front page story of the LA Times on February 26th:
Army Says Alarm Real Roaring Guns Mark Blackout
Identity of Aircraft Veiled in Mystery; No Bombs Dropped and No Enemy Craft Hit; Civilians Reports Seeing Planes and Balloon
Overshadowing a nation-wide maelstrom of rumors and conflicting reports, the Army’s Western Defense Command insisted that Los Angeles’ early morning blackout and anti-aircraft action were the result of unidentified aircraft sighted over the beach area. In two official statements, issued while Secretary of the Navy Knox in Washington was attributing the activity to a false alarm and “jittery nerves,” the command in San Francisco confirmed and reconfirmed the presence over the Southland of unidentified planes. Relayed by the Southern California sector office in Pasadena, the second statement read: “The aircraft which caused the blackout in the Los Angeles area for several hours this a.m. have not been identified.” Insistence from official quarters that the alarm was real came as hundreds of thousands of citizens who heard and saw the activity spread countless varying stories of the episode. The spectacular anti-aircraft barrage came after the 14th Interceptor Command ordered the blackout when strange craft were reported over the coastline. Powerful searchlights from countless stations stabbed the sky with brilliant probing fingers while anti-aircraft batteries dotted the heavens with beautiful, if sinister, orange bursts of shrapnel.
City Blacked Out For Hours
The city was blacked out from 2:25 to 7:21 am after an earlier yellow alert at 7:18 pm was called off at 10:23 pm. The blackout was in effect from here to the Mexican border and inland to the San Joaquin Valley. No bombs were dropped and no airplanes shot down and, miraculously in terms of the tons of missiles hurled aloft, only two persons were reported wounded by falling shell fragments. Countless thousands of Southland residents, many of whom were late to work because of the traffic tie-up during the blackout, rubbed their eyes sleepily yesterday and agreed that regardless of the question of how “real” the air raid alarm may have been, it was “a great show” and “well worth losing a few hours’ sleep.” The blackout was not without its casualties, however. A State Guardsman died of a heart attack while driving an ammunition truck, heart failure also accounted for the death of an air raid warden on duty, a woman was killed in a car-truck collision in Arcadia, and a Long Beach policeman was killed in a traffic crash enroute to duty. Much of the firing appeared to come from the vicinity of aircraft plants along the coastal area of Santa Monica, Inglewood, Southwest Los Angeles, and Long Beach. – Los Angeles Times
On Wednesday, February 25, 1942, as war raged in Europe and Asia, at least a million Southern Californians awoke to the scream of air-raid sirens as Los Angeles County cities blacked out at 2:25 AM. Many dozed off again while 12,000 air raid wardens reported faithfully to their posts, most of them expecting nothing more than a dress rehearsal for a possible future event – an invasion of the United States by Japan. At 3:36, however, they were shocked and their slumbering families rudely roused again, this time by sounds unfamiliar to most Americans outside the military services.
The roar of the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade’s antiaircraft batteries jolted them out of bed and before they could get to the windows the flashing 12.8 pound shells were detonating with a heavy, ominous boomp – boomp – boomp and the steel was already raining down. All radio stations had been ordered off the air at 3:08. But the news was being written with fingers of light three miles high on a clear star-studded blackboard 30 miles long.
The firing continued intermittently until 4:14. Unexploded shells destroyed pavement, homes and public buildings, three persons were killed and three died of heart attacks directly attributable to the one hour barrage. Several persons were injured by shrapnel. A dairy herd was hit but only a few cows were casualties.
The blackout was lifted and sirens screamed all clear at 7:21. The shooting stopped but the shouting had hardly begun. Military men who never flinched at the roar of rifles now shook at the prospect of facing the press. While they probably could not be blamed for what had happened, they did have some reason for distress. The thing they had been shooting at could not be identified.
Caught by the searchlights and captured in photographs, was an object big enough to dwarf an apartment house. Experienced lighter-than-air (dirigible) specialists doubted it could be a Japanese blimp because the Japanese had no known source of helium, and hydrogen was much too dangerous to use under combat conditions.
Whatever it was, it was a sitting duck for the guns of the 37th. Photographs showed shells bursting all around it. A Los Angeles Herald Express staffer said he was sure many shells hit it directly. He was amazed it had not been shot down.
The object that triggered the air raid alarm had drawn 1430 rounds of ammunition from the coast artillery, to no effect. When it moved at all, the object had proceeded at a leisurely pace over the coastal cities between Santa Monica and Long Beach, taking about 30 minutes of actual flight time to move 20 miles; then it disappeared from view.
You can well imagine with what chagrin public information officers answered press queries. The Pasadena Office of the Southern California Sector of the Army Western Defense Command simply announced that no enemy aircraft had been identified; no craft was shot down; no bombs were dropped; none of our interceptors left the ground to pursue the intruder.
Soon thereafter US Navy Secretary Frank Knox announced that no planes had been sighted. The coastal firing had been triggered, he said, by a false alarm and jittery nerves. He also suggested that some war industries along the coast might have to be moved inland to points invulnerable to attacks from enemy submarines and carrier-based planes.
The press responded with scathing editorials, many on page one, calling attention to the loss of life and denouncing the use of the coast artillery to fire at phantoms. The Los Angeles Times demanded a full explanation from Washington. The Long Beach Telegram complained that government officials who all along had wanted to move the industries were manipulating the affair for propaganda purposes. And the Long Beach Independent charged: “There is a mysterious reticence about the whole affair and it appears some form of censorship is trying to halt discussion of the matter. Although it was red-hot news not one national radio commentator gave it more than passing mention. This is the kind of reticence that is making the American people gravely suspect the motives and the competence of those whom they have charged with the conduct of the war.”
The Independent had good reason to question the competence of some of the personnel responsible for our coastal defense operations as well as the integrity and motives of our highest government officials. Only 36 hours before the Long Beach air raid, a gigantic Japanese submarine had surfaced close to shore 12 miles north of Santa Barbara and in 25 minutes of unchallenged firing lobbed 25 five-inch shells at the petroleum refinery in the Ellwood oil field. The Fourth Interceptor Command, although aware of the sub’s attack, ordered a blackout from Ventura to Goleta but sent no planes out to sink it. Not one shot was fired at the sub.
After the Ellwood incident had alerted all the West Coast defense posts to possible repeat attacks, these units were sensitive to anticipated invasion attempts. By Wednesday morning in the Los Angeles area they were ready to open fire on a boy’s kite if it in any way resembled a plane or a balloon. Secretary of War Henry Stimson praised the 37th Cost Artillery for this attitude. It is better to be a little too alert than not alert enough, he said. At the same time he delicately suggested that it might have been a good idea to send some of our planes up to identify the invading aircraft before shooting at them.
Planes of the Fourth Interceptor Command were, in fact, warming up on the runways waiting for orders to go up and interview the unknown intruders. Why, everybody was asking, were they not ordered to go into action during the 51-minute period between the first air-raid alert at 2:25 AM and the first artillery firing at 3:16?
Against this background of embarrassing indecision and confusion, Army Western Defense Command obviously had to say something fast. Spokesmen told reporters that from one to 50 planes had been sighted, thus giving themselves ample latitude in which to adjust future stories to fit whatever propaganda requirements might arise in the next few days.
When eyewitness reports from thousands searching the skies with binoculars under the bright lights of the coast artillery verified the presence of one enormous, unidentifiable, indestructible object – but not the presence of large numbers of planes – the press releases were gradually scaled downward. A week later Gen. Mark Clark acknowledged that army listening posts had detected what they thought were five light planes approaching the coast on the night of the air raid. No interceptors, he said, had been sent out to engage them because there had been no mass attack.
Believing an aerial bombardment was in progress, some people thought they saw formations of warplanes, dogfights between enemy craft and our fighter planes and other things that they assumed were evidence of such an attack. Obviously there were no dogfights because none of our interceptors were in the air. Tracer bullets were fired from military ground stations and some people mistook the fire pattern made by these projectiles for aerial combat. Other observers reported lighted objects which were variously described as red-and-white flares in groups of three red and three white, fired alternately, or chainlike strings of red lights looking something like an illuminated kite.
People suggested that some of these lights were caused by Japanese-Americans signaling approaching Japanese aircraft with flares to guide them to selected targets, but because no bombs were dropped, the theory was quickly abandoned. In any case, such charges fitted in perfectly with a hysterical press campaign to round up all citizens of Japanese descent and put them in concentration camps.
During the week of the Japanese submarine attack on the Ellwood oil field and the air raid on Los Angeles County, the press took full advantage of the made-to-order situation. Arrests of suspects were quickly made and the FBI was called in, but the Long Beach Press Telegram stated all investigations indicated nobody was signaling the enemy from the ground.
Santa Barbara’s Ellwood Oil Field Submarine Attack
The LA Times: “From Santa Barbara, area of the submarine attack Monday night, District Attorney Percy Heckendorf said he would appeal to Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt, commanding officer of the Western Defense Command, to make Santa Barbara County a restricted area for enemy nationals and American-born Japanese as well. “There is convincing proof,” Heckendorf asserted, “that there were shore signals flashed to the enemy.” Heckendorf said the people will hold Gen. DeWitt responsible if he failed to act. Army ordinance officers, meanwhile, were studying more than 200 pounds of shell fragments from missiles fired by the submarine, which caused only $500 damage in the Ellwood oil field near Santa Barbara.”
It is said by some locals that the skipper or one of the officers on the Japanese sub had worked in the Ellwood oil field some years prior to the outbreak of the war. The story claims that the man had been mistreated by some of his co-workers during that time, had returned to Japan before the war began, and had then subsequently helped lead the submarine back to the area to make it’s attack. – Paul T. Collins – Fate Magazine July, 1987
Raid Scare Blacks Out Southland, but Knox Claims ‘False Alarm’
Washington(AP)-Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox said today that there were no planes over Los Angeles last night. “That’s our understanding,” he said. He added that ” none have been found and a very wide reconnaissance has been carried on.” He added, “it was just a false alarm.”
Anti-aircraft guns thundered over the metropolitan area early today for the first time in the war, but hours later what they were shooting at remained a military secret. An unidentified object moving slowly down the coast from Santa Monica was variously reported as a balloon and an airplane.
No bombs were dropped and no planes were shot down during the anti-aircraft firing in the Los Angeles area, the western defense command said in San Francisco.
“Cities in the Los Angeles area were blacked out at 2:25 a.m. today on orders from the fourth interceptor command when unidentified aircraft were reported in the area,” the western defense command said.
“Although reports are conflicting and every effort is being made to ascertain the facts, it is clear that no bombs were dropped and no planes were shot down.”
“There was a considerable amount of anti-aircraft firing. The all-clear signal came at 7:25 a.m.”
Army Scofts at Civilian Reports
Army intelligence, although uncommunicative, scoffed at reports of civilian observers that as many as 200 planes were over the area.
There were no reports of dropping bombs, but several instances of damaged property from anti-aircraft shells. A garage door was ripped off in a Los Angeles residential district and fragments shattered windows and tore into a bed where a few moments before Miss Blanch Sedgewick and her niece, Josie Duffy had been sleeping.
A santa Monica bomb squad was dispatched to remove an unexploded anti-aircraft shell in a driveway there.
Wailing air raid sirens at 2:25 a.m. awakened most of the metropolitan’s three million citizens. A few minutes later they were treated to a gigantic Fourth-of-July-like display as huge searchlights flashed along a 10-mile front to the south, converging on a single spot high in the sky.
Anti-Aircraft Guns Open Fire
Moments later the anti-aircraft guns opened up, throwing a sheet of steel skyward.
Tracer bullets and exploding shells lit the heavens.
Three Japanese, two men and a woman, were seized at the beach city of Venice on suspicion of signaling with flashlights near the pier. They were removed to FBI headquarters, where Richard B. Hood, local chief, said, “at the request of Army authorities we have nothing to say.”
A Long Beach police sergeant, E. Larsen 59, was killed in a traffic accident while in route to an air raid post.
Henry B. Ayers, 63-year-old state guardsman, died at the wheel of an ammunition truck during the black-out. Physicians said a heart attack was apparently responsible.
Rumors of Planes Downed Spiked
Police ran down several reports that planes had been shot down, but said all were false alarms.
Aircraft factories continued operation behind blackened windows, while ack-ack guns rattled from batteries stationed near-by.
A Japanese vegetable man, John Y. Harada, 25, was one of three persons arrested on charges of violating a county black ordinance. Sheriff’s Capt. Ernest Sichler said Harada, driving to the market with a load of cauliflower, refused to extinguish his truck lights.
Others held on similar charges were Walter E. Van Der Linden, Norwalk dairy man, accused of failing to darken his milking barns, and Giovouni Ghigo, 57, nabbed while driving to market with a truckload of flowers.
Traffic Snarl Follows All Clear Signal
Soon traffic was snarled. Thousand of southern Californians were an hour or more late to their jobs.
There were isolated incidences of failure to comply with black-out regulations. Neon signs were glowing inside stores. Traffic signals continued to flash in some areas.
Radio stations went off the air with the first alert, and were not permitted to resume broadcasting until 8:23 a.m.
There was speculation, that the unidentified object, might have been a blimp-although veteran lighter-then-air-experts in Akron, O., the nations center of such construction, said Japan was believed to have lost interest in such craft following experiments in World War I. These sources said inability to obtain fire proof helium caused discarding of such plans.
Observers lent some credence to the blimp theory by pointing out that the object required nearly thirty minutes to travel 20 or 25 miles-far slower then an airplane.
Unidentified Planes Pass Over Harbor
An official source which declined to be quoted directly told The Associated Press in Los Angeles that United States Army Planes quickly went into action. Later however, another official said no United States craft had taken off because of possible danger from the army’s own anti-aircraft fire.
A newspaper man at San Pedro said airplanes passed over the Los Angeles-Long Beach harbor area. The craft were not identified.
There were no reports of any attempt to bomb southern California from the air although many war-vital factories, shipyards and other defense industries were on the route the object followed.
Although some watchers said they saw airplanes in the air, semi-official sources said they probably were the United States Army’s pursuits.
All the action, clearly spotlighted for ground observers by 20 or so searchlights, was just a few miles west of Los Angeles proper.
Object Disappears Over Signal Hill
Observers said the object appeared to be 8000 ft or higher.
Firing, first heard at 3 a.m., ceased suddenly at 3:30 a.m., after the object disappeared south of Signal Hill, at the east edge of Long Beach. Anti-aircraft guns fired steadily for two minute periods, were silent for about 45 seconds, and continued that routine for nearly a half an hour.
All of southern California from the San Juaquin valley to the Mexican border was blacked out. Los Angeles doused its lights first, at 2:25 a.m.. San Diego, just 17 miles from the border did not receive its lights out order until 3:05 a.m.
When daylight and the all-clear signal came, Long Beach took on the appearance of a huge easter egg-hunt. Kiddies and even grown-ups scrambled through the streets and vacant lots, picking up and proudly comparing chunks of shrapnel fragments as if they were the most prized possession they owned. – Glendale News Press – Wednesday, Feb. 25, 1942
Witness Scott Littleton:“I was an eye-witness to the events of that unforgettable February morning in February of 1942. I was eight-years-old at the time, and my parents lived at 2500 Strand in Hermosa Beach, right on the beach. We thus had a grandstand seat. While my father went about his air-raid warden duties, my late mother and I watched the glowing object, which was caught in the glare of searchlights from both Palos Verdes and Malibu/Pacific/Palisades and surrounded by the puffs of ineffectual anti-aircraft fire, as it slowly flew across the ocean from northwest to southeast. It headed inland over Redondo Beach, a couple of miles to the south of our vantage point, and eventually disappeared over the eastern end of the Palos Verdes hills, what’s today called Rancho Palos Verdes. The whole incident last, at least from our perspective, lasted about half an hour, though we didn’t time it. Like other kids in the neighborhood, I spend the next morning picking up of pieces of shrapnel on the beach; indeed, it’s a wonder more people weren’t injured by the stuff, as we were far from the only folks standing outside watching the action.”
“In any case, I don’t recall seeing any truly discernable configuration, just a small, glowing, slight lozenge-shaped blob light-a single, blob, BTW. We only saw one object, not several as some witnesses later reported. At the time, we were convinced that it was a “Jap” reconnaissance plane, and that L.A. might be due for a major air-raid in the near future. Remember, this was less than three months after Pearl Harbor. But that of course never happened. Later on, we all expected “them,” that is, the Military, to tell us what was really up there after the war. But that never happened, either.” – brumac.8k.com
THE ARMY AIR FORCES IN WORLD WAR II; DEFENSE OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
“The Battle of Los Angeles”
During the night of 24/25 February 1942, unidentified objects caused a succession of alerts in southern California. On the 24th, a warning issued by naval intelligence indicated that an attack could be expected within the next ten hours. That evening a large number of flares and blinking lights were reported from the vicinity of defense plants. An alert called at 1918 [7:18 p.m., Pacific time] was lifted at 2223, and the tension temporarily relaxed. But early in the morning of the 25th renewed activity began. Radars picked up an unidentified target 120 miles west of Los Angeles. Antiaircraft batteries were alerted at 0215 and were put on Green Alert—ready to fire—a few minutes later. The AAF kept its pursuit planes on the ground, preferring to await indications of the scale and direction of any attack before committing its limited fighter force. Radars tracked the approaching target to within a few miles of the coast, and at 0221 the regional controller ordered a blackout. Thereafter the information center was flooded with reports of “enemy planes, ” even though the mysterious object tracked in from sea seems to have vanished. At 0243, planes were reported near Long Beach, and a few minutes later a coast artillery colonel spotted “about 25 planes at 12,000 feet” over Los Angeles. At 0306 a balloon carrying a red flare was seen over Santa Monica and four batteries of anti-aircraft artillery opened fire, whereupon “the air over Los Angeles erupted like a volcano.” From this point on reports were hopelessly at variance.
Probably much of the confusion came from the fact that anti-aircraft shell bursts, caught by the searchlights, were themselves mistaken for enemy planes. In any case, the next three hours produced some of the most imaginative reporting of the war: “swarms” of planes (or, sometimes, balloons) of all possible sizes, numbering from one to several hundred, traveling at altitudes which ranged from a few thousand feet to more than 20,000 and flying at speeds which were said to have varied from “very slow” to over 200 miles per hour, were observed to parade across the skies. These mysterious forces dropped no bombs and, despite the fact that 1,440 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition were directed against them, suffered no losses. There were reports, to be sure, that four enemy planes had been shot down, and one was supposed to have landed in flames at a Hollywood intersection. Residents in a forty-mile arc along the coast watched from hills or rooftops as the play of guns and searchlights provided the first real drama of the war for citizens of the mainland. The dawn, which ended the shooting and the fantasy, also proved that the only damage which resulted to the city was such as had been caused by the excitement (there was at least one death from heart failure), by traffic accidents in the blacked-out streets, or by shell fragments from the artillery barrage.
Attempts to arrive at an explanation of the incident quickly became as involved and mysterious as the “battle” itself. The Navy immediately insisted that there was no evidence of the presence of enemy planes, and Secretary [of the Navy, Frank] Knox announced at a press conference on 25 February that the raid was just a false alarm. At the same conference he admitted that attacks were always possible and indicated that vital industries located along the coast ought to be moved inland. The Army had a hard time making up its mind on the cause of the alert. A report to Washington, made by the Western Defense Command shortly after the raid had ended, indicated that the credibility of reports of an attack had begun to be shaken before the blackout was lifted. This message predicted that developments would prove “that most previous reports had been greatly exaggerated.” The Fourth Air Force had indicated its belief that there were no planes over Los Angeles. But the Army did not publish these initial conclusions. Instead, it waited a day, until after a thorough examination of witnesses had been finished. On the basis of these hearings, local commanders altered their verdict and indicated a belief that from one to five unidentified airplanes had been over Los Angeles. Secretary Stimson announced this conclusion as the War Department version of the incident, and he advanced two theories to account for the mysterious craft: either they were commercial planes operated by an enemy from secret fields in California or Mexico, or they were light planes launched from Japanese submarines. In either case, the enemy’s purpose must have been to locate anti-aircraft defenses in the area or to deliver a blow at civilian morale.
The divergence of views between the War and Navy departments, and the unsatisfying conjectures advanced by the Army to explain the affair, touched off a vigorous public discussion. The Los Angeles Times, in a first-page editorial on 26 February, announced that “the considerable public excitement and confusion” caused by the alert, as well as its “spectacular official accompaniments, ” demanded a careful explanation. Fears were expressed lest a few phony raids undermine the confidence of civilian volunteers in the aircraft warning service. In Congress, Representative Leland Ford wanted to know whether the incident was “a practice raid, or a raid to throw a scare into 2,000,000 people, or a mistaken identity raid, or a raid to take away Southern California’s war industries.” Wendell Willkie, speaking in Los Angeles on 26 February, assured Californians on the basis of his experiences in England that when a real air raid began “you won’t have to argue about it—you’ll just know.” He conceded that military authorities had been correct in calling a precautionary alert but deplored the lack of agreement between the Army and Navy. A strong editorial in the Washington Post on 27 February called the handling of the Los Angeles episode a “recipe for jitters,” and censured the military authorities for what it called “stubborn silence” in the face of widespread uncertainty. The editorial suggested that the Army’s theory that commercial planes might have caused the alert “explains everything except where the planes came from, whither they were going, and why no American planes were sent in pursuit of them.” The New York Times on 28 February expressed a belief that the more the incident was studied, the more incredible it became: “If the batteries were firing on nothing at all, as Secretary Knox implies, it is a sign of expensive incompetence and jitters. If the batteries were firing on real planes, some of them as low as 9,000 feet, as Secretary Stimson declares, why were they completely ineffective? Why did no American planes go up to engage them, or even to identify them?… What would have happened if this had been a real air raid?” These questions were appropriate, but for the War Department to have answered them in full frankness would have involved an even more complete revelation of the weakness of our air defenses.
At the end of the war, the Japanese stated that they did not send planes over the area at the time of this alert, although submarine-launched aircraft were subsequently used over Seattle. A careful study of the evidence suggests that meteorological balloons—known to have been released over Los Angeles —may well have caused the initial alarm. This theory is supported by the fact that anti-aircraft artillery units were officially criticized for having wasted ammunition on targets which moved too slowly to have been airplanes. After the firing started, careful observation was difficult because of drifting smoke from shell bursts. The acting commander of the anti-aircraft artillery brigade in the area testified that he had first been convinced that he had seen fifteen planes in the air, but had quickly decided that he was seeing smoke. Competent correspondents like Ernie Pyle and Bill Henry witnessed the shooting and wrote that they were never able to make out an airplane. It is hard to see, in any event, what enemy purpose would have been served by an attack in which no bombs were dropped, unless perhaps, as Mr. Stimson suggested, the purpose had been reconnaissance. – sfmuseum.net
The “Battle of LA,”: 5 Irrefutable Arguments Why It Was Actually a UFO Attack
The U.S. government said what happened was nighttime antiaircraft crews protecting Los Angeles got nervous — it was just two months after Pearl Harbor — and opened fire on a weather balloon.
The crews also set off flares, and all the confusion just built on itself. So we’re told.
Others say the night featured an attempted UFO landing, in which the valiant gun crews fought aliens trying to land.
It’s pretty obvious the latter is true.
Obviously the aliens not only attempted to land, they succeeded. Just look at what’s happened in Hollywood since then. The logic becomes inescapable.
5. The quantity of UFO/alien movies has increased dramatically
Between 1911 and 1941, UFOs and flying saucers were occasionally a subject for films. Since then — especially since the 1950s, after a necessary period of time to learn the equipment and infiltrate studio management — movies about UFOs exploded. Coincidence? who’s being naive, Kay?
4. movies has increased dramatically The quality ofUFO/alien
In the 1930s, UFOs were laughably portrayed on screen, obvious frauds. While it understandably took a decade or two to import the necessary technology from the home planet to Earth, all of a sudden you got Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Independence Day and the Transformers series. The aliens’ unstinting desire for complete accuracy in movies is inspiring
3. Very, very strange people like Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger have reached the pinnacle of Hollywood success
One fiercely believes in aliens and Xenu as if he knows it was true and the other became an influential box-office legend despite documentaries that proved a) he could barely speak English, and b) he was a cyborg sent from the future to kill a specific human. Luckily for the U.S. — and the world — the aliens overreached when they had him elected California governor as a first step towards getting his finger on the nuclear button (Yes, their plans included overturning the “natural born citizen” section of the Constitution.)
2. The attacks suddenly stopped
If it was a case of “itchy trigger fingers,” why weren’t there countless more up and down the coast? Answer: Because the aliens had succeeded in landing and needed no more attempts. Sherlock Holmes’s “dog that didn’t bark” theorem FTW, bitchaz.
1. They never found the “weather balloon” that started it all
The feds would have you believe the following: 1) A weather balloon was shot at by a lot of antiaircraft guns 2) It, or its pieces, fell to the Pacific Ocean.
If that’s true, why couldn’t they produce the balloon? Surely the balloon (or the pieces thereof) would have floated in the Pacific for some time, and the Pacific is known by oceanologists to be, as they say, “not very big.”
So why couldn’t the government find this alleged “balloon”? – houstonpress
NOTE: there is a lot of evidence that this was not a weather balloon though it’s almost impossible to make an actual determination…even with the original footage. I have been told be residents of Southern California and the West Coast during this period that there was a heightened sense of wariness after this incident occurred adding to the terror already present after the Pearl Harbor attack as well as constant fears of an invasion. I’d be interested in your comments…Lon
Wat hebben wereldrevolutie, kwantummechanica, kosmische straling, oude wijsheden, duurzaamheid, vrije energie en metafysica met elkaar gemeen? Al deze onderwerpen worden samengebracht in de documentaire The Shift.
In de film wordt gekeken naar de revolutionaire verschuiving die ieder aspect van onze wereld beïnvloedt. Mensen worden zich bewust van het controleapparaat waarmee een kleine groep probeert te voorkomen dat ze hun volledige potentieel bereiken.
Bewustzijn en wetenschap komen in de documentaire samen om duidelijkheid te verschaffen over de verschuiving. Er worden praktische manieren aangereikt om uit de overlevingsmodus te stappen en onze natuurlijke staat van vrede en samenwerking te bereiken.
Er komen interviews voorbij met verschillende revolutionaire sprekers en mensen die er al voor hebben gekozen om uit het huidige sociaal-economische systeem te stappen. We zien verborgen technologieën en interessante alternatieven die de weg vrijmaken naar een duurzame toekomst.
In 1879 hing er een moederschip boven New York City
In 1879 hing er een moederschip boven New York City
We schrijven 12 april 1879. Het is een heldere avond. Astronoom Henry Harrison uit New York kijkt naar de sterren en ziet plotseling een moederschip verschijnen. Het cirkelvormige object blijft op grote hoogte hangen. Harrison beseft dat het object zich vanwege de rotatie van de aarde met grote snelheid moet voortbewegen.
Harrison bleef naar het object kijken terwijl hij op de achtergrond sterren zag opkomen en ondergaan. Het moederschip bleef drie uur lang op dezelfde plaats hangen en begon daarna plots richting het oosten te vliegen. De astronoom sloot uit dat hij komeet Brorsen had gezien omdat het object uit het zicht was verdwenen. Een komeet zou nog te zien moeten zijn geweest.
Henry, indertijd lid van de Toronto Astronomical Society, besefte dat hij zijn bevindingen moest doorgeven aan een wetenschappelijke autoriteit. Hij stuurde de volgende dag een telegram aan het US Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. De directeur van de sterrenwacht, de beroemde astronoom Asaph Hall III, deed niets met het telegram. Een boze Harrison schreef een brief aan de redacteur van de New York Tribune. De krant publiceerde op 17 april 1879 een artikel met de kop ‘A Curious Phenomenon’. De waarnemingen van Harrison werden op 10 mei 1879 ook gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift Scientific American.
Harrison werd na de publicaties overstelpt met brieven van andere astronomen. Critici waren ervan overtuigd dat hij de komeet Brorsen had gezien. De komeet bewoog echter één graad per dag langs de hemel, terwijl de rechte klimming van zijn object met twee minuten per minuut toenam. Een komeet kon het volgens Harrison dus niet zijn geweest.
Harrison kreeg bijval van de astronomen J. Spencer Devoe uit New York City en Henry M. Parkhurst. Harrison sprak van een klokvormig object dat duidelijk werd bestuurd door een intelligentie. Op basis van metingen die door de drie astronomen waren verricht, berekende astronoom Morris K. Jessup dat het moederschip drie uur boven New York City heeft gehangen. Hij stelde voorts vast dat het object op een hoogte van 130 tot 160 kilometer boven de aarde moet hebben gehangen en een doorsnee had van 800 meter.
Publisher's Note: I received an email this morning from the National UFO Center and one of its top posts was entitled, “We Almost Doubled Just Today the Number of Planets Known to Humanity”. According to the article 715 new planets that could sustain life have been discovered outside of our galaxy. Excellent read. Enjoy Dirk
WASHINGTON (AP) — Our galaxy is looking far more crowded and hospitable. NASA on Wednesday confirmed a bonanza of 715 newly discovered planets outside our solar system.
Scientists using the planet-hunting Kepler telescope pushed the number of planets discovered in the galaxy to about 1,700. Twenty years ago, astronomers had not found any planets circling stars other than the ones revolving around our sun.
“We almost doubled just today the number of planets known to humanity,” NASA planetary scientist Jack Lissauer said in a Wednesday teleconference, calling it “the big mother lode.”
Astronomers used a new confirmation technique to come up with the largest single announcement of a batch of exoplanets – what planets outside our solar system are called.
While Wednesday’s announcements were about big numbers, they also were about implications for life behind those big numbers.
All the new planets are in systems like ours where multiple planets circle a star. The 715 planets came from looking at just 305 stars. They were nearly all in size closer to Earth than gigantic Jupiter.
‘We Almost Doubled Just Today the Number of Planets Known to Humanity’
And four of those new exoplanets orbit their stars in “habitable zones” where it is not too hot or not too cold for liquid water which is crucial for life to exist.
Douglas Hudgins, NASA’s exoplanet exploration program scientist, called Wednesday’s announcement a major step toward Kepler’s ultimate goal: “finding Earth 2.0.”
It’s a big step in not just finding other Earths, but “the possibility of life elsewhere,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, a Harvard and Max Planck Institute astronomer who wasn’t part of the discovery team.
The four new habitable zone planets are all at least twice as big as Earth so that makes them more likely to be gas planets instead of rocky ones like Earth – and less likely to harbor life.
So far Kepler has found nine exoplanets in the habitable zone, NASA said. Astronomers expect to find more when they look at all four years of data collected by the now-crippled Kepler; so far they have looked at two years.
Planets in the habitable zone are likely to be farther out from their stars because it is hot close in. And planets farther out take more time orbiting, so Kepler has to wait longer to see it again.
Another of Kepler’s latest discoveries indicates that “small planets are extremely common in our galaxy,” said MIT astronomer Sara Seagar, who wasn’t part of the discovery team. “Nature wants to make small planets.”
And, in general, smaller planets are more likely to be able to harbor life than big ones, Kaltenegger said.
There are quite a few ghost tales which, had they been publicised in different cultural environments, would serve just as well as sightings of non-human entities. Peter Ackroyd, in his compendium of EnglishGhosts retells the experience of Mr Andrews and friend in Swinbrook, Oxfordhire in the early seventies.
Something `jet black` stood ahead of them on the country road they were walking along. It rose into a `column` and became the shape and size of a man – except it was composed of what looked like smoke in zigzag patterns (Ackroyd p110-11.) We would say now that they had beheld a shape-shifting shadowman!
A good source of modern unclassifiable reports of this kind is the `It Happened to Me` section of the Fortean Times online forum, although these are difficult to follow up or verify.
What I do find credible is a recent thread about a `spiky thing` seen in houses by a number of Australian posters. One of them describes as being like a `three dimensional asterix`. Another tells of a gelatinous looking spider like being clinging to the ceiling of her bedroom. This was seen by more than one person. We are back in Nameless Thing territory! (see www.Fortean Times.com/forum.)
Down to brass tacks.
Non-human entity claims are not that difficult to debunk. We are more apt to misjudge the nature of something that we are not so familiar with –like a passing animal – than something we are used to.
In accordance with this, sceptics have written off many of these sightings as simple misidentifications of known animals. Nor are they without a point. A walking reptilian entity was seen by some policemen in Loveland, Ohio, USA and was dubbed the Loveland frog. It has since transpired that what they saw might well have been a rare, but classified Nile Monitor Lizard (Bord, p-246-247.)
In that same tradition Joe Mitchell has proposed that the Flatwoods monster was nothing but an owl (see ufos.about.com) After all, many are now satisfied that the Kelly-Hopkinsville case, where eight adults were besieged by floating demons, may have been triggered by a hysterical misperception of owls following a UFO sighting. The famous `Mothman `with its glowing red eyes has been given a similar reductionist explanation. (See ufos.about.com and www.csicoporg, for example)
Likewise a British UFO investigator called Chris Wolfe has re-opened the Saltwood case. He has declared the headless bat type creature to have been a crow illuminated by a passing train….
Some of these zoological debunkings end up in places less prosaic than what was started with. Some saw fit to account for the Nameless Thing of 50 Berkeley Square as having been a mutated freshwater cephalopod – octopus to you and me. This had somehow ended up in the sewers from the Thames and so into the plumbing of that building. The thing had graduated from eating rats to people. (Now that is my kind of debunking exercise!)
Then there are the tricks of the mind brought about by aberrant psychology. A must read for all paranormal enthusiasts is Oliver Sacks’ book Hallucinations (2011). This is chockfull of instances of detailed images that our ever creative brains can throw up in the right circumstances (and, yes, little people are a feature of this.) Indeed, one sceptic has reviewed the Pascagoula abduction in the light of hypnopompic hallucinations (see www.csicorp.org/famous-alien-abductions.)
As for me.
I find the owl interpretation of the Hopkins goblin case quite convincing. This is because what they described does tally well with both the behaviour and appearance of some owls. When, however, people extrapolate from this and apply the same thinking to the Flatwoods monster I am far less sure. What they saw was much larger, less owl like and was seen by separate witnesses.
Nor does it seem probable to me that four boys in Saltwood would mistake a common bird for the high strangeness entity which they spoke of.
That there was a mutant killer octopus creeping through the sewers of London is a lovely Gothic notion. The whole legend, however, has more than a whiff of London town blarney about it. There have been no further incidents associated with it, and the matter seems to be lost in time.
As for hallucinations: no doubt some of the more idiosyncratic solo experiences can be dropped from our enquiries by the hallucination theory. What comes across from Sacks’ study of these, however, is that they are more often than not the result of an illness or prolonged sensory deprivation (rather than excitement.) The visions may be exotic but they are almost always of things known to the observer. Furthermore, the observer almost always knows that they are hallucinating. (A typical example given is that of an elderly woman who, on losing her sight, began to hallucinate detailed pictures of people clad in elaborate Eastern clothing going about their daily tasks.) Nor is it clear that hallucinations can be shared: Sacks himself does not provide any examples of this.
The case for exotic arial phenomena does seem much better to me than for any entity of any description, no matter how common are the claims made for it. I think it possible – as suggested by Allen Danelek in UFOs: the Great Debate –that some non-terrestrial intelligence is manipulating our consciousness. This intelligence could be doing so to monitor our reactions to varied stimuli. This could be being done as a preliminary precaution before first contact is made for real.
If this hypothesis is correct then we have no idea what ET looks like until we finally meet up with it for real!
Edward Crabtree
References.
Ackroyd, Peter The English Ghost: Spectres through Time (London: Vintage Books, 2011)
Bord, Janet and Colin Modern Mysteries of the World: Strange Events of the Twentieth Century (London: guild Publishing, 1989)
Bowen, Charles (Ed.) Encounter Cases from the Flying Saucer Review (USA: signet, 1977)
Danelek, J. Allen UFOs: The Great Debate: An Objective Look at Extraterrestrials, Government cover Upsand the Prospect of First Contact (Minessota: Llellewyn Publications, 2010.)
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
