PROJECT 10073 RECORD Ct\RD 12. CONC LUSIONS 2. LOCATION ... TYPE OF OBSERVATION J. OA1'ETJ\lc C:JOUP D~Grouncl Vi suol 7. LENCTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OJI 03JECTS 'Ha "3 Bo II oon P robobly Balloon Possi~ly Oulloon Probably Ai rc:roh Po ssi bl y Aircraft Was Astronomical Probably Astronomic11l P o 3si t,l y Astronomi c:al lnsuffic:ient Data for Evaluation U nlcnown 10. BRII!P SU.wMRY Of SIGHTING 11. COMM!NTS .t,-~'ll,oo CONFIDENTIAL REPORT "MOON-OBJECTS" PHOTOGRAPH PAGE rF//0 The possibility of static in the camera or on the film was con- sidered but set aside because of the peculiar layout of the white spots, end because no other instance of static of any type shov1ed up in this film or other similar series of shots taken with the same equipment under identical conditions. The film was not old nor, an well a s con be determined, defective. It should be noted that the line of s creaks is not interconnected and does not follow parallel to the length of the roll, but curves markedly to the filla' s edge. Hr. Hunslck studied the film and a series of prints, all enlarg- ed greatly, in an effort to identify the objects. They are clearly not refractory "ghosts" of the moon 1 tself, as they bear no simil~.lr- 1 ty v:hatever to the moon or any round object. Mr. Munsl ck' s interast comas in part from his background as an investigator, editor, and lect~er on tnesubject of Unidentified Flying Objects. Neither he nor a colleague, Hans Stefan Santesson, editor of Fantastic Universe Magazine, a science-fiction publication, could offer any explanation. Mr. Santesson is interested in Unidentified Flying Objects and in famil!ar with the background in the field. Neither of the ty1o had ever seen nor heard of anything similar to this photograph before. r;r r~tinsick contacted the photographic adviser to UFO l!ewsle tter and Fulcrmn Productions, Steve Elfenbein of Horristorm; a profession- al photographer with extenslve photoreportorial experience plus ind- ustrial photographic kno'Nledge. He was unable to offer any e:;{plana- tion for the objects, but also ruled out the possibility of static in such conforms tion. j:~r. Elfe!lbein is a test photographer with the Reaction I'1o~ors Division of ThiokQl Industries in Rockaway, N. J., recording tests of z:ocke~ engines on static runs (currently testing their rocket motor f ".: :: tl:c X-15 experir:-.ental "space-plene"). He suggested that the .::tamo-:J.d-like shapes .~rare reminiscent of the repeating pattern in !'O"~ket exhaust3, but said the line was t o o irregular, too long, and cld n o t generally conform to rocket exhausts. It wa.s determined that Renc:-io n :'.iotors was doing no testing near the time of the photograph. l:::'. trunsick contacted tha adjutant of Picatinny hrsenal, the huge r . c.;. Army Ordnance Corps installation outside of Dover, N. J . ~ northwest of Denville. The members of the Arsenal Photo Lab studied the photograph and could reach no conclusion about possible causes, eithe~ photographical, nor in line with projects at or near the Arsenal's sprawling test area. 7he ..!_rsenal was asked if there \"IB.S any Army experimental device or p~oja ct which might o:ffer a solution; v1as 1 t possible some sort of rocka: :1sd been sent high above the earth from Cape Canaveral with a stroboscodic tracking light? c~:~nel Albert J. Weinnig, Conmtander of the Arsenal, replied: r ~ave discussed this photograph with several knowledgesble peoplo - o are acquainted with tracking flashes and missile firing. nrh a does not appasr to be a ratio~al explanation for the flashes on the photogra pb. The line of sieht from Denville in t h e direction of the moon would l ead to a point somewhat Vlest of Cape C.9naveral. However, there were no lmo\'m missile firing s at the tir:ts the ph(")togreph \las taken. Further, if a missile \7era fired it would ~ave to be at an altitude of a pproximately 3500 nile s above Florida to be alon~ the line of sight from Denvill e to the moon. "One explanation is that there ,Has an accidental double exposure ~ith one of the exposures catching a line of lights either from cara on the road or electric bulbs along a road. "I am sorry but .frankly wa are at a loss to provide e. unique explana tlon. '' The nature or the imAges and their layout on t~c photograph ex- cludes the line of lights on moving auto~obiles on a n earby road CONFIDENTIAL TIEPOI1T "r:IOON-OBJ ECTS" PHOTOGRJ\PH PAGE THREE (u.s. Route 46, major east-west artery from New York Clty to the Del- O'.~:ore \Vater Gen, runs nearby) even if a double exposure \',ere a satis- factory answer. Mr. r.runsick under book a study of high intensl ty street lightin g devices \":hich line Denville's nain street, J3roadYiay. 'l'he 2 5 foot tsll supports hold very bright lights indeed, but full caps atop the lamps _orestall a direct beam of light going up from the fixture . The conforms tion of the lamps along the street does not fj t i n \Vi th the photographic layout; the number of images likewise does not coincide with the number of streetlights. Tha lights ore not visible !'rom l~he point where the telescope rested; they ore somewhat to the east of the li~9 of sight to the moon. ; es s. Pickering, Assistant Aotronorner at the Hayden Planetar- ium - useum of Natural History in New York Cl ty was asked for his comment. Mr. Plokering was at a loss to givo any explanation f:or the pheno enon seen in the photograph, but suggested that a static explos- ion in i~r .. v:11son' s camera was the cause. He added his :firm ballet that there was nothing "up there" to cause the image in the ,photog.caaih The photographs were submitted to the photography department ~f LOOK ; :agazlne in r:ew York; ngain no explanation VIhatever was forth- coming , only the co::unent that the photo was certainly unique. 1'. vi s1 t to LIFT-: r.lagazine' s offices, hovJever, prompted somewhat more e.c ti ve interest. William J. S,..nni ts, Chief of the Photographic Laboratory, requested permission to undertake additional study of the photographs and the 1:11rn, which was e;ran ted with Hr. 1:Jilson, r:rr. Munsick, Jvir. Sum1t3' assistant Geol"ge Karas, and othern present. Extre~ely high magnification of one portion of the negntive (vrhich :'",3'3Ul~ad in an area enlargement from the original view of '"ell ove r .: :. })0 times) indicated the V shaped bursts of lieht were partially 1 .... 10 tra ted by mysterious blaclt uars running on each side of tha i1nag e s : , r illel to the line of objects. In some of tho objects, these two :..:19.~k bars formed \'Jha t look like black pincers cloaing in on the J.l der part of the V of light, as though on pivots s t the narro ,Jortl on. r:~. Sumits strongly ruled out the possibilicy of any type of Jtatic, after comparison with LIFE's files on oll kinds of photogrop~ ic static. He offered his conviction that the photograph was of an actual object somewhezte above the earth, speeding at tremendous vel- ocity, and apparent:!.j"' reflecting or emitting an intenni ttent light. He suggested further investigation and suggested contacting the var- ious egencies conducting space and missile research. "iss auth Lesta~, of LIFE's Picture Bureau, requested an enlarg!:d print o~ the original photo~rsph, nlong with the initial report on the c a3e submitted 29 April 1959 by Ur. r.iuns:tck. She also asked t o be ke;~ -::!forrtled of the result, if any, ot: mora intenniva future in- J:.::.a~han Leonard, Science Fditor of r:i'II::E f1agszin~, e:,:prassed a complete skepticism obout the validity of the pl1otograph, lnsi3tins that the cause must lay sorr:ewhara in the came r a or celes cop9; ln.t"t h~.: repeated he hadn't the fnintest idea of the renl explanation. He made lt quite clear he was totally disinterested in eny 8Uch phot0s. y,;r. J~un3ick discussed the photograph with Prof' . Ralph Van A_---n:--:t, astronomer nnd member oi' the r~athematics Faculty of Lehigh Unlver3l c y in Bethle h em, Pennsylva~ia. Professor Von Arnam expressed surprisa at the photosraph and, like the others contacted, ssid he had nev e r seen anything like 1 t before. He said he doubted very 1nuch thAt tl~.e picture was of any normal celestial object, but felt the photogrAph was a true recording of aomethlng other thsn a photographic or optic- al phenornonon within the equipment. Ho, too, nsked further inforr~a tt~n about any future result9. . C,ONFIDENTIAL REPORT "HOON-OBJ"ECTS" PHorronRAPH PAGE .b'OUH Two theories have been advanced about the fliBht of the would-be objects. One holds that the images represented two l-ines o f {)bje cts, the loft-hand group arcing in toward earth and spiraling slightly , thus explaining the slight up-end-do\vn deviation in the ere; and the right-hand group angling in nearly a straight line downward and S\"Jay from the camera. The second is similar, holding that lf the photograph is actual- ly a true recording of 34 objects, the left-hand ~roup appeared to be co1nlng toward the camera in an arc while the right-ha nd group was doing the same but with a more obtuse path and further away. Considering the possibility of a temperature inversion (although the extreme clarity of the objects~ their regul~rity and brightness, would s eem to preclude this answer J, the U. s. \le a ther Bureau was esked for in!'onna tion about the conditions aloft during the period in which the photograph was taken (the photograph was not mentioned) .. L. L. Means, Chief of the Public end Agrlcul tural Forecasts Section of the Weather Dureau, U. s. Department of Commerce~ replied from r.'ashington: " we ere encl~sing a graph of the atmosphere from a sound ing taken o.t Idlewild, New York, approximately 7:00 p.m. E.S.T. narch 18. Although there were no temperature inversions pr e s ent, there were t wo layers of isothermal ch!a:r~e ~ ter in the lower levels. There did exist en i nversion at the tropopause level near 38,000 foot and i t is rea- sonable to assume that similar conditions existed ove r Denvil-le , r!ew Jersey ''The weather observations taken at Newark Airport between 8:31 p9ni~ and 9:54 p.m. inclusive show generally overcast at approximately .t ."OOO feet with less than 5/10 cloud co''er at 6,000 feet. The sur- ~=~ce visibi 11 ty was 15 miles with wlnds from the east nbout 10 kno t s . "OUr radiosonde balloons released around 7:00 p.lil. would not b e ,_ighte d as they are followed by radar procedures. With vlind s gener- ally from the west t~e Idlewild equ i pment would have blo ,,m out t o sea e~d i t is unlikely t h a t it would have been visible by you. The r~d1~3ondes released at Buffalo and Pittsburgh could hardly have reec~ed your erea until near midnight, if indeed the y stayed alof t that long." Enclosed is a dditional data and computation3 ~hich give estima~ of the area and possible speed of the objects \.'he n e x perimental est- 1ma g9s of the distance from the telescope are ~ivan. In the table and calculations, t h e "A-B Length" is the straight-line d1 stance perpendicular to t h a line of sight, betwee n the extreme outside objects in the arc, end does not attempt to take i nto consideration the a r c l ength itself, nor any three-dimensional qualities. ABOUT THE !1~00!~ first quarter for March occurred the night before t h e expos- ure ~a~ ~ade, or 17 March 1 959. Fie;u r e s for Apogee and Perigee for the month of tiarch (lndica~irg the dis~onces at the f arthest and closest ) according t o Sky and Tele - scope rnegazine, ar e as follows: Perigee 26 Distance in l\!il e s CONFIDENTIAL REPORT "MOON-OBJECTS" PHOTOGRAPH PAGE 1-'IVE COMPUTATIONS OF LINEAL AREA AND SPEED OF OBJECTS (DISTAECES SUPPLIED) If the distance is estimated to be: Then the A-B length i s : 4.8 feet .045 feet 9.5 feet .091 f eet 19 feet .181 feet 38 feet .363 feet 76 feet .725 feet 152.5 feet 1.5 feet 3 0 5 feet 2.9 feet 61C eet 5.8 feet 1200 feet 11.6 feet t mile 23.2 feet 1 mile 46 feet 5 miles 231.8 feet 10 miles 463.6 feet 25 miles 1159 faet 5J miles 2318 feet 1 0 0 miles 4636 feat 500 miles 4.4 miles 1000 miles 8.8 miles 500 0 miles 44 miles 10,000 miles 88 miles 50,0GO miles 440 miles The ,ppeed a t 1/25 s e c ....... exposure 1 s: - A ~suming one object rather than rnora up to 34. Fron one mile distant and up speeds are supersonic. :I'Tl:.is is the distance of the moon. ~ .. -, be r.;oving at or near the speed of light the obJects would have t o '0n about 7 billion million miles away, and spa n a distanca of ove r 60 --r1..111on million miles in l/25th sec. PERTINENT DATA ON COHPUTATIONS The diau1eter of the noon is 2,160 miles. The approximate distance of the moon at the time of the exposure wss 229,350 miles (courtesy of Hayden Pl anetarium). Th~ apparent diameter of tha tnoon is calculated to be .54 degrees, or 34 The size of the A-B line (see p. 4) is calcula~ed to be .so degrees by comparison with the moon imaga, or If the ect or objects are revolving to produce the sporadic imag~ (essumi~; one continuous path) they are r ev olving at an average rate 000 RPM. There being two facats reflectins the rate i s halvad, three, the rate is 17,000 RPtA, if f our 12.,750 RP11, etc The l006th Air Intelligence Sq. Alr Tdchnical Intelligence Center D~yton, Ohio Subject: UFO Sighting 3/18/59 Gentlemen: The writer and other um ersigned p ersons wi tn43ssed UFO acti v l ty over Caldwell, N. ~. 83 de3cribad below J/18/59 See attachad sketch ot path ot objects in the sky. 1. Objects were sight~ at 8:40 fM F.3T on 3/18/59 Period waa 50 seo. During this time objects covered approx. 90 degree3 arc in sky overhead. Sky was cloudless with about 2/3 !:loon. 2. At position A, tha two objecta app~ared round and hal a dull . reddish glo~. T'Ae objects maintained the same rela t11e po31 tion Shown as they traver3ed a straight northerly path overhead. At point A they stood out clearly agaiD3t a st9r studded moonlit ~ky. There vas no sou~d that could ba associated with these objects. 3 At position B these objects still appeared round but did not glow as much. 4 Between po3ition B u C the shaptt or the objects could no longer be seen a gainst the darker sky but what appeared to ba ratlected light {3imilar to that seen from Rua3ian rocket casing) grev more and oore intense. Finally, as obj:lots vent behind some trees they both were giving off a brilliant white lisht si~il~r in intensity to the landing light of an aircraft during landing The writer is p~e~enting this information as a matter of record fo-: you, and as a mattttr or interest for hil:tselt and the undersit:;ned obs~rers. The writer is a ~raduate aeronautical enginP,er and bas worked at :.~;.sA, lockheed and Curtiss Wrigb.t in tlie;b.t test end aircraft pertor- ce since 1942 He is therefore reasonablj~ qualified to distinguish u~'..:..l! 3.-":1 unusual flying objects. :t NOuld be greatly appreciated if you could give a~ infor~ation th.:1-c :r;it;ht indicate \hs.t the:~e objects were. Please cont9ct the .o~ri ter at tile above eddress. Very truly yours, ":ri t e r So.JSP I:.N St-. OM I G I~ OF' RA~IC ;uaJEr.: r Sig hting by r,7 Initial "IN" c o ::;:nn to denote review prio r t o action. Init:a. "OUT" column to denCilE' rPV J t:! W o f CL::nrleted (X t or actir;n; 1-"! 0r coordinatioo. J I N OFFICE OUT OFFICE OUT IN IN2X OIN3X D I SF"'ATrll J. 'l'acker C O'-'MNT t<UM~ER .AEC L"f-L; i~ 4E4s/ j Fr. end/ac/69216/Bldg 263 possibility seeing one of the satellites and c~-r~er wa3 considered. it was determined no known satellites at time ot sighting A3Sl!!11i:lg the figure two degree45 per second end 50.000 feet altitud3, s ueed ould 600 knots, which is within the speed range ot jot air- crt1ft. It quite p033ible objects were at a lowar altitude than 50,000 error in the witnesses estimate of t ime would have a large res~t.a.nt ooncluaion is that in all r.robability tha vitnedsas sa'i aircraft K . GililJillT Colonel. USA~ .... Ai'C IlI-l~E I"> Jlll 5 4 f'EAVI ()lJS ~OiriO,. OF Till S FL0\ 1 y H USID.