:;, :;otmcE 4. NUMBER OF OBJECTS s. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 6. TYPE OF OBSERVATION Ground-Visual Not Reported 9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE \:est Galveston Bay, Texas 10. CONCLUSION INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR EVALUATION 11, BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANAL.Y51S FTD SfP ~3 0-329 {TOE) Pr"o llllone o ( chlo form cur b. u .. d . -; llll'olo In accordance with our phone conversation, I am enclosing the report on the sighting in Galveston. If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know. Sincerely, Burke Baker Planetarium Houston, Texas 77004 In accord with your instructions of July 5th I am pleased to transmit this report of the unusual astronomical sighting made by my sons and me recently. Place of sighting was an island in West Galveston Bay 29-l7' N lat. and 94-54. 5 ' W_long. Time OlQQ_tf!..rougl} 0115 J_:ul~ 4 i"'96o. '][zimuth of obje~'t 3'55 "-altitude approximately"Ef()O'"';'ur ~Ry'conditions clear to partly cloudy with scattered cumulus clouds and widely scattered thunder shower4. Moon full-approximate azimuth 200 . Wind from Southeast 5 to 10 knots at surface. Estimated velocities up to 15-20 knots at 5 to 10, 000 foot altitudes as indicated by cloud movement. search light, presumably at the Galveston weather station at the air termlnal, was maintained most of the night and remained truly vertical as though determining ceiling or cloud layer elevations. M~ch of the area north\ofard from our position was dimly lighted by several r ather large refinery flares in the Texas City area. Our position was quite isolated being a small island about 70 yards in diameter and located on the south edge of the intercoastal canal. There were no lights in our area other than one gasoline lantern being majntained by a party such as ours on another island about one thousand yards eastward from our position. My eldest son Larry 18 was asleep during the greater part of the observation. My youngest son David ll was a ..;a1:e throughout the sighting and observed all that At about one o 'clock I inadvertantly looked up in the Northern sky and observea a'6riii~ant, bright orange flare of light (through a cloud). This light fluctuated in intensity. I immediately called this to David's attention and remarked it appeared we would have the somewhat doubtful distinction and duty to report a UFO. However, as the clouds swept by it became immediately apparent, to me, that the spectacle was eminating from outer space. The one feature of the object which speeded this conclusion l.ras the absence of any relative or apparent motion. The object maintaL~ed its position relative to a star. This star was of a lesser magnitude, say 2 to 2 . 4 , vTas about 60 from the northern horizon (i. e . midl.vay between Polaris and our Zenith) and with Cassiopeia being fully eastward and Ursa Major being fully westward the reference star was about five degrees westward from Polaris. This star could have been Mirfak or Perseus B and on the n ext clear night I will accurately determine this. When viewed in the clear sky the object r esembled a huge Comet but with no visible body and a foreshortened tail. Its width a pp ea r ed to be about 1/6 that of the moon when the moon is at its zenith. The length of the object was about a moons diameter. It was oriented in a south- south eastwar d direction and its southern end appeared blunt and the northern end, which I assumed to be the tail end appeared feathered t o a soft oval. I n the clear sky it a lso fluctuated in brightness and in the period between 0100 and 0115 it deminished in intensity from the origina l b right intensity to a soft orange-red. Just before disappearing i t had the appearance of a small galaxy or star cluster. round 0115 it disappeared several times (2 or 3) and reappeared faintly befor e exti n c t i on. It was during the final few minutes that I awakened Larry to invite him to see a He had difficulty seeing the object~ When the object began to dim and reached a soft red hue one would get the impression that upon viewing the object through a telescope onw would see a shower of spark like particles or bodies arrayed in random fashion behind the blunt (Souther n ) end. following details concerning this obj e c t ar e pertinent and will be repeat ed for emphasis: During t h e entir e demonstration the body seemed fixed as if in infinity. It fluctuat ed from a bright, flashing white orange to a dull red orange. had dimensions which woul d indicate enertia or v elocity. is possibl e that immediately prior to 0100 there was a brilliant burst of light '\lrhich captured our attention . the location in space of the object we have ruled out UFOs, Balloon s , r eflections, weather, aircraft~searchlights and other man inspired influences. The object appeared to be made up of particulate matte r o r small bodies asopposed to being a solid state body. This i s the first a nd. only report to be made by me concerning celestial phenomenon or UFOs. I have witnessed one comet. This was about 1959 and the appearance of this comet was public knowledge. If I were pressed to guess or estimat e the nature of the spectacle which we observed I ould say we had witnessed a stellar collision of s omewhat major mag- nitude which had occured millions of light years ago. Perhaps there i s a much s impler and less exotic exp lanation. ' I sincerely feel the foregoing is an accurate recitation of our ex- perience s . If required I would b e most pleas ed to a nser any que s t i ons you ma y have concernin g thi s unusual even t . CASSIO ?CIA