Filer's Files

#31-1998
August 6, 1998

MUFON Skywatch Investigations
George A. Filer, Director, Mutual UFO Network Eastern

George Filer: Majorstar@verizon.net
Webmaster Chuck Warren
My website is at: www.nationalufocenter.com

SIGHTINGS ARE INCREASING SO GET YOUR CAMERAS READY.

President Jimmy Carter during his election campaign in May 1976 stated: "If I become President, I’ll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public, and the scientists. I am convinced that UFOs exist because I’ve seen one... "The National Inquirer, June 8, 1976, "The Night I Saw a UFO."

NEW JERSEY

Woodstown, On Sunday, August 2, 1998, a couple was driving down Audburn Road in southern New Jersey at 3:00 PM, when they spotted a silver cigar shaped object hovering at tree level. The 72 year old woman commented to her 48 year old daughter that they must be friends of your sister, because her sister is interested in the UFO phenomena. They didn't want to talk about it too much, because they are afraid of the whole subject.

Swedesboro, Six hours later at 9:10 PM, Charles W. and his wife were looking out their bedroom window and saw a UFO with numerous red lights flying just above the trees near an abandoned Nike Missile Base. It had extremely bright quick flashing lights apparently from within the slowly spinning disc. It appeared the bright lights were shinning through the craft’s windows. Shortly afterward they and their neighbors noticed at least two helicopters apparently landing at the base. This is the same general area near Mullica Hill where so many sightings have occurred in recent months. Thanks Evelyn Gaulson and Charles W.

Trentonian Newspaper: UFOs were reported over two towns in central New Jersey. On June 27, witnesses in Hopewell and Ewing reported seeing a craft without wings moving at a slow pace across the sky. The objects were seen by two different observers and were brightly lighted. The witnesses did not think they saw an internally lit blimp, and none was reported.

Ted Spickler writes in response to the plasma orb photos reported from New Jersey last week. I suspect after seeing the photos posted on the web that the camera has a defect possibly on a focal plane shutter. I propose a few experiments: Use a lens cap and advance the film. Remove the lens cap and point the camera at a bright light source to allow some ambient light to enter the lens and pass through the hypothesized hole or holes in the shutter. After a few minutes replace the lens cap and then press the shutter button to take a picture of nothing, advance the film and try again with varying amounts of time of light exposure to the camera. This will reveal if there is a leak in the shutter. Thanks to Ted Spickler

NEW YORK

MUFON investigator Evelyn Gaulson obtained information of a UFO sighting over New York City. In June 1998, Pat’s friend, who lives on the 9th floor of a high rise apartment near East 62nd and 3rd viewed a saucer shaped craft. The disc was hovering over the city. Last Sunday, I viewed some spectacular photographs by Alex Cavallari confirming the sightings of disc shaped UFOs over the New York City area.

Kevin Callahan explains that he and friends go up to Pine Bush, NY a couple times a week to either the Route 52 cemetery or West Searsville Road, where they've seen some strange things. Kevin states, "We have seen non-blinking yellowish lights fly across the sky without any noticeable sound. The UFO completely turned out its lights then turned them back on before flying out of view. Marc, Rebecca and Kevin saw a yellowish non-blinking light. It flew from the horizon diagonally increasing to three times in size. It then returned to its normal size and shot back to the spot where it started. Suddenly, seven car alarms sounded off in unison. Then at 11:30 PM in almost the same place where they saw the lights, a large fireworks-like display exploded overhead. This was the kind of a big fireworks you need a permit to stage. Photos were also taken of a white mist that show a head and neck, the eyes, nostrils, and mouth of a typical "Grey" alien. That photo is on the web page: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/9366/PineBush.html. Thanks to Kevin Callahan

NEW YORK PHOTOANALYSIS:

Jeff Sainio’s analysis of October 11, 1997, photos shot with Nikon camera near Bergen, NY is complete. Witnesses were driving on I-90, when they noticed bright star-like objects in the northeast sky around 6:45 PM. The objects were viewed through binoculars and five photos were taken. The objects disappeared going straight up fast. Focus of the UFOs was consistent with other distant objects. Although queries about the time between photos have not yet been answered, the variety of backgrounds (therefore considerable movement between photos) indicates the UFOs are distant (therefore large) objects. As large objects eliminate fraud as a possibility, misidentification possibilities must be eliminated. No stars are visible, as expected for Kodak 200 speed film. A quick glance at a photo would lead one to suspect a jet contrail. Depending on upper air humidity, a contrail can evaporate very quickly, yielding a short object. But, by simply looking at a blowup, the asymmetric shape of a contrail is not seen. The UFO images; they look like fat white saucers. One of the photos is described as showing three objects; however a third object only shows up on one of the two copies submitted; it is therefore not on the negative. Its focus indicates it is a piece of dirt somewhere in the print machine. Other than this minor point, I find no contradiction between the witness testimony and the physical evidence. I find no explanation for the objects in the photos, and they remain unidentified. Thanks to Jeff Sainio, MUFON Staff Photoanalyst 7206 W. Wabash Ave. Milwaukee WI 53223-2609 jsainio@qgraph.com

HOW TO TAKE GOOD VIDEOS

MUFON’s photoanalyst, Jeff Sainio gives advice on taking good photos/videos. The best camera to use is a camcorder; since most sightings are at night, and cameras just don't handle low light, even with fast film. Lock the auto-focus mechanisms at infinity; and if the unknown object gets closer than optimum for the infinity setting, RUN LIKE HELL. Close encounters are rarely pleasant. TALK TALK TALK as you film. Describe what you are seeing, zoom changes you are making, whatever. Unless your battery is low, let the tape run to provide timing information. Move around (and describe how you are moving on the audio track) to put trees/ branches/buildings in front of the object. If the object seems to be moving erratically, line up a distant object close to it and hold steady. Kneeling or sitting, with elbows stabilized on knees, can give a fairly steady shot. If you have zoom, zoom in and out to alternately provide closeups of any structure, then back to show position in the sky. If the object is simply a dot, you won't be able to discern any shape, and neither will I. In this case, running the focus back and forth can give useful information, too complicated to describe here. Thanks to Jeff Sainio at: jsainio@qgraph.com

PENNSYLVANIA

Monroe County: Stan Gordon reports he received a call on his UFO Hotline from a woman who sounded shaken after observing a strange aerial device on August 3, 1998. The woman was inside home around 12:45 AM, when she saw red and green lights reflecting off the surface of a lake about fifty feet away. The witness at first thought that there was a thunderstorm. Looking out the window she observed a "perfectly round" object with red and green lights hover over the lake. The bottom of the object was lit up. She watched it hover for about 30 seconds when suddenly it launched straight up. The woman reported that her two cats were frightened and ran out of the room. Several hours previously, Stan also received a report from the Pittsburgh area of a sighting of an object that appeared to explode into many bright fragments.

Hollidaysburg in Blair County, On July 14, 1998, around 10:00 PM, a witness driving on Route 22 observed three blue-white triangular lights that formed an inverted V. It appeared motionless for about 45 seconds. The witness slowed down to see the lights better, and as he watched them hover, they suddenly exploded and disappeared from sight. Over the last couple of months, Stan reports several witnesses have used the term "explode" to describe an object in the process of disappearing from the sight of the observer. The PA UFO Hotline number is 724-838-7768 Thanks to Stan Gordon.

GEORGIA WEATHER UFO SIMILAR TO NEW ZEALAND

Brownwood: On June 16, 1998, a strange weather UFO was observed just before a thunderstorm. A second witness has been located who saw this red light. There are no power lines and it is over an older suburban area. What the Brownwood witness saw was briefer and lighting further away (100 yards) than what the Colquitte St. witness saw. The Brownwood witness saw more of a streak of bright red color than anything else. The point of this streaking was hard to determine except that he thinks it was a ball of about five feet in diameter. His vantage point was only in between some trees and so he only saw it cross between a 100 foot wide gap. The speed of the red ball was slightly over a 100 mph. If the Brownwood witness, who saw his red object at 12:01 AM and two and a half miles almost straight west of the later Colquitte Street witness account is accurate, then the UFO did a course change and moved down and then upward. Many have also said that this storm came out of nowhere; I mean nowhere! Unlike most fronts that sweep through from the West, it was not on radar in Alabama 15 miles away. Both witnesses saw the plasma and a large red glare after the main portion of the storm had passed. The possibility of a genuine UFO using an intense storm for cover or fleeing a storm has to be considered. Thanks to John Thompson and ISUR.

NEW ZEALAND

Tim J. from Eltham in the western province of Taranaki, New Zealand claims he witnessed a similar rare weather phenomenon about six years ago. I am now convinced that what I saw was Sphere Lightning. The object was witnessed from the window of a local Pub by four people. The town had only recently experienced a thunderstorm that was not violent. The sphere was light blue in color, and only visible against the clouds about one kilometer away. It moved erratically like paper in the wind and quickly moved higher. This area was contaminated with high levels of arsenic in the soil that was crossed by power lines. These factors could have contributed to the formation of sphere lighting as the storm had passed. It may be s possible that the local arsenic contamination might generate gasses that bring sphere lightning to life? E- mail TimJ@xtra.co.nz

FLORIDA

Key West: On July 28, 1998, Terry Biesiadecki saw UFOs while boating seven miles off shore in the American and Maryland Shoals between 8:30 PM and 10:00 PM. Terry spotted ten orange circles in geometric position that suddenly appeared. They stayed for ten minutes, disappeared and returned in five minutes. Later, nine orange discs lit up the sky. Next, three orange rings in a triangle dimension appeared and then disappeared. Words do not explain the whole situation, their size and how the sky was lighted. Thanks to Terry Biesiadecki, Phone# 734-675-1458, 23331 Parke Ln Grosse Ile, Mi. 48138, ISUR and John Thompson.

Gulf Breeze: On Tuesday, July 28, 1998, Andrew Cavaseno, Lisa, Beverly and Matthew Pilcher were skywatching at South Shoreline Park. At 9:00 PM, CDT a reddish, amber glowing object was observed flying over the buildings next to the sound. The hovering object was the size of a dime at arm's length, 20 degrees of above the horizon. This object was near a ‘cone shaped cloud’ that had just formed and arrived swiftly from the northeast. We were observing an unusual cloud due to the nature of its behavior. The cloud hovered and remained stationary even though other clouds were moving with the normal wind patterns. The ‘cone shaped cloud’ was at arm's length, at least 6 inches from bottom to the top point. The smaller "object" seemed to disappear into the cloud and never reappeared. When, the object entered the cone shaped cloud, lightning was emitted from only that particular cloud.

Pensacola: Early Saturday, August 1, 1998, Andrew Cavaseno and Lisa Pilcher were driving northbound on the Pensacola Bay Bridge at 12:15 AM. To the northeast they saw an object that at arm's length was at least the size of a quarter. The UFO was shaped like a sombrero and hovering. The object was completely surrounded by extremely bright yellow, gold, amber lights and seemed to be "shimmering". We observed the vividly lit object for two minutes until we passed over the bridge and below the tree line Beverly and Matthew Pincher were following a few minutes behind the first car and also noticed a gold light. Thanks to Android2u, Andrew Cavaseno, Lisa, Beverly, and Matthew Pilcher.

MISSISSIPPI

Michael Jones reports he saw discs on NASA semi-trucks ten to fifteen years ago. I remember the weekend made New Years a four day weekend, because of how it fell. I was living in New Orleans at the time and drove to Florida and back for the holidays. I was traveling I-10 going west back towards New Orleans. I say Biloxi, but I would have to say that I cannot rule out anywhere between Mississippi and Louisiana. There is a NASA installation somewhere around there with an exit sign, and I assumed that was where they were going. I was driving a VW Bug and the wind from them pushed me. If you ever drove one at that speed you would know what I mean. The semi trucks were regular flatbeds with three to four discs on each truck. They were not that big. It was dark but I still got a good look. They were not wider than the expressway lane. The shape was like that of the Jupiter 2 on Lost in Space only more windows and the legs were like large Slinky's with a covering coiled, lifeless, and carelessly curled. I think they each had four legs. They seemed very fragile and I wondered if they could fly. They just looked so limp I mentioned it to somebody who visited NASA and he told me that they were Hover Craft. Thanks to: Michael Jones michael@atlanta.com

ARKANSAS

Ward: Pat writes on August 1st that, "It was around midnight when my daughter told me to come look out her bedroom window at the bright large round ball of light." I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I know it wasn't a light plane, because it was just different from any plane. While, we were looking at it, I would go out and come back in again. I am so excited about this I have been looking up at the sky every night for years and never seen anything like this before. You can bet I will be back out there again tonight. Thanks to Kelly@Futura.com

CALIFORNIA

San Franciso: News reports on August 4, 1998, described an unidentified bluish/white light streaking over the Bay at around 9:30 PM, Tuesday, PST. Radio station KCBS took about fifteen calls from observers who sighted an UFO passing over at an altitude of only several hundred feet. The "object" apparently broke into at least two pieces and disappeared going east. The local air control and meteorological monitoring center have as yet no explanation for the sighting. Curiously, similar anomalous lights have been reported at this location and on this trajectory over the past couple of years. Later reports surfaced of a possible crash of an object one hundred miles east of San Francisco near Tracey. Unconfirmed reports claimed that witnesses had observed a greenish blue object being hit and possibly shot down. Thanks to Allen Penny and Skywatch International.

AUSTRALIA

Lawnton: Brett Jones a 27 year old university student saw a low flying object at 10:30 PM on July 30, 1998, for only a few seconds. The object was about two stories high and made no noise. Two small red lights joined by a thick 3 meters long stretched cable was seen. It rotated slightly as it flew along at about 50 kilometers per hour. Phone Number: 3264 1848, Address: 689 Albany Creek Road, Albany Creek. Qld. Australia. 4035

Dutton Park: On July 4, 1998, a man reported seeing a transparent oblong object with portholes at 7:30 PM. The object was glowing white and lit from the inside.

Moreton Bay. On July 7th, Air Force retiree reports seeing black smoke rise out of the ocean while he was fishing east of Green Island on Moreton Bay about 3:15 PM. The smoke reportedly went 50 meters into the air before a flash like a bomb went off and left a black ring in the air. This area is too shallow for submarine activity and this is not a normal Navy training area.

Bunya Downs. On July 11, a husband and wife reported seeing a strange craft traveling exceptionally fast before disappearing into the clouds at 3:00 PM. A strange booming noise was heard.

Deception Bay: July 16, 1998, A couple report seeing two red lights moving slowly close to the ground before moving over a neighbors house at 8:15 PM. No sound reported.

Lawnton. On July 18, a witness reports seeing bright lights traveling south below cloud level about 8 PM. Also on July 18, at Deception Bay, Seven people report seeing yellow/orange lights moving erratically before forming a line and disappearing after three minutes.

Indooroopilly. A man reports a 1992 sighting of two silver disc objects fifteen feet in diameter at 12.30 PM while in the yard of his suburban home. The discs reportedly came within meters of the witness before disappearing in a flash.

Calamvale: On July 26, a husband and wife report a large red, star shaped object, moving south for 15 seconds before a flame shot out of the base and it disappeared.

Redcliffe. On July 28, Mother and son report a white cigar shaped object hovering in the sky for ten minutes. The son reportedly took photos of the object. Thanks to Barry Davidson phnixvan@mail.cth.com.au

THE ROSWELL MUSEUM

This year, the UFO Museum on Main Street will draw an estimated 250,000 or more visitors to Roswell. It is fair to say that nothing Roswell officials could possibly come up with would add more to the local economy than this. The proposed new museum, to be housed in a huge state-of-the-art facility, could easily pull a million annual visitors to the area. Hopefully, city officials will soon begin to recognize a good thing.

WE NEED HELP IDENTIFYING SMALL HOLES IN PATIENT’S BACKS

Sue F sent the following note: "I am a Registered Nurse and I have noticed an interesting phenomena (for lack of a better word) We still give back rubs to bedridden patients. I have noticed on numerous occasions a grid of dots situated in the gluteal fold of many elderly patients, predominantly male, that resembles this: ... ... ... only the rows of dots are closer together. I have questioned them about the dots. If they have received any inoculations or vaccinations in this area and all, without fail have stated that they did not and that they did not know these marks were even there. I have a strong interest in ufology, and wonder if this has been found in any abduction cases. I have personally had several experiences that I cannot explain in this vein." Thanks to Sue F.!!!

Filer's Files Copyright 1998 by MUFON EASTERN DIRECTOR all rights reserved. Readers may post items from the Files on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared.

Send your letters to George A. Filer at Majorstar@verizon.net.

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