A LIST OF SIGHTINGS BY ASTRONOMERS

This listing is developed from one that was published in U.F.O.I.C. Newsletter, Australia, and re-printed in the Fall 1973 issue of Flying Saucers. Sources of further sightings include:
Richard L.Thompson 'Alien Identities' (orig.source 'The UFO Evidence'); 'Flying Saucers Over America' (collection of newspaper cuttings); Robert Loftin 'Identified Flying Saucers'; 'Flying Saucer Review's World Roundup of UFO Sightings and Events'; Desmond Leslie's section of 'Flying Saucers Have Landed'; Richard Hall 'From Airships To Arnold'; Harold T.Wilkins 'Flying Saucers On The Moon' and 'Flying Saucers Uncensored'; Jimmy Guieu 'Flying Saucers Come From Another World'; Kevin Randle 'Project Blue Book Exposed'; '165 Little Known UFO Sightings'; Loren E.Gross' series 'UFOs:A History'; Lt.Col.Wendelle C.Stevens (Ret.) & Paul (Moon Wai) Dong 'UFOs Over Modern China'; M.K.Jessup 'The UFO Annual'; Paris Flammonde 'UFO Exist!'; G.McWane & D.Graham 'The New UFO Sightings'; Michael Hervey 'UFOs Over the Southern Hemisphere' & 'UFOs: The American Scene'; Wendelle C.Stevens & August C.Roberts 'UFO Photographs Around The World'; Michael David Hall 'UFOs: A Century of Sightings' ; Jan L.Aldrich 'Project 1947'; Peter Paget 'UFO-UK' & 'The Welsh Triangle'; Ion Hobana & Julien Weverbergh 'UFO's From Behind The Iron Curtain'; Charles Fort 'New Lands' & 'Book Of The Damned'; 'The Dictionary of Scientific Biography'; Irene Granchi 'UFOs and Abductions in Brazil'; Coral & Jim Lorenzen 'UFOs:The Whole Story'; Jacques & Janine Vallee 'Challenge To Science'; Nicholas Redfern 'A Covert Agenda'; Kenneth Arnold & Raymond Palmer 'The Coming of the Saucers'; Michael Hesemann 'UFOs The Secret History'; Paul Stonehill 'The Soviet UFO Files'; Roger H.Stanway & Anthony R.Pace 'Flying Saucer Report - UFOs Unidentified Undeniable'; George Leonard 'Somebody Else is on the Moon'; Richard M.Dolan 'UFOs and the National Security State'; Jenny Randles 'The Pennine UFO Mystery'; Arthur Shuttlewood 'Warnings From Flying Friends' & 'The Flying Saucerers' & 'UFO Magic In Motion' & 'UFOs: Key To The New Age'; Michael Hesemann 'UFOs:The Secret History'; Frank Edwards 'Flying Saucers - Serious Business' ; Fred Steckling 'We Discovered Alien Bases On The Moon'; William R.Corliss 'Mysterious Universe';
L'Astronomie Bulletin de la Societe Astronomique De France; Flying Saucer News; Mundo Monitor;
The Emergency Press; Spacelink; UFO Chronicle; Uranus; UFO Universe; Awareness;
Bufora Journal; Understanding Yearbooks 1965 /68; Flying Saucer Review.
Also: National UFO Reporting Center,edited by Peter Davenport (NUFORC) /
UFO Roundup, ed.Joseph Trainor (UFORup) / Filer's Files, ed.George Filer (FF).

First version: 12.12.2000: 170+ sightings | | Second version: 28.12.2000: 220+

Version Three: May 11th 2001: 317+ | | Version Four: Oct. 17th 2002: 350+

Version Five: September 2nd 2004: 372+ sightings [1623 - 2000]

 

'Strides in new knowledge are taken slowly,

usually against the will of the currently knowledgeable.'

Philip Wylie

 

November 17th, 1623: 'A burning globe appeared at sunset - on 17 November 1623. It was visible in different places all over Germany. In Austria, it is affirmed a sound of cracking or crushing came from it, as if from a thunderbolt, which, however, I take to be groundless.' Johannes Kepler.

March 21st, 1676: The Italian, Geminiano Montanari, was knowledgeable in geophysics,biology, mathematics, ballistics, and meteorology; but his greatest achievements are considered to have been in astronomy. He reported this sighting to Edmund Halley, who commented - 'I find it one of the hardest things to account for, that I have ever yet met.'..... 'It appeared one and three quarter hours after sunset, coming over the Adriatic from Dalmatia. It crossed over all Italy, at a height of some 40 miles, and hissed as it passed, over Ronzare. It passed over the sea from Leghorn to Corsica, with a sound like the rattling of a great cart over stones. I compute that it travelled 160 miles a minute. It seemed to be a vast body apparently bigger than the moon!' (FSOM/DSB)

May 1677: '..the famous astronomer, Edmund Halley, Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford University, reported seeing a "great light in the sky all over Southern England, many miles high."'

July 31st, 1708: '..from 9 to 10 p.m., a similar apparition, thought to be 50 miles high, passed over Sheerness, and the 'Buoy at the Nore,' Suffolk, and London. It moved "with incredible speed, and was very bright. It seemed to vanish and left a pale white light behind it. There were no hissing sounds and no explosion."' (FSOM)

1715: Unusual phenomena were observed on the Moon, at the time of the solar eclipse, by Edmund Halley and J.E.de Louville - '..as it were a sort of flash or momentary vibrations of beams of light, as though someone were setting fire to gunpowder trails as used in mining. These bright flashes were very brief in duration and appeared now here, now there, but always in the shade.' (FSR 41-2)

March 6th, 1716: Halley saw an object illuminating the sky for more than two hours from about 7:00 p.m. onwards: 'A man could easily read print in the light thrown out by these spears from the same body. It did not change for two hours, and then it seemed as if new fuel had been cast on a fire.' / Similar phenomena were reported to Halley by other astronomers of his time, notably by astronomers Gottfried Kirch and Schlazius, at Leipzig, Germany re. an event on July 9th, 1686 and by Montanari an Italian mathematician and astronomer regarding a sighting on March 21st, 1676.

March 17th, 1735: 'A strange apparition of "an uncommon bright glade of light" was seen from the top of his house in Buckingham Street, off the Strand, London, by John Bevis, at 8.05 pm, on March 17, 1735, when he was observing Mars, in the west: "It was quite unlike the Aurora Borealis, being steady and not tremulous in motion. The stars could be seen through it. It was not a comet; for I could see no nucleus through my 17-foot optical glass. It gre dim in the middle in half an hour, and then seemed to split into two very luminous parts, which grew dimmer till about 9." (FSOM)

August 9th, 1762: Two Swiss astronomers saw an object in front of the sun. They were De Rostan in Basle and Croste in Sole. [Article in 18th Century Sightings]

May 1764: Astronomer Hoffman saw a large round spot traverse the sun from north to south. (MHervey)

June 17th, 1777: Charles Messier, famous for his nebula catalogue observed a large number of dark spots in the skies, disc shaped, which were unknown to him. In his log book he wrote - 'They were large and swift and they were ships, yet like bells.'

August 18th, 1783: Tiberius Cavallo, Italian chemist, inventor and writer on natural philosophy - a fellow of the Royal Society, saw at Windsor Castle what he termed a 'most extraordinary meteor...North-east of the Terrace, in clear sky and warm weather, I saw appear suddenly an oblong cloud nearly parallel to the horizon. Below the cloud was seen a luminous body... It soon became a roundish body, brightly lit up and almost stationary. It was about 9.25 p.m. This strange ball at first appeared bluish and faint, but its light increased, and it soon began to move. At first, it ascended above the horizon, obliquely towards the east. Then it changed its direction and moved parallel to the horizon. It vanished in the SE. I saw it for half a minute, and the light it gave out was prodigious. It lit up every object on the face of the country. It changed shape to oblong, acquired a tail, and seemed to split up into two bodies of small size. About two minutes later came a rumble like an explosion.' [Article in 18th Century Sightings]. Cavallo's book 'The History and Practice of Aerostation' was published, in London, two year later. He was buried in 1809 in St.Pancras Churchyard. (FSOM)

Also on August 30th an object was observed at Greenwich Observatory from which eight objects emerged, described as satellites. / Other reports by scientists named by Wilkins on the following dates: March 19, 1718 at Oxford, December 5th, 1737 and December 16th, 1742 - both in London.

William Herschel on Mars - '..From other phenomena it appears, however, that this planet is not without a considerable atmosphere; for, besides the permanent spots on its surface, I have often noticed occasional changes of partial bright belts.. and also a darkish one, in a pretty high latitude.. And these alterations we can hardly ascribe to any other cause than the variable disposition of clouds and vapours floating in the atmosphere of that planet.
[Result of the contents of this paper] ...And that planet has a considerable but moderate atmosphere, so that its inhabitants probably enjoy a situation in many respects similar to ours.
Datchet, Dec.1, 1783. W.HERSCHEL'
{On the remarkable Appearances at the Polar Regions of the Planet Mars, the Inclination of its Axis, the Position of its Poles, and its Spheroidal Figure; with a few Hints relating to its real Diameter and Atmosphere. By William Herschel, Esq. F.R.S.}

October 22nd, 1790: 'The famous astronomer, Frederick William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus and its satellites and the satellites of Saturn, was looking through a 20-foot reflector telescope.. when he saw, in time of total eclipse of the moon, many bright and luminous points, small and round. But "the brightness of the moon, notwithstanding the fact that it was in eclipse", did not permit him to view the phenomenon long enough to locate these points on the lunar surface. / He wrote to the Royal Society - "We know too little of the surface of the moon to venture a surmise of the cause and remarkable colour of these points."' [Article in 18th Century Sightings]. Previous sightings of lights on or near the moon were made by Herschel in 1783 and 1787. (FSOM)

May 1799: A luminous spot was seen moving across the disc of Mercury by Johann Schroeter, his assistant K.L.Harding at Lilienthal observatory , and other observers- 'In the transit of 1799.. Schroter and Harding at Lilienthal, and Kohler at Dresden, saw a small luminous spot on the dark disk. The spot was not stationary, for Harding saw it change its position, and later in the day Schroter saw it sometimes on one part of the disk, sometimes on another. Others saw, not one, but two small spots of a greyish colour.' (Monthly Notices 38, 1878/MU)

February 7th, 1802: An unknown body ['dark disc' DL]was seen crossing the sun by the Astronomer Fritsch, at Magdeburg, in central Germany. (NL)

October 10th 1802: An unknown dark body was seen by Herr Fritsch rapidly crossing the sun. (NL)

January 16th 1818: A Mr.Capel Lofft, astronomer of Ipswich, England, observed a strange object near the sun. It was visible for three hours and a half. (DL/NL)

June 26th, 1819: Three dark bodies crossed the sun together, observed by astronomer Franz Gruithuisen. (NL) Pastorff saw something near the sun, which he had thought was a comet; but could not have been, according to Olbers. (NL)

September 7th, 1820: Francis Arago, the famous French Physicist/Astronomer describes observations that day during the eclipse, at Embrun, of objects moving across the sky in a nearly military precision. He mentions also that a number of other scientists have seen similar events.

February, 1821: A bright point of light, like a star, was seen on the Moon, in the crater Aristarchus - on the 4th & 7th of February, by Capt.Kater; on the 5th, by Dr.Olbers. Star-like lights on the moon also observed that year in May and November. (NL)

October 23rd 1822: Astronomer Pastorff observes two unknown objects cross the sun's disc. (DL)

May 22nd 1823: Astronomer named Webb sees bright shining thing near Venus. (DL)

October 18th, 1824: 'At five o'clock, morning.. a light was seen upon the dark part of the moon, by Gruithuisen. It disappeared. Six minutes later it appeared again, disappeared again, and then flashed intermittently, from 5:30 A.M., until sunrise ended the observations.' (NL)

January 22nd, 1825: A star-like light was again observed in Aristarchus, on the Moon; reported by Rev.J.B.Emmett. (NL)

February 13th, 1826: Gruithuisen reported that on this date, two straight lines of light, with, between them a dark band that was covered with luminous points, was observed in the western crater of Messier.(NL)

July 31st 1826: Unknown object seen by astronomers. (DL)

May 26th 1828: Disc crossing the sun, seen through telescope. (DL)

September 6th to November 1st, 1831: At Geneva Observatory the Swiss astronomer Dr.Wartmann and his staff saw a strange luminous body practically every night. / In the years following there were reports by Pastorff (1834, 1836, 1837), Cacciatore (1835), De Vico (1837), De Cuppis (1837), and Glaisher (1844).

July 4th, 1832: W.L.Webb saw 'a brilliant display of minute dots and streaks of light, in the Mare Crisium..' on the Moon. (NL)

December 22nd, 1835: Another star-like light in the crater Aristarchus - reported by Francis Bailey. (NL)

May 15th, 1836: At Havana, Professor Auber saw many luminous bodies that seemed to move out from the sun, in diverse directions. (BoD)

1844: James Glaisher reported shining discs "which sent out quickly flickering waves of light." (UFOsTSH)

May 11th-13th, 1845: 'Erman sends me a report of Capocci about bodies, which he has seen pass in front of the sun on 11 to 13 May... he has also seen bodies of indeterminate shape like shadows pass, and for this reason the idea occurred to him that there could be nearer bodies and therefore that one must pull out the eyepiece further in order to see them clearly. In fact, when he pulled out the eyepiece 1 to 2 centimeters, he saw these bodies pass by with a very definite outline. They had irregular shapes. A few went quickly like shooting stars, others remained visible 2 to 3 seconds and so on.' (Letter from astronomer Heinrich Schumacher to mathematician Carl Gauss, Sept.18 1845)... ...G.A.Erman (1806-1877) worked chiefly in terrestrial magnetism and related fields, and also undertook many expeditions. His father-in-law was Bessel... Ernesto Capocci (de Belmonte) (1798-1864) was the first astronomer at the Capidomente observatory in Naples, remaining there until 1848. (I.Grattan-Guinness, FSR 23-2)

'Italian astronomer working at Capodimonte Observatory, Naples saw a number of shining discs, some star-shaped, others sporting a tail-like appendage. He considered them of smallish size. / Further reports in the following years came from Schmidt (1847), Brown and Sidebotham (1849) and Inglis in Switzerland in the same year.'

March 18th & 19th, 1847: Large luminous spots seen upon the dark side of the moon, and a general glow upon the upper limb, by Rev.T.Rankin and Prof.Chevaillier. (NL)

Summer 1847: Benjamin Scott and his five-year-old son both observed, through a telescope, a body that seemed to be the size of Venus crossing the sun. (BoD)

December 11th & 12th, 1847: A bright light that flashed intermittently, was seen on the dark side of the moon, by Hodgson. (NL)

September 11th, 1852: A bright shining disc was visible to people in Staffordshire between 4.15 and 4.45 p.m. Lord Wrottesley, who had an observatory at Wolverhampton, said it seemed relatively near the Moon. Others said near Venus. (FSOM)

June 11th, 1855: Astronomers, Ritter and Schmidt saw with their naked eyes a darkish body, unexplainable to both of them.

March 26th, 1859: Dr.Lescarbault, a French amateur astronomer, observed a body of planetary size cross the sun. Later given the name 'Vulcan' by Urbain Leverrier, who had become aware of five other seperate observations. (BoD)

September 1st, 1859: Richard Carrington, oberving through his telescope at Redhill Observatory in Surrey saw two luminous bodies, certainly not meteors.

April 1860: '..4 leading astronomers, Herrick, Buys-Barlott and de Cuppis of Great Britain, together with their Swiss colleague Dr.Wolf, watched from the Zurich Observatory as "a large number of small black discs which came from the east flew past." ' (UFOsTSH)

October 1862: 'Lockyer saw a spot like a long train of clouds on Mars, and several days later Secchi saw a spot on Mars..' (NL)

April 27th, 1863: Henry Waldner, a German astronomer, saw at Weinheim Observatory that day a great number of small luminous bodies travelling at great speed. He notified Johann Wolf (professor of astronomy since 1855 at the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule and the University at Zurich, Switzerland. And through whose efforts an observatory was constructed in that city, in 1864). Dr.Wolf was convinced of the reality of the phenomenon, and told Mr.Waldner of the similar sighting by Sig. Capocci, 18 years earlier. (BoD/DSB)

October 19th, 1863: Astronomer Schmidt saw '..a bolide that was following an exceptionally slow course. He was able to study it through a comet searcher and stated that it was a double object.' (compare to Jan.3rd 1898 sighting)

March 8th, 1865: M.Coumbary, an amateur astronomer of Constantinople, saw '..a black point, sharply outlined, traverse the disk of the sun. It detached itself from a group of sunspots near the limb of the sun, and took 48 minutes to reach the other limb..' (BoD)

August 10th, 1865: An astronomer named Ingall spotted 'a most minute point of light glittering like a star' on the moon, just west of Picard. (Astr.Register, 3-189/UFORup, 2-44)

September 5th, 1865: Ingall again reported '..a conspicuous bright spot west of Picard.'
(Astr.Reg., 3-252/Fort/UFORup, 2-44)

April 9th, 1867: 'Thos G.Elger reported to the Astronomical Register, that, in the English sky, he saw a dark part of the moon suddenly flame out with a light like a star of 7th magnitude. This was at 7.30 p.m. At 9.30 p.m., it faded out. "I have seen lights on the moon before, but never so clear as this." ' Various other observations of anomalous features on the moon also detailed. (FSOM)

May 30th, 1867: Bird, a British astronomer observing Venus, saw a number of objects similar to Capocci and Waldner.

1867: Professor Eduard Heis saw a dark object slowly traverse eleven degrees of arc of the Milky Way. (BoD)

June 8th, 1868: A number of British astronomers at Oxford's Radcliffe Observatory saw a luminous object moving quickly across the sky, stopping and changing its course at least three times.

August 7th, 1869: Observing a total solar eclipse at Iowa Observatory Professor Zentmayer and Prof.Coffin saw a number of objects moving nearly parallel across the sky. Also Prof.Himes of this observatory when called observed some of them. They were unexplainable to all three astronomers.

October 17th & 18th, 1869: A keen amateur astronomer, Lieutenant Herschel while observing the sun saw, from noon on the 17th until about 7 a.m. on the 18th numerous dark shadows crossing the sun, and also luminous streaks going across the sky near the sun. They were nearly a continuous stream and all explanations could not solve these sightings. Some objects stopped and hovered before flying fast away.

May 13th, 1870: Multiple lights (4, 27, 28) observed from England in the lunar crater Plato - '..it was observed that, as one of these lights.. increased in brightness, another diminished. Then another light alternately shone and faded out...' (FSOM)

October 12th, 1870: 'The astronomer William F.Dennis saw at Bristol a luminous ball travelling faster than a balloon but slower than a meteor, and emitting sparks. The same object, or one quite similar, was seen at Wimbledon by a member of the Royal Society of Astronomy.' (Michel)

August 1st, 1871: A French astronomer, E.A.Coggia, known for cometary discoveries, saw, in Marseilles, an object slowly moving across the sky, he was unable to explain. According to his description, it appeared at 10:43 pm, and was a magnificent red object moving slowly eastward. At 10:52:30 pm it stopped, and then moved northward, until stopping again after a further seven minutes. Its next movement was once again towards the east, finally disappearing, or falling behind the horizon at 11:03:20 pm. (NL)

August 29th, 1871(?): Another leading French astronomer, Etienne Trouvelot, saw a great number of seemingly opaque bodies crossing the sun, and similar sightings for some days until September 1st, 1871.

June 17th, 1873: Dr.Sage, whilst watching the planet Mars, from Rybnik, Upper Silesia, saw a large object 'apparently issue' at incredible speed from the planet, and seemingly explode on reaching Earth's atmosphere. There were other witnesses reported on by a Dr.Galle. (NL)

1873: '..the royal British Society of Astronomy reported that for many months, flashing lights had been seen on the moon, which they took to be intelligent attempts by an unknown race from the moon to establish contact..' (UFOsTSH)

April 24th, 1874: Prof. Schaffarik of Prague Observatory saw an unidentified object crossing the moon. He reported that it was '..of such a strange nature that I do not know what to make of it. It was bright white and moved slowly across the face of the moon. I saw it even after it had left the disc of the moon. In other words, the object was no part of the moon because it left the moon behind and wandered out into space. What else can it be other than a flying machine?' (UFOsTSH)

December 1875-January 22nd, 1876: Rio De Janeiro Observatory reported '..a vast number of bodies crossing the sun, some of them luminous and some of them dark..' (BoD)

February 20th, 1877: That night, Etienne Trouvelot, French-born astronomer/scientist, resident in the U.S., saw a fine luminous line, like a luminous cable drawn across the lunar crater Eudoxus. (FSOM)

March 21st, 1877: An astronomer in England reported having seen a brilliant light in the lunar crater Proclus, which was not the reflection of the sun's light. / That month, another bright spot was observed in or near the lunar crater Picard. (FSOM)

June 17th, 1877: 'Professor Henry Harrison, in New York State, saw a light on the dark part of the moon which looked like a reflection from a moving mirror. Frank Dennett, in England, saw, at this time, a minute point of light in the lunar crater, Bessel.' (FSOM)

November 23rd, 1877: Dr.Klein reported to L'Astronomie - 'I saw a luminous triangle on the floor of the lunar crater, Plato. It may have been reflected sunlight.' On this same night, observers in USA saw flakes of light moving from all other lunar craters towards the crater Plato. They formed into a triangle on the floor of Plato. (FSOM)

July 29th, 1878: Reports from both Professor James Watson (from Wyoming) and Professor Lewis Swift (from Colorado) that they had seen two shining objects at a considerable distance from the sun, during the time of the total eclipse. (BoD)

April 12th-13th, 1879: A large luminous body, certainly not a comet, was seen by Mr.Henry Harrison, and a friend. (NYTribune/Scientific American 40, 1879/MU)

January 23rd, 1880: 'Something like another luminous cable, or like a shining wall' was observed in the lunar crater Aristarchus by Etienne Trouvelot. (NL)

August 25th, 1880: Marcel A.Trecul, a member of the French Academy reported that day an extremely bright yellowish-white, torpedo-shaped or cylindrical object "with slightly conical ends," and of small size. It dropped something that fell straight down, and then, itself, disappeared into the clouds. (BoD)

November 30th, 1880 (?): Ricco, an Italian astronomer, saw at Palermo Observatory while watching the sun a number of objects crossing its surface. (date uncertain - see Nov.30 1888)

January 13th, 1881: A light was seen in Marius, on the moon, by A.Stanley Williams, the astronomer. (FSR 3-4/English Mechanic)

May 4th, 1881: Trouvelot observed an unexplained light in the lunar crater Eudoxus. (NL)

September 27th, 1881: Colonel Markwick, in South Africa, saw an object moving rapidly near the moon. (FSR 3-4/Journal of Liverpool Astronomical Society)

July 6th, 1882: '..report by an astronomer, N.S.Drayton, upon an object duration of which seemed to him extraordinary, duration three-quarters of a minute, Jersey City..' (BoD)

November 15th, 1882: This letter was printed in The Times, November 20th, 1882. 'Sir,-It may be of some interest to your many scientific readers, to know that at the present moment there is an enormous spot on the sun's disc, not only unusually large, but making also very rapid transformations of shape. To those who have powerful telescopes these changes are of exceeding interest. I have not noticed so large a spot for many years. / The general contour of the "penumbra" is nearly circular and measures 56,037 miles in its longer axis and 51,106 miles in its shorter axis. The "umbra" is of an extraordinary shape from its numerous ramifications. The greatest length of this is 39,266 miles and its greatest breadth 23,052 miles. / The telescope used in these measurements was an eight and a half inch equatorial, by Messrs. Cooke and Sons, York. / I beg to remain, Sir, yours obediently, FREDERICK BRODIE, F.R.A.S. Observatory Fernhill, Wootton-bridge, Isle of Wight...'

November 17th, 1882: E.W.Maunder, Superintendent at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and others, saw a greenish object, torpedo-shaped and luminous. He definitely did not link it to an auroral display and after seeing zeppelins in the First World War, he linked it in shape to these airships.

February 23rd, 1883: Camille Flammarion, who is still very well-known in our day and one of the most known astronomical writers of all times, saw an object remaining stationary for some time, he could not link to anything known to him. He saw also at other times objects similar to this one: he even named them Bradytes.

April 15th & 25th, 1883: At Marseilles, Monsieur Bruguiere observed bodies crossing the sun that were 'irregular in form. Some of them moved as if in alignment.' (BoD)

August 12th, 1883: Bonilla, director of Zacatecas Observatory, Mexico saw whilst observing sun-spots, not less than 283 bodies crossing the sun. He admits the count was only approximate, as many appeared at the same time. Photos taken are still in existence - the earliest known UFO photos. Some objects were also seen the following day. (UFOsTSH)

February 5th, 1884: 'Mr.Lopez Morales, Director of the Meteorological Observatory of Almeria (Spain): On some luminous red points observed on the Moon. On the subject of an analogous observation by Mr.Jose Braziliano de Souza (Brazil), the writer recalls an observation of 5 february 1884: at 2 o'clock in the morning, a portion of the lunar cirque in the form of a crescent appeared luminous in the walls of the crater Kepler, near to Encke, the convexity directed to the South-East.' (Societe Astronomique de France, Seance du 5 mars 1890)

February 7th, 1884: Astronomers at Brussels Observatory, Belgium did notice from that day until Feb.16th, an extremely bright spot on the planet Venus, which moved away from it on the 16th February.

September 16th, 1884: Professor Haywood of Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio, USA, reported that between 3.30 and 4a.m., he had observed a bright glow covering the dark part of the Moon. Though considered by him to be an electrical manifestation - it was too bright to be earth shine and obscured the features of the surface of the Moon - he admitted 'This latter fact is puzzling and unsatisfactory.'

February 21st & 22nd, 1885: '..Lorenzo Kropp, an astronomer of Paysandu, Uraguay, writes that, upon Feb. 21, 1885, he had seen, in Cassini, a formation not far from Hercules, both of them in the northwestern quadrant of the moon, a reddish smoke or mist. he had heard that several other persons had seen, not a misty appearance, but a star-like light here, and upon the 22nd he had seen a definite light, himself, shining like the planet Saturn.' (NL)

August 22nd, 1885: Two amateur astronomers, Reveillere and Guiberteau witnessed at Saigon a phenomenon lasting about eight minutes, an object crossing from south to southeast, red in colour, certainly much slower than a meteor.

November 1st, 1885: A Turkish amateur astronomer, Mavrogordato, reported an elongated object, very luminous, near Adrianapole, 4-5 times larger than the full moon. The time was about 9:30 p.m. Another report on the next day near Skutari, Albania, forwarded through the same astronomer, described a blueish-greenish object, making a series of turns before falling into the sea after 90 seconds.

May 11th, 1886: Marseilles, France; 8pm. From sighting report by A.Fauchier - '..observing the Moon.. my attention was drawn to two points reflecting an extraordinarily brilliant light and of a kind that I had never seen there before that day and that I have never seen again since; this light was iridescent and surpassed by several times in brightness the most luminous parts of this heavenly body seen in the same light conditions in other instances...' These anomalous lights were witnessed at the south of Plato. (L'Astronomie 6) Complete report is in 19th Century sightings

1886: Dr.Max Wolf saw something obscure a star for three and a half seconds. (BoD)

November 30th, 1888(?): Palermo, Italy. Senor Ricci of the Palermo observatory saw "a number of spindle-shaped flying objects crossing the sun's disc at a great height."
(UFOsTSH - date uncertain, see Nov.30, 1880)

October 27th, 1890: From the Observatory at Grahamstown, South Africa, Eddie watched a comet-like body, that moved one hundred degrees during the three-quarters of an hour period of observation. John Dreyer at Armagh Observatory read of this sighting, and reported a similar observation (as did others). (BoD)

April 4th, 1892: A Dutch astronomer, Muller saw a large black disc slowly crossing the moon, unexplainable to him.

August 13th, 1892: Professor Barnard reported seeing an unknown object close to Venus. (FSOM)

March 7th, 1893: The French astronomer Raymond Coulon saw at Val de la Haye Observatory, France, a clearly defined object, looking like an elongated pear, of an iridescent and luminous nature. He could not explain it.

November 25th, 1894: 'A light-reflecting body, or a bright spot near Mars - seen..by Prof.William Pickering and A.E.Douglass, at the Lowell Observatory, above an unilluminated part of Mars - self-luminous, it would seem - thought to have been a cloud - but estimated to have been about twenty miles away from the planet.' (BoD)

August 11th, 1895: 'Remarkable Bolide. -- I was the witness Sunday 11 August, at 9 in the evening, to a curious phenomenon. A bolide traversed the sky in a west to south direction between Ophiuchus and the Scorpion. At the altitude of Ed Ophiuchus, the meteor split in two, and formed two glowing nucleii about 1 deg. distant from each other, and connected by a luminous trail. In that manner, the two bolides followed the same trajectory and lost themselves in the misty horizon. CHATELET, at Avignon.' (L'Astronomie vol.9)

September 16th, 1895: 'Celestial Phenomenon. -- Today, 16 September, at the time when a very clear sky adorned the town of Saint-Helier, I was watching, at 9.14 in the evening, from the window of my hotel, the giant constellation of Cygnus, which was at the time situated around the zenith altitude, when a sheet of intense and blinding light ran across the sky from North to South with breathtaking speed.
As a passenger on board the steamer Le Honfleur, I was stunned during the crossing, by the exceptional clearness of the firmament, made altogether more strange by a vaporous mist spreading out over the whole of the sea. Several people that I spoke to about this unknown light affirmed to me that they had likewise seen it and that it was not an electric light.
PAUL ROULAND, at Saint-Helier. Island of Jersey, September 1895.' (L'Astr. v9)

December 1895: Muller, of Nymegen, Holland saw a luminous object near Venus.

July 31st, 1896: At Smith Observatory, U.S.A., astronomers noticed a dark circular disc-shaped object going across the moon's surface very quickly, timed at about four seconds, which should prove its closeness to Earth. / Coming back to the moon and various observations of lights, etc., in England in the Seventies or so of the 19th century, an astronomer, Birt, deposited at the Royal Astronomical Society over 1500 observations of lights, moving objects and changes of brightness, mostly in the crater Plato, which is, with its about 60 miles diameter quite a prominent feature of the moon.

September 20th/21st, 1896: Echo Mountain, California, USA; evening. Dr.L.Swift observed a 'luminous object' about one degree above the sun - '..Going out on the veranda, the object was seen more distinctly. At first it occurred to me that it might be a small fire on the mountain, but this idea was quickly dispelled, as one-half of the sun's disk was still above the mountain, and the object still higher. Seizing an opera glass I saw that it had a very much fainter companion some 30' north, but it could not be seen without the glass. In about four minutes after the sun had set the two objects also disappeared behind the mountain. / Both objects were seen by some fifteen people... Last evening I began a search with the comet-seeker with the sun 10[degree sign] in altitude, but nothing was seen until fully one half of the sun had disappeared when I caught sight of it, but its faintness surprised me, for it was less bright through the telescope than with the naked eye the previous evening... / I only saw it for 5 seconds... I estimate that the object disappeared simultaneously with the sun's upper limb. / The only thing that perplexes me about this strange affair is, that the sun, object, and companion, were not in line, but must have deviated from it by 30 [degrees] or more.' (The Astronomical Journal XVII)

January 3rd, 1898: At 8.40pm, a Monsieur Georget observed something unusual in the sky while returning home - '..I saw in the northeast, at an elevation of 30-40 degrees, a luminous meteor, fairly bright, having the the same colour as the planet Mars, travelling at a relatively slow rate through the sky. It went away toward the north and disappeared at the horizon at a point that formed an alignment with the satrs Zeta and Eta Ursae Majris, behind the hills situated to the north of Vannes, about eight or ten kilometres away, and about 110 metres higher than the town itself. / It went through a trajectory of 45 degrees in five or six minutes, during which time it steadily lost brightness, as a luminous body would if it went away. About the time of its disappearance, one could see a yellow or reddish flash. / I was able to examine this meteor for a few minutes with a small telescope of 30 mm.. It seemed to be formed by two luminous bodies, A and B, situated at approximately the same elevation, the brighter one, A, being in front. Remarkable peculiarity: the motion of B was affected by sudden oscillations, which lasted about half a second. Four or five oscillations were counted per minute. These objects gave the appearance of two balloons linked together.' When published in the periodical Comptes Rendus, this sighting was compared to a sighting by Schmidt, on October 19th, 1863. (CTSc)

April 25th, 1898: Prof. J.Michailovitch of Belgrade Observatory saw for about six minutes an object hovering over Belgrade. He referred to it as a 'comet,' but it obviously did not behave like one.

June 29th, 1898: A French astronomer, Lucien Libert, who was in the habit of observing and recording meteors at every possible opportunity, saw - '..at 1hr. 03m.A.M., a bolide with very slow motion (that) glided in sixty seconds from Hercules to Ursa Major. Its diameter was 25 seconds of arc, and it was very bright and white in colour.' (CTSc)

July 4th, 1898: Lucien Libert - '..I was in my observatory when suddenly, at 7hrs. 10m. 18s., I saw a luminous body appear above a tree at the northern horizon. It was of a beautiful golden-yellow colour and perfectly spherical. Its apparent diameter was one-fourth that of the moon. This object started from the north-northeast, rose slowly in the sky, went through the zenith, then started losing brightness as it went down toward the horizon. It disappeared at elevation 30 degrees above the above the west-southwest horizon, near Venus, at 7hrs. 22m. 44s. Its duration, therefore, was twelve minutes, twenty-six seconds. It is by far the longest duration I have observed. A short time before it disappeared it increased its speed... A fairly strong noise of explosion was heard a few seconds after its disappearance.' (CTSc)

May 6th, 1899: Monsieur Libert, again - '..at 8:30 P.M., a magnificent bolide with a very, very slow motion, of yellow colour and surrounded with a shower of sparks, appeared in the constellation of the Scale. Night had not completely come and it was difficult to ascertain points of comparison. Only Jupiter and Spica were visible. This bolide had a completely peculiar shape, which I cannot compare to anything better than a tadpole's head. There was a very bright point in front, and a tail with extremely fast movements of undulation.' (CTSc)

June 7th, 1899: M.Libert - '..at 9 hrs. 25m. 32s. P.M., a yellow bolide, very slow, of the magnitude of Venus, leaving no trail, went from Ophiuchus to Scorpio in twelve seconds. (CTSc)

February 9th, 1902: M.Libert - '..at 7 hrs. 40m. P.M., I observed with MM.Schoux, Marcel Libert and Lucien Briand an extremely remarkable bolide, of the magnitude of Venus. It started from the position of Capella, at a point I estimate to be about five hours of right ascension and +45 degrees declination, and went on a straight line toward beta Persei, which it reached in about three seconds. Having reached the vicinity of this star, it suddenly changed direction, followed a sort of loop and went toward Aldebaran with a curved trajectory. When it was about to disappear it split into three or four objects of approximately second magnitude. The whole observation had lasted about twelve seconds. the point of disappearance was about 4 hrs. 50m. of right ascension and +20 degrees of declination. The bolide left a trail that lasted about one and one-half minutes.' (CTSc)

November 20th 1902: ' (At) 9.27 a.m., Mr.Griffiths, the assistant astronomer at Adelaide Observatory and colleague were taking weather observations when a "brilliant globular light" appeared to the SSE at about 45 degrees elevation. It moved slowly north and remained visible until 9.31 a.m., covering about 20 degrees of arc in that time, and was lost sight of about 45 degrees above the northern horizon. When it was near overhead it appeared elongated "and took an elliptical form" with its axis in the direction of motion. (FATA/Bill Chalker)

May 25th, 1903: A body was seen on the terminator of Mars, later reported by Professor Percival Lowell, of Lowell Observatory. (BoD)

December 24th, 1909: '..amateur astronomer, James Fergusen, of Limerick, Ireland, reported watching a brightly lighted object rise over the northeastern horizon, maneuvering generally southward for twenty minutes, then retracing its course and vanishing below the horizon at two minutes past nine...' (FS-SB)

May 22nd, 1911: 'Curious meteoric phenomenon - On the 22 May, about 11.49 (Konigstahl mean time), a feeble meteor was observed following an oblique 4 deg. trajectory, going from east to west. It passed over the star y of the Eagle with great speed. Its breadth was around 15' and it disappeared, leaving behind it a light trail that faded immediately. Nevertheless, the star remained invisible at least three and a half seconds after the meteor's disappearance, as if the light had been absorbed by the substance that this had abandoned in space. Dr MAX WOLF Director of the Observatory of Heidelberg.' (L'Astr. v25)

January 27th-28th, 1912: Astronomer Frank B.Harris wrote to Popular Astronomy and The Times that he saw "a huge object of some kind, moving across the moon's surface." He stated that the object was opaque, black, approximately 250 miles long and 50 miles wide, and close enough to the surface to cast a shadow on the moon. Observation spanned 10.30pm-2am. (PA 20, 1912/MU)

December 11th, 1915: At Glenorchy, Tasmania, astronomer Bernald Thomas saw "a particularly bright spot" on the north shore of the Mare Crisium that "looked like a star." (English Mechanic, 203-12)

December 1915: In the lunar crater Aristarchus, 'a.. new black wall that had not been there before..' was observed. It ran '..from the center to the rim..' (FredSt)

May 14th, 1916: At Cordoba Observatory, Argentina, astronomers Perrine and Glancy noticed an object, similar to a comet near the zenith, with '..proper motion of ten degrees an hour, visible one hour..' (BoD)

1918 approximately: Mr.Erwin Schoen, a native of Austria and (subsequently) a resident for many years in Australia, while hiking near the Austrian ammunition town of Steyr with friends, saw during the First World War, a round object, similar to the size of the full moon, cruising over Steyr. he was on a mountain at the time and remembers that the object seemed to rotate, afterward moving in one direction. Visible 2-4 minutes.

1922: 'Three long artificial looking mounds, or objects, appeared on the floor of the (lunar) crater Archimedes. Later, three more objects were discovered not far away, composed in the form of a triangle.' (FredSt)

circa-1936: The 100 inch telescope at Mount Wilson, USA, aimed at the lunar crater Cassendi, photographed '..a remarkable "tube system".. while some of these constructions were growing, others have been removed..' (FredSt)

October 1939: One night, at Wisconsin Rapids, in Wisconsin State, USA, '..an egg-shaped object with 8 spots like portholes was observed through an astronomical reflector telescope..' (FATA/NICAP)

May 3rd, 1947: USA; Nighttime - 'An amateur astronomer in Boulder, Colorado, after training his telescope on the moon, saw a dark object hurtle across the disk of the moon in a horizontal straight line path.' (Pr.N47)

June 24th, 1947: The same day that Kenneth Arnold had his sighting of "Flying Saucers", astronomer Fred Johnson in Oregon saw these objects, according to his later declaration.

July 3rd, 1947: Harborside, Maine, USA. At 2.30 pm, astronomer John Cole of South Brooksville, Maine, watched ten very light objects, with two dark forms to their left, for 10-15 seconds. They moved like a swarm of bees, and a loud roar was heard. (PrBBE) '..Air Material Command publicly explained it as birds or insects, although the Air Force's Project Grudge later listed the sighting as an "unusually well-supported incident" with no explanation..' (Dolan)

July 10th, 1947: An eliptical UFO was seen by astronomer Dr.Lincoln La Paz and his family near Port Sumner, New Mexico, (driving) by car with wife and child. He saw a luminous unknown object sort of oscillating beneath the clouds. Its brightness was stronger than the planet Jupiter and its shape regular and elliptical. The nature of this object was unknown to the astronomer.

Info from Life 5/5/52 article: 'The object "..exhibited a sort of wobbling motion" and then disappeared behind some clouds. It reappeared and "projected against the dark clouds gave the strongest impression of self-luminosity." The object then moved slowly from south to north and two and a half minutes behind a cloudbank. / According to the astronomer's calculations, confirmed by his wife, who with their two daughters was with him, the object was 235 feet long and 100 feet thick. Its horizontal speed ranged between 120 and 180 miles per hour and its vertical rise between 600 and 900 miles per hour.' (JGuieu)

June or July 1947: Jyvaskyla, Finland - 'A technician who was also an amateur astronomer was reading a book after midnight and saw a metallic cigar-shaped object flying at a distance of about two kilometers from northwest to southeast. A bluish light was seen at the end of the cigar. It was flying a lot faster than the airplanes of the time. the observation lasted about 30 seconds.' (Pr.N47)

1948: 'F.H.Thornton.. saw a brilliant flash of light at the western rim of Plato. He likened it to the flash of an antiaircraft shell exploding in the air ten miles away.' (SEMoon)

April 24th, 1949: Charles Moore, a highly qualified meteorologist, whilst launching a weather balloon saw an elongated object at White Sands proving grounds, crossing the horizon in about one minute. The sighting was seen by five others. Similar sightings were also at the same place earlier that month.

August 20th, 1949: Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of the planet Pluto in 1930, saw at about 10:45 p.m. while sitting outside his home at Las Cruces, New Mexico, with his wife and mother-in-law, between six and eight greenish objects which were travelling soundlessly across the sky. He reported - 'In all of my several thousand hours of night sky-watching, I have never seen anything so strange as this. I was so astonished that my impression of it was somewhat confused. How I wished I could have had some binoculars at hand. No sound whatever.' (Michel)

Letter from Clyde Tombaugh to Richard Hall, dated September 10th 1957: 'Dear Mr.Hall: Regarding the solidity of the phenomenon I saw: My wife thought she saw a faint connecting glow across the structure. The illuminated rectangles I saw did maintain an exact fixed position with respect to each other, which would tend to support the impression of solidity. I doubt that the phenomenon was any terrestrial reflection, because some similarity to it should have appeared many times. I do a great deal of observing (with telescopic and unaided eye) in the backyard and nothing of the kind has ever appeared before or since.' (AId/TUE)

1949: Witness Bertrand Collin, New Zealand - 'My second sighting.. I was studying the stars through my telescope when suddenly four objects in doamond formation passed overhead. They had stubby flanges instead of wings, with short thick bodies. They looked dark, and did not shine. the next morning, the newspapers carried reports of mysterious cobweb-like substance falling from the sky and draping itself across fences and telegraph wires, which melted on being touched.' (MHervey)

Christmas Eve, 1949: Witness Mr.R.Henderson, Melbourne, Australia - 'As an ex-member of the Astronomical Society, and with considerable knowledge of the appearance of meteors, planets, etc., I know a UFO when I see one. The object I saw is still vivid in my memory... I first sighted, in my usual admiration of the stars, a UFO. At an angle of 30 degrees in a north-west direction, I saw a bright orange light travelling due east across the northern section of extreme northern suburbs; this is the opposite direction of travel of stars, etc. / The UFO stopped about 10 degrees east of north, at about a 30-degree elevation. It remained stationary for some time and pulsed with a regular steady beat of light, but now a dull red colour instead of orange it had whilst travelling along. / In its stationary position the dull red colour was almost hard to see; the UFO was still stationary but after about twenty minutes in this position it became brighter. It went from dull red to bright red, and then to bright orange. At a terrific speed it went from 10 degrees north to a position slightly north from my east viewpoint. It slowed down from bright orange to its usual red to its pulsating dull red whilst stationary again. It remained in this stationary position for about fifteen to twenty minutes. / From this position it went due south, to a position SSE and a bright orange whilst in motion, where it again became stationary and a dull red colour. This time it remained only a short time and proceeded in a north-westerly direction almost overhead across the city at a terrific speed and bright orange.' (MHervey)

February 16th, 1950: Mount Hamilton, Santa Clara County, California - 'Dr.C.D.Shane, an astronomer at Lick Observatory saw and made 8 photographic plates of a queer flying object very high in the sky and moving unusually fast. He considered it one of the most unusual objects sighted in the sky, and saw it only by chance.' (UFOPhATW/FSOM)

March 2nd, 1950: 'MEXICO CITY, March 11 (U.P.). The director of a Mexican observatory today produced a photograph of a flying saucer but it looked more like an amateur's snapshot of a klieg light. / The photograph was a black square with a diagonal band of light across it. The caption in the newspaper Excelsior said it was "possibly the only picture of a flying saucer which existed outside of the larger countries." / Luis Enrique Erro, director of the Tonantzintla Astronomical Observatory where the photograph was made, said: "The strange object crossed the sky March 2. Since that day we have wondered what it could have been. We don't know." / Meanwhile, dozens of reports of flying saucers poured into the capital from all over Mexico. The "saucer craze" began shortly after a Mexico City newspaper printed a series of articles which appeared in Time magazine.'

March 9th, 1950: 'Next day, March 9, the saucer again visited Durango at noon. This time its movements and appearance were carefully checked by a scientist. E.Nuncio, professor of astronomy in the technical school of Durango, studied the saucer through a telescope and other instruments. Afterwards he gave his data to the press. Nuncio said that the saucer maintained 40,000 feet altitude. It was shaped somewhat like a child's top, and had fracture bands around it where its material was joined together. The tip or point of the top was red, and was tilted down and toward the east. Its altitude over the horizon was 53 degrees 20 minutes and its position was southeast. While Nuncio checked, the saucer moved toward the last 3 degrees in each five minutes until it was out of sight. He pointed out that Venus and other heavenly bodies move to the west.' (True 6-50 in LG6)

March 11th, 1950: 'On that day, also, the astronomical observatory at Culiacan watched a disk-like object through the telescope, and in Tampico, Tamaulipas, amateur astronomer Gonzalo Ibanez reported watching a saucer through his telescope at 9 p.m. in the direction of the Great Bear Constellation. It moved toward the southeast at a great velocity.' (True 6-50 in LG6)

March 27th, 1950: Berlin, Germany - An inexplicable body of a brilliance that rivalled the North Star, was seen by astronomers zigzagging its way westward, occasionally pausing.

May 6th, 1950(?): Palomar Gardens, California - At 3.30pm, Amateur astronomer Mr.George Adamski '..observed and photographed a huge bright cigar shape crossing the face of the Moon..' He also '..shot a picture of 3 luminous UFOs near the limb of the Moon..' (UFOPhATW/CotS/FSHL)

May 20th, 1950: Seymour Hess, an astronomer at Flagstaff Observatory, Arizona, saw a metallic looking disc, unexplainable to him:

(From AId/TUE) '..between 12.15 & 12.20 p.m., Dr.Seymour L.Hess, a meteorologist, astronomer, and an expert on planetary atmospheres, observed a bright, at least partially spherical object in the sky from the grounds of Lowell Observatory. According to his account of the incident, which he wrote within one hour of the sighting, the object was definitely neither a bird nor an airplane, as it had no wings or propellers. Although it appeared to be very bright against the sky, as it passed between Hess and a small cumulous cloud in the Northwest its colour appeared dark. Based on the object's elevation and angular diameter as he perceived it through 4-power binoculars, Hess calculated its size to be approximately 3 to 5 feet. Judging from the movement of the clouds, which were drifting at right angles to the motion of the object, he estimated that the object must have been moving at about 100mph and possibly as fast as 200 mph. However, he neither saw nor heard any sign of an engine. Dr.Hess was head of the Department of Meteorology at Florida State University as of 1964.'

'Astronomer says disc he saw wasn't plane FLAGSTAFF, Ariz., May 23.- (U.P.) - Seymour L.Hess, Lowell observatory astronomer, said today he saw a bright disc cutting through the clouds and that it "definitely was not an airplane." / He said in a signed statement that he spotted the object in the southwestern skies around 12:15 p.m. last Saturday. / Through four-power binoculars, it looked at first like a parachute, he said. / "But this may have been just the section of one-half of a spherical object, the other half being in shadows. The object presented a visible disc to the naked eye. It definitely was not an airplane." / Williams Air Force base near Phoenix, Ariz., disclaimed any knowledge of the object. The Air Force repeatedly has denied the existence of flying saucers.' (FSOA)

May 27th, 1950: Palomar Gardens, California - At 8.30 pm '..George Adamski observed and photographed through his telescope two luminous objects seen against the Moon..' / At 10.30 pm, he '..observed and photographed two lens-shaped luminous flying objects in the sky an estimated 75 and 100 miles distant. He made the pictures through his home-made telescope and camera set-up. In the developed print two more similar objects may be seen much farther away.. the objects were leaving faint luminous trails behind them in the sky.' (UFOPhATW/CotS)

May 29th, 1950: Palomar Gdns. - 'George Adamski obs. & ph'd. 6 luminous UFOs in formation in the sky in the direction of the Moon. The Moon is seen in the background.' (UFOPhATW/FSHL)

One of a series of 5 stamps issued by Grenada, in 1978, to commemorate the 'Year of UFOs' - the picture on the right-hand side of this one is based on the formation photograph taken by George Adamski on May 29th, 1950. (UFOsTSH)

June 6th, 1950: Palomar Gdns. - At 2.30 am, 'George Adamski obs. and ph'd. a brightly luminous object in front of the Moon...' (UFOPhATW)

June 27th, 1950: U.S.A. 'Dr.J.C.Bartlett, a well-known American amateur astronomer recorded what appeared to be a conspicuous, bright central peak within the shadow-filled interior of the crater Herodotus without attaching any significance to it. Not until four years later, after resumption of observational survey of the region and referring to his earlier work did he realise that the floor of Herodotus is almost featureless and that it certainly does not contain a central elevation! Subsequent research and consultation with his observer colleagues revealed the following: - 1) It had previously been noted by him in Nov.1949 though unwittingly. 2) It was independently seen by the English selenographer Dr.H.P.Wilkins in March 1950. 3) Recovered again on July 27th, 1950. It has not been seen since by Dr.Bartlett. (Uranus)

August 25th, 1950: '(Patrick) Moore says that "flashes on the Moon are very rare indeed. However, some have been recorded, notably by the ALPO (Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers) observers and by Tsuneo Saheki in Japan, who, on 25th August 1950, saw what he termed a stationary yellowish-white flare lasting for quarter of a second." / Rare? Thousands of reports of flashes, glows, and flares add up to "rare"?' (SEMoon)

March 5th, 1951: Palomar Gdns. - At 10.30 am, 'George Adamski claimed he observed and photographed through his telescope a large dark cigar shape, seen launching smaller luminous domed disc shapes with bright lights all around the rims, until five of them are seen in the last picture together with the larger mothership.' (UFOPhATW/ITSp)

March 9th, 1951: Palomar Gdns. - At 9.00 am 'George Adamski observed through his 6" Newtonian telescope and photographed through the same device.. a large submarine-shaped spacecraft operating at very high altitude above Southern California.' (UFOPhATW/ITSp)

August 3rd, 1951: three miles south of Pinckney, Michigan, USA; shortly after 11pm. Professor Walter N.Webb, Chief Lecturer on Astronomy of the Charles Hayden Planetarium in Boston, was acting as nature counselor at a boys' camp on the shores of Silver Lake - '..He had been letting the boys observe various celestial objects through a small telescope.. (when) he noticed a glowing yellow or yellow-red light moving in an undulating path over the hills at the south end of the lake.. He quickly ruled out the possibility of its having been an inversion effect of some ground-based lights, because the conditions for such a phenomenon were nonexistent...' The light's wavelike trajectory and its very low altitude also meant that it could not be identified as either a plane or planet. (FS-SB)

December 1st, 1951: Palomar Gdns. - At 1.30pm 'George Adamski shot one picture through his telescope of a large disc-shaped object with something like a heatwave radiation coming from the aft rim.' (UFOPhATW)

December 7th, 1951: Sunbury, Ohio, USA. At 4.30 p.m., Carl Loar, an amateur astronomer, saw - through a telescope - a silvery sphere, with two specks on its sides. It seemed to explode and be replaced by a dark cloud and many specks. (PrBBE)

April 2nd, 1952: Fort Worth, Texas. 'A fiery, spherical object crossed the sky in a flat path, within fifteen seconds. Observed by an amateur astronomer who said it was not a meteor, and by two Convair aviation engineers who said that it could not have been an airplane because of its silence.'

April 16th, 1952: 10pm San Jose, California. 'Two glowing globular objects appeared hovering together in the sky. Under examination by a 45-magnitude telescope, they were two reddish glowing globes with a dark belt around each, moving up and down in the sky without horizontal movement. They appeared between Mars and Polaris, but were not stars, since they covered the stars when they moved near them. Two photographs were taken, and one showed an irregular twin track in the sky, that might have been caused by two luminous objects moving close together. Observed by five people, including an amateur astronomer. (DL)

May 1st, 1952: Palomar Gdns. - At 7.58 am 'George Adamski observed and photographed, through his 6" telescope, a large cigar-shaped object very high in the sky.' (UFOPhATW)

May 13th, 1952: National City, California - A Convair design engineer, an ex-Navy Pilot and an amateur astronomer observed a luminescent white, circular object that descended rapidly and circled the area.

Greenville, South Carolina - '..astronomers.. saw four oval-shaped saucers flying in a diamond-shaped formation, wobbling slightly as they flew.' (Dolan)

August 5th, 1952: Baltimore, Maryland - An experienced amateur astronomer observed two copper-like discs.James Bartlett saw, during a daylight observation of Venus, a flight of two discs with a diameter about 30 minutes of arc; passed overhead and turned east. Then two more discs with dome-like protrusions in centre. (NICAP)

September 15th, 1952: '..at about 8 p.m., there was a most interesting sighting by M.J.Grivel at Thies, Senegal, French West Africa. M.Grivel, an amateur astronomer, at once communicated his findings to the Astronomical Society of France which published them in the February number of its journal Astronomie under the title: "A Suspicious Object!" / On September 15, the report stated, a large really luminous spot appeared between the star mu of Scorpio, moving slowly and quite noiselessly eastward, passed near to khi of Scorpio and moved towards Sagittarius. Suddenly, when between the stars Delta and Gamma of Sagittarius, it stopped for a moment, then resumed flight northward and then westward and finally vanished near to Phi of Ophincus. There were no planes at all in the sky and no sounds whatever.' (JGuieu)

September 27th 1952: Inyokern, California, USA. Between 10-10.15 p.m., two couples, using a telescope, watched a single large round object, which went through the colour spectrum every 2 seconds, and flew in a level path. (Pr.BBE)

November 20th, 1952: Desert Center, California, USA. George Adamski's historic contact with Venusian. (FSHL)

December 1st, 1952: Palomar Gardens, California, USA; 1.30pm. 'Mr. George Adamski photographed a dark circular object moving in the sky and leaving a kind of misty trail seen to come from the aft part of the craft.' (UFOPhATW)

December 13th, 1952: Palomar Gardens, California, USA; 9am. 'Mr. George Adamski again shot pictures of the bell-shaped circular craft, taken this time through his 6" homemade telescope.' (UFOPhATW)

J.Allen Hynek polled forty-five fellow astronomers and discovered them all to be frightened of "jeopardising their careers" by showing interest in UFOs. (MDH)

1952: London, Ontario, Canada - W.Gordon Graham, astronomer saw an UFO "like a smoke ring, elliptical in shape, and having two bright pinpoints of light along its main axis, move overhead from west to east." (NICAP)

Gnivan, Ukraine. 'A triangular object raced across the clear summer evening sky.. and was observed by a Soviet astronomer, Mrs.Faminskaya of the Shternberg Astronomy Institute.' The object was yellowish, moved at great speed, and made no sound. (TSUFOF)

Pre-1953: New Mexico, USA - 'A few degrees north of the moon, I noticed what seemed to be a bright star, and then a second star appeared not far from the first... To my surprise, I could bring neither of these objects into clear focus... Both hazy discs shone with a slightly bluish light... We climbed out of the car just in time to see the saucers literally fade away as mysteriously as they had appeared... I have long wondered what it was that I actually saw... But at no time did I have even the slightest suspicion that the objects were of interplanetary origin.' Dr.Donald H.Menzel, Director of Harvard University Observatory. (FSR 9-1)

In a study of over 40 astronomers contained in Blue Book Report No.8 of December 31, 1952, five were found to have seen a UFO - thought to be a higher percentage than applicable to the general population at the time.

January 1953: Marham, Norfolk, UK; about 3pm. Marie L.Martin, who had 'a very great interest in astronomy and in any flying aircraft,' was gazing up at the sky. It was a brilliant afternoon. She noticed what she took to be a jet aircraft travelling extremely fast, and was then shocked to see what she assumed to be its two wings leave the fuselage. However, it then transpired that instead of the detached objects coming 'hurtling down' and the jet crashing, '..without any loss of speed, they went round, one behind the other, so that in a straight line they continued to race across the sky. Just as abruptly, they came to a halt in midair...' Mrs.Martin was then able to determine that the flying objects were '..round, shiny and metallic, glinting brightly in the rays of the sun...' (WFFF) For complete Marie L.Martin account, click here.

May 29th, 1953: New Zealand - 'An amateur astronomer at Palmerston North reported seeing an unusual object.. while observing the planet Venus. He described the UFO as being rather small and blue in colour. It dived and manoeuvred in the sky and then made off rapidly with an irregular motion. / Later he saw a large amount of filament-like substance floating down from the sky, which he examined under a microscope. They were white in colour and ashy in texture. The filaments were also seen by a reporter belonging to the staff of the Manawatu Evening Standard.' (MHervey)

July 29th, 1953: As John J.O'Neill '..was studying the moon's Mare Crisium, where earlier he had seen only "the clear sweep of the great sea," he saw something which spanned an estimated 12 miles distance, something that could only be called a "bridge."' (Understanding 4-68)

October 6th, 1953: Norwich, England; 7.15pm - Mr.F.W.Potter, a member of the Norwich Astronomical Society, was observing the night sky of Norwich with a 3.5-inch refractor telescope, when he saw a very bright object coming from the south-west: "I focused on it and found the light given from the object was not reflected sunlight, as I first believed, but an internal light being sent out from a fixed apparatus situated around the dome. The rays or beams of light could be seen distinctly from the dome and attached directly beneath it was a much larger and flattened dome with a protruding band running in a circumference around its edge. This was clearly seen in the telescope by the rays of light thrown out from the apertures in the top dome. The underneath of the large flattened bottom dome was hollow and appeared to be glowing red, but there were no vapour trails or gases to be seen. / It did not rotate but kept the same portion of the dome towards the telescope until it changed its angular course. Then it gave me a chance to visualise another of the apertures that previously had been hidden from view. It was then travelling to the north-east and disappearing from view." (ACA)

January 3rd, 1954: 'Mr.John W.Boyle, vice-president of the Victoria (Australia) branch of the British Astronomical Association, saw at 11 a.m.. visible for 30 seconds, what at first looked like a "piece of paper" blown by the wind, at a height of about 30,000 feet. But there was little wind, and the object resolved itself into something like aluminium, rocking from side to side and flashing in the sunlight. each time it flashed, a halo of purple shone round it.. If the object had been 30,000 feet up, he thought its speed might be 1,000 miles an hour, "five degrees a second," and its diameter about 60 feet. Mr.Boyle emphatically denies that what he saw was a cosmic ray balloon. He does not dismiss the theory that the object was interplanetary. "Anybody," he say, "who denies the possibility that these things may be visitors from other planets, is eother very frightened, or just plain stupid. Some people as I've seen myself at public lectures on interplanetary travel, become seized with screaming horrors if one talks of little men landing on the earth."' (FSOM)

May 5th, 1954: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Astronomy students witnessed a V-formation of UFOs. (The Temporal Doorway/TUE)

May 15th, 1954: Southampton, UK. An amateur astronomer viewed 18 UFOs in V-formation. "Windows" were visible in some of the objects through a telescope. (TTDoorway/TUE)

Berlin, Germany; about 10.15 pm - three round luminous bodies that flew at great height, on a zig-zag course, were observed by two amateur astronomers. The men, Wolfgang Kobski and Rudi Fibich said that what they had seen could not have been meteors, stars or an hallucination. (FSNews6)

June 11th, 1954: (Charleston, West Virginia - Atlanta, Georgia, USA) 'The late Percy Wilkins was among the world's foremost astronomers and, quite possibly, its premier selenographer... The English scientist is the source of a remarkable account. During a plane journey along the eastern seaboard he glanced out of his window at about 10:45 toward a cluster of cumoulous clouds a couple of miles away. Immediately above them, Dr.Wilkins sighted two radiant ovoids about which he remarked: "They looked exactly like polished metal dinner plates reflecting the sunlight as they flipped and banked around beside the clouds. Presently a third object came slowly out of a huge cloud, remaining motionless in the shadow of the cloud and therefore darker than the others. Presently it zipped away and plunged into another cloud mass. After about two minutes, the first two did the same manoeuvre and I did not see them again.' (PFl)

July 6th, 1954: Duluth, Minnesota, USA. Frank Halstead, his assistant at Darling Observatory, and sixteen visitors, all observed a straight black line on the floor of the lunar crater Piccolomini, that had not previously been there. The observation lasted for several hours, and was confirmed by observations made at Tulane Observatory, and by well-known amateur astronomer Frank Manning. (FS-SB)

July 8th, 1954: Wigan, Lancashire, England. British astronomer, Mr.Harold Hill, saw a silvery object with fifteen to twenty smaller satellite objects. (Ln) For Mr.Hill's personal account click here.

August 10th, 1954: USA - 'Amateur astronomer Edward Heinhold was observing Saturn with his four-inch reflector telescope, when he saw in that area six lights moving in a straight line. They were evenly spaced, except for two which were near together. Going east, they covered horizon to horizon in fifteen minutes - up to 11 P.M. His station is at Cedarhurst, Long Island. The front lights suddenly disappeared, then two more lights followed suit, and thirty seconds later, the remaining lights vanished while still above the horizon. Their altitude "must have been terrific."' (FSUnc.)

September 5th, 1954: USA - 'Three amateur astronomers at Rockford, Ill., claim to have seen through a six-inch telescope, a spherical object ascending from Mare Humboldt area of the moon, of a size estimated at one quarter of the diameter of the lunar crater Vlaco. velocity very great - over a 29 feet 30 inch arc in 40 minutes. They think it travelled under power, and was ascending in space. They estimate its length as close to two and a half miles.' (FSUnc.)

September 6th, 1954: Baltimore, Maryland, USA. An amateur astronomer saw 4 UFOs, three of which changed formation. (TTDoorway/TUE)

October 10th, 1954: 'In Alexandria, Egypt, observatories see cylindrical flying saucer, red and green.' (FSUnc.)

October 2-, 1954: '..it was on October 27, 1954.. that Yugoslavia officially announced that a serious investigation of UFOs would be undertaken in that country. On the preceding monday a strange object had been observed over that country by astronomers, meteorologists, and pilots, as well as average citizens.' (UFOWhS)

October 31st, 1954: India; 6pm - '..in Calcutta.. a mysterious object passed only five miles to the north of Dum Dum Airdrome. Reports described it speeding at more than 2,000 ft., around 500 mph. The unknown remained in view on a sraight course for about a minute as observers agreed that it made no audible sounds. An officer in the control tower described it as a bright object with a long luminous tail of diffused white light. Area astronomer Father F.Goreux of St.Xavier College Obs. and senior professor at Calcutta University stated that it could not have been an astronomical object. He added: "that is certain."' (MDH)

November 8th, 1954: 'Dr.Francisco Aniceto Lugo of Caracas, Venezuela, saw a reddish, star-like point of light at a spot close to the base of the western outer wall of the crater Kepler. It was obscured for an hour and described as artificial-looking and very obvious. Nothing similar has been seen here either before or since though often looked for. Clearly not an impact flare, it is difficult to imagine what it could have been. (Uranus, 12-60)

November 24th, 1954: England - 'White disc "like a small moon" moving across the sky - seen through two and a half inch telescope by a member of Southampton Astronomical Society (Mrs.A.Marley), at 12.15 a.m. It was not visible to the naked eye. It was moving dead south over Southampton Water - but suddenly turned on itself - and came back.' (FSNews8)

December 1954: Mr.Cloris Hamel of La Florida, Venezuela was viewing the moon through a 125-power telescope, when 'a fleet of opaque objects' showed up, crossing the moon's disc. (UFOWhS)

March 8th, 1955: 'Amateur astronomer, Mr.Lonzo Dove observed and photographed a round luminous object near the apparent edge of the Moon.' (UFOPhATW)

March 15th, 1955: 'University of Miami Senior Robert Leventhal, 200 SW 58th Street, an amateur astronomer, was out in his yard with a telescope at 10.50 p.m. yesterday when he saw a "round, oval-shaped, bluish-white disc." / It traveled quickly from southeast in "an irregular motion in about a minute," he told police. "It was bright as a second magnitude star." / "It wasn't a plane or meteor," he said, "and I don't have nay idea of what it actually was. But it looked like something I saw in the sky about two years ago in Ithaca, N.Y., along with thirty other people."' (TUAn)

April 7th, 1955: Two sightings by Bill Raub of San Jose, California: 'Mr.Raub has been most helpful with news items and personal sightings. He reported personally to your editor that on April 7th, 1955, at approximately 9:10 p.m. he observed the moon through 7 by 50 binoculars. The moon was at first quarter. On the dark side, near the edge farthest from sunlight, he saw a light which he describes as "much brighter than one of Jupiter's moons." He watched it for several minutes, and then, suddenly, it was gone. / On the same day, Mr.Raub and Leo Denny saw two black objects traveling very fast in the sky. Jets were nearby, and were of entirely different shape. Also, the jets left vapor trails, which the objects did not. / The UFO's disappeared when they got near the sun, but the jets were seen in silhouette against the sun.' (TUAn)

May 24th, 1955: Testimony from well-known British author/astronomer V.A.Firsoff - 'On May 24, 1955, on the southern horn of the 'sickle'-moon, two bright points were seen where the sunlight touched the peaks of the Leibnitz region. Between these two bright points there was a third light, fainter than them, and it (and only it) was jumping about and sparkling. Finally, a fainter shaft of light came out of it and shot up vertically into the sky above the Moon's surface, flaring in intensity as it climbed while simultaneously dying away at the base. Then it vanished. The total length of the shaft of light, exclusive of its projection, would have been some 100 miles, and its upward movement lasted for two seconds or possibly somewhat longer. I tried to check to see whether it could be illusory, maybe due to the telescope, but without success, and it does seem that the phenomenon was real.'

'..the Moscow astronomer V.I.Timkov.. from the outskirts of the town of Ordzhonikidze in the Caucasus.. at approximately the very same time, observed the upward movement of a similar shaft of light.' (Alexei Arkhipov, FSR 41-2 [trans:G.Creighton])

June 3rd 1955: Letter sent by Eugene Metcalfe of Paris, Illinois, USA - 'Dear Mr.Jessup: After reading The Case for the UFO, I have been scanning the skies more than ever with my three inch stellar telescope, mostly at the moon. You are right about the small planets between the Earth and Moon. I found this to be true on June 3, 1955. There are at least four such planets that are visible to the eye, but you have to look through a 'scope to see they are so near! I saw four shadows crossing the Moon and watched them from 8:30 until 11:30 p.m...' (TUAn)

June 16th, 1955: 'An aircraft of the flying saucer class was sighted last night from Waterbury (Connecticut, USA), according to a 12-year-old boy who said astronomy was his hobby. / The boy, Joseph Lamontagne, of 28 Dixie Avenue, said he was sure the object he saw was not an optical illusion, nor a conventional airplane. / Joseph related he was outside his home scanning the sky with a four-inch diameter telescope, when the noiseless object moved into his view. / Carrying four yellow lights on top, and one green light below, the aircraft seemed to be oval shaped, the boy said. He reported the object, in view about two minutes, moved fast from the south and disappeared over the western horizon. / Asked if he could have mistaken the yellow and green lights for recognition lights on a military aircraft. Joseph reiterated that he did not think the machine was of conventional type. He said his mother could see the lights after the location was pointed out. / A pupil in the seventh grade at Washington School, the boy has been studying astronomy to the point where he can pick out 15 of the 90 known constellations.' (TUAn)

mid-August 1955: Astronomer V.V.Yeremenko made these observations with a home-made telescope - 'Above the surface of the Moon, parallel to its rim and at a distance of approximately 0.2 of a lunar radius, there was flying a shining body resembling a star of the third magnitude. Flying one-third of the circumference (this took 4-5 seconds) the body then plunged downwards at a sharp angle and landed on the surface of the Moon.' (A.Arkhipov, FSR 41-2[trans:G.Creighton])

August 26th, 1955: '..I was observing the moon with my home-built 6-inch reflector, using an Erfle eyepiece and a Goodwin Barlow lens which gave a magnification of 200 times and a 20-minute field. At 7:51 p.m. CST, while examining the neighbourhood of the Apennines, I saw on the dark portion of the moon a bright flare that remained visble for about 35 seconds. It appeared roughly as bright as a 2nd-magnitude star does to the naked eye. The terminator region of the moon had been under survey for about an hour, and I am certain that the flare was not present for many seconds before I saw it. / The position of the flare, as estimated in terms of the diameter of the field of view, was in the neighbourhood of the Carpathian Mountains. this seemed to be too far inside the dark portion of the moon for the object to have been an isolated mountain peak catching the sunlight. The flare remained fairly steady in brightness, fading only slightly before it abruptly disappeared..' Letter to Sky & Telescope from K.E.McCorkle, Memphis, Tennessee, USA. (TUAn)

September 8th, 1955: 'Shortly after sunrise.. I was looking at the moon, high in the sky, through a small 20 power telescope. My attention was directed to the Taurus Mountains at the western edge of Mare Serenitatis when, at 7:35 a.m. EDT, I saw two distinct flashes of light, about a quarter second apart, that seemed to come from the edge of these mountains. / There appeared to be nothing that could have caused reflections in my telescope. The sun was hidden behind trees at the time, and there were no aircraft in the sky.' Letter to Sky & Telescope from W.C.Lambert, Ironton, Ohio, USA. (TUAn)

Morris K.Jessup's first book 'The Case for The UFO' was published in 1955. Here's a biographical sketch from the flyleaf of his later work 'The UFO Annual' - 'Explorer and instructor in Astronomy and Mathematics at the University of Michigan and Drake University, M.K.Jessup completed his Thesis for the Doctorate in Astrophysics at the University of Michigan. He erected and operated the largest refracting telescope in the Southern Hemisphere in South Africa, for the University of Michigan. His research program resulted in several thousand discoveries of physical double-stars which are now catalogued in the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society of London.'

November 1st, 1955: Mojave Desert, about 100 miles west of Las Vegas, USA; daytime. Frank Halstead of Darling Observatory was travelling on a fast train to California with his wife Ann, when she called his attention to an object moving parallel to the train, and at about the same speed, above a range of mountains. This apparent pacing lasted for four or five minutes. The appearance of the object was described to Frank Edwards during a 1959 interview - '..At the time I thought it was a blimp, you know, one of those cigar-shaped dirigibles.. But as I watched it I realised that it could not be a blimp - they are only about two hundred feet long - and this thing was gigantic. It was about eight hundred feet long. I could estimate that because it was so close to the mountain ridges where trees and clumps of trees were visible for comparison..'
While Frank and Ann Halstead were watching this object, a second object suddenly appeared behind it - '..It was a disc-shaped thing. In fact, both the objects were very shiny, we noticed.. (possibly) about one hundred feet in diameter - flat on the bottom with a low dome on the top side.. My wife and I watched the pair of them for two - possibly three - minutes.. Then they began to rise, slowly at first, and a few seconds later, much faster...'
(FS-SB)

'Elegant and immortal utterance by Dr.Richard van der Riet Woolley, F.R.S., the new Astronomer Royal, when asked for his views on space travel, after alighting at London Airport, January 3, 1956: It's utter bilge....' (Understanding 1-68)

January 24th, 1956: '..more recently a report came from a Brian Warner.. reproduced in "Saucers," sept.1956. The incident occurred on Jan 24th, 1956, just east of the crater Liebig, the flashes actually coming from the East wall of Cavendish. In describing the phenomenon, Warner states, "The flashes evidently began with a bright glare and continued very bright for almost three minutes." The light slowly faded over a further period of some 8 minutes before finally disappearing. Warner continues, "The frequency of the pulsating was approximately 11/2 flashes per second and between maximum brilliance the source could be seen as a point of light slightly more intense than the surrounding walls. There were definite indications of reflection from the west wall and the floor was faintly lit by the glare." Warner then goes into some detail in trying to explain the flashing light but he himself regards the occurrence as an unsolved mystery..' (Uranus, 7/8-58)

April 21st, 1956: Luanda, Angola - 'Astronomer C.M.Bettencourt, observing the moon through a small telescope, saw 8 luminous objects enter the eyepiece from the left proceeding from the left towards the moon's position in the sky. He estimated them to be over 500 kilometres distant and 200 to 300 metres in diameter. He used a Butenshon 64-magnitude telescope, holding his camera to the eyepiece' (to photograph the phenomena). (UFOPhATW)

September 1956: Baja, California, USA. 'Mr.George Adamski filmed 16mm movie footage of two very large round UFOs in close formation high in the clear blue sky.' (UFOPhATW)

November 26th, 1956: Alamagordo, New Mexico, USA; night. Astronomer and photographer, Robert E.Curtiss '..was making some test shots with.. a motion picture camera.. loaded with highly sensitized film and.. coupled to the rangefinder of his 16-inch reflector telescope. With this setup he was able to shoot pictures of the moon at speeds of 24 to 48 frames per second. The telescope was covering that portion of the moon around Fra Mauro.. between Parry and Copernicus.
When Mr.Curtiss developed and printed his films he was startled by a peculiarity. Just to the left of the terminator, which is the dividing line between sunlight and shadow on the moon, there was a small white Maltese cross. It was on frame after frame and was unquestionably either on the surface of the moon or very close to it...' (FS-SB)

February 13th, 1957: Steve Papina, an amateur astronomer, was walking home in Placerville, California, at about 9:40 P.M., when '..he noticed off to his left the ionized track of what he thought was a shooting star..' Mr.Papina watched the trail, carefully noting its movements upward in the sky.. 'Suddenly a black disc appeared.. directly in front of the trail,' which was about equal in diameter to the width of the trail. The disc's surface was not smooth '..but appeared to be roughened by cross-checked canyons. In the southeast quadrant was an area which seemed to have a few canyons filled with a very black material. On the northwest quadrant another area was visible which had dark streaks but on a lesser scale..' The disc was very clear in the sky, and as it now traveled in a westerly course, it changed to a white colour, its diameter reduced by two-thirds, and it took off into outer space - as Mr.Papina put it, like "letting the air out of a toy balloon." (UFOWhS)

March 10th, 1957: 'Mr.Paul M.Cornick, of 205 Manor Road, Fishponds, Bristol, was observing Jupiter on Sunday, March 10, at about 7 p.m. He writes: "When I took my eye from the telescope, I noticed an extremely bright object that appeared to be due north of Jupiter. So bright was this object that I realised at once that it could not be a natural phenomenon. / I watched it for a few moments, thinking that it might possibly be some optical illusion, but far from it. It was moving! / My first thought was to focus my telescope on the object, and it resolved itself into two lights - one red and the other white. (The latter being on the left-hand side) Every so often a reddish flash danced from the red light to the white one. / By this time the phenomenon was clearly visble to the naked eye, and I could easily see the occasional red flash as well as the lights. the course of the object was going to take it between the Pole Star and Ursa Major. / The object was now almost directly overhead, and I listened intently for some sound, but none came. It seemed to float over like some ghostly shadow, and yet it conveyed the impression of power. / Abruptly, as it passed the Pole Star, it faded and vanished from sight. / It could not have been an aeroplane because of the absence of noise and the steady lights (they should flash) and they were the wrong colours..."' (FSRWR)

'..many professional astronomers are convinced that saucers are interplanetary machines... I think they come from another solar system, but they may be using Mars as a base.'
Dr.Frank Halstead, Darling Observatory, Duluth, Minnesota, USA. (Flying Saucers, 6-57)

May 3rd, 1957: At Forcalquier Observatory, France, 'Roger Rigollet, a specialist in meteor studies for the French National Center for Scientific Research' had set up a 'shutter that revolves in such a way' in front of a camera 'as to cause an interruption of the light beam eight times a second,' and also a second shutter to cover 'the instrument every four minutes.' That evening, two of these automatic camera arrangements were put in operation - one rotating and one fixed. When the results were viewed the next day, two luminous forms were found on the film, at 10:38pm & 10.41pm. (CTSc)

This photo is from the fixed camera - compare this photographed form to Harold Hill's illustration of the large object he observed on July 8th, 1954....

June 15th, 1957: near Mawdesley, Lancashire, UK; 6.06pm. Astronomer, Mr.G.Marsden - accompanied by his son - observed a point of light in the distant sky. Looking through his pocket telescope, he was able to view an aircraft somewhat resembling the planet Saturn, silver in colour, with a bluish tint. He estimated that this object was 25 feet in diameter, and travelling at 500-600 mph. (Uranus 4-1) For the original article click here.

June 18th, 1957: '..an object with a fiery red tail was seen high above Glasgow (Scotland). This UFO was well authenticated and seen by many reliable witnesses. One of these was.. a member of the Royal Observer Corps.. Mr.Arnot Thomson, of 157 Harlaw Crescent, an amateur astronomer, watched the UFO through a telescope. "I could see a black shape with a flaming tail," he said, "but couldn't make out any outline."' (FSRWR)

July 1957: "Auroras do not behave as the objects seen at Katoomba have apparently been behaving. There must be something at Katoomba. I do not think all those people could have hallucinations." Mr.W.Robertson, Assistant Astronomer at Sydney Observatory, NSW, Australia.

September 11th, 1957: Sicily - In the morning, Dr.H.Percy Wilkins, F.R.A.S., while studying Mt.Etna through binoculars, watched.. a brilliant oval mass, described by him as "an unidentified stationary object" poised above the edge of the crater of Etna.' (see earlier sighting by Dr.Wilkins on June 11th, 1954) (Creighton, FSR 14-4)

October 6th, 1957: At about 4.15pm, Earl Sydow, reportedly an engineer and a 'competent amateur astronomer,' saw a large, bright object over Tucson, Arizona, along with six other observers. According to his report sent to APRO, the object measured about three minutes in diameter along the major axis and about one minute along the minor axis - '..Smaller objects seemed to exit from the larger object as observations (using 'astro scopes') continued. A total of six objects were seen at one instant but other observers noted a total of ten objects.. (They) appeared to be a flat white to a silver white. The shape of the smaller objects.. to be somewhat semi-wedge-shaped. The objects moved from the southeast toward the northwest. The smaller objects disappeared from the field of the telescope until in the final phases of observations there was only one object still in the field of view. This object was the original object sighted and it slowly disappeared from view as if it were moving away from the observer. I would estimate the diameter of the smaller objects to be about fifteen to thirty seconds. the last object was observed at about 180 degrees azimuth and 80 degrees elevation.' (UFOWhS)

November 6th, 1957: 'Four astronomers at the Commonwealth Observatory at Mt.Stromlo, near Canberra, Australia, on "Sputnik watch" reported a strange object moving across the sky. It was a vivid pink and unlike anything seen before, it was stated. It remained in view for about two inutes, and disappeared under the moon. / "The strange thing is that it should disappear after passing under the moon as it was a perfectly cloudless sky," said Dr.Przybylski, who saw the object just after having completed observations of the passage of the passage of the two Russian satellites.' (FSRWR)

'On the same evening, a young astronomer, M.Chaupis (? see below account), at the French National Observatory at Toulouse, France, sighted an elliptical object in the sky. Other scientists said the brilliant canary coloured object could be neither a meteorite nor one of the Sputniks. The astronomer watched it through a telescope for about five minutes. He said it appeared from W.N.W. of Toulouse and it sped to where the sun had set an hour and a half earlier, made two sweeping turns, and then flew in the opposite direction. It then disappeared for 30 seconds, then appeared and descended almost vertically in a clear sky and vanished. / Then a similar, or possibly the same object was seen by observatories in two different European capitals. The object, whatever it was, and astronomers said it was not one of the satellites, was sen through telescopes and heard by radio monitors. / It appeared over Oslo hours before Russia's second earth satellite was due, and was travelling south at great speed. Signals were picked up differing from the Sputniks! The Hague Observatory also reported seeing a UFO. At The Hague, too, scientists picked up radio signals that were different from those of the two satellites..' (FSRWR)

'..many inhabitants of Toulouse observed a mysterious shining object in the form of a bright orange disc with something resembling a cupola on top. The disc was rotating and travelling rapidly across the sky. The astronomer I.L.Chapeux (?) watched the object through a telescope. Here is the note he wrote about it - "A shining yellow spot of the second magnitude, elliptical in shape, no twinkle whatsoever, its edges very clearly visible against the sky, and leaving a short trail behind it."' ( FSR 13-6)

1957: Letter to Flying Saucer Review, from Susanne R.Stebbing, 1961 - 'Sir,- you may be interested to know that now I am an active member of the British Astronomical Association. I come in contact with observers from various sections. / One observer, Mr.K.S.G.Stocker, F.R.A.S., of Wallington, Surrey, claimed a sighting of an unusual UFO during 1957. He has promised to let me have details, and does seem interested in the subject. He claims that good sightings are rather rare, but as the result of his experience he retains an open mind. Mr.Stocker's work for the B.A.A. includes colour photography of the stellar heavens and tracking of artificial satellites.' (FSR 7-6)

January 8th, 1958: 'An amateur astronomer and four witnesses sighted a luminous yellow-reddish object in the sky at about 8:50 pm. It was travelling in a northerly direction, then swung almost at right angles in a curve to the east. / Mr.B.Welstead, of Punchbowl, a suburb of Sydney, was looking for star clusters, and on observing the object with the naked eye, he called the attention of a colleague who possessed a telescope. It was then they called three other people in the house to observe the phenomena. / The observation lasted at least 30 seconds. the Australian Air Force later stated that there were no jets in the air on that night.' (MHervey)

August 4th, 1958: Coventry, UK; approx. 10.45-11.02pm. A unnamed schoolteacher observed five seperate unidentified aerial objects. He described them as '..stellar in appearance, giving a more or less steady light but seemed to waver slightly in the air. This was a very minute effect which was like the tiniest oscillation on their straight path..' He remembered them (twelve years later) as having passed in the same direction, WNW to ESE. The following was written during the observation - Approx 10.45 p.m. G.M.T.; pale (blue?) object passing.. magnitude approx.3, passed North of Altair.
+3 minutes. Mag.3.5., bluish object passed North of Altair as previous one (about 1/2 degree North).
+3.5 minutes. Mag.3. bluish object passed 1/4 degrees North of Altair.
+5 minutes. Mag.2.8. intense red object passed 2 degrees North of Altair.
+5.75 minutes. Mag.3.8. intense red object passed 1.5d. North of Altair.
Cloud interrupted after this and when, five minutes later it cleared, no more objects were seen.
(Peter Ashby/CUFORG, Syntonic 8)

c.early-October 1958: Japan. 'Dr.Kenzaburo Toyoda, of the Meiji University.. was scanning the surface of the moon with the aid of a powerful telescope when he suddenly focussed on two giant sets of letters under Mare Serenitalis, to the left of Mare Tranquilitatia, which read: PYAX and JWA. / The letters were black and easily discernable. Two of his colleagues were called upon to witness the strange writing. The mystery has yet to be solved.' (UFOs:ThAS)

November 5th, 1958: Mt.Palomar, California, USA.
'New Mystery Star Baffles Astronomers.. U.S. astronomers are mystified by a new, strange celestial body photographed by telescope. Two astronomers, Dr.W.J. Luyten, of Minneapolis, and Dr.G.Haro, of Tonantzintia, Mexico, discovered photographic records of the object made at Palomar Observatory, California, on November 5, 1958.
While a blue star was found in that position in 1950, it does not appear on Palomar survey plates made in 1954. The only observation made since the November record showed no star at that point.'
(FSR 5-3)

1958: The prominent Russian Astronomer, Dr. Nikolai A.Krozyen, sighted an oval-shaped object which hovered within the lunar crater Alphonsus, near the moon's surface. It '..radiated a weird glow. This report was quickly confirmed by two American astronomers - H.F.Poppendick and W.H.Bond.' (Understanding, 4-68)

1958: '..Quite recently we received a letter from Mr.Marsden.. in which he stated he had sighted a second UFO, once again through his telescope. He described it as being cylindrical in shape and moving across the face of the Moon from Mare Crisium to the crater Plato. Plato, we might mention has often been associated with flashing lights..' (Uranus, 7/8-58)

July 14th, 1959: Norman River, N.Queensland, Australia; approx. 6.40pm. Witnesses including C.A.Marshall Renou, F.R.C.S., F.R.A.C.S., and amateur astronomer Dr.Athol Quayle, observed a UFO for about 8 seconds. It made no sound, and moved parallel to the earth at about twice the speed of a jet aircraft. It had a head, body and tail. The head was a 'round.. iridescent, shimmering greenish-white light..,' while '..the body consisted of a wide and fairly long streak of intense white light..,' and the tail was a number of bright stars, which, during the observation period blew out of the body and disappeared. The whole UFO went out abruptly '..just as if someone had turned the electric light switch out...' (C.A.M Renou, FSR 6-3)

October 6th, 1959: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. 'A U.S.Army Colonel, his wife and their son saw an object making abrupt turns at high speed. The son had been studying astronomy and pointing out the stars.. His mother noted the object and pointed it out.. At first they thought it was a meteor. It was round and.. the colour between white and yellow.
(It) was first seen 70 deg. above the horizon at 15 deg. azimuth (S-SE). It moved north-northwest (330 deg.) for about 12 miles and then made a quick turn (90 deg.). Shortly thereafter.. it made another abrupt turn south (180 deg.).. It dimmed out and returned to bright several times...' (UFOIRC/O.Binder)

October 13th, 1959: Paignton, Devon, UK; approx. 7pm. '..While observing the Moon with a 36-inch telescope my attention was directed to the crater Aristarchus, then on the terminator, and brilliantly white in colour.. I was surprised to see a delicate yet bright reddish-amber glow in or near Aristarchus clearly outlined against the white background. It was visible for only a few seconds.. After it disappeared no trace remained to show it had been there.' (E.H.Rowe, FSR 6-1)

February 7th-8th, 1960: Hollywood, California, USA; about midnight. (Reports spanned four U.S. western states of 'a bright flash') '..amateur astronomer Floyd Rickores said he tracked a "red ball" - without a tail - for nearly five minutes with his 300-power telescope. "I was looking at the moon through my telescope when there was an explosion and a bright flash lighted the room."
He said that he and his wife heard a rumble. Immediately afterwards he located nearly overhead a red ball. "It seemed to stay stationary between two stars for three or four minutes, then took off with fantastic speed and disappeared. I'd guess it was several thousand miles off the surface of the earth and it was brighter than any star at at that time." ' (Oregon Statesman/FSR 6-3)

February 13th, 1960: Grand Blanc, Michigan, USA; nighttime. 'A colour photo of a UFO was taken after a full moon by Joe Perry.. whose hobby is astronomical photography. the UFO was disc-shaped with a dome and leaving a greeen trail. The FBI learned of the photograph after Perry, who runs a restaurant, showed it to some of his customers. Two agents from the Flint office were sent to investigate. Perry showed the agents several of his slides taken the same night.
"They did not seem to be interested until I showed this particular one," Perry said, "and then both of them jumped up." The agents took the UFO photograph and several others for study. Needless to say, the photos were not returned to Mr.Perry.' (UFOs:ThAS)

May 4th, 1960: Bedford, Massachusetts, USA; 9.15pm. '..a dark spherical UFO was observed in the eastern sky by Charles S.Oates, chief technician at Charles Hayden Planetarium in Boston, and his wife. / The sphere was sighted shortly after Oates saw two bright white lines appear and disappear quickly, one after the other, in the same area of the sky. The UFO appeared at an elevation of about 50 degrees in the east, near the constellation Bootes. It pulsated from red to white to red. While Oates tried to call other members of the Planetarium staff, his wife watched the object which vanished suddenly after about five minutes.' (UFOs:ThAS)

May 5th or 22nd, 1960: Palma, Majorca, Europe; 9.33 pm. '..various astronomers of the Palma, Majorca, Observatory reported seeing a "mysterious triangular- shaped object" manoeuvring over the region. The astronomers said that the object appeared to be spinning around on its own axis without deviating from its path and had the apparent size of the full moon.' (H.Ganteaume, FSR 7-1/NICAP)

late-October 1960: San Antonio, Texas, USA. 'A glowing, mystery flying object was reported that.. week in two other areas. In San Antonio.. a spokesman for Trinity University's moonwatch team said they had seen a UFO and it was reported over California.' (UFOS:ThAS)

A conversation in an observatory: 'The International Bulletin 11, the journal of the Netherlands Study Group for UFOlogy, prints in its November, 1960, issue the results of an interview with Mr.Damen Sterk, of the observatory of Utrecht. The questions and answers went as follows: Question: "Do you know the phenomenon of the so-called UFOs?"
Mr.Damen Sterk: "Indeed, scientists did observe a number of solid bodies during the last few years, which moved with an unexplained speed in the sky."
Question: "Were they aeroplanes or celestial bodies?"
D.Sterk: "No, decidedly not. Of about thirty of these bodies one couldn't explain the origin." Question: "Is it possible that they are space ships with beings of other planets?"
D.Sterk: "That is not excluded. In fact there are so many planets on which life and even higher evolved life than on this earth is present."
Question: "So it is probable that our earth is visited by space ships of other planets."
D.Sterk: " That is not improbable."
Question: "May we conclude from your words that the unexplained solid bodies mentioned by you are UFOs or flying saucers?"
D.Sterk: (after some hesitation)"The only conclusion can be a question mark!"
This interview was submitted to Dr.C.de Jager, director of the Observatory, and he answered: "The opinion of our librarian remains excusively the responsibility of our librarian."' (FSR 7-1)

November 27th, 1960: California, USA - '..a group of seven inhabitants of a trailer camp in California maintained a surveillance of aerial activity for more than a quarter of an hour. Among the company were two amateur astronomers, Mr. and Mrs.Lewis Hart, who subsequently submitted an excellent report to the Air Force. Amendations to that record were published by professional ufologist Lloyd Mallan. A brief portion, which was in response to a questionnaire supplied by the authorities, read - "In your opinion what do you think the object was and what might have caused it?" The Harts' answer - "It was unquestionably some kind of intelligently controlled air or space vehicle."...' (PFl)

1960: 'MYSTERY SPACE OBJECT SEEN AGAIN - The director of the Adler Planetarium in Chicago said that he has received reports of a mysterious object in orbit around the Earth. / The director, Mr.Robert Johnson, estimated the object to be about one-tenth the size of the American balloon satellite Echo 1 - which is about 100 feet in diameter - but travelling twice as fast. / First sighted by Mr.Johnson and two assistants last friday, it is neither an artificial satellite nor a meteor. It has not been seen on radar, he told reporters, but he understood that an aircraft company had used a ballistic camera to track its course. / Amateur astronomers in many parts of the United States had reported seeing it.'

"..it is by no means impossible that such phenomena exist and have existed for a long time. It is only recently that man has started observing the heavens constantly with highly developed instruments." Russian astronomer Basykin, of the Moscow Observatory, quoted in Swiss magazine (Zuercher Woche) article, June 1961.

May 18th, 1961: Jupiter, Florida, USA. '(On May 19th), the discovery that a mystery satellite was orbiting the earth was revealed by the Smithsonian Observatory at Cambridge, Massachusetts, which controls a world-wide network of tracking stations.
"Satellite tracking stations around the world were asked to help track an unsuspected, unpredicted bright satellite. The satellite was first spotted.. at Jupiter, Florida, and was reported as being about as bright as Echo One and could be seen easily with the naked eye under right conditions."
At Haleakala, Hawaii, Clifton Marsh, head of the local observatory, said Smithsonian officials had also alerted its network of high powered, telescopic cameras to spot and photograph the mystery satellite. / One unexplained factor was introduced by a Smithsonian spokesman who stated that they had "no reason yet to believe the satellite is anything new, because such orbiting mavericks are spotted with some regularity." ' (UFOs:ThAS)

June-August 12th, 1961: From June 1961, Jacques Vallee worked on the staff of the artificial-satellite service of Paris Observatory, at Meudon. in his diary entry for August 12th, 1961, he wrote - '..Occasionally we observe objects that remain unidentified. Thus on 11 July at 10:35 P.M. I saw a satellite brighter than second magnitude. I had time to log a few data points. On another occasion several of us recorded no less than eleven points. The next morning Muller, who behaves like a petty army officer simply confiscated the tape and destroyed it, although a similar object had just been tracked by other astronomers at Besanscon and by Pierre Neiriuck, a satellite expert based in Saint-Malo. / "Why don't we send the data to the Americans?" I asked him. / Muller just shrugged. "The Americans would laugh at us." / He seems terrified at the idea that the morning papers might come out with the headline PARIS OBSERVATORY TRACKING SOMETHING IT CANNOT IDENTIFY...' (Forbidden Science)

early-October 1961: While making a sweep to re-locate 19 Piscium in the constellation of Pisces, with a six inch Newtonian telescope, Derick Shelton observed an unidentified object cross his field of view for an estimated 5-10 seconds, under excellent observing conditions. Concerning the appearance of the object, Mr.Shelton later reported - '..I could see no lights.. but there was a seeming reflection of light from the upper part, which looked like a glow of some kind.. The object, though dark, stood out against the background of the sky quite clearly...'
Mr.Shelton, at the time of his report had been an amateur astronomer for 48 years since the age of 7. He was able to categorically rule out the possibility that what he observed could have been any known celestial phenomenon, a balloon, or a known type of aircraft. He later saw a report by another astronomer of an identical unidentified object, also in October 1961 - this man's sighting was, however, 15 to 20 minutes in duration. (Spacelink 6-4)

November 19th, 1961: Australia - 'A Somerton man has reported seeing mysterious flying objects over the Adelaide Hills at 6.15 p.m. on Sunday.. He is Mr.Guy Page.. an amateur astronomer. / "There was a cluster of about six to eight objects, due east of Somerton. They were crescent-shaped and travelling at high speed," Mr.Page said today. / "I had binoculars trained on the Adelaide Hills when they came into sight. They were not visible with the naked eye. I watched them for about ten minutes before they disappeared into cloud." / Mr.Page reported the sighting to the Bureau of Meteorology, but said he was mystified as "what I saw definitely wasn't a weather balloon. I didn't report this before because if you do people seem to think you're a crackpot. But when I read where two policemen saw something yesterday, I decided to report it."' (FSR 8-3)

April 4th, 1962: Wurtland, Kentucky, USA. G.R.Wells and J.Lewis, watched a small object through a 117 power telescope. Its brightness fluctuated, it gave off smoke, and didn't move for six minutes. (Pr.BBE)

July 1962: England - 'More reports of an "unidentified flying object" over Stratford last Monday night are sought by Mr.J.D.Llewellyn, who observed it twice through an earth satellite-tracking telescope. / Mr.Llewellyn was with another member of a Midlands interplanetary tracking team who keep a watch on earth satellites when he first saw the "flying sauc