SIGHTINGS


 
Large Triangle Seen Over
Santa Barbara Channel
By Tony Craddock
 
 
At approximately 10:05 pm on Friday 14th November, Dr. Ted Loder and Tony Craddock were checking out new nightscopes from Tony's house overlooking the Santa Barbara Channel. Ted was using an ITT Night Mariner (Model G3) and Tony a Litton NightMate (Model Nav3) each with a light magnification of 30,000 to 50,000x.
 
They both happened to be looking through the nightscopes at Jupiter, which was about ten degrees above the horizon and over the island of San Miguel. Simultaneously they both saw a set of lights near Jupiter in the shape of a large triangle silently flying eastward down the Santa Barbara Channel. They followed it for about six seconds until it disappeared behind some trees. Both realized that the visible lights were on the outside edges of a large craft which was not itself visible in the night scopes.
 
A few seconds after the initial recognition, both saw the craft tilt slightly on its side so that its triangular shape could be more clearly seen. Its shape was delineated by five to eight lights along its edges clearly visible through the nightscopes. Ted Loder counted five or six lights in the shape of a triangle seen partly on its side, while Tony Craddock saw an additional one or two lights in the center towards the rear, making it appear chevron or boomerang shaped. Tony had the clearer nightscope which may explain why he was able to see the extra lights. Both had the impression that it was not lights independently flying in formation but a solid craft. The length of the craft appeared to be longer than the sword on Orion's belt and shorter than Orion's belt itself.
 
The craft was not visible with the naked eye and was not seen by the two other people who were present without nightscopes.
 
It was later estimated that the craft traveled through a visible arc of 75 degrees in about 6 seconds. It was estimated that the craft was at a distance of 5-10 miles, which would have meant it was traveling at approximately 4000-8000 mph.
 
Both Ted Loder and Tony Craddock are members of CSETI (Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence), and attended CSETI's Congressional Briefing on UFO/ET in Washington DC on April 9th of this year. Dr. Loder is a Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire. Tony Craddock is President of an international petroleum consulting company and co-ordinates Santa Barbara's CSETI Working Group.


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