- FOUR UFOs SIGHTED OVER BLOOMINGTON,
INDIANA
-
- On Tuesday, May 19, 1998, just after
1 a.m., ufologist Lynn H. Taylor was just outside his home in Bloomington,
Indiana (population 60,633), checking out his videocamera, when he heard
"the barking of excited dogs in the neighborhood, as well as the bellowing
of unseen cattle in the area." "I had almost reached my house
when I had to look back," he reported. "There was something
there, all right. I could barely make it out. It was so low as it moved
northward, just above the trees. All I could see was a very faint red
glow. No other runnings lights, strobes, etc." "When I reached
my house, I turned for one last look. There it was--a brilliant, swirling,
multi-colored light floating in the same direction as the first, only closer
to me. I quickly picked up my videocamera and began to record. I have
witnessed this light many times before...I changed position several times
as the object passed by, trying to record as much of its flight as possible
before it moved behind some trees and out of sight." "A couple
of minutes later, I saw another flying red object like the first"
traveling toward the east. "I stopped and turned around to the west,
to see another lighted object moving north...apparently following the previous
three. Again, it was...red and barely detectable." Bloomington is
on Indiana Highway 46 about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Indianapolis.
(Copyright 1998 by Lynn H. Taylor. Many thanks, Lynn, for letting UFO
ROUNDUP quote from your report.)
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- HIGH-ALTITUDE UFO SEEN OVER
HOWELL, MICHIGAN
-
- On Tuesday, May 19, 1998, at 10:31 p.m.
(four and a half hours after Galaxy IV's systems failure--J.T.), Doug Parrish,
Michigan director of Skywatch International, spotted "a point of light
the size of a star moving slowly across the sky above Howell, Michigan."
(population 8,184) "The altitude (elevation) of the light was approximately
81 degrees in the sky, almost overhead," Parrish reported. "Upon
being spotted, the point of light instantly started to glow brighter, and,
in less than two seconds, it became as bright as, if not brighter than,
the sun at noon. Since it was only a point of light, it did not cast any
appreciable shadow on the residential landscape." "Once I had
acknowledged the light as having been seen, it started to diminish its
brightness, and in a time span of five seconds, it had dimmed into invisibility.
The light was moving slowly directly south. The actual observation lasted
about ten seconds. No noise was heard and there were no running lights."
Howell is located at the intersection of Oakgrove Road and Highway BL96,
also known as Grand River Road, 55 miles (88 kilometers) west of Detroit.
(Many thanks to Doug Parrish and Steve Wilson Sr. for this report.)
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- UFO SIGHTINGS REPORTED NEAR
PITTSBURGH
-
- Two UFO sightings were reported in western
Pennsylvania the evening of Sunday, May 17, 1998. At 8:15 p.m., four people
in Belle Vernon, Pa. (population 1,213) observed a UFO for 40 minutes.
"They were looking in a north-northwest direction," reported
Pennsylvania ufologist Stan Gordon. "The object was about 60 to 70
degrees elevation. (The UFO) First appeared as a brilliant star that appeared
nearly stationary. Through binoculars and spotting scopes it looked like
an 'illuminated donut.' There was something that appeared to be hanging
down from the object. While they watched, it seemed to suddenly 'explode'
into many small fragments and particles. And then a red sphere was observed
which minutes later reportedly split into two smaller objects." Belle
Vernon is on Interstate Highway 70 about 31 miles (48 kilometers) south
of Pittsburgh. Also on May 17, at 11:50 p.m., an observer in Penn Hills,
Pa. (population 51,430) spotted "two luminous objects" in the
clear night sky. "One was moving and after a few minutes was gone
from sight. The remaining object appeared to move in a swirl formation,
emitting bright flashes of blue and red... It seemed as though it was rotating,
giving off various light patterns" described as "bright colors
of red, blue, green and white." "During the observation, the
object appeared as a seeming oval shape with a light effect that separated
the top and bottom halves...The object's light pulsated on and off, appearing
to search. Then the object returned to its luminescent state. Almost
ten minutes later, the object gradually moved in a direction to the north
of the observer." Penn Hills is a suburb of Pittsburgh, located 13
miles (21 kilometers) northeast of the city. (Many thanks to Stan Gordon
for these reports. Pennsylvania readers, if you have a UFO to report,
call Stan Gordon's UFO Hotline at 1-724-838-7768.)
-
- NEW UFO SIGHTING ON FLORIDA'S
GULF COAST
-
- On Tuesday, May 12, 1998, people in Fort
Walton Beach, Florida (population 21,471), spied "a triangular shaped
craft hovering over the Gulf of Mexico" just offshore, south of town.
"Three lights were arrayed on all three points of the triangle."
A bright beam of light was seen beneath the object, spotlighting the surface
of the sea. Minutes later, the witnesses saw four U.S. Air Force jets approaching,
and "the craft...instantly left the area." On Wednesday, May
13, 1998, the witnesses reported, "'frogmen' were seen in the area
where the light had been shining down into the ocean." Fort Walton
Beach is on Highway 98 about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of the UFO hotspots
of Pensacola and Gulf Breeze. (See Filer's Files #20 for 1998. Many thanks
to C. Leigh Culver of ISUR and George A. Filer, Eastern director of MUFON,
for this news story.)
-
- HOVERING UFO SPOTTED OVER
A TOWN IN SWEDEN
-
- On Wednesday, May 13, 1998, at 10:30
p.m., Mrs. Bergman and Mrs. Blomquist were standing near the docks in their
hometown of Stromstad, Sweden when a flash of light out to sea caught their
attention. The women described the UFO as "a large object floating
500 to 600 meters above the sea. It was elongated. The object was emitting
a tremendous light like a great spotlight." The UFO let its bright
beam drift along the sea to the shore. Then the beam played over the docks,
the warehouse and the people in the area, including both women. "The
object came from the northeast, but we were unable to guess its speed of
approach," Mrs. Bergman reported. "The shape of the object was
somewhat elliptical and it was luminous. There was no sound, not even when
it departed." "It just hovered for a while," Mrs. Blomquist
reported. "There was no trail or smoke, and the object headed northeast
when it departed. The whole sighting took about ten seconds." "One
second the object hovered almost above us," Mrs. Bergman added. "Then,
in the next second, the object was not more (larger) than a star in the
sky." Stromstad is on the Kattegat, on Sweden's west coast, approximately
190 kilometers (114 miles) north of Goteborg. (Email Interview)
-
- FRENCH COUPLE SIGHTS A UFO
OVER NORMANDY
-
- On Wednesday, May 13, 1998, Robert Martel
and his girlfriend stopped at a gas station in Verneuil, a city in the
department Eure, in northwestern France. While he was filling the gas tank,
Martel heard the roar of a jet afterburner. Looking up, he saw a jet interceptor
of Armee de l'Air (French air force--J.T.) "pass at a very low altitude."
Hours later, at 11:30 p.m., Martel and his lady friend were driving down
a two-lane road between La Chapelle Montligeon and Mauves-sur-Huisnes in
the department Orne et Basse Normandie, about 170 kilometers (102 miles)
west of Paris, when sighted a UFO. "Suddenly, atop a small hill, I
noticed an unusual object a short distance away, perhaps 300 to 500 meters,"
he reported. "At a low altitude, perhaps 30 to 50 meters. The speed
of my vehicle was between 50 and 70 kilometers per hour (30 to 45 mph)."
Staring at it through the windshield, Martel said, "That is what it
is. But it's as white as a cloud. It's an OVNI." (French acronym
for UFO) "I thought it would be interesting to close in and observe
it a bit better," he added, "Unfortunately, the sinuous road
swerved to the right, and I found that the object was no longer visible...But
as soon as the road placed us more to the straight, the object was moving
parallel to me." In vain Martel tried to point out the UFO. But "now
it was perpendicular to us and was starting to move very rapidly. The
object became increasingly difficult to observe. Soon it was a silhouette
of a sphere on the horizon. Impossible to distinguish because of the color"
which was the same color as the sky. (Merci beaucoup a Thierry Garnier
pour ces nouvelles.)
-
-
-
- CINCINNATI POLICE IN HOT PURSUIT
OF A UFO
-
- On Sunday, May 17, 1998, Kenneth Young,
public relations director of Tri-States Advocates for Scientific Knowledge
(T.A.S.K.), was listening to a police radio scanner at 5:30 a.m. when a
most unusual call came in. Listening to 460.100 megaherz (MHz), Young heard
that "a female resident had reported a very unusual event, claiming
that there was an 'unknown object' with lights flashing on her front porch,
near a plant." According to Young, cruisers of District 3 of the Cincinnati
Police Department responded to the call. The police cruisers converged
on a home in the 2300 block of Fairbanks Avenue, near Delhi, to investigate
the reported incident. At 5:35 a.m., the scanner broadcast a report from
an officer, "as they arrived there, 'the thing had disappeared.'"
Young telephoned the Hamilton County Communications Center, "and they
referred my call to the Cincinnati Police Department, where they confirmed
for me that there was something reported by a citizen and District 3 units
were dispatched to the scene." According to the officer Young interviewed,
the woman "reported 'something flashing behind the potted plant on
her front porch...with a bright flashing light.'" Cincinnati (population
364,040) is a large city in the southwestern corner of Ohio. (Many thanks
to Ken Young of T.A.S.K. for this news story.)
-
- LOS ANGELES SUBURB SEES HEAVY
UFO ACTIVITY
-
- For the past week, UFOs have been sighted
repeatedly in Canoga Park, California, located on Highway 27, also known
as Topanga Canyon Boulevard, a suburb 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest
of Los Angeles City Hall. On Sunday, May 10, 1998, at 9:30 p.m., Joanne
Larue "saw a strange light above the San Fernando Valley, while traveling
west on the Ventura Freeway (Highway 101). Flying at about a 10-degree
angle of descent, at about helicopter altitude or lower, north of the freeway,
was a green light, sort of like a traffic light." "I watched
it traveling for about two seconds and then suddenly it disappeared into
thin air. I was right near the Balboa Freeway exit, and both people in
my car spotted it...Has anyone seen anything similar?" (Email Interview)
On Saturday, May 16, 1998, at 9:17 p.m., Hank Turcotte had a strange sighting
in Canoga Park. "I don't know what's going on lately," he reported,
"Within the last two weeks, I have sighted ten different 'star-like'
objects making their way across the night sky here." "This night
I had a few friends over and asked them to be patient for a few minutes.
Sure enough, at 9:17 p.m., three of us watched a star-like object making
its way from the south-southwest to the north-northeast, passing in between
the star Arcturus and the last star in the handle of the Big Dipper. The
object was spotted straight above and then traveled in the arc I described
and disappeared within 30 seconds into the haze of the evening sky at approximately
45 degrees (elevation). The object was Magnitude 4 brightness according
to the constellation chart." "As my friends and I talked about
it, my other friends said to look above us once again, and this object
appeared directly above us and traveled north- northwest and disappeared
into the cup of the Big Dipper. The object was a Magnitude 5 brightness
but this one 'faded away' halfway into the cup. The sighting lasted 20
seconds." (Many thanks to Jim Hickman of Skywatch International and
Errol Bruce- Knapp for this report.)
-
-
- UFO FLIES OVER ADELAIDE IN
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
-
- A UFO overflight was reported in Adelaide,
capital of South Australia, on Monday night, May 18, 1998. According to
Emma B., "An object was seen in the skies over Adelaide." The
unknown object "was flying south and it was at about a 30 degree angle
above the horizon and it moved from right to left. The witnesses have
seen the (Mir) space station pass over, and it (the UFO) seemed much closer
to the earth than this. It was the color of the stars and looked like
something entering Earth's atmosphere" and "glowed like it was
burning." (See Filer's Files #20 for 1998. Many thanks to George
A. Filer for this news story.)
-
- from the UFO Files...
-
1931: WEIRD LIGHT FLASHES
SEEN ON THE MOON
-
- During the next three weeks, UFO ROUNDUP
will present three cases from the little-known Flap of 1931. Here's the
first case, featuring Mr. and Mrs. N.J. Giddings of Riverside, California,
one of the most unusual documented incidents of the pre-Roswell era. "During
the evening of 17 June 1931, I was working in the yard near our home at
Riverside, California, and happened to glance at the moon. It was an unusually
fine, clearly outlined new moon, and as I stood looking at it, suddenly
some flashes of light streaked across the dark surface but definitely within
the limits of the moon's outline." "Since this was a phenomenon
which I had never seen before, I continued to watch it and saw similar
flashes streak across the moon again in a moment or two." "Without
mentioning what I had seen, I called my wife's attention to the new moon.
She admired it. When I asked her to watch it closely to see if she noticed
anything strange, she said, 'Oh, yes, I see lightning on the moon,' adding
that it appeared to be confined to the moon." "We watched it
for some 20 or 30 minutes during which the phenomenon must have occurred
at least six or seven times. The facts were recorded in my notebook as
of approximately 7:40 p.m. 17 June 1931. At the time, I was inclined to
attribute the phenomenon to some sort of sunlight reflection from mountain
peaks on the moon or possibly some sort of electrical activity. I wrote
the Mount Wilson Observatory regarding the phenomenon, and the reply very
courteously discounted my observations." (See Science, volume 104,
page 146, for August 9, 1946. Reprinted in THE UNEXPLAINED: A SOURCEBOOK
OF STRANGE PHENOMENA by William R. Corliss, Bantam Books, New York, NY,
August 1976, page 124.)
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- ________________________________
-
- UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan
Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO
ROUNDUP on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the
newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the
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