- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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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