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Date: Sun Apr 10 13:44:26 1988
From: NICK SANDULEAK (aa346)
Subj: "THE EASTLAKE UFO"

Durint he first week of last month the very bright planets
Venus and Jupiter were positioned very close together in the
western sky for several hours after sunset.As has happened many
times in the past,thesulted in many people calling the
newspapers,TV stations,the astronomy dept. at CWRU,etc. to report
these objects as UFOs.
In an April 7 listing on this bulletin board,Rick Dell'Aquila
gives the text of a U.S.Coast Guard report (dated March 4) which
he suggests can not be explained as resulting from a misidentifi-
cation of these planets.Although it contains an account of multi- colored,noctural lights cavoring about and landing on the Lake
Erie ice,this report is devoid of the most important observation-
al details which one expects from highly trained observers.What
was their exact location at the time of these servations?Given
that location,what were the approximate azimuth and altitude of
these lights? Since the shoreline at Fairport Harbor runs almost
NE-SW,saying that the lights are out over the lake means that
hey could lie anywhere from SE to NW as seen from near the
lakeshore.
Given this lack of detail,it irather suggestive that the
CG people observed the bright light to "land" on the ice at
about the same time that Venus set i.e. went below the horizon
that evening.Nowhere in the report do the CG people say that
they saw the UFOs in addition to Venus and Jupiter i.e. if
this display took place low in the westen sky,one might expect
them to have compared the brightness and positions of the UFOs
relative to these planets.It is therefore most likely that they
were indeed observing these planets only.
Because Venus was very low in the sky,the multi-color effects
reported could result from atmospheric scintillation.The PD
reporter apparently misunderstood this phenomenon and used the
phrase "spontaneous gaseous emissions which of course is non-
sense.
It is my understanding that a UFO sighting can only be
assigned to the CE II category if it leaves behind some form of
physical evidence,e.g. a burned patch of grass,etc.I suppose
this report is being given CE II status because of the reported
sound of the lake ice cracking under the weight of the landed
UFO.A more likely explanation for that aspect of this event is
the arrival of spring.
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Ty Holder
telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23
http://ricksbbs.synchro.net:8080
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