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- Greenwich Time, Sunday, May 3, 1987
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- UFOS:
- RECENT SIGHTINGS IN NORWALK PROBABLY A STAR, EXPERTS SAY
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-
- Report to Galactic Command - Re: Fairfield County, Earth.
- Captain's Log: Star Date 5387
-
- The meteor shower encountered near Xoron 7 weakened the
- ship's cloaking device.
- For about one earth hour, 14 planetary revolutions ago, the
- starship became visible to earth's inhabitants in the geo-
- graphic quadrant known as Fairfield County.
- Evasive strategy was undertaken and the ship was aligned
- with the star Sirius. It was hoped the brightness of the
- star at night would mask our vessel until the cloaking de-
- vice became operational again.
- While several earthlings from societal compounds known as
- Bridgeport, Norwalk, and Darien did report seeing a UFO to
- local authorities, monitoring of communications in the days
- that followed has determined that the ploy was effective.
- Earth scientists have attributed the sightings to the
- star's twinkling.
- Have complete exploratory mission and will return to base. -
- end transmission.
-
-
-
- Whether the circular object with blue, red and green lights that was seen
- hovering over Norwalk on the evening of April 19 is a star or starship - will
- probably never be known.
- Several devotees of exploring UFOs, however, have said that the appar-
- ition was probably the star Sirius - the brightest star in the sky - or an-
- other star called Capella.
- "Its my belief that they were seeing the two stars", said Philip Imbrogno,
- astronomer and board member at the Bowman Observatory in Greenwich.
- Imbrogno drew his conclusions after he interviewed Robert Cole, the
- Norwalk custodian who saw the UFO, and his neighbors on Brookfield Street.
- When stars are low on the horizon at this time of year, Imbrogno said they
- can take on a spectacular appearance because of inversions in the atmo- sphere.
- He said different layers of cold and warm air create a lens effect which
- distorts the appearance of the star.
- "It changes colors and flickers blue, red and green", he said. "It can
- seem strange to someone seeing it for the first time, but this has been a fre-
- quent culprit for UFO sightings in the past."
- Jim Speiser, director of ParaNet in Arizona, a national network of com-
- puter users who investigate paranormal occurrences like UFOs, agreed with Im-
- brogno.
- "These individuals saw a very large bright object in the southwest sky for
- 45 minutes and then it disappeared," he said. "Monday was cloudy and it wasn't
- seen. But it was seen again on Tuesday when it was clear. I suspected it was
- an astronomical body."
- Speiser said he ran a computer program called "PC Planetarium" which can
- chart the night sky on any day in the Western Hemisphere, and as he expected,
- Sirius was right where the sightings occurred.
- "I don't want to come out and accuse anyone of being myopic," he said.
- "They may have seen something strange. I can't say for sure. But I suspect it
- was the star."
- Dr. Mel Goldstein, meteorologist at the Western Connecticut State Uni-
- versity said that the atmospheric effect described by Imbrogno is common.
- While Imbrogno, who has investigated 500 cases in the last 15 years, is
- not ready to say that UFOs are visitors from outer space, he does believe that
- in some cases people are seeing something extraordinary.
- "The bottom line is that the UFO phenomena is real," he said. Dale
- Goudie, head of the UFO Information Service in Seattle said his organization
- has documented 300 cases in the United States since 1985.
- "That's only about two percent of the total cases," he said. Imbrogno
- said that even more UFOs than usual will be sighted in 1987. "I think its
- going to be a big year for UFOs," he said. "(Steven) Spielberg will probably
- do another movie and there will be shows on TV which will cause sightings to
- increase. People will be looking to the sky more."
- "While they maintain that UFOs are occurring all the time, several of the
- experts said they believe the latest rise in UFO interest is because of books
- like the best-seller "Communion" -- a purported true story of abduction by
- aliens, and "Intruders", a scientific study of people who claim to have been
- abducted.
- Imbrogno and Speiser said they were pleased with those works. The less
- scientific approach taken in the book and television movie made from Shirley
- MacLaine's book "Out on a Limb," however, has disturbed some in- vestigators.
- Whether Fairfield County will become a hotbed for UFO research is ques-
- tionable. Still everyone agrees that interest in sightings can only grow.
- "Its a very popular subject," Speiser said. "There will always be a
- question mark: Are we alone?"
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