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1995-04-22
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Subject: More on Michigan Sighting (FWD)
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 1995 12:12:48 -0500
Organization: OBC
Lines: 98
Message-ID: <thomas-0201951212480001@obc.is.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: obc.is.net
From the Traverse City Record-Eagle - 12/23/94
MYSTERIOUS FLYING OBJECT MIGHT HAVE BEEN A PLANET
The mysterious object seen in the sky Wednesday am
over Kingsley could have been a planet, a Northwestern
Michigan College astronomy instructor said Thursday.
"If I were forced to bet, I'd bet it was Jupiter," said
Dick Cookman, after viewing a videotape of the object.
"But it would be a cautious bet."
Kingsley resident Tracey Cejda reported seeing an object
Wednesday when she let her dogs out at 6:30 am.
A neighbor, Michael Stelter, caught the image on video.
State police Trooper Glenn Guldner arrived at her house
sometime after 7:30 am and observed the image, assisted
by binoculars, for 20 minutes.
Cookman, after studying Stelter's video, said there are
some aspects to the case that support the Jupiter theory
and some aspects that don't.
On Wednesday morning at 6:30 am, Jupiter would have been
three degrees above the horizon in the southeastern sky. By
7:30 am, it would have risen to 11-1/2 degrees above the
horizon.
That could explain why the object appeared to be at treetop
level when Dejda first saw it and why it appeared higher in
the sky by the time Guldner arrived.
Also, when planets appear low on the horizon they can appear
to change color, to twinkle, and to move, he said. Those
effects are caused by light refraction, especially when there is
a lot of humidity in the air.
In fact, for the last several decades, reports of UFO sightings
rise whenever a planet is low on the horizon, he said.
However, Cookman was surprised at how large the object
appeared on the videotape. With an image that large, he would
have expected to see some detail that did not appear, such as the
bands of the planet and the four moons of its moons that are
visible to the naked eye.
"But that could just be because of a blurred image," Cookman
said.
Cedja and Guldner remained convinced Thursday that they had not
watched a planet. When Cedja first saw the object, it appeared
to be three times as large as her barn.
She said a range of emotions ran through her, including both
fright and excitement.
Guldner also said Thursday he was sure it wasn't a planet he saw.
Stelter was out of town Thursdaym, but Cedja said she was sure
he would say it wasn't a planet.
"Nobody else can understand what we three experienced because
they weren't out there with us," she said.
Guldner noted in his police report that three military-type jets
flew past the object and that the lights on the object went out as
the jets passed by. He said Thursday afternoon he had not yet
tried to identify the jets.
They were not military jets from anywhere in Michigan or from a
base in Toledo, Ohio, said Major Jerold Foehl, public affairs officer
at Camp Grayling. Foehl checked with those bases Thursday and
learned they had no jets in the air Wednesday morning.
The story was widely reported in the news media Thursday. Radio
commentator Paul Harvey mentioned it. The Weekly World News, a grocery store
tabloid in Florida, began working on the story.
The media reaction was overwhelming and somewhat frightening
to Cejda. She arrived home from work Thursday to find some 20
messages on her answering machine. Some were friendly, but some were rude.
A radio deejay cracked what seemed to her to be a crude joke about whether
a missing blow-up doll happened to have flown over her house.
Another called asked if she was seeking fame and fortune.
Actually, what she wants is a restored sense of privacy, Cejda said.
"I would just like my life to get back to normal," she said.
Rainbow V 1.08 for Delphi - Test Drive
--
Chris Rutkowski - rutkows@cc.umanitoba.ca
University of Manitoba - Winnipeg, Canada
--
Thomas Bergen
<thomas@obc.is.net>