ParaNet BBS/bazan

ParaNet BBS/bazan

File Name:	bazan.txt
Author:	Unknown
Date:	Unknown
Posting BBS:	Unknown
BBS Main Page:	ParaNet Main Page
Key Words:	ParaNet, UFO, Ufology

(3567)  Sun 24 May 92 12:20p
By: Eric Bazan
To: All
Re: Ufo Siting
St: Sent
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@UFGATE newsin 1.27
From: theboo@khan.cs.wisc.edu (Eric Bazan)
Date: 24 May 92 10:17:22 GMT
Organization: Undergraduate Projects Lab, UW Madison
Message-ID: <1992May24.101722.22667@daffy.cs.wisc.edu>
Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors


        Well its late, so I decided to read some news. And, in my ramblings
stumbled across this silly, not so lucid news group. However, I do
have one 'UFO' siting of my own to share. Read on if your interested.

        First off, let me say that I really don't put much stock in all
the UFO sightings I hear. I've been interested in Weather and Astronomy
for a long time, and spend a great deal of time looking at the sky.
The sky is an incredibly interesting and dynamic place, with many, many
natural events that don't need to be explained by resorting to UFO's.
The fact is, that most people don't spend much time outside *observing*
the sky, so when they actually do look up and see something unusual, they
often seem to resort to calling it a UFO (as in, an Alien spacecraft).

        What never ceases to amaze me are the number of stunning events
that occur in the sky without anyone ever noticing them. Halos, interesting
clouds, and auroa all often go unnoticed. This last fall (Here in Madison
WI) I left the CS building, and, looking up, saw the most incredible dis-
play of the northern lights I've ever seen! From about 10 degrees south
of the zenith, huge red streamers spoked out radially, covering nearly
the entire sky. There were quite a few people out on the campus that night
yet no one seemed to notice the display! People were looking at me
strangly becuse I just stood there looking at the sky.

        I know I probably sound arrogant at this point, so let me give
you a few more examples from personal experience. One partially cloudy
evening I was walking with a friend. The western horizon had started to
clear, and Venus became visible, very bright, and very close to the horizon.
Relative to the clouds on the horizon, *Venus* appeared to be moving. At
this point, my friend grabbed my are and shouted someting to the affect
"Look - a UFO!". No. Sorry. With the light pollution getting so
bad in most cities, most city dwellers aren't accustomed to seeing a truly
dark sky. I've taken some of my friends who aren't interested in Astronomy
on some observing sessions in the country, and on several occasions
they've mistaken satelites, and even slow moving meteors for UFOs.

        But on to my own siting. I used to own a pair of 11x80 binoculars
(huge binocs meant for dark sky observing). About two years ago, in the fall,
I had taken them out to look at some messier objects. I was walking home
from the park (I was still living at my parents house in the city), and had
stopped in the backyard to have one last look at the sky before heading
in. A faint streak of light caught my eye, and I briefly mistook it
to be a faint meteor (it was moving that fast). However, noticing that it
was moving in a straight line, and not fading, I managed to get my
binocs on it. Through the binoculars I made out a 'V' formation of lights -
the lead light at the apex of the 'V' was a deep, deep violet, and all the
other lights were blue.

        Whatever this thing was, it was very faint, and moving extremely
fast. It was heading almost due north. It covered about 100 degrees of
sky in maybe three or four seconds (from a little south of the zenith to
the north horizon). I have never seen anything move this fast - and I've
seen countless satelites and jets at night. There was no sound associated
with it, and I had no sense of scale, but I got the feeling that it was far,
far away (LEO perhaps?). Each of the lights in this thing were faint - I'd
estimate around magnitude 6 to 6.5. If I hadn't had the binocs, I would
not have been able to resolve the individual lights in this thing. So anyone
who would have seen it with their naked eye would probably seen a small
fuzzy patch of light.

        At this point I was spooked pretty bad, and decided to head in.
Has anyone else out there seen anything like this?

                -Eric Bazan     theboo@saavik.cs.wisc.edu
                                theboo@picard.cs.wisc.edu

--- ConfMail V4.00
 * Origin: Paranet(sm) - The world's leading UFO Investigative News Network
@SEEN-BY 104/2 422 428 605 107/816 30163/100 150 1012/3
@PATH: 30163/150 104/422
(1:30163/150)