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Overview
UFOs Caught on Film is an extraordinary collection of photographs which brings together the finest visual evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life. The amazing images have been selected by top UFO researcher B.J. Booth, and each photograph is accompanied by his commentary. From early photos dating back to the 1920s to mystifying images taken in the last few years, this book tracks all significant sightings and stories. This unique compilation of photos will delight any fan of the paranormal, from UFOlogists to those who just love a conspiracy theory—the truth is out there!
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781446355879 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | David & Charles |
| Publication date: | 01/07/2020 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 5 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Early Sightings: (1800s–1940s)
One of the very first sightings of what could have been a UFO occurred as early as 1865. Fortunately, there are still newspaper accounts of this and other early sightings. In this year, The Missouri Democrat newspaper published a report from a trapper called James Lumley who claimed to have seen an unidentified, bright luminous body in the sky near the Upper Missouri River. The next day, he reported that he had found a crashed craft of some type that had cut a path through the woods. He claimed that the object had different compartments and hieroglyphic-like symbols carved into its surfaces. The incident signalled the beginning of UFO reports in America and around the world.
One of the most notable events during this period was the legend of the UFO which crashed into the small town of Aurora, Texas in 1897. The story was eventually made into a movie. Another legend that morphed into a popular UFO mystery, was the case of an alleged UFO crash in Missouri in 1941. The event was published in Leo Stringfield's book UFO Crash / Retrievals: The Inner Sanctum, which brought the case serious credibility.
During US-German dogfights in World War II, a number of unidentified balls of light were recurrently seen by both sides. They seemed to follow military aircraft at high speed. The 415th Nightfighter Squadron named these strange phenomena 'foo fighters'. The sightings were regular and they began to be formally reported from 1944. Both sides worried that their enemy had developed a new, secret technology. The mystery of what the foo fighters might have been and why they were there has never been adequately resolved.
The so-called 'modern age' of UFOs began in 1947. At this time, fascinating reports fuelled the public's imagination after pilot Kenneth Arnold reported sighting a succession of nine supersonic bright lights around his plane. Hardly had people had time to catch their breath when, within a month, rumours of the alleged Roswell crash (see footnote from 1947 – Outer Hebrides, Scotland) brought the idea of unidentified flying objects to the forefront of the general public's consciousness.
Sadly, not every recorded event has been caught on camera. Luckily, many have been and, therefore, here is an inspiring collection of early images for you to ponder.
The oldest UFO photograph ever taken
1870 – Mt. Washington, New Hampshire
This photograph was taken looking towards Mt. Washington. On top of the mountain is a weather observatory where some of the world's highest winds have been recorded. In 1870, photographic equipment was installed at the facility to capture cloud formations. The newly installed camera produced an extremely interesting image in stereo format of an unknown flying object. Because there were no planes in the air during that era, what we have here is a UFO. But where did this craft come from? And what was it doing?
This image shows what appears to be a cigar-shaped object. The stereo image was registered by Clough & Kimball in 1871. Often called 'the oldest UFO photograph ever taken,' it was the subject of a bidding war on eBay in 2002, when finally the photo was purchased for $385 by Samuel M. Sherman, the president of Independent-International Pictures Corp.
We are left with more questions than answers
1927 – Oregon
Some photographs etch themselves in your memory: this is one of them. A large disc-shaped object moves above and beyond a group of trees. What is it? Where is it going? Is it real? In the late twenties, when this was taken, it was quite hard to fake a photograph. If it is, then is that a navigation station sitting above the disc? We are left with more questions than answers. We know that it was taken in Cave Junction, Oregon but we don't know who took it. Reportedly it was captured on film by a local volunteer fireman. Anyone seeing the photograph at the time would have called it a 'spaceship' (as UFOs had been known since their early recordings in the 19th and through the early years of the following century).
People fell out of their beds in fear
1942 – Los Angeles, California – 'The Battle of Los Angeles'
At 2:25am on the 25th of February 1942, alarm sirens blared out across Los Angeles. People fell out of their beds in fear for it was only a few months since the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. They knew that the sirens were to be used in the face of another attack. The anxious and terrified inhabitants were told that a blackout was being enforced across the city after strange flying objects had been spotted both on radar and moving through the sky at high speed above the sleeping populace. Search lights probed the heavens and at 3:16am, anti-aircraft guns opened fire on several red or silver-plated objects coming in from the ocean at high speed and flying in formation. Witnesses saw in horror that they were untouched by the barrage of anti-aircraft artillery salvos. According to contemporary reports, this large object was hit by many anti-aircraft projectiles without apparently taking on any damage. It eventually disappeared into the night sky leaving Los Angeles witnesses agog and the story has passed into UFO legend as one of the most famous incidents of the twentieth century. This compelling photograph is purported to be evidence of what has become known as 'The Battle of Los Angeles'.
Spotted during the rash of 1947 sightings
1947 – Outer Hebrides, Scotland
This haunting image of a metallic, two-layered spacecraft has never been explained away. The mysterious craft was captured on film as it flew above an island in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland in 1947. The object has never been identified as any known aircraft. As with all photographs of this subject matter, there have been attempts by debunkers to assert that the object was nothing but an everyday object thrown into the air and then photographed. Nevertheless, Ufologists treat this incident with interest because it occured in 1947 when a rash of sightings of strange and unidentified flying craft were being continually reported all over the world. It is no suprise therefore that the term 'flying saucer' came into modern parlance during this busy period. 1947 is a very important year for Ufologists as this was the date of the Roswell Incident, and it also marks the time that even more experts were becoming convinced that these sightings could have an extra-terrestrial explanation.
CHAPTER 2The Golden Age of Flying Saucers (1950s–60s)
These years were filled with extraordinary cases, many of which are still being investigated today.
The golden age of UFOs was ushered in on a wave of sightings from around the world. In 1950, one of the first alleged encounters with an alien was reported in Varese, Italy. In May of that year, the famous Trent photographs were taken (see 1950 – McMinnville, Oregon).
Then, two famous motion picture films of UFOs were revealed; the 'Great Falls, Montana film' taken on August 15, by Nicolas Mariana, and the 'Tremonton, Utah colour film' taken in July by D.C. Newhouse. The Montana film was originally listed as 'top-secret'. However, when the Great Falls film was released by the military it was of poor quality, and Mariana claimed that much of his original footage had been removed. The Utah footage was taken at fairly close range, and showed flat, circular objects, shaped like two saucers. The film was submitted to US Naval authorities, who forwarded it to the US Air Force. They studied it for several months. According to Mr Newhouse, frames of the movie were missing when the film was returned.
The 1951 Fort Monmouth, New Jersey event had it all; confirmed sightings on radar and UFOs seen by pilots. In 1953, pilot Lt. Felix Moncla disappeared along with his Scorpion F-89C as he chased a UFO over Lake Superior. In 1954, in Australia, pilot Lieutenant J.A. O'Farrell saw a UFO approach his aircraft (an official Navy file on the case was kept secret until the early 1980s).
An entire new chapter in Ufology began in 1961, when Betty and Barney Hill claimed that they had been abducted from their vehicle by aliens. And in 1964, patrolman Lonnie Zamora saw an unknown flying object land in Socorro, New Mexico. He observed several small beings before the craft took off again. In 1965, numerous witnesses, including policemen, saw UFOs in Exeter, New Hampshire; the extraordinary events were described in detail in John Fuller's book, Incident at Exeter.
Motion picture cameras were being mass-produced by the 1950s. By this time also, most people could afford to purchase an easy-to-use camera. Colour film was also becoming more commonplace. Polaroid and Kodak produced the first instant cameras, which both took photographs and developed them immediately. Suddenly anybody could record a scene. Still, at this time, most consumers were using black-and-white film (although all images could potentially be manipulated).
A disc-like craft hovered in the sky
1950 – McMinnville, Oregon – 'The Paul Trent Photographs'
The photographs taken by Paul Trent on the evening of 11 May 1950 are some of the most famous images of an unidentified flying object ever taken, That day, Paul's wife, Evelyn was feeding the family livestock when she noticed a disc-like craft hovering in the sky to her northwest. She called out to her husband to come and see the strange phenomenon and he captured it on film, taking two pictures. The roll of film was developed at their local pharmacy a couple of weeks later and immediately the news spread like wildfire beyond McMinnville and soon the photographs had been revealed to an international audience. Billy Power, the journalist on the Telephone Register which ran with the story, had the opportunity to examine the negatives. He found no reason to believe that they had been tampered with and the images were declared genuine.
Lights raced noiselessly through the air
1951 – Lubbock, Texas – 'The Lubbock Lights'
At 9:10pm on 25 August 1951, Dr W.I. Robinson, a professor of geology, stood in his back yard in Lubbock, Texas chatting with colleagues Dr A.G. Oberg, a professor of chemical engineering, and Professor W.L. Ducker, head of the department of petroleum engineering. Suddenly all three men saw a number of lights race noiselessly across the sky, travelling from horizon to horizon in a few seconds. They estimated later that there had been about 30 luminous bead-shaped objects, flying in a crescent formation. A few moments later, another similar phenomenon flashed across the night sky. This time the scientists were able to judge that the lights moved through 30 degrees of arc in a second. The next day they checked with the Air Force who confirmed that no planes had been flying in the area at the time of their sightings. This seemed extraordinary to the men but the incident was not to be unique: Professor Ducker observed 12 more flights of the luminous objects between August and November. Furthermore, hundreds of non-scientific observers, in a wide vicinity around Lubbock, saw as many as three flights of the mysterious crescents in one night. On 30 August, 18-year-old Carl Hart Jr. attempted to photograph the lights (using his 35mm Kodak camera at f3.5, 1/10 of a second). Working rapidly, Hart managed to get five exposures of the flights, four of which are reproduced here.
Credible mid20th-century evidence from France
1952 – Lac Chauvet, France
The term 'UFO' was first used in a 1952 US Air Force study into the phenomena. That same year, on 18 July, engineer and photographer Andre Fregnale spotted a disc-shaped object flying through the wide blue sky above him as he walked around Lac Chauvet in France. He watched it for several hours and took four photographs, each of them good and clear, estimating that it cruised at an altitude of about 300m (approximately 1,000ft). The photographs were developed by astronomer Pierre Guerin, who judged them to be authentic photographs of a UFO. The photographs gained recognition throughout the world and in 1994, the photographs underwent professional examination by Pierre Guerin, professor at the Institute d'Astrophysique in Paris. A mathematical model of the object was used to ascertain that the object was really flying through the sky and that therefore the photographs were credible. The images were also examined by GEPAN who also agreed that the object was a genuine UFO.
Backyard visitor hovers then accelerates away
1952 – Passiac, New Jersey
On the afternoon of 29 July 1952, George Stock and his friend John H. Riely spotted an unknown flying object from Stock's backyard. While Riely kept an eye on the UFO, Stock ran to grab his camera. He took five blackand-white photographs which reveal what visited them that day; a disc-like flying craft with what clearly looks like a cupola on top. The men estimated the object to be about 10m (approximately 30ft) in diameter and made of something which looked like metal, with the cupola appearing to be of a semi-transparent material. It seemed to fly about 60m (200ft) above the ground. It hovered for a moment then accelerated as it flew away.
The photographs were published by The Morning Call, in Patterson, New Jersey, on 3 August that year. Riely stated memorably that the object appeared so close that it could have been shot with a rifle.
Four bright lights in the Salem sky
1952 – Salem, Massachusetts
On 16 July 1952, U.S. Coast Guard Seaman Shel R. Alpert, stationed at Air Station Salem, was on duty on the Winter Island facility, working in the weather office when he saw some bright lights moving across the sky. He immediately alerted another guardsman but before he could get in position, the lights began to dim. Briefly, the lights brightened again and Alpert quickly managed to snap a photograph of them through the office window. Because the photo was taken looking through glass, some debunkers have claimed that the 'UFO' was actually the reflection of lights in the window pane. However, the Seaman's testimony that he saw four objects weakens their argument. Most Ufologists agree that Alpert filmed either a single UFO, or four UFOs moving in formation.
What were those strange blips on the radar?
1952 – Washington, D.C.
In a wave of sightings that began on 19 July 1952, Washington National Airport and Andrews Air Force Base picked up a number of unexplained blips on their radar screens. After several hurried conversations between the two respected institutions, it dawned on every witness with horror that UFOs were buzzing over the White House, the Capitol building, and the Pentagon. Several fast-moving, glowing 'lights' were also seen by witnesses from the control towers, the runway and from the cockpit of scrambled fighter jets. Over the next few days, and several shock-inducing headlines in US papers, the public began to complain that UFOs seemed to be defying the very governmental agencies sworn to protect the United States from foreign powers.
The blips that showed up on the radar monitors represented and recorded unidentified objects that travelled at about 100mph, and had the ability to accelerate to the unbelievable speed of 7,200mph. The Washington National Airport sighting was confirmed by other local radar and they contacted Andrews Air Force Base which in turn notified the U.S. Air Force Air Defense Command. A couple of F-94 night fighters were ordered to the skies but runway repairs held their mission up for several hours. Once airborne, they were able to sight the UFOs, but the 'lights' darkened as they approached. Suddenly, one of the fighter-jet pilots stated his fear and frustration by air-to-ground radio: 'They've surrounded my plane; what should I do?' The pilots kept constant communication with ground radar, and as the pilots lost sight of the UFOs, the blips also disappeared from ground radar. The UFOs were also separately witnessed by the crew of a B-25, and the pilot and stewardess of another commercial flight. The sightings still remain unexplained to this day.
(Continues…)
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Copyright © 2012 B J Booth.
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION,
EARLY SIGHTINGS (1800s–1940s),
1870 – Mt. Washington, New Hampshire,
1927 – Oregon,
1942 – Los Angeles, California – 'The Battle of Los Angeles',
1947 – Outer Hebrides, Scotland,
THE GOLDEN AGE OF FLYING SAUCERS (1950s–60s),
1950 – McMinnville, Oregon – 'The Paul Trent Photographs',
1951 – Lubbock, Texas – 'The Lubbock Lights',
1952 – Lac Chauvet, France,
1952 – Passiac, New Jersey,
1952 – Salem, Massachusettes,
1952 – Washington D.C.,
1955 – Namur, Belgium,
1955 – Rosetta, Kwa-Zulu Natal – 'The Drakensberg Photos',
1965 – Tulsa, Oklahoma,
1966 – Roaring River, Missouri,
1967 – Calgary, Alberta,
1967 – East Woonsocket, Rhode Island,
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS AND BEYOND (1970s–80s),
1970 – Tagish Lake, Yukon Territory,
1971 – Lake Cote, Costa Rica,
1974 – Albiosc Tavernes, France,
1976 – Canary Islands, Spain,
1978 – Colfax, Wisconsin,
1981 – Vancouver, British Columbia,
1987 – Gulf Breeze, Florida,
1987 – Waterbury, Connecticut,
THE X FILES (1990s),
1989–1990 – The Belgium Triangles,
1991 – Grangemouth, Scotland,
1992 – Tepoztlan, Mexico,
1993 – Meridian, Idaho,
1993 – Ocotlan, Jalisco, Mexico,
1996 – Szabolcs-Szatmar, Hungary,
EVERYONE'S GOT A CAMERA (Latest sightings),
2001 – Foster City, California,
2001 – Mammoth Mountain, California,
2003 – Plymouth, Devon,
2003 – Weyauwega, Wisconsin,
2004 – Big Bear Mountain, California,
2004 – Copalar, Chiapas and the State of Campeche, Mexico,
2004 – Provo Canyon, Utah,
2004 – Sri Lanka,
2004 – Taipei, Taiwan,
2004 – Ticul, Yucatan State, Mexico,
2005 - Avare, Brazil,
2005 – Kaufman, Texas,
2006 – Sierra de la Ventana, Buenos Aires,
2006 – Ipiales, Colombia,
2006 – Kaufman, Texas,
2007 – Escondido, California,
2007 – Moonta, Australia,
2007 – Oregon,
2007 – Texas,
2008 – Winnipeg, Manitoba,
2008 – Galacia, Spain,
2008 – Indiana,
2009 – Costa Rica,
2009 – Ely, Cambridgeshire,
2009 – Estonia,
2009 – Lake Havasu, Arizona,
2009 – London,
2009 – Long Beach, California,
2009 – North Carolina,
2009 – Palmerston, Queensland,
2009 – Telford, Shropshire,
2009 – Texas,
2009 – Turkey,
2009 – Wurzburg, Germany,
2010 – Acojeja, Tenerife,
2011 – Sydney–Melbourne Flight,
2011 – Mackinaw Island, Michigan,
2011 – Nashville, Tennessee,
2011 – South Kearny, New Jersey,
2011 – Texas,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS,
PICTURE CREDITS,