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Researchers say photos show UFO
1238 01-30-89 12:11 aes
- GULF BREEZE, Fla. (UPI) _ UFO experts are debating the authenticity of photographs of an eerie cylindrical object glowing in the night sky over the Florida Panhandle town of Gulf Breeze.
- More than 135 residents in the past 18 months have reported seeing a strange craft hovering in skies over Gulf Breeze, the Tampa Tribune reported Sunday.
- One resident, asked to be identified only as "Ed," has produced photographs showing a cylindrical craft ringed with lights and what may be windows.
- The pictures have sparked a battle between two UFO investigating groups.
- The Mutual UFO Network, a 20-year-old group of scientists and layman researchers, believes Ed's pictures are real. The Center for UFO Studies, a non-profit group founded by the late astronomer J. Allen Hynek, does not.
- The network cites a 90-page study by Navy physicist Bruce Maccabee, who says Ed could not have fabricated such convincing photographs.
- "A professional magician would have a difficult time doing this," he said.
- The center relies on its researchers and on Robert Nathan, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He said the photos show glaring inconsistencies typical of double exposures.
- Mark Rodeghier of the Center for UFO Studies said the case has "deteriorated into a shouting match" between the two groups, and that the network's endorsement of the pictures biased Maccabee's study.
- "Except those intimately connected with the network, 90 percent of serious UFO researchers think (the) Gulf Breeze (case) is a hoax," Rodeghier said.
- But residents of the town of 6,000 think they know what they saw.
- "I was exhilarated," said Brenda Pollak, a City Council member who claimed to see a large, lighted craft twice in one night last spring over Pensacola Bay. "I can tell you now _ for every one person who has reported seeing the craft, there are 10 who talk about it but don't want anyone to know."
