UFO ROUNDUP Volume 2 Number 9
Volume 2 Number 9
March 2, 1997
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
DAYLIGHT DISC SEEN IN NORTHERN MINNESOTA
A silver-gray saucer was seen in broad daylight in Hermantown, Minnesota at 1:40 p.m. on Monday, February 24, 1997.
The UFO appeared over Minnesota Highway 53 in Hermantown, just west of the Lakes 8 Cinema and Wal-Mart. Hermantown (population 6759) is a suburb of the port city of Duluth, located at the western end of Lake Superior.
The UFO was witnessed by over 10 people, including Dave Briscoe, Minnesota state director of Skywatch International. Briscoe described the object as "the craft was 'oval-saucer' shaped and silver-grey in color."
"I was about seven miles away by vehicle," Briscoe reported. "And I saw the object for approximately three minutes. Other witnesses said they saw it for about fifteen (minutes). Reports said that it had simply 'appeared' from what they could tell and hovered, not making any type of sound, or other movement."
"No lights could be seen from the ground," he added, "but I did notice dark points marking the 'side' which was later confirmed by other witnesses. I could see four from my vantage point. The other witnesses could not tell if there were more or not."
The saucer took off toward the northeast, Briscoe reported, towards the Duluth airport "and then after just a fraction of a second in that direction, went straight up and out of sight. Speed was incalculable at this point."
(Thanks to Dave Briscoe and Skywatch International for this story.)
UFO SEEN HOVERING ABOVE OHIO NUCLEAR PLANT
On Thursday night, February 27, 1997, at 10:30 p.m., Mrs. Brenda Girty spotted a strange light motionless in the sky over the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio.
Mrs. Girty, who contacted both Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Ohio Highway Patrol, said the UFO resembled "a bright light that occasionally spurted flames" and "moved from side to side" and "was larger than an airplane."
At 12:05 a.m. on Friday, February 28, the witness got in touch with the Tri-States Advocates for Scientific Knowledge (T.A.S.K.) According to the group's public relations director Ken Young, T.A.S.K. investigators contacted the Sheriff's Departments of Scioto, Lawrence and Pike counties and were told that the departments had received no UFO reports.
However, T.A.S.K. investigators spoke to the dispatcher at the Ohio Highway Patrol barracks in Jackson County. The trooper reportedly confirmed that Mrs. Girty had registered a UFO report, adding, "A woman had stopped by the office a few moments earlier to report a UFO."
"He added that they had stepped outside, where they looked around for it," Young said. "He added that he felt she had seen 'a planet or star.'"
Piketon (population 1,726) is located on Route 23 in south central Ohio, midway between Portsmouth and Chillicothe. (Many thanks to Kenneth Young of T.A.S.K. for this report.)
METALLIC SPHERE SOARS OVER THE FLORIDA KEYS
On Monday, February 24, 1997, at 4 p.m., Mr. and Mrs. Kyle Ralston were driving on U.S. Route 1, also known as "the highway that goes to sea," in the Florida Keys, a chain of coral islands off the southern tip of Florida, when they spotted what they thought was "a balloon" in the bright cloudless sky.
As they passed mile marker 70, Ralston said, "My wife and I spotted what I thought was a balloon about 30 degrees toward the west. The object seemed to be silver with a metallic shine. It looked as if it was starting or had started to appear and disappear at regular intervals." The UFO vanished, and the couple searched the sky for it "without result."
Then "about two or three minutes later, we saw around 40 degrees to the west what appeared to be a comet, but a lot bigger, coming down real slow. This lasted for about five minutes, then it was gone."
When last seen, the "comet" was just north of No Name Key, speeding toward the Gulf of Mexico. (Email Interview)
UFO HOVERS AT NIGHT OVER SUBURB OF DETROIT
A Michigan couple spotted a large, two-tiered UFO over a Detroit suburb the night of Saturday, February 22, 1997.
According to Mr. L.F., the eyewitness, "We were driving north on the Southfield Freeway (Highway 39) from Allen Park into Detroit. (We) Saw the two bright lights from several miles' distance and clearly made out the double-tiered building design of the superstructure with red and yellow lights below, as we slowed and drove underneath the hovering craft in the area of Joy Road and Southfield (Highway 39, near River Rouge Park-J.T.) It was plain as day, clear as a bell, two rounded tiers, one atop the other, like the top of a wedding cake. This was set back and above the two blinding white lights, which I estimated to be 50 to 80 feet apart."
"I estimated the craft to be 300 to 500 feet (100 to 150 meters) in the air, probably closer to the 300 figure, maybe even less. Hard to estimate accurately with the black night background and the intensity of the lights at each end. They were so bright we couldn't make out the shape of the platform they were on. But the top structure was very clear, seen above and behind those lights."
The UFO, described as "metallic and gray," hovered "in the area with no movement, maybe a slight drift eastward every few minutes. Then it just disappeared as we drove directly underneath it." The witnesses drove up and down the Southfield Freeway for several minutes afterward, but the UFO was gone. (Email Interview)
BRITAIN'S ROSWELL CASE?
Ufologist Stephen Balon, 44, of Pinnington, Lancashire is trying to unlock a nearly 40-year-old UFO mystery--the Silpho saucer.
In December 1957, Fred Taylor and Frank Dickenson, both of Scarborough, a coastal city in North Yorkshire, were on a stroll through the moors east of town when they spotted "a red glowing object" in the night sky. The two men hurried back to Scarborough to pick up some torches (flashlights). Then they returned to Silpho Moor.
Shortly before midnight, Taylor and Dickenson found a smoking crater on the moor. Inside was a saucer. When the object finally cooled, the men dug it out and pried it open with a knife. Rolled up inside they found 17 pages of an unusual parchment or paper covered with indecipherable hieroglyphics.
The Ministry of Defence and RAF dismissed the "Silpho saucer" as a "hoax." Metallic analysis revealed the saucer to be made of "copper or some unusual alloy of copper."
When the furor died down, the saucer and the 17 pages came into the possession of Anthony Parker, a Scarborough solicitor (lawyer). Parker passed away recently, and now Stephen Balon wants to find the long- filed-away artifacts.
"I think it may have been mislaid after Mr. Parker died, but I am sure it is still somewhere in Scarborough," said Balon, a member of the Direct Investigations Group of Aerial Phenomena. "I know that this is the sort of subject that will attract a few nutters and cranks, but somebody must know where it is, and I would appeal to them to contact me."
Mr. Balon can be reached at this email address--m.atrix@zetnet.co.uk. Or by snail mail at Mr. Stephen Balon, 10 Woodlands Avenue, Pinnington, Leigh., Lancs. WN7 3HL, United Kingdom. (See the newspaper Scarborough Evening News for February 20, 1997.)
SKY GLOW DISRUPTS A WEDDING IN BRAZIL
On Saturday, February 15, 1997, at 8:30 p.m., photographer Carlos Pancieri was checking his videocamera and getting ready to shoot a wedding at a Roman Catholic church in the Pires district of Limeira, a city of 100,000 in Sao Paulo state, Brazil.
Pancieri was on the church steps with "at least 10 other people" when someone pointed out "a luminous object" above a nearby rooftop. As the UFO approached, Pancieri caught the object in his viewfinder and began shooting.
The UFO halted over the church tower "and began oscillating wildly." While the rest of the onlookers shouted, Pancieri kept shooting tape footage. The display lasted for five minutes, and then the UFO zipped away to the west.
Pancieri captured nearly the whole encounter on videotape. He said, "Within all my experience, I have never seen a phenomenon like this."
Limeira is 112 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of Campinas, S.P., where the Varginha aliens were reportedly detained for a few days back in January 1996. (See the newspaper Gazeta de Limeira for February 16, 1997.)
(Muito obrigado a Arivelson Gabriel para ese caso.)
ISRAELI UFOLOGIST WORKS ON UFO CHAT CHANNEL
Israeli ufologist Yechiel A. Mann has formally requested a channel on the Internet Relay Chat (IRC). The channel is on DALnet and is called #CSETI. It will allow members of the Center for Study of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence and other UFO buffs to communicate directly with each other.
According to Yechiel, ufologists "can download an IRC program, mlRC Version 4.72 (color version) and find out everything about mlRC but were afraid to ask at http://www.mlrc.co.uk. Or PIRCH can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Bourbon Street/1617." He also provided this list of DAL settings for interested viewers.
irc.dal.net orion.fl.us.dal.net
groucho.dal.net datashopper.dal.net
igc.dal.net liberator.dal.net
phoenix.dal.net toronto.dal.net
xgw.dal.net rator.ab.ca.dal.net
spider.dal.net durham.on.ca.dal.net
wizlink.fl.us.dal.net
wiznet.hub.fl.us.dal.net
ohana.hi.dal.net
trapdoor.ca.us.dal.net
webzone.uk.us.dal.net
farside.tx.us.dal.net
services.dal.net
java.ca.us.dal.net
mindijari.ca.us.dal.net
bunyip.nsw.au.dal.net
hebron.in.us.dal.net
cyberverse.ca.us.dal.netfrom the UFO files...
FLYING TRIANGLE OF 1950
One of the first reports of a triangular UFO took place 47 years ago, in the town of La Crescenta, California, north of Glendale and Los Angeles.
"On March 10, 1950, at 8:45 a.m., numerous residents of La Crescenta viewed a triangular object travel in a northerly direction toward Big Tujunga Canyon. Its altitude was estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000 feet (1,500 to 3,000 meters). Mrs. Ruby Lytle, one prime witness to the sighting, described the craft as having a gondola-shaped object attached to a light-colored hull. The object traveled slowly, with no audible noise, and she was positive it was neither a kite nor a weather balloon."
"At 8:30 p.m., on the same day, other residents including city communications operator William E. Smith, witnessed a revolving wheel-like object, complete with shiny spokes, sailing above Lockheed Air Terminal in Burbank, four miles (7 kilometers) south of Tujunga. It hurled southwest through the skies in a path directly away from Little Tujunga Canyon." (From the book THE TUJUNGA CANYON CONTACTS, page 139.)
(Editor's Comment: The two Tujunga Canyons have had numerous sightings in the past half-century, beginning with a silvery daylight disc seen there on May 2, 1949.)
FUN UFO WEBSITES
Like UFO stories? You'll find plenty to read at this site -- http://www.thepheasant.com/ufo/ufo.htm
For an in-depth study of the UFO and crop circles sighted in East Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada last autumn, check out UFO-B.C.'s site. They're at http://www.renaissoft.co./ufobc/
Another good stop is the Lighthouse Foundation. Their site is at http://www.angelfire.com/ca/thecaliforniasky/index.html
Randolph and Amanda Winters' Pleiadian Mission offers UFO books, UFO website links and a Health Mall. Check them out at the following URL: http://timelink.net/pleiades/
A "must see" stop is our parent site, UFO INFO. They're at http://ufoinfo.com/index.html
And for back issues of UFO ROUNDUP, try our page at http://ufoinfo.com/roundup/index.shtml
That's it for this week. If you have a UFO you want to report, email us at Masinaigan@aol.com.
If you see a UFO story in the newspaper, cut it out and send your clipping to our snail mail address:
Joseph Trainor
UFO ROUNDUP
2501 Leonard Street, Apt. 104
Duluth, Minnesota
USA 55811-2964
See you next Sunday. Here's wishing all our readers a happy and productive week from..."the paper that goes home, UFO ROUNDUP."
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1997 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO ROUNDUP on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of the newsletter in which the item appeared.
