PROJECT BLUE BOOK

——

PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD

Je

t.

DATE

-
; '

LT A hate tee eet e-utioe

DATE-TIME G20UP

Local wae

2. LOCATION 12.
Vi :3 ni cy l¢ in gt 4 c ar Boy VPS it r} o

e ’ . ea ’ ye | . sa is]. oO

CMT

4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION

———$————|

0) Ground-Rodar n

T. i

O Ground- Visual
o AirVissal =" O) Alr-interceot Redar 0

CONCLUSIONS

Was Balloon
Probably Balloon
Po asibly Balloon

Was Alecroft
Probably Aircraft
Possibly Aircrals

C FORM 329 (7? 2V 24 SHP $2)

: = aa Na tA ne ab tl lata stele
5. PHOTOS - SOURCE O Wes Astronomical
O Yes i 04 1 Sdn rene O Probobly Astronomical inthe
D Ne WEL ADORE J O Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF C4SER2VATION | 3. NUMBER OF CSBJECTS | 9. COURSE ee
| O) Insufficient Deta for Evaluation
-+ min one ra ‘ont O Unknown
iO. BRIEF SUMMA2Y OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
pherical, moonsized object oscilla ing ina © is concluded that refraction of the
rapid ascent with all colors c? the spectrun. plonet Jupiter was r nsidle ni
creasing s‘fze,. sigaving. It is n unusual for “act
2Stronomical i -& to give the :
. , awe - ve 4 } 7? >
oF ming raigat up. The ; " i
oY the witne ia characteristic of
object ” torted bv 95Dhe 74 "th
- bed by xc her: ra
tion.

No Case (Information Only) 21 September 1950

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

On Sevtember 21 at Edmonton, Alberta, Canada three vitnesses

watched & silvery disc—shuped UFO maneuver over

the area. One
mitness stated: "The wierd thing tias that we could cee red and biu

flames coming from it now and then,”

oe vee

SE tr

el

a

=e

Ss:

i i ee

experiment has five detectors: 1. A 7-30-
micton senor to measure the infrared
radiation of the earth and its atmos.
phere combined. 2. A more sensitive
Slfinkron unit for a “window™ where
the cloudless atmosphere is transparent,
This device will give temperatures of
cloud tops or of the carth’s surface, de
pending on local weather conditions. 5.
\ monitor for a narrow band near 6.3
nicrons, Where water vapor midiates
tt my.

1 A wite-band unit covers the spec
trum from the ultraviolet to the near in-
frared, O02 to five microns, to measure
the carth’s albedo. \ photocell sensi-
tive in the visible region from 0.5 to
0.7 micron prov ces data to correlate the
ether four sensar readings with the tele-
vision pictures. This is needed because
the cameras are set parallel to the spin
aris of the satelite, while the sensors are
canted 45 degrees to the anis, so the
rotution will cause them to sweep strips
of the earth below ther.

The secoml radiation experiment has
two sensers: one white. the other black.
heat balance of the
earth's area that is scanned bv the wide-

Surface observations from

lhese measure che

ungle camera
ut least 1S nations are to be correlated
with the pictures and other information
from the satellite.

An important new method of control:
ling the orientation of the spin axis is
being tested with Tiros Tl. Surrounding
its base is a coil of alurninum wire chat
can be energized by ground command,
thus making the satellite act as a magnet.
his interaction ‘with the earth's magnetic
field will produce a torque causing
body to precess. In addition, there are
five pairs of smail spin rockets. On the
third dav in orbit, two sets were fired

to imrease the spin rate of Tiros I!

from about cight to 15.9 revolutions per
rmiiece

Phe chief prowmd stations tiaintaming
coutact with this satellite are at Fr
Monmouth, New Jersey, and San Nicolas
Islam, California. Besides the three-watt
transmitter, this ‘Tiros has two 2551+
megacyele units for the television cameras
an? two low-power tracking beacons op-
crating at frequencies of 108.00 and
108.05 miecacycles.

In addition to the payload and its final
rocket stage, two more parts, designated
<3 amd xt, are being followed by Space
Prack. Possibly these are the weighted
cables used for reducing spin after orbit
was attained.

The inclination of the orbits of all
of these is about 48.6 degrees to the plane
of the earth's equator. They had initial
periads of revolution from node to nexle
of 98.19, 98.14, 98.17, and 98.52 minutes,
for <1, <2, <3, and <4, respectively. The
first of these, the Tiros IL satellite pack
age itself, had perigee and apogee heights
initially amounting to about 380 and 463

miles

Discoverara XVIT
\JOR IMPROVEMENTS in space

technology were tested for the first
time with the Discoverer NVIT launching
from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Cali-
fornia on November 12, 1960, at 20:42:53
Universal time. This was called “the most
successful operation in the Discoverer
series” by the U.S. Air Force Ballistic
Missile Division, following the airplane
recovery of the re-entry capsule after more
than two days in space
The orbiting vehicle was an enlarged
improved rocket. The Agena B, 25 feet
long and weighing 15,500 pounds, is more
than six feet longer and 7,000 pounds
heavier than the Agena A. ‘The most im-

“DIAMETER OF VENUS

The precise size of the planet Venus
has long been somewhat uncertain, for
measurements of its cisk with ordinary
micrometers are subject to many kinds oi
systematic error. \loreover, all direct op-
tical determinations of the diameter refer
not to the solid surface of the planet, buc
to the heavy laver of —ouds enshrouding
it. A mew and much sore reliable result
has now been cerived from visual, photo-
graphic, and photoelectric observations of
the occultation of Aegulus by Venus on
July 7, 1959 (see page 483 of SKY AND
Tecescorr for July, 1959, and page 606,
September, 1959).

‘The data from two doven observatories
in the Fastern Hemisphere were used by
CG. de Vaueouleurs and D. H. Menzel of
Harvard Observatory, who report their
results to the British journal Nature.

\s the planet passed in front of the
star, the latter disappeared and reap-
peared eraduaily — because of differential
refraction of its light by Venus’ atmos-

phere. The Harvard astronomers chose
for the duration of the occultation the
interval berween times of half brightness.
This gave a value of 12,530 kilometers for
the diameter of an atmospheric shell some
65 kilometers above the planet's clouds.
For the solid clobe of Venus, if the cloud
top is 27 kilometers above the surface, as
the temperature data suggest, the diame-
ter is 12,146 kilometers (7,547 miles), with
an uncertainty of about 12 kilometers.
This is 0.952 the mean diameter of the
earth, and differs little from the best
previous data.

CORRECTION

On page 329 of the December, 1060,
issue, the number of solar llores thac had
been catalogued up to the end of 1956 is
given as 458, This figure, however, refers
only to flares of inportance 2 4- or greater;
it does not include the more numerous
lesser events ol unportance Land 2 ELI
Bondy, Flushing, New York, quotes M
Waldmeter as saying that 927 fares were

observed from 1955 to PDb4.

portant advance was its new engine
which permits doubling the buirnin tttne
In the corlver model, thre tlereeat jncorale
was plied to stistain seurlevel pressuce
uot combustion began, but in the mew

design an initial squirt of oxidizer inte

the chamber provides the needed pressure

for spontancous ioinonw of the fuel
Chis firing method permits @ second start
in space when NeCeSsAly

Special attention was given to stabilizing
the Avena vehicle, with Apparent sue
cess. When the Discoverer XVII capsule
was releaed ou the Sist revolution, it
descended in plain view of four C119 ais
planes, one of which snatched it in mid-
air. More elaborate equipment Dow per
mits complete control over initiating the
Discoverer recovery sequence, instead of
relying oni preset Prograttis 4s previcntis
Discoverers hal

NV ee

launched soon after a very intense solat

Fortuitously, Discoverer
flare had erupted, so the experimental
material in the SOO-pound capsule was
subjected to some exceptionally heavy
radiation. Biological specimens included
a preparation of the human protein
amena globulin, cultures of human tis-

wae. A radiation

Fs)

sites, moll spores, and al
dosimeter and a pack ol photographic
emulsions for recording nuclear particles
also were aboard.

The Avena continues to travel in an
orbit inclined 81.86 degrees to the earth's
19605, its initial

period was 96.5 minutes, with perigee

equator, Known 25

and apogee heights of 115 and 618 miles

Sputntk VI

A HER animalcarrying spaceship
was placed in ortit by the Soviet
Union, according to Russian press reports
of last December Ist. The cabin was simi-
lar to the one successfully retrieved on
August 20, 1960 (see Sky axon TeLescore
for October, page 201, and November,
page 274)

Like Sputnik V, the vehicle carried two
dogs and other animals and plants. It
weighed 4,563 kilograms, a littl more
than five tons. Its initial period was 88.6
minutes in an orbit inclined 65 degree
to the equator, according to Soviet scien
ISts

Space Track figures give initial peri
gee and apogee heights of only Llo and
160 miles, respectively, for Sputnik Vi
(1UO0s1) with similar values for its launch
ing rocket (196052). Several hours after
Space Track announced that the former
was no loner in orbit, Soviet sources con
firmed that an attempt had been made
io recover the cabin on December “nd,
during its 8th revolution, but that ic had
burned up on re-entry, The rocket also
entered the atmosphere either that day or

carts on Tex ember iret
MARSHALL AMIELIN

Khesearch Station for Satellire Observation

wep @ 2 box } ( mobridee - ‘ass.

far deity LOOT. SKS ANI Leu ' atl .

id
HORIZON
EAST NORTH
Sel & —
SOUTH — WEST
= ~DRIZON
bee.

The author here identifies the features
mentioned in this article, the sun be-
ing 34 degrees high, at 2:15 pan. EST,

plays is a ring of 22 degrees radius around
the sun or moon, This ring is colored
red on the inside, changing to yellow and
then white on the outer edge. It is caused
by refraction of Hohe through hexawonal
needlelike ice crsstals which sometimes
occur in thin cirrus clouds. Associated
phenomena, although les conunon, are

surmilogs or purhelia, 22

to MO degrees te
the right und lett of the sun, and vertica!
sun pillars, The event did
have these patterts, but dict show several
rare, almost unique, features.

At 2.00 pan. Lastern standard time I
was alerted to the halo complex by Wil-
bur Widmer, and proceeded to photo
eraph and sketch it, Kodachrome file
was teed with a Miranda camera having
a wileangle Trasegon Jens of 35-rn00.
focus. The exposures were 1/60 secon,
at ft) toward the sun and at £/8 away
from it. “The color transparencies show
more detail than noticed visually, and also
tllow angular measurements to be made.

Lhe prominent feature was
ring arowml the sun, labeled A in me
sketch. It rculur, nor was the

reecenm not

thivest the

Was tof

sin centered vertices vithin it. dts top
With 22 devress trom ove sun, the rieght

tml Jete sides $0 deorees, amd the bateam
28, From tuside out, its colors were red,
white, In the sketeh, ring
A is drawn from the photographs and
broom Viscal observations by Mr. Widmer,
Felis Yokel, Donald) Richardson, Eliza
beth Lyerhart, wud myself. The first two
of these tact watehed the display for
seveTal hows, and reported that the ring

vellow, ancl

Wars Circular wt fitet, becoming distorted vs
the chav progressed

Lhe proetslion shape ol rie A wos the
tiest toovel feature of the tlinplay, site
it is either in tun.
phreys' hook or it Mo Minnaert’s The
Native of lacht and Cotas an the Oy

thet ghverit ioe

tir (1994). They refer to the efrenm.
sorbed hate formed ty upper and lower
tome anes te the 2 leeree hula, aid
this has a borizontal extent varving with
the altinnde of the stn. But
scvilwal tate stile [hie po dleerees above
anal the sun, ond this dues rot
agiee with the observations of ring A.

In the original negative of the lower
peture Opposite. there is an indistinet
bowndary of 224leeree radius outside of
Which the sky is brighter, ‘Uhiis TD
ou several other tramparencies, and was
tle seen by Mr. Richardson. Marked B
nt the drawing, it is possibly a trace of
the 224lesree hale,

The white parhelic circle, C, passed
throgh the sun and extended com-
pletely astound the sky. parallel to the
horizon. Tt is cauwed by reflection from
tise verticgl Laces of ice crystals, Rows D
wit E are secatled infralaceral tangent
“ics to the halo of 16 cewrees, caused hw
refraction from ice crystals with horizontal
axe. They were brightly colored with
red nearest the sun, followed by yellow,
green, and white in that order. Though
the ti-deyree halo itself was mising when
the photegraplis were taken, a faintly
wlored arc of it, F, was seen brietly a
few hours earlier by Mr. Yokel, John
Landry, and G. Lauria,

a cipoum

below

Mr. Everhart’s many
photographs of the Sep-
tember l7th halo phe-
nomena included this
one of the intersection
of the noncireular are
(Upper left) with the
hortvontal parhelic cir
cle (above center), while
part of a tungwent are
shows in the lower right.
The sun is to the lefe
(out of the picture).
The side of the tangent
are D> tearest it was
bright red, and looked
like « rainbow except
that there was oo blue,
this color being replaced
by white, The somallest
distance from the are to
the sun was measured
by the author as 15 de. i .
grees. plus or mints two és
degrees, This value
agrees well with the 16

degrees expected, as ‘.

Another photograph showed 4 briehe
resien G. bi degrees fone, centered on
the \? dhelic Gieele about Po Hlexrees fren
the: fhis may huve been an clon.
eto won ciffase parhelion of (20 de

sore

trees, but was nat observed visually.

Phe very tare aothelion of countersun
peared at HL, Opposite the sum ou the
portelic circle. Ut
spectacular St

(eoteread on a
\nulrew's

Wels
CYoss, white
ututtist the blue sky, boting only 15 ovine
tes. Oblique ares f ana J. forming the
cross, stretche! ssrmetrically across the
sky on cither side of the veuith, nearly
to ring A. Visually, it clid not seem that
they wentskl pass, if extender, through the
sun, nev did they approach At itrentially,

\bout 20 deprees below the ativelion,
hallway to the horizon, was a white are
K. ft arched slightly downwanl to the
northwest horizon. aod apparentive was
thot centered on the antisolar point below
the hovizon. 1 have not seen any printed
telereme ta such a feature, which tary
not have been a halo.

\t 2:50 pan, the entire complex sud-
lenly faded, and the sky quickly became
covered with tutes of otvocumultus clouds.

ED. NOTE: Herbert A. Luft, Oakland Gar-
lens, New York, also reported this display
(see page 29).

‘ . > ' Pd
. & «4 *
- " :
“ wwe ae S rial iP
—- + : 4 4 4
a 3> 4 = Fes bh : a |
6 4 hte . . ‘ ery | Phy ~ i
~ a ’ Ss . a oe. * .
¥ ~ w -
— eae . cs 4
= 4 " 7 —
. o> }..*0 ‘
7 =
ea es _ ” rae . . oe
we ** . wt ‘
*4 ie - 4 eee
é -
.
. . .
‘; 24s »
-

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oo -

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>.

See Sigs ee
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Ly

3v

bie dare
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rrTe oo une

"Re

Mercury appears as a small round dot pear the top of the sun's disk, a halt
inch inside the solar outline, William C. \tkinson, New York City, took this
halfsecond exposure on Kodak Autopositive film at 15:36:03 Universal time.
His instrument was w tj-inch Newtonian reflector, The large summpet at the
right was nearly central during the great November aurora (see page 37)

ELESCOPES across half the world from the approximate formulae on page
viewed and photographed Mercury's oof the american Ephemeris for 1060
pissige in troae of che sun's disk on in using those equations, the conversion
November 7, 1960, Reports have been from Ephemeris to Universal time has
received by SKY AND Tet SCOPE al obser-
vations made in western hurope, North

and South America, and as far across the

. Ors § he ‘ ;
Pacific as Australia. t ree, bas eget
. vs .

NIny correspondents had devoted par
; '

titular attention to timing the contacts

the four st wes of the trunsit when the
disk of Mercury is tanvent to the solar
clisk their numerous observations are

talutated here, affording rich material for

strel\ ses.
Nee | ¢)ee% | ’ ] 4 ,
MEMTY SpenNitie Act is AM Ul
Observable event inary tele scapes

beite the moment when Mercury is ex
ternalls titeent to the sun. “The first
reougtitvon ol a visthle match ia the sun's
eilve ts necessarily later, by an unpre
cictable pitiepareie, \! several prey teeets
ir.tlisits however, Speci roscople CQ piney
tite foods arseel to slaw Mere ry ii sillwou
Ctie olettest the sojur Chines here print
feotisee forat comtuct, allowine + useful

tesserae wl i! > cvent,

Listed here are 18S) timines ol the

st vit SIR baal PERI“  Se we = mem
iho

from Mercury’s

Transit

Joseru ASHBROOK

heen taker ws — 55 secotiuls,) Lastly, for
each observation, the difference between
the observed and the omputed tines fs
given under the healing O — C.

A number of observations, sone of ex
cellent quality, were received too lave four
inclusion in this analysis. A few very dis.
conlant results were omitted: the titties
may have been iacorrecth troamscrthed
NII titnings listed are belis ved te have been
thade with the aid of WWY oy ¢ TIC! raclios
tune signals, or thei equivalent

The large table gives the observers’ Jo
cautious in order of low titucle. Limitations
ofl Spice do Theat porte Thactinny of time
keepers and assistants, even though thes
plaved a vital part in the success of the pro-
fram, Also, certoin reports from groups
listed onuls WVeTaces rel fivet of tch ili
vidual’s timings

For coutact If there ore 50 olserva
thers Few ¢ ntespor ‘letits mention fins
ty Oleerved the black drop. the dark
ligament sometimes seen connecting Mer
cury to the sun's edve for a brie interval
at this stave. The bulk of thea olwerva-
tions evidently refer to internal Lenwenes

Lett Vere + ET NED ETE ue

:

> * ; ~

pga Pm a
Le . > ®
a Ua ae

. >

?

At Macalester College, St. Poul, Minnesota, students used the horizontal tele.

other Ceolitiac ts, t Nps syweal ts | niversal Se Ope Utalgentent shown ou the frome cover to obtuin n large prrerypers ten! umhige
tines. Por each, the predicted time for of the sun, allowing ‘stronomy ipstrauctor Sherman Schule, Jt. to denier.
the olwerver’s location has been computed

’ ti
hy “Sle ¥ Nie | it ‘ rh. jay ett . j ty

strate the November transit to Over 200 perserns,

No Case (Information Only)

17 September 1960
New Berlin, Wisconsin

HAAN YPPOUCHE A) 0a