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Eight Charting the Enigma At approximately 8:15 P.M. on Monday, April 25, 1966, a brilliantly illuminated object flashed across the Canadian border and sailed majesti- cally southward over the northeastern United States. It was seen by millions of people along the Atlantic seaboard. Astronomers and amateur photographers took excellent color pictures of it, some of which were later published in Life, Newsweek, and newspapers all across the country. It was so bright that it lit up the countryside like daylight as it arced gracefully overhead. ween need aded fend nn 2 eee THe At nat ae 22 It was quickly explained as a meteor. The explanation made sense to those who saw it, and so the whole incident was forgotten. However, I spent many months collecting reports of this object and assembling the whole story. Thousands of actual unidentified flying objects are erroneously explained away as meteors every year. Usually noone bothers to collect these meteor reports, lay them out on a map, and study them properly. Astronomers seem least interested of all. Meteors and comets are vitally important to our study of unexplained aerial phenomena. They reveal patterns which indicate that they follow precise routes year after year and even operate on a predictable timetable. This certainly suggests an intelligent plan of some sort. This plan is part of a larger one. I must stress once again that we cannot understand the broad spectrum of UFO events until we have studied each of the smaller parts. TL. The newspapers had quite a bit of fun with that 1966 meteor. It came right on the heels of the enormous nationwide UFO flap of March-April. Two men in Hector, New York, said that after the object passed over, they found rocks in their fields which were warm and ‘‘felt funny’? when they touched them. The rocks were turned over to the sheriff in Watkins Glen, New York, for examination. Mrs. Joseph Powlis was one of the thousands who watched the thing from New York City. She said, “I