Strangers From The Skies - Brad Steiger-pages

Page 110 of 128

Page 110 of 128
Strangers From The Skies - Brad Steiger-pages

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gas." Weston Vivian, a Democratic Congressman from Michigan, conferred with Sheriff Harvey and other citizens of the area and planned to ask the Defense Department to investigate the strange sightings after similar objects had been reported in the skies over Michigan three times within the week. As usual, official reactions were skeptical. Dr. Allen J. Hynek, an astrophysicist from Northwestern University and special consultant for the U.S. Air Force, dismissed the Michigan sightings as "swamp Sightings of the strange lights came from other areas besides Michigan. R. D. Landversicht, an Ohio Highway patrolman, reported seeing strange lights approaching Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. An amateur photographer, Landversicht photographed the object and turned the film over to Air Force officials at Wright-Patterson. But this was not the first attempt at photographing the strange lights. In Michigan, another unidentified photographer tried his luck at recording the flying objects on film. Hynek, the astrophysicist from Northwestern, said that the photographs, "without any question" were time exposures of the rising moon and the planet Venus. In a letter to the editors of the Cedar Rapids, lowa Gazette, Robert Lynn, of the same city and associate Member of NICAP, pointed out that Hynek's statement about the photograph was untenable. "Help!" Lynn began. "Someone get Dr. Hynek, astrophysicist and Air Force scientific consultant, an almanac. In Friday and Saturday night's paper, he states that the photograph taken in or near Ann Arbor on the 16th (or 17th - both dates were given for the same photograph) is "without any question," a time exposure of the rising moon and the planet Venus. The photograph was taken at 3:30 A.M. "One source says that on the 16th the moon rose at 3:37 A.M. Another source gives an additional two minute margin for these days. In either case, the photo was taken BEFORE the moon rose. "Let's say that the photo was taken on the 16th (moon rose at 3:37 A.M.) Considering the length of the trail of the 'ten minute’ exposure, the object had been over the horizon for approximately 40 minutes (assuming that the object maintained a uniform speed).