UFOs in Reality (39 page)

The initial pilot study considered 174 good cases selected from processed data for the years 1957, 1977, 1990-1993 and 1995. (The reason for this selection is explained.). These cases had been previously processed (successfully) through PC programs created to simulate the programmed activity identified by the Theory. The inferred spacecraft approach and departure tracks (supposedly, two per event) which had been found (by computation) to be linked to the encounters in the atmosphere, were then examined to identify whether any solar system bodies might have been referenced to aid navigation during those operations. If two tracks had been identified for each event, and each track had referenced a single solar system body, then 348 referenced bodies would have been involved. In fact, 333 such links were discovered, but this number had been enlarged by conjunctions and oppositions on some occasions. A particularly surprising outcome from this exercise was that six comets had featured 90 times during the periods considered. On no less than 60 occasions those comets had been very closely referenced. A summary table of results is presented.

The positive results of the initial exercise stimulated a further, more specialised study, which is described
in the Appendix
. After 27 cases involving alleged encounters
with unidentifiable craft and their alien occupants
had been processed successfully through the PC programs, another solar system alignments exercise seemed to be a pertinent extension of the previous study. Given the smaller size of the data sample, it became possible to examine the outcome for each case in some detail. (In view of difficulties experienced by readers of the initial pilot study, it was decided to preface these results by diagrams explaining the astro-navigational nature of the Astronautical Theory. These diagrams are now referenced in the main part of the report.) As an afterthought, after the successful initial PC processing of the data provided for that case, it was decided to include the highly-controversial Roswell crash event at the end of this investigation.

Some of the results of this extra study are truly remarkable and seem to validate the suggestion that personal involvement of the ETI perpetrators, of the postulated automated global surveillance activity, occurs from time to time.

Introduction to the Theory.

Thirty years’ objective analysis and global synthesis of reported UNIDENTIFIABLE aerial objects, collected from a period of more than a century, resulted in the formulation of an Astronautical Theory for UFO Encounters. The logical process by which this was achieved and the subsequent proving activity are summarised below:-

• Technical analysis of selected British UFO reports during the period 1967 to 1973 had emphasised the
physical reality
of
the craft
being described by witnesses. Furthermore, an overview of the affected sites indicated that specific areas had been selected for close scrutiny during each period of activity.

• The objects had often been seen to descend from the sky and to return into it, with performance capabilities far beyond anything achievable by man-made craft. These observations implied that, since they had not been humanly-contrived,
the artefacts had originated from an extra-terrestrial source
.

• A database of selected cases, reported world-wide during the period 1885 to 1971, was then used to try to identify
modes of operation in space
which could have been linked with the observed aerial activity. This exercise was begun in 1973 and, by 1980, there were indications that a programmed surveillance and exploration activity had been carried on throughout that historical period.

• Further development during the 1980s resulted in definition of the programmed activity in the form of an
Astronautical Theory for UFO Close Encounters.
(Reports defined by Dr. J Allen Hynek
[Ref 7.1]
as Close Encounters (CEs) were preferred data, because the location of the observer could be regarded as being virtually the same as that of the object being described.)
Well-established approach and departure tracks in space were identified
– and those tracks were found to
be orientated celestially in any of four precisely defined ways.

*Key navigational
reference points on the Earth’s equator
were also identified, as were the
pre-set angular speed of transit
and the
East-to-West direction
of the approaching (albeit hypothetical) delivery and retrieval spacecraft. These features defined a predetermined set of
‘ground-track’ lines
, which were projected onto the Earth’s surface directly below the tracks followed in space.

• The four celestial orientations, plus the other characteristics just described, opened up the possibility that the
timings of future events at any location beneath the favoured tracks, might be predictable
. If this were to be tested by data not already in the database, then a positive result would, also, prove the validity of the global theory. A PC database was then created and special programs written to facilitate this proving work.
Almost 900 test cases later, the Theory has been very effectively proven.
In addition, direct observation groups, using the timing predictions, are reporting very high success rates.

•  

2. Further observations and development.

The four celestial orientations, mentioned above, consisted of two sets of spacecraft approach, or departure, tracks fixed relative to the stars; and two other sets connected with the Earth’s terminator, either at Sunrise or at Sunset. These latter sets moved round the sky, following the Sun, during any year. [See
Appendix Figs. 1 to 3
]

Close scrutiny of ten Close Encounter cases (which had also involved reported encounters with alien creatures) revealed that, during the days of those occurrences (1952 – 1988), major planets were positioned in the sky such that they were aligned with at least one set of star-related tracks. This led to the speculation that perhaps the planets (and, possibly, the Moon) were being used as navigational markers to facilitate the trips to and from the Earth. Clearly, much more processing would be required to check whether this feature was present on all other significant occasions. Furthermore, it raised the question of whether similar alignments would be found for the Sunrise and Sunset tracks.

The need to know where the sunrise and sunset orientated tracks intersected the Ecliptic Plane (the plane in space in which the Sun appears to move during a year, and which is approximately shared with the major planets) created more work. It was realised that the Sun-related tracks model, derived from the processing of the original data, linked those tracks directly with the Sun only at the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes. In fact, the defined tracks were keyed to the celestial meridian passing through the intersection of the terminator and the northern-most point on a 53° inclined track, on any day of the year. [See
Appendix Fig. 2
] A program then had to be created to calculate where the 53° sunrise and sunset tracks intersected the Ecliptic, before work could commence on the planetary alignments exercise. Tracks with other inclinations to the equator would then intersect the Ecliptic to the left or right of the nominal 53° intersection position in the sky, within a range of displacements of approximately +/- 1.0 hr of Right Ascension (R.A.).

3. The Pilot Study.

When the ‘stand-alone’ program had been written and tested, it was incorporated into the Correlated Tracks Database programs for each decade from 1950 onwards. Trial runs were then carried out for the years 1957, 1977, 1990-93 and 1995.

This choice was made to explore the effects of noticeable movements of the outer planets over the overall timescale and the year-to-year effects of changes in the positions of the inner planets. The search for aligned planets was carried out in the following way:-

Firstly, the program was run so that every track serving a UFO event (ie. that had been found to correlate with the timing of that event) was processed again. If that track had been identified as being linked, say, to the sunset terminator, then the azimuth intersection (R.A.) of a sunset-related track with the Ecliptic was printed out. The Opposition intersection position in the sky was also output. This procedure was followed for tracks with any of the other three orientations.

Next, using the output data from this program, commercial astronomical software (Expert Astronomer) had to be run and searched, visually, for planets and other solar system bodies lying in the intersection zones on the day and year of each UFO event, for each of the years given above. This turned out to be a long, tedious and testing exercise.

The numbers of processed and correlated UFO events for the chosen years, and the number of associated astro-links, were as tabulated below:-

In this table, the activity days apply only to those cases which were found to have astro-links associated with the tracks identified by the previous processing
. ‘Cases without astro-links’
gives the number of cases excluded and not affecting the figures given in the rest of the table.

The number of track orientations always exceeds the number of qualifying processed cases, because the program tries to identify
two tracks per event
– a closely-correlating track, which could be a delivery or retrieval track, and another track possibility within one hour of the reported time, which could have played a complementary role. The number of possible links with solar system bodies (astro-links) generally exceeds the number of track orientations because, on a considerable number of occasions, Conjunctions and Oppositions were indicated. This influence on the totals was, to some extent, offset whenever several events had occurred on the same day and had shared common astro-links.

After having processed all 274 track orientations and identified 333 alignments with solar system bodies, the next problem was to decide how to interpret the results. A table, listing all the correlated bodies and giving the number of times a given body had been aligned with each of the four track orientations, seemed to offer the most easily-understood presentation. It is presented here as
Table 2.

4. Interpretation of Table 2.

The four Track Orientations are given as headings – 11:00h RA, 21:30h RA , Sunrise and Sunset, respectively. Each heading has below it a column for each of the seven years considered – seven columns altogether, for each orientation. The list of solar system bodies, down the left-hand side, is a complete list of all objects found to be in, or approximately in, alignment with the tracks. To be considered as being in
Close
alignment, a body had to be within approximately 0.3h RA (4.5°, azimuth) of the target position. Bodies being situated further away from the target position were allowed to be up to 1.0h (15°, azimuth) displaced, especially, if the track inclination was other than 53°, but they were usually well within those limits.

Referring to the totals given in the table, the outstanding ones are shown underlined. They may be underlined because, either, the numbers of occurrences were large, or, the number of ‘Close’ alignments was a high percentage of the total for a particular body.

The Moon
seemed to have been referenced in all track orientations, with a total number of 22 references throughout the years considered.