Subject: Re: They Came From Outer Space - Or Did They?
Date: Nov 19 23:45:33 1997
From: Michael Price - mprice at mindlink.bc.ca
Hi Tweets,
James Easton writes, re UFO's:
>On 24 June, 1947, Kenneth Arnold, a successful salesman and
>experienced search and rescue pilot, took off in his small plane from
>Chehalis, Washington en route to Yakima. Close to Mineral, Washington
>and about 25 miles from Mount Rainier, he noticed a formation of 9
>unusual objects flying from north to south.
(snip)
>"They didn't fly like any aircraft I had ever seen before...The elevation
of the first craft was greater than
>that of the last. They flew in a definite formation but erratically.
>...Or maybe it would be best to describe their
>flight characteristics as very similar to a formation of geese,
(snip)
>Arnold dismissed geese as an explanation due to the reflective nature
>of the objects and his estimate of their speed and distance.
(snip)
> At the time I did not get the
>impression that the flashes were emitted by them, but rather that it
>was the sun's reflection from the extremely highly polished surface
>of their wings".
>Arnold dismissed geese as an explanation due to the reflective nature
>of the objects and his estimate of their speed and distance.
Arthur C. Clarke recounts in one of his 1960's nonfiction books (Profiles of
the Future'?) a similar sighting of 'skipping saucers' off the coast of Sri
Lanka that (as he knew they would) turned out to be gulls with sunlight
reflecting off the water onto their underwings where it was alternatively
visible and invisible in a regular pulsating pattern.
This isn't an uncommon sight, either, though it usually requires a
particular set of conditions. First, calm water; second, low sunrise or
sunset angle to the light; third, a slightly distorting horizon heat-haze
sometimes enhances the illusion but it's not mandatory; fourth, the birds,
usually gulls, moving along the horizon need to be flying just off the water
and to be sufficiently far off that the observer can't make out any features
on them including shape. Seen it a ton of times. and I expect one could see
it at virtually every seaside in the world where distant gulls fly over
brightly-lit water.
So, on to Mr. Arnold's description that started this whole damn thing about
UFO's (part of my misspent youth was spending a few thousand hours as an
amateur astronomer and I never got to see even one UFO that really baffled
me, he grumbled). Given the location, 25 mi off Mt Rainier's glacial sides,
ice would be a great substitute reflector and would easily blast enough
sunlight back up onto birds' underwings to make them reflect very brightly.
Just look at the excruciating whiteness of the underwings of an adult
white-headed gull such as a Herring or Glaucous-winged flying over snow on a
sunny winter day.
Given the time of year, and that, if Arnold *were* looking at birds whether
or not he knew it, what would they likely be? Canada Geese come to mind
immediately, most other large waterfowl being in the North, and he mentions
geese as a possibility. But what would Canada geese be doing high up over Mt
Rainier in late June? Heading for a molting lake, probably. Could they
reflect that much light? Certainly, particularly if over ice. How about
gulls? Well, which gulls are likely then? It's a little ways inland, so
Glaucous-winged Gull isn't likely, but California Gull would be.
The formation's possible: gulls may fly in ragged 'V's, but they don't
necessarily maintain uniformity in the vertical as they might in the
horizontal, and so gulls might fly in the formation Arnold describes.
There's another possible candidate species in the area at that time of year
(sporadically) whose color, size, flight profile and proclivity for
formation flight at sometimes quite high altitude would even more produce
*every* detail of the phenomenon which Arnold observed: a flock of non- or
failed-breeder southbound White Pelicans. They'd have been large enough to
visible for a good distance, they fly in formation, and if the light were
reflecting just right off a large nearby glaciated peak, their comparatively
vast white underwing area would reflect a *ton* of light in exactly the
pattern described by Arnold.
I'd submit that the hypothesis of a small southbound flock of failed- or
non-breeder American White Pelicans observed by someone unfamiliar with
underwing reflectivity would provide the same phenomena and be at least as
good an alternative possibility than seeing artifacts from another planet.
Darn it.
>Appreciating this is perhaps something of an unusual query to the
>list
And a pleasure to think about. Lots of fun. Thanks, James!
Michael Price We aren't flying...we're falling with style!
Vancouver BC Canada -Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story
mprice at mindlink.net