Form
97-AR
Date: Saturday, 04 Feb 2006
Animal Reaction Feature:
The dog present during the sighting is a male mixed breed, about 5 years old. The background description of his temperament indicates he has timid aspects to his personality. He is sound sensitive to loud noises and does not alarm-bark if someone comes to the door or into the driveway. He is reportedly stressed when left alone.
Unable to sleep, the witness, a retired male, 48, was sitting on his front porch with his dog. The dog became very agitated, whining and circling and wanting very much to go inside the house. Simultaneously, the witness felt a tingling feeling on his head and hair. The witness looked up and saw a uniformly green glowing chevron-shaped object moving silently north to south beneath low clouds. He estimated its altitude at 500 feet and reported the object passed by about 100 feet to his right.
The dog calmed down shortly after being let inside the house.
The witness’s description of the dog’s behavior during the sighting fits perfectly with his description of the dog’s normal, everyday behavior. In other words, for this particular dog, its reaction during the sighting is exactly what one would expect.
The Sighting: The sighting was reported to NUFORC. I thank Peter Davenport for helping me contact the witness. The NUFORC report is at:
http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/044/S44004.html
From July 18, 2005, to July 21, 2005, the witness sent 7 emails responding to my questions and giving details of his sighting. On July 21 the witness broke off communication due to some personal problems, and I was unable to obtain a drawing of the object or to better understand the duration estimate. My full report follows:
3 AM
Location of Sighting: The witness was at his home in a rural area located about 4 miles NW of Carlisle and about 20 miles west of Harrisburg PA. The topography of the sighting area ranges from about 450 to 500 feet above sea level. The front range of the Appalachian Mountains curves around the area with mountain tops ranging from 1200-2000 feet. Blue Mountain curves from the SW to NE, and it is located from 15 miles to the west to 3 miles to the north of the sighting location. South Mountain is about 8 miles south of the sighting location. Toward the east, the topography begins to flatten toward the Piedmont Plateau.
Weather: Particular attention was paid to the topography because the nearest hourly weather obtainable was from Harrisburg, 20 miles to the east. The witness’s observations of the weather did not match the hourly surface weather reported by the Harrisburg weather station, so local topography and potential effect on weather conditions were of interest.
Based on the hourly surface weather reports (NOAA) from Harrisburg Airport, May 8 was partially sunny, breezy 7-15 knots coming from NW to NE and with low humidity. By May 9, a weak front from southwest appeared to move through. At the time of the sighting, 3 AM, on May 9, surface wind was calm with no speed or direction recorded, but by 4-5 AM, light winds were from WSW. With the change in wind direction, relative humidity also changed, increasing from readings of 30-35% at midnight on May 8 to 66% at 3 AM on May 9, and peaking at 74% at 6AM. Skies at Harrisburg were reported clear with unlimited visibility for all of May 8 and 9.
However, the witness reported a cloud deck at an estimated altitude of 1000 feet at 3 AM. He reported that there was no rain, no wind, and no lighting or thunder. It is not unreasonable that the weather north of Carlisle was affected by the local mountain topography interacting with a more humid air mass associated with the shift in wind from roughly north to WSW.
The moon was new on May 8, and on May 9, 2% of the visible disc was illuminated. On May 9, moonrise was 6:28 AM, and so the moon was not a factor in this event.
Duration: 3 minutes
Witness: This is a single witness sighting. The witness is a retired, 48 year-old male. He reported that he felt unnatural dread immediately before seeing the object (his dog was already demonstrating unease-fear), and feels what he saw was of “evil intent.”
Before the May 9 sighting, the witness reports one previous sighting in 1967 when he observed a bright light for 30 minutes as he traveled the Pennsylvania Turnpike. After May 9, he reported a sighting on June 9, 2005 (of high altitude flashes) that he also posted to NUFORC See: http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/044/S44418.html
He further volunteered that he has had no missing time experiences, indicating some familiarity with the current UFO scene.
The witnesses descriptions of his location and topography were very accurate when checked with Google Earth and USGS topo maps, and his observations of his dog and its behavior were very clear, reasonable, and consistent. His descriptions of the unknown and of its path were clear and unvarying through a series of questions and clarifications.
The Object: As stated in the animal reaction section, the witness and his dog were sitting on their front porch. When the dog became upset and the witness felt a tingling sensation, he look up to his right and saw a luminous green object, circular in the center with pointed wings to the side. On the NUFORC form, he indicated its shape to be “chevron.” The object had a greenish glow similar to that of a luminous green watch dial. The color was even and unchanging in brightness. The edges of the object were fuzzy, not clearly defined. When asked if this could be a result of the object being in the clouds (rather than under them), the witness answered that he was sure that it was below the clouds. He said despite the haziness, he felt the object was solid. He added that its shape was very distinct, “perfect in its dimensions,” but the edges were fuzzy. He thought the object seemed to be made of light, but then again stressed its solidity. Other than the glow, there were no body lights or other lights seen. There was no sound.
Object’s path: The witness estimated an altitude of 500 feet under a 1000-foot cloud base, and the nearest distance to him as 100 feet. He described the object as “gliding” as it moved north to south. No changes of speed or direction were reported.
The 3-minute duration of the sighting and the drawing were being addressed when the witness broke off contact. A 3-minute duration would imply a very slow moving object. On the other hand, when witnesses reconstruct their sightings under a stopwatch, my experience has been the initial estimates are frequently overestimates.
Joan Woodward
Fairfax VA
sky.cat@att.net