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Eastlake Visitation:
Correspondence from researchers
Date: Thu Apr 7 20:52:04 1988 From: RICHARD P.
DELL'AQUILA (ab114) Subj: EASTLAKE UFO REPORTED BY
COAST GUARD
In a reply to a recent question from Dale Wedge,
Page Stevens has mentioned that an unusual UFO event
occurring over Lake Erie in early March was the result
of a misidentification of the planets Jupiter and
Venus which appeared close to each other in the night
sky.
Page mentioned that a Coast Guard report on the
incident "agrees fully" with the Venus/Jupiter
hypothesis. The report has been submitted to an
astronomer for his expert opinion as to whether the
Venus/Jupiter hypothesis adequately explains all the
phenomena described in the report by the Coast Guard
personnel, also reported by at least a half dozen
other independent witnesses.
The sightings, which have continued unabated for
the past month, have been reported by several
independent witnesses, one of whom took photographs.
The case is being investigated by Rick Dell'Aquila
(ab114) and Dale Wedge (ae511)
The document confirms that members of the Coast
Guard saw a group of strange objects cavorting on and
near the icy surface of Lake Erie. A local astronomer
attempted to explain the sightings as resulting from
the apparent conjunction of Jupiter and Venus in the
night sky, coupled with "spontaneous gas emissions"
caused by viewing the conjunction through the Earth's
atmosphere.
The incident involves large blimp-like object,
"larger than the Goodyear blimp," which released up to
a half dozen triangular-shaped lights and objects, in
close proximity to the Perry nuclear power plant and
Eastlake coal burng plant, and multiple independent
witnesses, apparent animal reactions, as well as
government documents, and hence qualifies for high-
priority. The case is officially classified as a Close
Encounter of the Second Kind.
The Coast Guard report for the following evening
suggests that the Coast Guard had misidentified the
planets Jupiter and Venus. I ask the astronomers on
this board, skeptical or otherwise, for their opinions
as to the adequacy of the Venus/ Jupiter hypothesis in
light of this report. Page, I ask you whether the
foregoing report "fully agrees" with the Venus/Jupiter
hypothesis, and also whether you believe that these
Coast Guard personnel, experts in their own way and no
doubt familiar with the night sky and celestial
navigation, could have so grossly misidentified the
planets for several hours.
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Date: Mon Apr 11 21:47:08 1988 From: RICHARD P.
DELL'AQUILA (ab114) Subj: TO THE ASTRONOMERS RE:
EASTLAKE UFO
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PROFESSIONAL SKEPTICS, RE:
UFO SIGHTING OVER LAKE ERIE OVER THE WEEKEND OF MARCH
4, 1988
It is understandable that a professional in any
occupation will have a reputation to preserve among is
or her peers, and that the desire to maintain that
professional reputation will sometimes require the
professional to defend indefensable positions (e.g.
"C.Y.A.") from which he cannot otherwise extricate
himself. It's okay guys, I understand. You out the
Venus/Jupiter hypothesis before the Coast Guard report
was released and now you are stuck with it for better
or worse.
I suspect that, being the professionals you are,
and given the natural curiosity which is the sine quo
non of the true scientist, your real opinions are very
different than those you publicly express. Anyway, for
the rest of us who remain willing to fairly examine
ALL the reported phenomena and express our true
opinions, it is now apparent that the professional
skeptics on this SIG have so commmitted themselves to
their position that the Eastlake UFO sighting of March
1988 was a misidentification of the planets, that it
is almost laughable to expect any thinking individual,
who has read the Coast Guard report of the sighting,
to accept the Venus/Jupiter hypothesis.
Frankly, a more honest response would have been a
simple, "I don't know what the Coast Guard saw that
night for 3-4 hours, it could have been
Venus/Jupiter."
But at least you had the fortitude to respond.
It is important that the subject of UFOs be
discussed openly without emotionalism or hysterics.
After all, we are free to disagree, hopefully in a
civil manner. I suppose yours is at least a more
straightforward approach than that taken by the sysop
of another Freenet SIG who, after inviting UFO
discussion, has elected to erase all UFO uploads from
his SIG and who, when all else fails, resorts to
name-calling as a torical device.
Well, taking your toys home when you lose the game
is a rather immature way to deal with confrontation.
Doctor, take an example from the skeptics on this SIG,
bravely sticking to their guns--going down with their
ship, flags waving--but proudly, stubbornly, sticking
to their guns to the bitter end. "Solution:
Venus/Jupiter" period. Guys: You are the experts.
People look to you for answers. If you teach, your
students rely on you for accuracy. When you publish,
other experts rely on your objectivity and clarity of
analysis. Yet you ask us to accept the Venus/Jupiter
hypothesis primarily because you have put it forward
as the "truth."
Now that the professional skeptics have made their
final pronouncement, I trust you will permit me to
raise a few minor details, tie up some loose ends and
send along you ways to comfortably bury our heads back
in the sand again until the next time the planets
start releasing strobing multi-colored triagular UFOs
20 feet over the surface of Lake Erie that cross
distances of several miles in a few seconds, cast
spotlights, and scare the wits out of U.S. military
personnel for several hours.
At least when the next UFO comes along, the
handy-dandy Venus/Jupiter explanation (or something
similar) will be ready to go. By the way, what an
insult to the Coast Guard. Apparently, according to
the skeptical "experts", their men are not capable of
distinguishing the planets in the night sky--even
after several hours of observation. Fair enough, but
don't expect any Christmas cards from the Coast Guard,
guys! (No loss--they probably can't write either.)
At any rate, at least you haven't run away and hid
when things got a little rough. You proud graduates of
the Phil Klass School of Skeptical Technique have
recognized that the first requirement of a skeptic is
to remain skeptical: to sift through the evidence,
only emphasizing those facts that can be made to
support your hypothesis and ignoring the "meaningless
residue" for purposes of clarity. However, the a
priori assumption with which you approach this
particular subject (i.e. "UFOs do not represent any
phenomena which cannot be explained in prosaic
terms.") renders your resulting opinions on the matter
largely irrelevant.
Although your credentials as Skeptics remain firmly
intact, be honest enough to admit you cannot
adequately explain ALL aspects of the sighting. Don't
push sophistry.
I respectfully suggest that the Venus/Jupiter
hypothesis is a professional embarassment to you,
since it completely ignores the observed phenomena and
fails to explain how the Coast Guard personnel could
have been so grossly fooled by known celestial
objects.
Guys, it's okay to admit you just "don't know" what
was over Lake Ee that night. That diploma over your
desk doesn't make you a vending machine--you don't
have to dispense a Pepsi every time someone drops in
their change and pulls your handle.
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Date: Sun Apr 10 13:44:26 1988 From: NICK SANDULEAK
(aa346) Subj: "THE EASTLAKE UFO"
During he first week of last month the very bright
planets Venus and Jupiter were positioned very close
together in the western sky for several hours after
sunset.As has happened many times in the past,this
resulted in many people calling the newspapers,TV
stations,the astronomy dept. at CWRU,etc. to report
these objects as UFOs. In an April 7 listing on this
bulletin board,Rick Dell'Aquila gives the text of a
U.S.Coast Guard report (dated March 4) which he
suggests can not be explained as resulting from a
misidentification of these planets.Although it
contains an account of multi-colored, noctural lights
cavoring about and landing on the Lake Erie ice, this
report is devoid of the most important observational
details which one expects from highly trained
observers.What was their exact location at the time of
these observations? Given that location,what were the
approximate azimuth and altitude of these lights?
Since the shoreline at Fairport Harbor runs almost
NE-SW, saying that the lights are out over the lake
means that they could lie anywhere from SE to NW as
seen from near the lakeshore. Given this lack of
detail, it is rather suggestive that the CG people
observed the bright light to "land" on the ice at
about the same time that Venus set i.e. went below the
horizon that evening. Nowhere in the report do the CG
people say that they saw the UFOs in addition to Venus
and Jupiter i.e. if this display took place low in the
westen sky,one might expect them to have compared the
brightness and positions of the UFOs relative to these
planets. It is therefore most likely that they were
indeed observing these planets only. Because Venus was
very low in the sky, the multi-color effects reported
could result from atmospheric scintillation.The PD
reporter apparently misunderstood this phenomenon and
used the phrase "spontaneous gaseous emissions which
of course is non-sense. It is my understanding that a
UFO sighting can only be assigned to the CE II
category if it leaves behind some form of physical
evidence,e.g. a burned patch of grass,etc. I suppose
this report is being given CE II status because of the
reported sound of the lake ice cracking under the
weight of the landed UFO. A more likely explanation
for that aspect of this event is the arrival of
spring.
SKY-GAZERS MISTAKE PLANETS FOR UFOS
* The News-Herald
* Monday, March 7, 1988
* Visitors from another planet have nothing to
* do with the UFOs which were reported along
* the lake shore Friday and Saturday nights.
* But, according to the Coast Guard, the
* planets Jupiter and Venus are involved. When the
US Coast Guard at Fairport Harbor received reports
Friday night of UFOs in the sky,it checked with area
airports to learn what their radar indicated.
"We thought it might be someone in trouble setting
off flares," said Petty Officer John Knaub."So we
investigated ourselves."
Coast Guard members saw the lights over the lake
about 1/4 mile east of the mouth of the Chagrin River.
"But Lost Nation Airport advised us that we were
seeing the planets Jupiter and Venus, which are lined
up together in the sky. Apparently the gases in the
atmosphere created the appearance of smaller objects
around them."
The UFO reports rolled in again Saturday night,
when the sky remained clear and was dominated by a
full moon.
Knaub said the phenomena is visible around 9PM, as
skygazers look west along the lake from Fairport
Harbor.
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