December 9: A strange spiral of light seen over the artic skies close to Norwegian city of Tromso has finally been explained by the exploding trail of a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile.Hundreds of phone calls were received by the Norwegian Meteorological institute from confused observers. The sighting lasted for 2-3 minutes and related to the appearance of  a large ring in the sky, which then spread out, and sent a green beam down…Even the Chief Scientist Erik Tandberg, of the Norwegian Space Center, had been amazed by the appearance: “…I agree with everyone in the science community that this light was the weirdest thing. I have never seen anything like this ever. It may have been anything from an exploding missile whose launch went wrong – to a comet or other celestial object that for some reason has been behaving strangely. If it was a missile – most likely from the launch base in Pletsevsk in Russia or one of the Russian submarines or even from the European Space Agency base in Kiruna – then we are talking about a rocket launch that has gone wrong. The spiral suggests the object came off course and balance and entered the spiral movement. Leaking rocket fuel could account for the blue light. But I know that the military have denied this explanation. So we could be looking at an entirely new natural phenomenon…” Russia confirmed a day later that the strange display had been caused by the failure of a test launch of an intercontinental Bulava missile…still spectacular and weird !

See by yourself !: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTXLFBPtknY

Medias reported last September that scientists at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing had confirmed to have filmed a UFO.  Allegedly the clear footage of the UFO had been captured during last summer’s solar eclipse. According to the director of the observatory, Ji Hai-sheng, scientists would not be speculating publicly on the nature of what was captured on film until it had been properly studied.

As quoted on the Telegraph’ s web site:  (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/6148974/Chinese-scientists-filmed-UFO-for-40-minutes.html), Ji Hai-sheng said that “manpower was being organized to deal with this data, complete the data analysis and reveal the scientific results and this will take at least one year’s time to finalise”.

One year ? hopefully someone will remember this case…In the meantime if someone gets hold of some pics of this footage, I will be interested…

A nice picture regarding a sighting of two (initially) unexplained phenomena has been posted on the website of the French magazine “Ciel et Espace”.  It relates to the 18th October launch of the American meteorological satellite DMSP F18, which flew over France around 21h15. (http://www.cieletespace.fr/evenement/4213_un-ovni-identifie).

The following picture appears on th web site (delay 13 seconds, Q. Dehais, Ciel et Espace, 19/10/09)

The Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena (UAP) Observations Reporting Scheme is launched:

Press release: WEBSITE launched for astronomers to report observations of unexplained phenomena

A scheme is being launched that will give amateur and professional astronomers a formal mechanism for reporting any unexplained phenomena they observe when studying the night sky. In the framework of International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), the Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena (UAP) Observations Reporting Scheme aims to provide a global focus for sightings by astronomers and contribute towards a better understanding of transient phenomena occurring in the atmosphere.

The reporting scheme has been set up by amateur astronomer, Philippe Ailleris, who proposes to use the unique opportunity of IYA2009 to collect additional and more rigorous information on UAPs, more popularly referred to as UFOs.

“These phenomena are mainly seen in the night sky, a domain that astronomers have long considered their own, and it is important to collect testimonies from members of the population that are trained observers. We aim to approach this controversial field of UAP sightings from a professional, rational point of view and without any preconceived ideas. Certainly whenever there are unexplained observations, there is the possibility that scientists could learn something new by further study,” said Ailleris.

Ailleris has developed a questionnaire that requests precise details of the sightings, including the location, time, elevation, velocity, apparent size and distance of the UAPs, as well as a description of the terrain and weather conditions at the observation point and any sketches, photos, audio or video footage. A short and long version of the questionnaire in English and French can be downloaded from a dedicated website, http://www.uapreporting.org.

The website will also give information on common nocturnal and daytime misidentifications, such as sightings of satellites, weather balloons, rockets, meteors, planets and natural phenomena such as ball lightning, sprites and mirages. There will also be links to relevant websites where people can further check charts and details.

“As well as allowing people to double check their sighting against explainable causes, we hope that the website will be a useful tool for the astronomy community to redirect enquiries from the general public and to help engage with the public in discussions about the science behind what is seen in the sky,” said Ailleris.

The scheme is being launched in the run up to the IYA2009 Cornerstone Project, Galilean Nights, which will see amateur and professional astronomers around the globe taking to the streets on 22-24 October, pointing their telescopes to the wonders that Galileo observed 400 years ago.

“Many IYA2009 observers will be scanning the skies with all kinds of technical equipment –telescopes, binoculars, video-cameras, cameras with spectrographs – which creates an excellent opportunity to obtain supplementary data,” said Ailleris. “This is also a great opportunity to engage with the general public and discuss some of the challenges astronomers face in determining various parameters such as coordinates, altitude, distance, speed and size. I hope we can use this opportunity to enthuse young (and not so young) people and prompt them to start looking upwards and outwards to make sense of their place in the Universe.”

Further Information

UAP Observations Reporting Scheme website: http://www.uapreporting.org.

International Year of Astronomy The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) is a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery. The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is supported by eleven Cornerstone projects, including ‘She is an Astronomer’. These are global programmes of activities centred on specific themes and are some of the projects that will help to achieve IYA2009’s main goals. IYA2009 website: http://www.astronomy2009.org

Contact

Philippe Ailleris
E-mail: contact@uapreporting.org