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The Coyne UH-1H Helicopter UFO Incident - Manfield, Ohio
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The Coyne UH-1H Helicopter UFO Incident - Manfield, Ohio

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 04:32 PM PDT

Preamble: On October 18, 1973 near Mansfield, Ohio, an Army Reserve helicopter crew of four men encountered a gray, metallic-looking, cigar-shaped object, with unusual lights and maneuvers, as they were airborne between Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio. This highly strange case stands out as, perhaps the most credible of the 1973 UFO wave.

Incident: The Coyne case (or "Army helicopter incident") stands out as, perhaps the most credible (in the "high strangeness" category) of the 1973 wave. An Army Reserve helicopter crew of four men encountered a gray, metallic-looking, cigar-shaped object, with unusual lights and maneuvers, as they were airborne between Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio. The crew won the NATIONAL ENQUIRER Blue Ribbon Panel's $ 5,000 award for "the most scientifically valuable report of 1973."

On October 18, 1973, at approximately 10:30 PM a UH-1H helicopter of the United States Army Reserve left Port Columbus, Ohio, for its home base of Cleveland Hopkins airport, ninety-six nautical miles to the north-northeast. In command, in the right-front seat, was Captain Lawrence J. Coyne, thirty-six, with nineteen years of flying experience. At the controls, in the left-front seat, sat First Lieutenant Arrigo Jezzi, twenty-six, a chemical engineer. Behind Jezzi sat Sergeant John Healey, thirty-five, a Cleveland policeman who was the flight medic, and Coyne was the Crew Chief, Sergeant Robert Yanacsek, twenty-three, a computer technician. The helicopter was cruising at 2,500 feet above sea level at an indicated airspeed of ninety knots, above mixed hills, woods, and rolling farmland, averaging 1,200 elevation. The night was totally clear, calm, and starry. The last quarter moon was just rising.

About ten miles south of Mansfield, Healey noticed a single red light off to the west, flying south. It seemed brighter than a standard aircraft port-wing light, but it was not considered relevant traffic, and he does not recall mentioning it. An estimated two minutes later, at approximately 11:02 PM, Yanacsek noted a single red light on the south-east horizon. He assumed it was either a radio-tower beacon or an aircraft port-wing light - most likely an aircraft, since it was not flashing - and he watched it "for a long time, a minute to ninety seconds" before calling it to Coyne's attention. Coyne, smoking, relaxing, glanced over, noted the light, assumed it was distant traffic, and told told Yanacsek casually to "keep an eye on it."

After an estimated additional thirty seconds, Yanacsek announced that the light had turned toward the helicopter and appeared to be on a converging flight path. Coyne verified Yanacsek's assessment, grabbed the controls from Jezzi, and put the UH-1H into a powered descent of approximately 500 feet per minute. Almost simultaneously, Coyne established radio contact with Mansfield control tower, ten miles to the northwest. Coyne thought the flight was an Air National Guard F-100 from Mansfield. After an initial acknowledgment ("This is Mansfield Tower, go ahead Army 1-5-triple-4"), radio contact failed. Jezzi then attempted transmission on both UHF and VHF frequencies without success. Although the channel and keying tones were both heard, there was no response from Mansfield; and a subsequent check by Coyne revealed that Mansfield had no tape of even the initial transmission, the the last F-100 had landed at 10:47 P.M.

The red light continued its radial bearing and increased greatly in intensity. Coyne increased his rate of descent to 2,000 feet per minute and his airspeed to 100 knots. The last altitude he noted was 1,700 feet. Just as a collision appeared imminent, the unknown light halted in its westward course and assumed a hovering relationship above and in front of the helicopter. "It wasn't cruising, it was stopped. For maybe ten to twelve seconds - just stopped," Yanacsek reported. Coyne, Healey, and Yanacsek agree that a cigar-shaped, slightly domed object substended an angle of nearly the width of the front windshield. A featureless, gray, metallic-looking structure was precisely delineated against the background stars. Yanacsek reported "a suggestion of windows" along the top dome section. The red light emanated from the bow, a white light became visible at a slightly indented stern, and then, from aft/below, a green 'pyramid shaped" beam equated to a directional spotlight became visible. The green beam passed upward over the helicopter nose, swung up through the windshield, continued upward and entered the tinted upper window panels. At that point (and not before), the cockpit was enveloped in green light. Jezzi reported only a bright white light, comparable to the leading light of a small aircraft, visible through the top "greenhouse' panels of the windshield. After the estimated ten seconds of "hovering," the object began to accelerate off to the west, now with only the white "tail" light visible. The white light maintained its intensity even as its distance appeared to increase, and finally (according to Coyne and Healey), it appeared to execute a decisive 45 degree turn to the right, head out toward Lake Erie, and then "snap out" over the horizon. Healey reported that he watched the object moving westward "for a couple of minutes." Jezzi said it moved faster than the 250-knot limit for aircraft below 10,000 feet, but not as fast as the 600-knot approach speed reported by the others. There was no noise from the object or turbulence during the encounter, except for one "bump" as the object moved away to the west. After the object had broken off its hovering relationship, Jezzi and Coyne noted that the magnetic compass disk was rotating approximately four times per minute and that the altimeter read approximately 3,500 feet; a 1,000 foot-per-minute climb was in progress. Coyne insists that the collective was still bottomed from his evasive descent. Since the collective could not be lowered further, he had no alternative but to lift it, whatever the results, and after a few seconds of gingerly maneuvering controls (during which the helicopter reached nearly 3,800 feet), positive control was achieved. By that time the white light had already moved into the Mansfield area. Coyne had been subliminally aware of the climb; the others not at all, yet they had all been acutely aware of the g-forces of the dive. The helicopter was brought back to the flight plan altitude of 2,500 feet, radio contact was achieved with Canton/Akron, the night proceeded uneventfully to Cleveland.

Apparent ground witnesses to this event have been found by William E. Jones and Warren Nicholson, independent UFO researchers from Columbus, Ohio.

Mrs. E. C. and four adolescents were driving south from Mansfield to their rural home on October 18, 1973, at approximately 11 P.M., when they were attracted to a single steady bright red light. flying south "at medium altitude." They watched for perhaps half a minute until it disappeared to the south over the trees.

Approximately five minutes later, now driving east on Route 430, approaching the Charles Mill Reservoir, the family became aware of two bright lights - red and green - descending rapidly toward them from the southeast. When first seen, the angular distance between the lights was about 2 degrees; the red light appeared to be leading. Mrs. C. pulled over to the shoulder of the deserted road and kept the engine and car lights running. The lights - bigger than point sources - slowed and moved as a unit to the right of the car and the family became aware of yet another group of lights - some of these flashing - and "a beating sound, a lot of racket" approaching from the southwest. Two of the children (cousins, both age thirteen) jumped from the car and observed both a helicopter and the object, which they described as "like a blimp," "as big as a school bus," "sort of pear shaped." The object at that point subtended an angle equivalent to "a 100-mm cigarette box held at arm's length." The object assumed a hovering position over the helicopter, an estimated 500 feet back from the road and 500 feet above the trees. (The ground elevation at the site is almost exactly 1,000 feet above sea level; thus at the noted 1,700-foot altimeter reading, the helicopter was actually about 650 feet above the trees.) The object's green light then flared up. "It was like rays coming down," the witnesses said. The helicopter, the trees, the road, the car - everything turned green." The kids scrambled with fright back into the car and Mrs. C. proceeded apace. Their estimated total time outside the car was "about a minute." Neither ground witnesses nor aircrew are sure at what point the two aircraft disengaged; the ground witnesses reported that the unidentified object crossed to the north side of the road behind the car, appeared to move eastward for a few seconds, then reversed its direction and climbed toward the northwest towards Mansfield - a flight path which correlates perfectly the motion of the object established through analysis of the aircrew's report.

Any theory of the object's being a meteor (UFO skeptic Philip Klass maintains that the object was a "fireball of the Orionid meteor shower") can readily be rejected on the basis of: (1) the duration of the event (an estimated 300 seconds); (2) the marked deceleration and hard-angle maneuver of the object at closest approach; (3) the precisely defined shape of the object; and (4) the horizon-to-horizon flight path.

The possibility of a high-performance aircraft likewise is untenable when one examines the positions and colors of the lights with respect to the flight path of the object. To have presented the reported configurations, and been in accordance with FAA regulations, an aircraft would have had to be flying sideways, either standing on its tail, tail-to to the helicopter, or upside-down head-on. Other arguments against aircraft hypothesis are: (1) a fixed-wing aircraft moving across the line of sight would appear to move most rapidly when passing directly in front of the observer; (2) a fixed-wing aircraft would not have the capability of decelerating from high velocity to "hover" within a few seconds time; (3) a helicopter would have the capability of hovering, but would not be capable of the high forward speeds reported; (4) a conventional aircraft, if within 500 to 1,000 feet, would have produced noise audible inside the helicopter; (5) the FAA requires either a strobe or a rotating beacon on either the top or bottom of the fuselage, (6) FAA requires that no aircraft shall fly below 10,000 feet msl at speeds above 250 knots; (7) some of the features of a conventional aircraft would have been seen, e.g., wings, engine pods, windows, empennage, numbers, logo.

Coyne reported that the Magnaflux/Zygio method of nondestructive testing was applied to the rotors the following day and that there was no indication that they had been subjected to fatigue-producing stresses. Comparable times/distances/directions support the possibility that the red light first seen by the C. family, Healey's red light, and the object of the encounter were all one and the same. Yanacsek's red light on the eastern horizon was under continuous observation and was unequivocally the object of the encounter.

The case has maintained its high "strangeness-credibility" rating after extended investigation and analysis. - Jennie Zeidman - CUFOS

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UFO Still Puzzles 30 Years Later

Thirty years ago tonight, strange things were happening in the skies over north central Ohio. A close encounter in Mansfield, that has since become known as "The Coyne Incident," is still raising eyebrows among believers and UFO investigators. That evening, in a soybean field on the west side of Galion, Rene Boucher and her brother Brad encountered a bright light in the sky that has lured her from Florida for another sojourn into that field.

It was about 11 p.m. on Oct. 18, 1973, when an Army Reserve helicopter came perilously close to colliding with an unidentified flying object. Arrigo "Rick" Jezzi, 56, who now lives in Cincinnati, was flying the Huey helicopter that night. Three decades later, he is still not sure what happened. Jezzi was one of four members of an Army Reserve unit based at Hopkins Airport in Cleveland on board. The crew was en route to Cleveland from Columbus.

"Capt. Larry Coyne was the pilot," Jezzi said. "I was in the left seat, actually flying the Huey at the time. We were near Mansfield flying at 2,500 to 3,000 feet."

John Healey and Robert Yanacsek were in the back of the Huey, near a cargo door with a Plexiglas window.

"One of the guys in the back reported a red light. He said it looked like an aircraft light on the right horizon," Jezzi said. "I couldn't see it."

Jezzi was flying from the left seat. On the other side of the Huey there was a 12-foot section of fuselage between the side window and the cargo doors. He figures the red light was in his blind spot.

"Then I heard 'I think its coming toward us'," Jezzi said. "The next thing I knew Larry took control of the throttle. We went into a maneuver, a controlled free fall. We dropped about 2,000 feet."

Jezzi said if Coyne had not made the drastic maneuver there would have been a collision.

"It took just a couple of seconds," Jezzi said. "I remember looking up through the ceiling and I saw a white light moving over top of us. I followed it to the left horizon where it disappeared."

Jezzi isn't sure what he saw. It was like no aircraft he'd ever seen. He guessed it was traveling at least 500 knots, twice the speed of his Huey.

"Red navigational lights aren't located in the front of an aircraft," he said. "That's what was moving toward us. I don't know what it was."

The incident was documented by witnesses on the ground. In UFO lore the "Coyne Incident" is regarded as one of the most reliable UFO sightings of all time.

"It caused a lot of hullabaloo," Jezzi said. "The first thing I thought was those Commie bastards. What are they up to."

The next morning two of the other crew members, while being questioned about the incident, sketched drawings of the cigar-shaped craft they observed.

"They both came up with similar drawings," Jezzi said.

The magnetic compass in the Huey never worked right after the incident and had to be replaced. Rene Bouchard doesn't know what she saw in Galion about 60 minutes earlier that same evening.

"I was in high school. My brother was in junior high," she said. "There had been a lot of sightings in the days and weeks before that. Even the governor reported seeing something. We thought we'd give it a try."

She and her brother walked out in the field behind their home and started watching the sky.

"We saw a bunch of stuff that looked like it was maybe 30,000 feet in the air," she said. "But it wasn't anything spectacular. Then I think we both put our heads down for some reason. That's when we saw this brilliant white light. It was as bright as the sun. I don't know what it was but it scared us. We ran for two blocks until we got home."

Rene has since moved to Florida. Her brother is in California. She's back in Galion today and plans to go out in that same bean field to spend part of her evening.

"We really saw something that night," she said. "I don't know what it was. But I'll be back there (tonight). I called my brother and asked him to fly here so he could go with me. He said no. I'm not expecting to see anything. But I'm going to be there." - Mansfield News Journal, Ohio - 10/18/2003

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UFO Incident Named After Pilot

Army Reserve helicopter pilot Capt. Lawrence Coyne is a military commander who doesn't believe in unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or little green spacemen. But after a near miss two weeks ago between his helicopter and a "big, gray, metallic-looking" object in the sky over Mansfield, he doesn't know what to think.

"I had to file an official report in detail to the Army on this thing," he said.

"Coyne is a member of the 316th Medical Detachment stationed at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. He was returning from Columbus at 11:10 p.m., Oct. 18, when the UFO showed up near where the Air National Guard has a squadron of jet fighters based.

He said a check turned up that none of the unit's F-100 Super Saber Jets were in the air when the UFO appeared. Coyne said when he first encountered the UFO, his helicopter was cruising at 2,500 feet. He had the controls set for a 20-degree dive, but the craft climbed to 3,500 feet with no power.

"I had made no attempt to pull up," he said. "There was no noise or turbulence, either."

Coyne said a red light appeared on the eastern horizon, and was first spotted by his crew chief, Sgt. Robert Yanacsek.

"The light was traveling in excess of 600 knots," Coyne said. "It came from the horizon to our aircraft in about 10 seconds. We were on a collision course."

The pilot said he put his helicopter into a dive.

"At 1,700 feet I braced myself for the impact with the other craft," he said. "It was coming from our right side. I was scared. There had been so little time to respond. The thing was terrifically fast."

There was no crash.

"We looked up and saw it stopped right over us," Coyne said. "It had a big, gray metallic-looking hull about 60 feet long." "It was shaped like an airfoil or a streamlined fat cigar. There was a red light on the front. The leading edge glowed red a short distance back from the nose. There was a center dome. A green light at the rear reflected on the hull."
Coyne said the green light swiveled like a spotlight and beamed through the canopy of his craft, bathing the cabin in green light. He said as he and members of the crew stared at the craft his helicopter began to climb without his guidance.

"I had made no attempt to pull up," he said. "All controls were set for a 20-degree dive. Yet we had climbed from 1,700 to 3,500 feet with no power in a couple of seconds with no g-forces or other noticeable strains."

Coyne said the UFO finally moved off to the west and was gone. - UPI

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The Coyne Incident

The four-man crew of an Army Reserve UH-1H helicopter, based in Cleveland, Ohio, was returning from Columbus, Ohio, at about 10:30 p.m. following regularly scheduled physical examinations. It was a clear, starry night with no moon. They were cruising at 90 knots at an altitude of 2,500 feet above sea level, over farmland and rolling hills. Lt. Arrigo Jezzi, 26, was at the controls from the left-hand seat. Sgt. John Healey, 35, the flight medic, sat behind him. In the right rear seat was Spec. 5 Robert Yanacek, 23, the crew chief. Commanding the flight from the right front seat was Capt. Lawrence J. Coyne, 36, a 19-year veteran of the Army Reserve.

About 11:00 p.m. near Mansfield, Ohio, Healey saw a red light off to the left (west) heading south. Three or four minutes later, Yanacek noticed a single steady red light on the eastern horizon, and reported it to Coyne. About 30 seconds later, Yanacek announced that the light appeared to be converging on the helicopter, and they all watched it warily.

As the light continued its approach, Coyne grabbed the controls from Jezzi and began a powered descent of approximately 500 feet per minute. He made radio contact with Mansfield approach control, requesting information on possible jet traffic. After Mansfield acknowledged their transmission, radio contact was lost on both UHF and VHF.

The red light appeared to be on a collision course, approaching at a speed estimated to be more than 600 knots. Coyne increased the rate of descent to 2,000 feet per minute until they reached about 1,700 feet, about 600 feet above the tree tops. With the unknown object about to ram them, the crewmen feared for their lives. Just as a collision appeared imminent, the light suddenly stopped and hovered above and in front of the helicopter. They saw a cigar-shaped, gray metallic appearing, domed object whose apparent size filled the entire windshield.

The object appeared solid, blotting out the stars behind it. It had a red light at the nose, a white light at the tail, and a distinctive green beam emanating from the lower part of the otherwise featureless "fuselage." The green beam swung up over the helicopter nose, through the windshield, and into the upper tinted window panels. The cockpit was bathed in intense green light. No noise or turbulence was noted.

After a few seconds, the object accelerated and moved off to the west. Coyne and Healey reported that it then made a distinct 45 degree turn to the right, heading toward Lake Erie. While the object was still visible, Jezzi and Coyne both noted that the altimeter read 3,500 feet with a rate of climb of 1,000 feet per minute. Yet the collective (steering mechanism) was still in the full-down position set during the descent.

As Coyne cautiously raised the collective, the helicopter continued climbing, as would be expected. At an indicated altitude of 3,800 feet Coyne finally felt that he had regained positive control. Then they felt a slight "bump." He descended to the previously assigned cruise altitude of 2,500 feet and made radio contact with Akron/Canton, which now was easily achieved. The remainder of the flight to Cleveland was routine.

At about 11:00 p.m., Mrs. Erma C. and four children were returning from Mansfield to their rural home southeast of town. As they drove south on Laver Road, they noticed a bright red light flying south. She turned the car eastward and continued on across the Charles Mill Reservoir, a distance of 3.6 miles, covered in about 5 minutes.

At this point they saw to the east a red and green light, moving together, coming down rapidly toward them. At first they assumed it was a low-flying light plane, but changed their minds almost immediately. The red was too bright, especially compared to the green. They could not see any shape or, at first, hear any sound. When they stopped the car and got out to look, they heard

the typical sounds of a helicopter. As they watched, the red light and the helicopter converged.

After the red-lighted object stopped, the green light flared up. "When we got out, everything was green. I saw that thing and the helicopter." The witnesses agreed that the helicopter was green "because of the light from the thing up above....It was so bright that you couldn't see too far. Everything was green. The trees, the car, everything."

The helicopter with the other object above and slightly ahead of it moved in tandem from southwest to northeast. Suddenly the green light went out and the object was gone. "When the light went out you couldn't see the object. And then the helicopter went northeast. Then we got back in the car and went on, and saw it [the helicopter] fly out over the lake."

Jeanne Elias, 44, was watching the news at her home southeast of Mansfield just after 11:00 p.m. She recognized the sound of an Army helicopter approaching so loud and near that she feared it was going to crash into the house. The sound persisted for "a long time," and when it was over her son John, 14, called out from his room. He had been awakened by the sound, and then had observed a bright green light that lit up the bedroom. The light persisted long enough for him to realize that "there must be some kind of object right above the house, because it was coming in so heavy in my room."

Investigator Jennie Zeidman conducted a time-line analysis, second-by-second, showing that the object was continuously in view of the helicopter crew for at least five minutes. This duration and the witness descriptions both from the helicopter and the ground rules out the object being a meteor. - Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR)

Click for video

UFO - Mansfield, Ohio 1973 "The Coyne Incident" by eeasynow

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FOIA Document:

To Commandor Flight Operations Off DATE 23 Nov 73 Cmt 1
83D USARCOM USAR Flight Facility
ATTN: AHRCCG Cleveland Hopkins Airport
Columbus Support Facility Cleveland, Ohio 44135

1. On 18 October 1973 at 2305 hours in the vicinity of Mansfield, Ohio, Army Helicopter 68-15444 assigned to Cleveland USARFFAC encountered a near midair collision with a unidentified flying object. Four crewmembers assigned to the Cleveland USARFFAC for flying proficiency were on AFTP status when this incident occurred. The flight crew assigned was CPT Lawrence J. Coyne, Pilot in Command,1LT Arrigo Jozzi, Copilot, SSG Robert Yanacsek, Crew Chief, SSG John Healey,Flight Medio,All the above personnel are member of the 316th MED DET(HEL AMB). a tenant reserve unit of the Cleveland USARFFAC.

2. The reported incident happened as follows: Army Helicopter 68-15444 was returning from Columbus, Ohio to Cleveland, Ohio and at 2305 hours east, south east of Mansfield Airport in the vicinity of Mansfield, Ohio while flying at an altitude of 2500 feet and on a heading of 030 degrees, SSG Yanacsek observed a red light on the east horizon,90 degrees to the flight path of the helicopter. Approximately 30 seconds later, SSG Yanacsek indicated the object was converging on the helicopter at the same altitude at a airspeed in excess of 600 knots and on a midair collision heading.

Cpt Coyne observed the converging object, took over the controls of the aircraft and initiated a power descent from 2500 feet to 1700 feet to avoid impact with the object. A radio call was initiated to Mansfield Tower who acknowledged the helicopter and was asked by CPT Coyne if there were any high performance aircraft flying in the vicinity of Mansfield Airport however there was no response received from the tower. The crew expected impact from the object instead, the object was observed to hesitate momentarily over the helicopter and then slowly continued on a westerly course accelerating at a high rate of speed, clear west of Mansfield Airport then turn 45 degree heading to the Northwest. Cpt Coyne indicated the altimeter read a 1000 fpm olimp and read 3500 feet with the collective in the full down position. The aircraft was returned to 2500 feet by CPT Coyne and flown back to Cleveland, Ohio. The flight plan was closed and the FAA Flight Service Station notified of the incident. The FSS told CPT Coyne to report the incident to the FAA GADO office a Cleveland Hopkins Airport Mr. Porter, 83d USARCOM was notified of the incident at 1530 hours on 19 Oct 73.

3. This report has been read and attested to by the crewmembers of the aircraft with signatures acknowledging this report.

Sources:
NICAP
www.ufoevidence.org
Mansfield News Journal, Ohio - 10/18/2003
UPI
FUFOR
Zeidman, Jennie - "Helicopter-UFO Encounter Over Ohio" - Center for UFO Studies, Chicago - CUFOS - 1979
Hall, Richard - "The UFO Evidence, Volume II." - 2000
MUFON 1989 International UFO Symposium Proceedings - Seguin, Texas
Cincinnati Enquirer - 10/22/1973
83D USARCOM USAR - FOIA

Fortean / Alternative News: Cusco, Peru UFO, Supermoon Anomalies and Woman Claims Sun Ownership

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 02:36 PM PDT

Peru: Strange Light Videotaped Over Cusco

From Scott Corrales at Inexplicata - The Journal of Hispanic Ufology

Source: El Correo Noticias
Date: 18 March 2011

Peru: Strange Light Videotaped Over Cusco
Correo Noticias Staff

LIMA - An alleged Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) was recorded by an amateur cameraman in the city of Cusco.

YouTuber "luiggisalazarr" explains that the object was seen very early in the morning from the southern reaches of the city of Cusco.

"Unfortunately, its disappearance could not be recorded due to a lack of battery power. Are we really alone in the universe?" wonders Salazar.

The alleged UFO appears static but when the zoom is applied, it has a rhomboidal shape.

There are dozens of videos on YouTube - some less blurry than others - that reveal alleged UFO apparitions over ruins, and even over Machu Picchu itself.

Click for video

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Supermoon Anomalies

MUFON CMS - Louisiana: I am a photographer, and on March 19th I was outside taking pictures of the moon during its lunar perigee. My grandparents were also outside with me, playing with my daughter on her swing set. While aiming my shot of the moon I noticed what I thought was some debris on my lens, so I cleaned it and prepared to try the shot again. I observed at this point that I could make out the object only through the camera lens, and that it was not obvious to the naked eye. At that point I realized that I was not seeing a spec on my lens but rather something in the sky. I tried to use my auto focus to capture the object, but it kept focusing on the moon. I turned off the auto focus and manually targeted the object: this is the picture that is attached to this report. I don't know if it is important, but my camera is a Canon Rebel T2i with a Sigma 18-250 mm lens; the photograph was taken zoomed all the way in. Once the image was captured, I reviewed it on my camera and called my grandparents over to see what I had photographed. None of us had ever seen an airplane like this before. My grandparents and I both looked up but none of us could see the object. I set my camera to "live mode" (allowing us to see the viewfinder's image on the screen on the back of the camera), positioned it, and we all saw the object. I'm not sure if we couldn't see the object with the naked eye because of its size in the sky or something else, but whatever the case we could only see it through the camera. While I never actually saw the object moving, it was in slightly different positions to the moon every time I looked at it. We talked about it for a couple of minutes and I tried to get another picture of the object (I couldn't find it this time) and we decided to come upload the images to the computer to look at them a little closer.

MUFON CMS - Texas: My wife and I were on the front part of our property taking night pictures of the super-close moon. We did not see the object with our eyes. It wasn't until we came in and put the pictures on the computer to process that we saw the light moving across the sky. We ruled out plane/jet as we should have seen that with our naked eyes. There was no sound, but it was far away and very high. As you can see from the progression of the light it doesn't appear in the first photo, then starting with the 2nd it comes up from the tree line and goes up and to the right until it goes off the photo edge in the last picture. When it was enlarged we could see the different lights. They appear to be moving around the object in a rotating pattern. Since we did not see the object until we processed the photos we had no reaction while it was going across the sky. But once we enlarged the object we could tell that it was not a plane or weather balloon. The lights make it a totally unknown object to us. Perhaps you can help us out on what it could be?
I am attaching 3 of 6 3000 high resolution photos showing the object in progression from beginning to end.

MUFON CMS - New Jersey: I took several pictures of the moon tonight. I did use a flash for this particular capture. I have taken photos at night and have not had any artifacts appear in them. I would dismiss this as a reflection of some sort had it not been for an event that happened about 15 years ago in another state. A glowing, reddish orange orb flew out of the woods and came within 25 feet of where I was standing. This orb in the moon photo looks the same.
Can someone tell me if it was caused by the camera? Thanks.

MUFON CMS - Santo Domingo: not sure about this since I didn't notice it when I took the picture, I was focusing on the moon but just saw it as I downloaded it. Didn't think much of it till I saw the post from NJ with the same thing.

MUFON CMS - Louisiana: I was taking amateur photos of the 19 March 2011 "Super Moon" at home in rural Rapides Parish, Louisiana. When I reviewed my photos I noticed that one had two black circles (one larger than the other) against the moon.

I can't tell what the objects are but I do not believe that they are the result of a smudge on the camera lens since I took a photo seconds before this one and seconds after and they do not have these circles on them.

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UFO Reykawvik Summit

ljworld - From alien abductions to mysterious cattle deaths to nuclear weapons, speakers at this weekend's first UFO Reykawvik Summit did not lack interesting topics.

"Ufologists" from all over the country descended on Liberty Hall, 644 Mass., for three days of discussions on the extraterrestrial at an event organized by Lawrence resident Daniel Lauing.

There's never been a greater need for awareness raising about UFOs and alien life forms, Lauing said.

"We've got thumbs in our ears," he said.

As Lauing spoke to about 150 spectators Saturday morning, he warned that the first speaker would touch on some controversial topics.

"This is a hot potato. Nobody wants to touch this," said Lauing as he introduced Butch Witkowski, director of the UFO Research Center of Pennsylvania.

Witkowski's presentation — gruesome photos included — focused on cases of dead humans and animals, particularly cattle, who've been injured in such mysterious ways as to suggest nonhuman abduction and experimentation.

Witkowski said his motivation for investigating UFO sightings, possible alien abductions and the paranormal is simply to "find the truth."

Impressed by the knowledge base displayed by crowd members who peppered him with questions, Witkowski said the event was a great opportunity for people in the area to network about investigations.

"I think there's a great number of people out here in the Midwest who have a lot of information to share," he said.

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Woman Claims Ownership of the Sun

abcnews - If you're in your car late at night, you may happen upon a radio commercial for the "International Star Registry," an Illinois operation that allows you to "name a star" in the sky for a loved one's birthday, Valentine's Day, etc. They'll be glad to sell you a certificate or a piece of jewelry to prove it, though if you go over the fine print you'll find you really haven't done anything official for your $54 (or more).

Now, Angeles Duran, a 49-year-old woman from Salvaterra do Mino, Spain, has gone one step further: She's gone to her local notary public and claimed ownership of the Sun.

"There was no snag, I backed my claim legally, I am not stupid, I know the law," she told the Spanish daily El Mundo, according to AFP. "I did it but anyone else could have done it, it simply occurred to me first."

Over at Discovery News, Ray Villard, a veteran science writer I've known for some years, has had a bit of fun with this:

"Well, why not own the sun?" he writes. "It's low maintenance, it has sustained nuclear fusion reactions for the last 4.6 billion years without repairs and it comes with a 10 billion-year warranty backed by the laws of gravity, hydrodynamics, and particle physics."

Ms. Duran told El Mundo she plans to charge all users (that would be us) a fee. She'd give half the proceeds to the Spanish government, 20 percent to Spain's pension fund, 10 percent to research, 10 percent to ending world hunger. She would keep the remaining 10 percent for herself.

What will she do if you don't pay? Turn it off?

Villard retorts: "I'd advise Duran against renaming the sun because it already has good branding and market share. But she needs to trademark the word 'sun.' She could also assert copyright over sunset, sunrise, and solar eclipse photos. She could insist that the credit line read: 'Sun, courtesy of A. Duran.'"

"The downside is that Duran is now also now responsible for all damages caused by the sun," he writes. "If someone can sue McDonalds for spilling hot coffee in his or her lap, than anyone can sue Duran for sunburn...."

Ray's piece has provoked some fittingly tongue-in-cheek comments, including this one: "I hereby claim all the space between the sun and earth! I will be charging her sun rays a toll for crossing my space!"

Spiritual / Paranormal Activity News: High Haunted Property Values, ‘La Santa Muerte’ Death Cult and the Haunted Texas Opry Theater

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 04:03 PM PDT

How a Haunting Could Up Your Property Value

A quarter of British people claim to have seen a ghost, according to research from the University of Hertfordshire. Twenty years ago, only 14 per cent made that claim. I can only conclude that we have a growing ghost population; there must be many more mysterious white ladies floating about.

This is exciting news for the housing market because all these extra ghosts will have to be accommodated. It used to be only grand old houses and pubs with beams that could show off about having a resident ghost, but now first-time haunters will have to seek out more modern and more modest properties.

It will boost house prices, because ghosts are a good selling point. Now couples will visit their estate agents, looking for a three-bedroom house with a decent-sized garden and a female spectre: quiet moaning preferred.

They might settle for a headless horseman as long as he didn't trample the flower bed.

The estate agent may offer a semi in a quiet residential location which has the benefit of gas central heating throughout, but also a stunning sudden chill on the landing late at night. It also boasts a walk-though wall separating the kitchen and dining area. Other features include heart-rending groans in the attic, possibly dating from the Fifties.

If this property does not have the right howl-factor, he can suggest a chain-free maisonette which affords scope for sudden shivers. It also comprises a fully equipped utility room with a superb period ghost. This is a much sought-after Victorian serving girl betrayed by her lover. The location also affords scope for off-street poltergeists.

I confess I have never seen a ghost, but sometimes in our flat I hear creaking, rattling and a sound like a deep sigh. Local legend (just made up) says it's the troubled spirit of a building surveyor, doomed to walk this earth for eternity, searching for dry rot.

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'La Santa Muerte' Death Cult Invades U.S.

gotbw - They call her "La Santa Muerte," the Saint of Death, and her followers have multiplied rapidly over the last decade as violence has gripped Mexico and spilled across the border, say missionaries who have witnessed the death cult's growing influence.

From Mexico City to border towns such as Laredo, and lately in large American cities such as Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles and Chicago, her cloaked, skeletal icon, usually depicted gripping the Grim Reaper's scythe, is often seen hanging from the windows, entryways and sometimes on the tattoos of her disciples.

Her appeal lies in basic human desires—especially appealing to the poor and to drug runners, who entreat her for protection and vengeance.

"Healing, money, protection, or they want power," explained Orpha Ortega, who along with her husband, William, serves as a Southern Baptist missionary in Mexico City.

Santa Muerte is a growing concern for Christian pastors in border towns such as Laredo, where a meeting last month hosted by Southern Baptist missionaries drew Spanish-speaking pastors, church leaders and at least one concerned police officer, whose experiences at a local jail prompted him to attend. (Spanish-language video of the meeting is accessible at sbtexas.com/videos.)

The death cult figures prominently in the surging violence by Mexican drug traffickers, known as narcos, in interior Mexico and along the U.S.-Mexico border, William Ortega told those at the meeting.

The Ortegas have ministered for six of the 12 years they've been in Mexico City in the Tepito neighborhood—notorious for its thriving black market. Poverty, drugs and violence are pervasive and the largest shrine to Saint Death is an institution there.

Of 28 million people in Mexico City, about 2 million are estimated to be followers of Saint Death, Ortega said, with large numbers of them in Tepito.

Last week, the Ortegas welcomed the news that Mexican authorities had arrested the leader of that Tepito shrine and the closest thing the cult has to a high priest, David Romo, on kidnapping and money laundering charges, according to multiple news accounts.

Increasingly, the death cult has moved north, making inroads into border towns and American cities where Mexican immigrants find work.

Ortega said adherents are largely two groups: drug dealers and the poor, with the former seeking protection from authorities and vengeance on their enemies and the latter seeking healing, protection from the violence around them, and prosperity. The death saint, her followers claim, offers all of the above.

A Baptist worker in the Laredo area told the TEXAN he hears testimonies of healing from cancer, AIDS and other ailments at the hands of Saint Death.

"But most of the time, their promise of healing or protection involves the killing of someone else in order to receive a miracle or in order to receive a protection," he said.

That was one of the points Ortega emphasized during the Laredo meeting. In the Texas border town and across the Rio Grande in Nuevo Laredo is the largest number of Saint Death followers along the Rio Grande, Ortega said.

Often, Christians are seen as enemies of the cult for their winning converts and refusing to syncretize orthodox Christianity with the death cult.

Although the Mexican government officially removed Santa Muerte from its list of recognized religions in 2005 and the Roman Catholic church has deemed it a pagan cult, many of its adherents are said to mix their Catholicism with Santa Muerte practices, the missionaries said.

With its authority in mostly oral tradition and its roots in ancient Aztec and Mayan death gods, the cult easily spreads its message through folklore. Worship practices include the placing of rum, flowers, or candy at the feet of a Santa Muerte altar, begging her favor in exchange for her favorite gifts.

In Mexico City, the Ortegas have had success in some areas planting churches and winning converts, but they said in Tepito, some of the churches don't last long "because they are weak Christians and it is hard for them to grow with all of the opposition around them."

"You can go there [to Tepito] and give them a tract and they will read it, but it's almost like fighting against Satan himself," Orpha Ortega said. "It's a real battle there.

"We still have not been harmed and are grateful to God for that. So continue praying for us to be strong and be brave. And for other people for God to open their eyes."

In some border towns, where many of her followers are either tied to drug cartels or are seeking protection from them, the rise of the death cult has created obstacles to the gospel.

"It's affecting a lot," said one missionary working along the border. "First of all, they teach their followers they cannot talk to us. We are Christian, we are their enemies, they are taught. Secondly, they try to attack us in different ways. As a missionary here, they have threatened me, written notes. I've been on their watch list. It is spiritual warfare."

On the Texas side of the border, the missionary was quick to note that short-term missionary volunteers are relatively safe. "It is a problem for us because we are encountering them on a daily, long-term basis."

"Pray for safety while I'm doing the work," the missionary implored those who would read his interview. "Pray for my integrity and holiness. Pray the Lord will provide the right leaders to provide churches. The only way we will win the fight is to plant those churches that preach the truth."

Bruno Molina, SBTC ministry associate for language evangelism, said the death cult "is a challenge to the gospel not only in Mexico, but increasingly beyond the U.S border area into other areas of Texas. The very name of its representative organization, roughly translated as 'The Traditional Church of Mexico-USA,' implies that they do not see themselves as just a Mexican 'religious' phenomenon but that they lay claim to the U.S. as part of their cultic turf."

"They claim 1.5 million adherents here in the U.S. and, due to our shared border with Mexico, many of them necessarily reside in Texas," Molina added. "This is evident not only in our jails, but also in Texas front yards that display Santa Muerte figures, cars and pick-up trucks decorated with Santa Muerte decals, and people who are tattooed with Santa Muerte figures. The Santa Muerte cult is virulently anti-Christian in that it promotes devotion to someone, namely Saint Death, other than God through Jesus Christ.

"Our evangelism department is committed to exposing this challenge to the gospel and working with our pastors to equip their church members to meet this challenge."

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A Night at the Haunted Texas Opry Theater

weatherforddemocrat - It is 10 at night . . .

My 17-year-old son Ian and I arrive at the Texas Opry Theater in Weatherford where we will join a paranormal team who hopes to find evidence of ghosts.

I am willing to be open minded; he is much less so, and I wonder if his skepticism will cast a pall on the night's activities.

But as we pull into the parking lot on York Avenue, we find we can agree on one thing.

The Opry, built in the 1800s and the former site of both a hotel and a church, is kind of creepy.

Ian and I are a few minutes ahead of the North Texas Paranormal Trackers, who initiated this investigation — their third — and we slip into the building like mist as the crowd disperses after the final show.

An older woman in red leather fringe and rhinestone-studded cowboy boots is rising from a table in the lobby where she has probably been selling CDs.

We hear loud, prerecorded country music and enter the auditorium — once a church sanctuary — to find a man removing parts from a sound system on the stage.

We sit down and look around. It is big and empty and kind of musty.

Soon the half dozen trackers, dressed in matching black T-shirts bearing their logo, arrive.

One is Leslie Alford, who once worked at the Opry for owner Jerry Carter. Another is Susan Irvin, the group's fearless leader.

They have an amazing synergy, Irvin tells me. Spirits seem to show up when the two women are together.

Neither seems unusual, yet both say they are mediums, meaning they believe they can talk to the dead. They have a gift.

It is a claim that makes me a little nervous.

I believe that spirits exist — the Holy Spirit for one — and I don't think you should count something out just because your five senses cannot detect it.

On the other hand, they are all that most of us have, and we tend to go with what they tell us.

The trackers want to prove that ghosts exist, beyond a shadow of a doubt.

They hope to hear voices, feel bone-chilling cold temperatures and see objects defy gravity and move across the room unaided.

In addition, they will rely on a battery of equipment to catch things that their senses cannot.

To gather evidence, the ghosthunters have come equipped with high frequency voice recorders to capture ghost voices, electromagnetic field detectors to locate and track their presence, and video and digital cameras to document their appearance as "orbs" or apparitions.

One team member carries a "ghost box," a handheld radio that scans every frequency and, according to the Paranormal Research and Resource Society, is believed to create white noise and audio remnants from broadcast stations that ghosts can manipulate to create words.

My son is unimpressed with the quality of the equipment. I have no clue.

First up is a tour. As a group we assess the stage, where witnesses have reported hearing unexplained voices and footsteps, and we check out the ladies' dressing room, where a voyeur ghost is rumored to exist.

We peer into every room on every level, from the basement to the balcony, and the trackers "sense" things: a heaviness, a spirit of fear, different levels of energy.

Behind the stage I think I feel the heaviness, but it is only a little, and I do not mention it. Most likely I am imagining it. Probably.

The tour complete, the trackers regroup to set up their tools and gadgets.

I have a Coke and chat with Opry owner Jerry Carter, who sports a flashy, sequined jacket and carries a blind man's cane.

Carter purchased the building in 1991 and first heard the ghost while he was remodeling a year later.

A rapid succession of unexplained cracking noises across the ceiling frightened him so much that he left the building, convinced that the ceiling was falling.

He and his wife Marilyn have heard footsteps on more than one occasion; once they sounded exactly like Marilyn's walk.

"It scared the hell out of us, and we went home," he said.

Carter tells me a story about thousands of black spiders that once emerged from the old church's baptistry. As they crawled up the walls, he said, his hands began to itch.

"I said, 'Get thee behind me, Satan, and stay there,' and the itching stopped," he said. "The next day all the spiders were gone."

Over the years Carter has experienced a pushing, a pressure so insistent he has talked to it.

Others have felt it, too. One of them was a health inspector, he said, who described the feeling as unbearable, and refused to come back.

But Carter is quick to point out that the ghost has a friendly side.

"This thing is also spiritual," Carter insists in a phone interview. "At the same time all this weird off-the-wall crap has happened, spiritual stuff has happened."

Carter describes how affordable contractors have miraculously come to his aid as needs have arisen for sheetrock and a new roof.

"Whenever I needed anything, I could go in the auditorium and ask for it," he said, "and it would come to me."

"I don't know who I'm praying to," he confesses. "I want to believe it's a higher power. It's got to be that way. It makes you wonder what the ghost is about."

The trackers, ready to begin, cut my visit with Carter short around 11 p.m..

They give me a small flashlight and then shut off the lights and the air, the better to see and feel the energy emanating from the spirits.

I choose to follow Irvin and another member of the team, and we enter a storage room behind the balcony.

"I don't feel wanted in this room," Irvin calls out to the darkness. "Do you want us to leave? Someone is hiding in the corner here. I have a feeling of fear."

We walk to other rooms, while the ghosthunters listen for beeps from the EMF meter that would indicate the presence of a lot of energy, they say.

They sweep the rooms with the digital camera, usually taking two photos in succession of the same place, which sometimes show images that include small white globes. The trackers call these globes orbs and believe they are the spirits of the dead.

Others — like Troy Taylor, author of the Ghost Hunter's Guidebook — say that most orbs are simply refractions of light on the digital camera lens, created when the camera flash bounces back from something reflective in the range of the camera.

"Can you give me a name," Irvin questions. "Can you make something move?"

"I don't believe you are here," she taunts, "but you can prove me wrong. Can you talk into my red light?"

During the course of the investigation, Irvin feels both cold and heat "like a furnace." She and another member of the team smell the stench of decay in a room below the stage.

But I feel and smell nothing. My son wants to sneak off and pretend he is a ghost, but I rein him in.

After all the rooms have been investigated, we gather in the auditorium and try to guess the ghost's identity.

"Are you a church member," Irvin asks. "Did it bother you when they took the church down and built an opry?"

As we close on midnight, the appointed hour for my son's and my own departure, the trackers believe they hear the ghost identify himself as Mike on the handheld radio.

"Are you comfortable with us being here, or do you want us to leave," Irvin asks.

The answer, they decide, is leave, and so Ian and I comply and head home.

But the ghosthunters stay until 3 a.m., disclosing by e-mail later that they received "lots of audio, names given when asked and several pictures of various apparitions" in the wee hours of the morning.

Unfortunately, I was unable to learn more.

A second e-mail from Irvin reported that Carter is unwilling to release the information that was gathered, and so the story ends shrouded in mystery.

To tell the truth, it would have ended in mystery anyway.

Because who can prove the existence of ghosts?

And who can prove that they don't exist?

I remain open minded, and my son is still skeptical.

Maybe you should visit the Opry and decide for yourself.

**********

From the Archives: August 10, 1977 - Scientists Say Belief in Paranormal Harmful

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