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Page ID (PID)
MAXW-PBB11-442
Collection
NARA-Maxwell
Page 442 of 1558
Roll Description
Maxwell Blue Book 11
Document Code
N/A
MAXW-PBB11-440
MAXW-PBB11-441
MAXW-PBB11-442
MAXW-PBB11-443
MAXW-PBB11-444
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THIS PAGE IS UNCLASSIFIED > o Photograaaetric -5- Serial 02 Analysis of "Utah" Film r'' Certain soaring insects - notably "ballooning spiders" (reference (5) and (6)) produce bright moving points of light. The author has witnessed auch a phenomenon. It is produced by sun reflections off the streamers of silken threads spun by many types of spiders. Caught by the wind, these streamers serve as a means of locomotion floating the spider high into the air. They occasionally have the appearance of vast numbers of silken flakes which fill the air and in some recorded instances extend over many square miles and to a height of several hundred feet. The reflection, being off silk threadsf is not as bright as diffuse reflection from a flat white hoard. Thus no flaring of the images could be expected. The author noted that the sections of the "web" that reflected measured from l/V to l/2" for the largest specimens. Thus the images might be attributed.to balloon- ing spiders at distances of 50 to 100 feet. However, these web reflections ordinarily show up only against a rather dark background and it is doubted if their intensity would be great enough to produce the intense UFO Images against a bright sky. 0 No quantitative densitometer examination of image brightness could be made, as the original film was not available. It is understood from Al Chop that the government analysts did make measurements of this kind on the original films and found the Utah images to be very intense *. Besides the above remarks, pertinent to the actual images, several facts can be gleaned from the motion of objects. The observations are not apt tp support the supposition that the objects were conventional aircraft as the maneuvers are too erratic, the relative accelerations probably rul- - ing out aircraft at distances of over five miles. Several observers familiar with the appearance of chaff have seen the film and concluded that the per- sistence of the nontwinkllng constellations, their small quantity, and the reported absence of aircraft overhead makes chaff unlikely. Furthermore, the single object passing across the field of view would be most difficult to explain on the basis of chaff. These same remarks would apply also to bits of paper swept up.in thermal updrafts* ^ The relative angular velocity might be compatible with soaring bird speeds at distances of less than one mile, the angular velocity of the single object could be attributed to ''a bird within about one thousand feet. There is a tendency to pan with a moving object - not against it - .so the velocities in the table probably represent a lower bound. The motion of the objects is not exactly what one would expect from a flook of soaring birds (not the slightest indication of a decrease in brightness due to periodic turning with the wind or flapping) and no cumulus clouds are present which might betray the presence of a strong thermal updraft. On the other hand the single object might represent a single soaring bird which broke away in search of a new thermal -- quite a common occurrence among gulla see reference (7) ** ---~~ ~ ~~~----------"~------ ,., In fact, "burned right down to the celluloid backing". See also reference (l).
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