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61 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
61 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: Aurora High Speed Aircraft FILE: UFO129
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Between 0:10UT and 0:13UT on Wed. March 31 many people in Ireland
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saw two bright (mag -1 or brighter) lights travelling slowly across
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the sky. One advanced amateur astronomer, John Fitzsimons, from his
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observatory a few miles outside Sligo town on the west coast saw
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the object rise in the NW and pass 70 deg. up in the SW 35 seconds
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later, eventually setting in the SE. He reported four other mag. 4
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objects trailing behind it. The whole assembly left a glowing white
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'mist' that persisted for 3 or 4 minutes. John is one of the country's
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best astrophotographers (if not the best) and has built an impressive
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observatory around his Celestron-11. He seems convinces it was a
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satellite re-entering the atmosphere and burning up.
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Based largely on John's sighting Astronomy Ireland believed the
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satellite re-entry was the correct interpretation but a number
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inconsistencies have led Leo Enright (BBC Ireland correspondent) to
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suggest it was a special type of aircraft possibly Aurora or Dipper
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(Dipper?). We're no aviation experts so maybe you can help? (This
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story has made the front page, national TV & radio)
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One inconsistency is that the two bright lights appear to be the
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same brightness and flying 'abreast' separated by 2 to 3 deg. rather
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than one after the other. If re-entering 50 miles up this puts them
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at least 2 miles apart can fragments get this far apart during re-entry?
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Secondly, a sighting was made from Glastonbury, Somerset (U.K.)
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which puts the object heading out across the English channel - BUT
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AT 0:40UT which is 300 miles in 30 minutes i.e. 600mph roughly. Leo
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Enright suggests that this in particular shows it must have been a
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craft of some description. He hypothesises that a military craft like
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Aurora/Dipper possibly got into trouble in the Atlantic and headed
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toward Shannon airport as a possible landing site, was told not to
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land such a craft in a neutral country and possibly continued on to
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the base in Spain?
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Nothing showed up on radar in Shannon airport (or so they say).
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Could a natural object in space 'graze' the Earth's atmosphere at
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such a speed?
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Leo Enright says the 'four mag 4 objects' following the craft are
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consistent with reports of other sightings of Aurora or more likely
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Dipper and the effects seen in its 'exhaust' contrail.
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Is there any chance it could still have been a satellite re-entry
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(or natural object)?
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Sorry, in a rush. Forgot if I asked one very imposrtant question:
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Does anyone know if ANYTHING re-entered the atmosphere early on
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UT day of March 31 (or even March 30)? Or who I could ask this question
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of and get a conclusive answer?
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Tony Ryan, "Astronomy & Space", new International magazine.
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Astronomy Ireland, P.O.Box 2888, Dublin 1, Ireland.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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