FOIA: FILMED Sighting, Vaughn, NM 05MAR50 (ASTRO:Venus)?

NM_MAR_5_1950.pdf
Filmed Sighting, Vaughn, NM 05MAR50 Classified: (ASTRO:Venus)
This is an interesting report of a sighting by a Holloman AFB Photgraphy unit who sighted a round, pingpong ball sized object which they captured on film. The sighting lasted over an hour and the official classification was (ASTRO:Venus).
Document date: 1950-03-05
Department: OSI Kirtland AFB
Author: Various
Document type: Report
pages: 6


Archivist's Notes: This file is in good condition with only portions of page one difficult to read. This report mentions that this sighting was filmed by the witnesses and was in possession of OSI #17 Kirtland. A negative (part of the film?) was said to be included in the report but there is nothing in the file to represent this negative. The pattern of not including any information on how the determination that this was Venus is frustrating to say the least.

Great document indeed. I've got to agree with the OP that the pattern of not including any information on how the determination that this was Venus is in fact very frustrating. Let's not forget thought that this sighting belongs to the era of swamp gas and Planet Venus explanation.

Object was visible for about 1 hour and 25 minutes and during this time was seen to disappear and appear again and to be stable till the sighting lasted. Object was determined to be seen as moving slowly in a straight line with a speed approximately 180 to 200 mph. I personally don't know any planet moving at that pace in the relation with the observer from Earth Number of observers in total was one then were three witnesses, all reliable and above average. Three witnesses were a team of professional photographers assigned to Holloman AFB in New Mexico and are the persons who took the movie which is supposed to be included in the file.

The time of this sight was 11:35 to 13:00, so that is in the middle of the day. It is possible to see Venus in the daylight on rare occasion, but it never goes higher than 45 degrees from the horizon and the report gives the elevation at 75 degrees. The description of being the size of a ping-pong ball at arms length also contradicts this explanation.

One thing that stands out in this report is the length of time of the sighting being an hour and a half. It would be nice to be able to see the film of this object, but it would be my guess it is long gone.