New astronomy website for reporting unexplained sightings, page 1

From: "AAS Press Officer Dr. Rick Fienberg"
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:06:00
To:
Subject: UAP: Website for Astronomers to Report Unexplained Aerospace
Phenomena

THE FOLLOWING RELEASE WAS RECEIVED FROM THE UNIDENTIFIED AEROSPACE
PHENOMENA (UAP) OBSERVATIONS REPORTING SCHEME IN THE NETHERLANDS AND
IS FORWARDED FOR YOUR INFORMATION. (FORWARDING DOES NOT IMPLY
ENDORSEMENT BY THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.) Rick Fienberg,
American Astronomical Society: rick.fienberg@aas.org, 1-202-328-2010
x116.

December 16, 2009

Contact:
Philippe Ailleris
contact@uapreporting.org
+31 641 890 976

UAP Observations Reporting Scheme website:
www.uapreporting.org... ttp://www.uapreporting.org>

WEBSITE LAUNCHED FOR ASTRONOMERS TO REPORT
OBSERVATIONS OF UNEXPLAINED AEROSPACE PHENOMENA

A website has been launched giving amateur and professional
astronomers a formal mechanism for reporting any unexplained phenomena
they observe when studying the night sky. Initiated within the
framework of the 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 toward 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 IYA2009's network of professional
and amateur astronomers 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 UAP, 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, www.uapreporting.org ttp://www.uapreporting.org> .

The website provides detailed information on common nocturnal and
daytime misidentifications, such as sightings of satellites, weather
balloons, rockets and natural phenomena such as meteors, planets, ball
lightning, sprites and mirages. There are also 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. Many professional and amateur
astronomers are 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 related to UAP sightings. 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," said Ailleris.

reply to post by JimOberg

---

Starred and flagged. That's really quite wonderful news. Sounds like a great way to engage/enthuse people with science without dumbing down, and the website sounds like it could be excellent. I think it goes some way towards correcting the misconception that UAP is always equal to bunk.

reply to post by jackphotohobby

---

I agree if it maintains a fact based forum the public may finally get to the real meat of the UFO mystery that has been going on for thousands of years. Truly a positive way to utilize the internet Its about time we banned together to find the truth and put an end to the outlandish fiction that proliferates most if not all UFO oriented websites

Thanks for drawing attention to the site. It describes how 5% of respondents report being witness to a UAP. I wonder what percentage were professional astronomers? Doubtless, if some were amateur astronomers the 5% may be over-representative. Still, it's very interesting and I'll be checking the site from time to time. It's always good to see someone launch a site that isn't too lurid and openly biased towards anything 'unexplained' being OMG Aliens!

For anyone that hasn't seen it...Dr Richard Haines has a fairly objective site that features reports from the aviation industry. It's called National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena. The Paracast radio show has an interview with Haines that I really enjoyed listening to. It's still available here.

Edit to say...nice to see you back JackPH. Last time I saw you, we were destroying the Starchild/ Lloyd Pye on a fairly good thread

[edit on 16-12-2009 by Kandinsky]

reply to post by JimOberg

---

Thanks JimOberg, I'm going to bookmark this one and keep an eye on it. Hopefully the authors of this news report, Astronomers spot UFO over Oklahoma, will post their experience on this site.

...without any preconceived ideas.

I don't know if what I've found here on their website constitutes a preconceived notion, but it seems as if they're betraying just that in their description of plasmas.

As to what they look like, and how they behave:

...a plasma is generally believed to consist of fluoresced, energised air somehow capable of assuming a spherical, dome or discoid form....such phenomena may also emit radio waves, microwaves, infrared or ultra violet radiation; resulting in various secondary effects ranging from vehicle interference, radio static through to diverse physiological effects on people.

Considering that this has often been an explanation to folks who claim UFO sightings, I was quite surprised at just how much uncertainty it seems there is around the phenomenon.

There is presently considerable uncertainty surrounding this issue – even as to whether such plasmas exist....no consensus how such phenomena could be generated....One theory....Another theory....Some further theory....must be stressed that the existence of such phenomena are only hypothetical and have yet to be convincingly demonstrated

Am I asking the right question here? What am I missing? Going back to read more about common misidentifications. Yay, IYA 2009!

reply to post by JimOberg

---

Astronomy is ripe to be the "eyes an ears" for the common man. I feel they have dropped the ball focusing much of their time and night vision looking at basically what is refered to as Rocks.

What about a comprehensive study on the ET's flying around those rocks? These guy's and gals could and should be the tool to bridge the publics ET phenom.

[edit on 16-12-2009 by Level X]

reply to post by JimOberg

---

Star and flag!

I hope that by soliciting reports from amateur and professional astronomers they will get higher quality reports with less misidentifications of Venus as a UFO for example. Even amateur astronomers should be able to avoid this mistake.

The Chinese astronomers who witnessed something they couldn't explain said it will take them a year to analyze their sighting, maybe they will make a report too when they've finished their analysis.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
I hope that by soliciting reports from amateur and professional astronomers they will get higher quality reports with less misidentifications of Venus as a UFO for example. Even amateur astronomers should be able to avoid this mistake.

Yes, lets hope (as Dagar suggests) that the people who collate these reports attempt to be objective and just don't cherry-pick which sightings to include or shoehorn their own existing preconceptions onto events or incidents.

Theres a good scribd (pdf) document here documenting all the many Astronomer UFO reports throughout history -its seems there has been quite a lot:


A List of UFO Sightings by Astronomers



Other cases:

Amateur astronomer observes large triangle with luminous rings in corners

Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh UFO Sighting (Astronomer Who Discovered Pluto)

Edmund Halley, discoverer of Halley's Comet, sees UFO in 1676

Cheers.

[edit on 02/10/08 by karl 12]

Just found that Philippe Ailleris has recently published a good paper on UAPs in the prestigious ESPI (European Space Policy Institute) Perspectives series:

www.espi.or.at...

He also published an excellent paper in Acta Astronautica two years ago:

rr0.org...

So thought it timely to give Jim O's good thread about Ailleris's work a bump.

Really Ailleris is only saying - more circumspectly, and with some updating - what Jim M said many years ago.

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