STS-75 Tether Encounter -- Unpublished crew photography now available

I've just obtained all the STS-75 hand-held photography of the tether fly-past, and there are shots simo with the famous 'swarm' scene that show what it really appeared like, not how the TV imaging distorted it. Will share soonest.

There are several lines of investigation here that need to be followed up on:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

My own recent note there about the relative viewing angles from the shuttle to the tether, may seem complex. Here are some graphical plots -- one horizontal, one vertical -- of that trajectory.

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a reply to: JimOberg

I can't wait to see the shots, you should post them now...

I always thought this guy was probably correct.

a reply to: JimOberg

Post soon! I am only posting now to remember this thread, but I am very interested in the photo's.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: JimOberg

Wow...18 years to release a single image that purports to prove the swarm was just an optical illusion created by video cameras...we may as well call up every UFO witness, researcher and whistleblower and tell them to pack up and go home, Mr. Oberg has a photo.

Forgive me if i sound cynical, but it's because i am.

a reply to: MysterX

we may as well call up every UFO witness, researcher and whistleblower and tell them to pack up and go home, Mr. Oberg has a photo.

No need to rush. It took 70 years to build it all up, it will take at least some fraction of that amount of time to dismantle the American UFO mythos.

Some of us are savoring this.

i'm up there with the 'show us the pics' crowd

originally posted by: MysterX
a reply to: JimOberg

Wow...18 years to release a single image

Well, they do have us believe they cant send back high resolution images of the moon mars and just about anywhere else they go, so maybe its taken them 18 years to paint...edit...erm...develop the picture!

I think one of the most telling things about the tether incident is the notches in the circular disks are all in the same place..either roughly at 6 o'clock or 12 o'clock. Is would point to it being a camera anomaly like the video above states.

Its just highly unlikely to be disks with notches in the same place floating round in space with the same rotation all exactly facing the camera. In fact highly unlikely is an understatement..its practically impossible.

a reply to: VoidHawk

Let us not forget the various places and things they told us that the Hubble would not be able to see but really could.

Let Oberg show us the goodies he has. I'm sure he is on firm ground if he thinks he can debunk the tether incident. Getting the still pictures must fall under some of his contract work with NASA, since he didn't gives us any sources where we could go ourselves to view them. The best he can do lay some of the UFO myth to bed, but as he well knows, you can't prove a negative when typical UFOs and our triangles swarm all around the place with impudence.

originally posted by: MysterX
a reply to: JimOberg

Wow...18 years to release a single image that purports to prove the swarm was just an optical illusion created by video cameras...we may as well call up every UFO witness, researcher and whistleblower and tell them to pack up and go home, Mr. Oberg has a photo.

Forgive me if i sound cynical, but it's because i am.

It's a fair point. NOBODY seemed to think it worthwhile to even ASK for the photos, and when I did as a private researcher, I got a badge within days and was given two hours in the heart of the archives. I saw them all, I was given the entire photo roster of the mission, and have a DVD in the mail. Why was I the first guy to ask [I ask myself, why didn't I think of it sooner?].

NASA hadn't bothered, as far as I can tell, because they always figured the fuss was silly and that UFO proponents were unpersuadable -- I'm guessing. It's not what I think.

The gentle course changes on this and other videos is not an optical effect, it's genuine, and so far lacks a clear explanation -- although there are a number of suggestions. That's also needing an explanation, not a 'never mind' dismissal.

That's a good video. i did not catch what it's a part of; What series or show?
I like programs that use actual experimenta to discuss things in question.
Thanks for the link to vid.
a reply to: Elton

I also got all the hi-def download video from the four-hour phase as Columbia overtook and pulled ahead of the lost tether.

Here are links to a lot of new reference materials on this portion of the mission:






Scene list for orbits 116, 117 and 118
content.screencast.com... ,118%20(GMT%2061%2002.07%20-%2061%2005.12)%202-29-1996.pdf?downloadOnly=true



downlink video Orbits 116, 117 and 118.

www.youtube.com...







Scene list for orbits 118 and 119

content.screencast.com... %20(GMT%2061%2005.11%20-%2061%2006.54)%202-29-1996.pdf?downloadOnly=true



downlink video Orbits 118 and 119.

www.youtube.com...






Scene list for orbits 119, 120 and 121

content.screencast.com... ,021%20(GMT%2061%2006.53%20-%2061%2008.59)%203-1-1996.pdf?downloadOnly=true



downlink video Orbits 119, 120 and 121.

www.youtube.com...







STS-75 Flight plan

content.screencast.com... rue

STS-75 Flight day 8 execute package

content.screencast.com...

tape 1 transcription

Video 1

00:00
00:56 TOPS night scene oblique, passing cities
07:08 PLB cam, night cloud cover, horizon, possibly moonlit,
R to L motion, star slowly sets in upper left
11:14 black
11:46 Experimental apparatus
Playback cued up, ‘let me check with INCO’
12:35 Resume exterior view
12:40 Playback, “OK, here it comes.”
17:30 “That about does it”
18:42 black
19:14 “Columbia, Houston, download…”
19:42 Dark horizon, level, l to r motion, thunderstorms, setting stars
22:05 Change camera, horizon now near vertical; bright stars [Pleiades?], lightning
23:20 More; small dots appear mid-rt center fov, moving right to left
CAM PANS BRIEFLY
24:36 Change cam, view aft, sunglint on tail, left wing and left plb sill in view
24:50 Pan right to view sunrise horizon
25:21 Hoffman: “Houston, Columbia, regarding the tether sightings..”
“Yessir, Jeff”.
“Just want to remind you, uh,, we do have nearly a full moon, and we have two image intensifiers on board, .. aah. that can be hooked to TV at the top, and the astro scope, so even if we make a close approach during the night and not at sunrise or sunset, there still -- we still may have a fighting chance of seeing it. …
25:56 “OK, we understand, thank you.”
26:34 “Columbia, Houston, Z-O-E in two minutes, we’ll get you back at 6:25, and we’ll have a flight note for you on your various camera options as well as the viewing.times, coming up shortly.”
26:51 “People are very busy working up all these payload deltas, and the TSS viewing. And we’ll get them up as soon as they’re mature.”
“OK, we’ll talk to you in ten minutes.”
27:00 “Yeah, FDO is tracking the TSS and its trajectory or drag model is very hard to pin down, and the estimates keep changing, we’ll try to give you the latest data and the times to go along those.
27:15 “OK, we understand the difficulties and we know everybody will do their best, we’ll see what we can get.
27:20 “We’re looking forward to it.”
27:30 “Jeff, it turns out the satellite and tether’s C-G has a very low radar cross section, it’s difficult to pin down.
27:43 “Understand.
28:41 black

29:30 “We’re ready for your downlink, Columbia.”
29:40 Downlink, experiment apparatus
37:16 “You can go back to normal TV.”


39:19 black
”

39:56 Small white blur bouncing in center screen, gray background
Hoffman: “OK, when I first picked it up this is the Camden [?] 15-mm eeyoff [phonetic] lens . This is handheld so it’s jumping around a lot. But like I say we haven’t edited it yet. Later on we’ll get it in the p—[drop out]- I think we’ll get some better pictures..
40:12 MCC “OK, we’re getting a good downlink, thank you.

41:30 more bouncing dot, views of window edge out of focus
41:35 “Don’t get frustrated there’s more coming.
41:42 MCC: “No problems”.

42:00 more bouncing blur, some window reflections of crewman moving
42:40 image steadies and brightens
42:50 “OK, it’s in the bogen arm now and I’m trying to track with the arm so it’s semi-rigid.
43:05 MCC “Pretty good job, Jeff.”
43:10 “And this is at full zoom.”
43:15 MCC “Yes, we can see the suggestion of a tether on the right.side.—unless that’s just a reflection of the window pane.”

43:18 “ I can definitely see the tether in the viewfinder.”
43:28 “Unfortunately it was at a very low angle through the window so there’s a lot of distortion in the image.
43:35 “Copy.”
43:40 Jeff: “With three-pane optical glass it’s hard to get a high quality telescopic image…
43:52 “The alternative is worse.”
43:56 “I agree.”

[more of same view]

45:40 moving out of frame, window glare
46:00 Jeff: “The camera had run up against the window and I had to reposition it. I’m really really low, low angle, in the window. I got it until it finally ran out of the field of view. It’ll start up in just a minute.

46:12 “Copy.”

47:25 “We have acquisition out the front window, I’m gonna go and take some more pictures there.”
47:29 “Roger.”
Image now shows clear extension to the right.
48:20 Image fades out.
48:26 snow.

48:31 “Columbia, Houston, our latest estimate of the time of closest approach will be eight five-seven.
48:56 Image returns – elongated horizontal white smudge
49:00 OK, here’s the last little bit I got trough the front window. It’s not very good, it was very low, and the window’s pretty dirty. It was hard to get access. But I might as well downlink
49:16 “Thank you, Jeff.”
Black screen
49:34 Fuzzy ball

49:50 “Columbia, Houston. INCO requests a RESUME on SPEC 62 we’re gonna change TFLs.”
“OK, done.”
“Thanks.”
Black screen, flickering dim glare
Window edge out of focus
51:00 Tiny dot
51:35 g

51:46 Hoffman: “OK, that’s it for this pass, we got some 250mm and 35mm photography, we’ll try a bigger lens next time.”
51: 58 MCC: “Copy that, Jeff.”

52:10 Hoffman: “Be sure to pass on to Chuck Shaw how bright this looks, and it’s a lot further than 21 kilometers away. “
52:30 exterior view, cloud cover approaching top-to-bottom

View of port sill and wing, horizon. Attitude looks tail down
57:00 discuss depletion of satellite batteries with Franklin

Experiment downlink…
DANZANTE TVA

1:16:16 [?] “Columbia, Houston, can you take a look at satellite viewing, it looks like our closest approach is still at five-seven with a range of about 46 nautical miles. “

1:17:22 Just for your information, I’ve got cameras charlie and Delta powered up, and pointed straight up, ninety degrees. And angle information enabled, so, uh, we’ll be able to find our way around quickly.
“Outstanding, copy Charlie and delta.”
1:17:40 tape stops

tape 2 transcription

Tape 2

00:00 JOHNSON TV plus tone
01:10 star field

01:36 Franklin: “We’ll be watching, and you’ll see it as soon as we see it.”
“Thank you.”
01:55 Just for your information, I’ve got cameras charlie and Delta powered up, and pointed straight up, ninety degrees. With the angle information enabled, so, uh, we’ll be able to find our way around quickly.
“Outstanding, copy Charlie and delta.”

02:47 switch star fields -- slow L to R drift

03:30 “Tom, say again the time of close approach.”

03:39 “The time will be eight hours five-seven minutes”

03:50 Franklin: “Like one minute from now. So we’ll be watching.
03:55 “Copy that.”

05:00 “Columbia, Houston, some further words on the satellite. At nine hours four minutes we’ll catch up and pass from leading to trailing. And the satellite will be to your right 27 nautical miles out of plane.
05:25 Hoffman: “Is that right as we’re looking out our direction, that is out the port side?”
“Affirmative.”

06:20 switch camera

Silence, slow starfield drift

09:40 “C, Houston, sunrise in about nine minutes, and at that time, we hope to see the satellite. We’ll have lapped it already and we’ll be ahead of it.”
10:12 bright star field – new
10:26 switch cams
11:02 switch back [note stars all seem to have shapes and thicknesses]
12:12 switch to less starry field [drift rate is LVLH, 4 deg/minute]
Back/forth switching and searching

17:41 switch cam

19:25 “OK, Houston, we’ve got contact, it’s beautiful, we’re gonna get it on the TV’s and downlink to you. We can see the tether.”
“Great news, Franklin, and we’ll look at that picture.”

19:56 Tether appears as cam pans down, shakes and stops motion.
Moving particles criss-cross scene.

21:12: “You guys getting the image?”

21:17 “Franklin, we see a long line, a couple of starlike things, and a lot of things swimming in the foreground. Can you describe what you’re seeing?

21:25 Well, the long line is the tether. Um, and there’s a little bit of debris that kinda flies with us, and uh it’s illuminated by the sun. at such low angles. And there’s a lot of stray light. And it’s getting washed out quickly but Claude is trying to do a quick - good job here adjusting the cameras.
“Copy that.”

22:40 Columbia, Houston, that’s a much better view, a lot more contrast .visible.
And how wide does that tether appear to be. It seems to resemble a much wider strand than we’d expect…Can you describe which way the satellite is visible on that strand?

23:40 Nicollier: “ Here’s the view with camera Charlie, completely unzoomed, and you see the full extent of the tether. I tried to adjust the focus but I can’t get better than that.
“OK, Claude, thank you.….”
“I’m going to zoom in now.”

More camera adjustments, glare
26:00 one fast-flickering particle drifts slowly

26:30 And we can still see it on our monitors, a very faint straight line. Getting smaller and smaller in size.

We can still see it with you, it’s remarkably straight, thank you, Claude.

26:48 “Range one-one-three.”

Normal earth view, blue horizon along left edge

2856 Hoffman: “Houston, Columbia, I was using both the 20 power binoculars and the 400 power Nikon lens under the body bag, uh, and it only disappeared in the glare of the sun about 30 seconds ago. The tether looked completely straight. I did not see any bright spots along the tether. except at the very bottom where there was a bright spot which was unresolvable. for me.
I did not see anything above the satellite.

Thank you, we copy all, Jeff. Good observations. Look forward to your descriptions and photography when you get back.

Earth horizon [right side, vertical], lens glare, on lower left, orbiter port wing tip, port sill.

31:08 Hoffman: “And Tom, as far as the size of the tether, you can get some of the photo/TV people working on this, but it extended..uh, about the diagonal length of the 400mm lens as seen in the Nikon viewfinder. Seen straight across, it was actually bigger than the horizontal distance but was about equal to the diameter.

“OK, so in the viewfinder across the diagonal of the 400 lens and that was towards the end of the visibility period. And could you give us an MET of that point?

Well, I called you down saying I had just lost it in the glare of the Sun about 30 seconds before so you can get it off from that. But it didn’t seem to change that much over the last couple of minutes.

OK, sounds like oh nine twenty. Thank you.

32:20 Cam tilts; plb view - tail view

3320 earth view, horizon level, deserts separated by left-right body of water, receding

3529 experiment
3530 90 seconds out from the ZOE, see you there…


37:35 snow. Then experiment view resumes.

38:14 “Columbia, Houston, West satellite.”
Claude: “Loud and clear, Tom.”
Discuss experiment in progress

57:58 “Columbia, Houston, on TSS we got some great data from the science aboard the satellite during the close approach and we just finished a Guam pass and get even better data there from the satellite.
Jeff: “Wonderful, well, you know sometimes serendipity makes things roll in science, so let’s hope something will turn up that nobody was expecting.

“We think it’s due to the extremely long antenna.”

01:08:48 Columbia, Houston, for claude on triple-F-T, we’d like the air circulation taken back up to five,,, [snip]

01:09:00 “Understand. And for Columbia, Orbit-1 is signing off, being replaced by Orbit-3, got Bob Castle and Bill McArthur here for you, We had an enjoyable shift with you with the viewing of TSS, the good science data, our hats are off to the pointers who gave you that good steer to see the satellite, Steve Ramko in particular, and his gang did a great job. FDO tracked it for us all the way in as well. We’ll see yah tomorrow.
Chang: Thanks a lot, Tom, that was great, excellent information, and the satellite was right exactly where you guys said it was gonna be, so my hat off to the pointers and trackers as well. “
“Much obliged.”

1:11:50 Franklin: “Hey, Tom and Bill, , We just got another sighting, but very very low on the horizon just a little bit to the [one?] side of Venus, it’s just very faint, and the [garble] coming across the atmosphere. “

CAPCOM: “Thanks, Franklin, we copy.”

Experiment video

01:23:59 PLB camera view of ORION, stars show elongation, Sirius [far left] is even bigger and shows center dimming. Camera pans [rotates field of view], Sirius shows distinct large shape, shading.

1:31:07 Night horizon view ; bright star setting, elongated shape with dark center. Appears to pass in FRONT of horizon because its darkened center blocks out light of horizon line. .Star then twinkles, sets, and its little occulting circle vanishes, horizon again fully visible.

Tape ends

This image was actually already in the PAO files:

STS075-360-021 (22 Feb.- 9 March 1996) --- The loose tether forms a faint diagonal line in this scene recorded on a later fly-by. ….



It looks like the photos made from Earth a week or two later. But it does NOT look like the famous TV image.

originally posted by: PhoenixOD
I think one of the most telling things about the tether incident is the notches in the circular disks are all in the same place.

There are no "circular things with notches". I quickly looked at the first YT vid I could find, here:

www.youtube.com...

See at 0:30 when the "objects" are cleary only small dots IN FOCUS, look like some kinds of droplets or something to me, PROBABLY very close to the camera.

Only from 0:40 you can see that the camera zooms in on the tether, the (nearby) "objects" become OUT OF FOCUS and become large "disks" with "notches". (An effect which comes likely from the camera/lens opening, in the same way as an out of focus light in some "UFO images" is often becoming a diamond-shaped "objects" because the shutter of the camera has a diamond shape).

For me (and I think for anyone with a basic understanding of photography, optics) it's clear there are no "disks", it's simply very out of focus very tiny dots rather close to the camera.

a reply to: JimOberg
Thank you!
A very informative and interesting transcript.
I commend you on your research.

Also did photodocumentation of my work on site, to give the 'feel' of that activity.

I also viewed the digital scans of about three dozen images, on the archivist's PC. Can anybody volunteer to set up a site for all of them at max resolution, about 3 meg each?

The crew kept trying various exposures and zooms, and made many shots at shallow angles to windows. Quality varied enormously.

The most useful sequence is several views showing the distant tether, as shown above, but with a large diaphanous white circle moving across the field of view. It's either confirmation of one of the notched UFOs -- although it is NOT notched -- or confirmation of nearby out-of-focus debris.

But I want to get them out, for the expertise resident hereabouts -- just give me a few more hours.