One of the characteristic features of UFOs is the extreme unevenness of their observations in time (by hours of the day, days, months, years) and by country.
Statistical analysis of many reports of UFOs from around the world shows that the largest number of sightings during the day usually falls on the evening hours (from 20.00 to 23.00). During the night, the number of sightings decreases, possibly due to the fact that potential observers are sleeping.
The distribution of the number of observations by months of each year is also uneven, although some regularity seems to be visible here, because the largest number of reports of UFO sightings in both the USSR and the United States falls on the period from July to October (2.96).
Initially, attempts were made to explain this pattern by an increase in the number of potential observers in these months, because in summer and autumn people spend more time in nature. But it turned out that an increase in the number of observations in these months also takes place in the southern hemisphere, where winter is at this time. Therefore, the reason for the increase in the number of UFO observers in July - October, apparently, should be sought in something else.
At the same time, according to the statistical analysis of UFO observations in the Moscow region for 1984-1988, the second "peak" of messages fell on December - February.
The unevenness of UFO sightings over the years is expressed in the fact that in many countries of the world for a number of years only isolated cases of UFO sightings were recorded, and then suddenly a whole wave of such observations "rolled".
So, for example, in the post-war years, the "peaks" of UFO observations in the United States were in 1952, 1957, 1966 and 1973, while in France, Spain and Italy the maximum was in 1954, in New Guinea - in 1958, and in South America - for 1963.
In the USSR, such a sharp increase in the number of reports of UFO sightings was noted in the summer of 1967 in the south and in the fall of 1977, in June 1980 and in May 1981 - in the northwest of the European part of the USSR.
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It is also noteworthy that against the background of a general increase in UFO activity, measured in months, there is a sharp increase in the number of their appearances on certain days, called "active dates". Moreover, this increase in the number of observations is taking place in fairly large areas. Attempts to determine the causes of UFO activity in certain years and days in certain regions of the globe and to find any regularity have not yet been successful, although some massive reports of UFO sightings in our country can apparently be explained.
So, a sharp increase in the number of reports in 1967, apparently, occurred as a result of the speech of Major General Pavel Stolyarov and F. Yu. Siegel on Central Television, in 1977 - due to the publication in the central press of a note about the appearance of UFOs over Petrozavodsk, and in June 1980 and May 1981 - due to observations of spacecraft launches, accompanied by a number of side effects.
This is explained by the fact that the population of our country, being insufficiently informed about what the true pictures of spacecraft launches look like, often perceives them as something unusual, and some eyewitnesses are in a hurry to enroll the observations of such phenomena in the category of UFOs. Hence, it is easy to explain the fact that many letters received by the Central Commission for the NA describe the launches.
At present, the Central Commission has developed a methodology that makes it possible to distinguish messages that describe the pictures of launches observed from large distances from anomalous phenomena.
The description of the launch at night is as follows: first, at an angle of approximately 25 ° to the horizon, a moving brightly lit point appears, followed by a contrail. Then the front part of this track, located at a high altitude, expands, acquiring the shape of a bubble or fish, in which jets of outflowing gases are visible, similar to rays. The bright luminosity of the trace is caused partly by the self-luminescence of gases, mainly by their illumination by the Sun, due to their considerable height above the Earth's surface (Fig. 87). This is how the first stage of the launch vehicle looks like.
Then, in place of the luminous point, a bright flash is observed, and a stationary oval region is formed, which creates the impression of a luminous object hovering. Diverging concentric circles can sometimes be observed around it.
This is how the separation of the first stage of the launch vehicle looks like, taking place at an altitude of about 50 km in about 2 minutes after launch. And the stationary oval area is formed as a result of the evaporation of fuel residues ejected at this moment from the tanks through the drainage holes, as a result of which a cloud of gases appears, which can glow in the sun's rays.
Further movement of the second stage is observed in the form of a continuation of the movement of a bright point with a cone of gas jets diverging behind it, resembling rays. Here, it is possible to observe another flash at the moment of separation of the second stage of the launch vehicle, which occurs at an altitude of about 200 km approximately 5 minutes after the launch.
It should also be borne in mind that a decrease in the thrust of rocket engines during the operation of both stages is achieved by a sharp release of pressure in the combustion chamber by opening additional holes located on the side or front of the rocket body. In this case, the shape of the jets of diverging gases for observers who are in alignment with the direction of launch may resemble a giant flower or a cross, and if the rocket is stabilized by rotating it around the longitudinal axis, the jets will be spiral. After the end of the movement of the bright point (after 5 - 7 minutes), a fairly rapid dispersion of gases occurs.
A sign that the described phenomenon occurs at a great distance is almost the same azimuths of observation by eyewitnesses who are at a considerable distance from each other.
Confirmation that the launch of a spacecraft was observed can also be obtained by comparing the time of the observed phenomenon with the publication in print of the launch date of an artificial Earth satellite or spacecraft.
The increase in the number of UFO sightings, which occurs in the periods preceding some spacecraft launches, during and some time later, deserves a separate consideration.
About 100 space objects are launched annually in our country, but over the past 12 years, only three cases were observed - in September 1977, in June 1980 and in May 1981, similar phenomena were observed.
The publication of a message about the so-called Petrozavodsk phenomenon caused a particularly great resonance in our country. In the newspaper "Socialist Industry" (1977. September 23), he was described as follows:
“On September 20, at about four o'clock in the morning, a huge 'star' suddenly flashed brightly in the dark sky, impulsively sending sheaves of light to the earth. This "star" was slowly moving towards Petrozavodsk and, spreading over it in the form of a jellyfish, hung, showering the city with a multitude of the finest ray streams that gave the impression of pouring rain.
After a while, the ray glow ended. "Medusa" turned into a bright semicircle and resumed its movement towards Lake Onega, the horizon of which was enveloped in gray clouds. In this veil, then a semicircular gully of bright red color to the middle and white on the sides formed. This phenomenon, according to eyewitnesses, lasted 10-12 minutes."
Colored drawings of the phases of the Petrozavodsk phenomenon were published in the journal Technics and Science (1978. 9) (Fig. 88).
It is known that during the observation of the Petrozavodsk phenomenon at 4:00 am on September 20, 1977, an artificial earth satellite "Kosmos-955" was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, located northeast of Petrozavodsk. But it turns out that even on September 19, that is, a day before the launch, flights of some unknown objects in the region of Leningrad, Vilnius, Tbilisi were already observed.
Before the launch, unknown objects were also recorded: at 1.00 over Medvezhyegorsk, at 2.30 over the village of Louhi in the KarASSR, and at 3.00 over the village of Kovdor in the Murmansk region and over Palanga in Lithuania.
During the launch, flights of some unknown objects in various directions were also observed:
- over the Leningrad region (according to the Pulkovo Observatory) and over the city of Kem - from south to north; - over the village of Kalevala, KarASSR - from north to south; in the area of Priozersk and Lomonosov of the Leningrad region - from west to east; - over the town of Põltsamaa in Estonia - from northwest to southwest, etc.
It is also interesting that the observations of unknown flying objects in the early morning of September 20 were recorded at great distances from Plesetsk: in Dnepropetrovsk, Yalta, Ochakov, Tbilisi, Novosibirsk, Altai and even Vladivostok. At the same time, it is characteristic that such observations continued after the launch: on the evening of September 20 in Ufa, Tomsk and south-west of Ashgabat, and on September 22 in Pudozh of the KarASSR. And, as it seems to us, all these observations can in no way be connected with the launch of the satellite "Kosmos-955".
In this regard, one cannot but dwell on the repeatedly changing and contradictory attempts to explain the Petrozavodsk phenomenon, undertaken over the years.
Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. V. Migulin, who was responsible for the study of anomalous phenomena in our country.
For the first time this was said in "Week" (1979. 3), where VV Migulin argued that "the Petrozavodsk phenomenon is one of the most striking events that have not yet found an explanation."
In the French magazine "La recherche" for August 1979, Migulin also could not explain the observed phenomenon, but only expressed his surprise why that night nothing was noticed in the area of Arkhangelsk, where the experiments were carried out.
In Sovetskaya Rossiya (1980, April 19), Migulin suddenly announced that "we expected the Petrozavodsk phenomenon in this area, and by this time we had timed an experiment to probe the atmosphere."
But only a month passes, and Migulin writes in the newspaper Moskovskie Novosti (1980, May 25) that “despite the available facts, we cannot explain the essence of the miraculous phenomenon that was observed in the fall of 1977 near Petrozavodsk”.
In essence, a similar statement by Migulin was published in Literaturnaya Gazeta (1982, October 20), where he repeated that “the nature of the Petrozavodsk phenomenon is still incomprehensible, because we know too little about the processes that caused the entire totality of the phenomena observed then..
Three more years pass, and in the Smena magazine (1985. 4) Migulin suddenly declares that the Petrozavodsk case has now been explained. He reports that a powerful solar flare occurred on September 20, 1977, resulting in a complex geophysical environment. At this time IZMIRAN was conducting an experiment to the south of Arkhangelsk with a new device for studying the magnetosphere. In addition, a space exploration apparatus was immediately launched, the individual elements of which, burning in the atmosphere, were clearly visible in the sky. And so “the consequences of human technical activity were superimposed on the complex geophysical situation, and all this, taken together, gave the phenomena observed over Petrozavodsk”.
The wording, of course, is very vague and vague, from which it can be concluded that the causes of the phenomenon were a combination of a solar flare, an experiment with a new device and the launch of an apparatus for exploring outer space (apparently, the satellite "Kosmos-955"
Years go by, and in "Week" (1989. 33) Migulin gives again a new explanation, stating that "it was just an unsuccessful rocket launch from our northern test site, which could have been observed not only in Petrozavodsk, but also in many districts of the Leningrad region, although the rocket passed quite far even from Petrozavodsk."
So, the last of a series of conflicting explanations given by Migulin - "it was just a failed rocket launch." And Migulin's closest assistant in the research of AY Y. Platov in Science and Life (1989. 8) clarifies that it was the launch vehicle of the Kosmos-955 satellite launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, and even shows on the diagram its trajectory passing much east of Arkhangelsk.
But if this is so, then why was nothing unusual been noticed in Arkhangelsk, as Migulin wrote in a French magazine? Whereas in the description given by Platov in the magazine Around the World (1985.2), it was said that the bright star turned to the left and approached Petrozavodsk,”after which a jellyfish-like glow formed around it, and this luminous cloud hovered over the city (!) …
Comparison of only these data already creates the impression that the launch of the satellite "Kosmos-955" and the phenomenon observed by the inhabitants of Petrozavodsk, apparently, were nevertheless different phenomena. In addition, a special commission was created to study the Petrozavodsk phenomenon, headed by the same Migulin, which, of course, no one would create just for the sake of collecting eyewitness impressions about the unsuccessful launch of the rocket.
Something similar to the Petrozavodsk phenomenon happened in June 1980, when the launch of the Kosmos-1188 satellite, carried out at 23.51 on June 14 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, was also accompanied by a number of strange phenomena, although most of the eyewitnesses had the same data on the observation time, directions and angles with the corresponding data of "Cosmos-1188".
In this case, there was also the observation of unknown objects even before the launch.
So, in the afternoon of June 14, a number of eyewitnesses observed through binoculars a cigar-shaped object hanging for 15 minutes over Sheremetyevo airport, which then went vertically upward with great speed.
In the period from 23.00 to 23.30 a motionless object with two straight beams was observed over Balashikha.
In the period from 23.15 to 23.40 a number of eyewitnesses in Moscow, the Moscow region and the cities of Michurinsk and Bologoye observed the flights of unknown round objects with red trails in various directions (with azimuths of 90-240 °). And in a number of places it was observed how some other small objects flew out of these main objects and performed various maneuvers at low altitude.
Such messages came from Iyusha, Kurov and Kovrov of the Moscow region and Anemyasov of the Ryazan region.
Near the village of Chkalovsky, a motionlessly hanging spindle-shaped object with two beams was observed, to which some small object joined. Some of these objects were moving along wrong paths.
In Ivanteevka and Pushkin (Moscow region), an egg-shaped object was seen rising along a spiral trajectory, and over Iksha, an object moving in a zigzag manner.
But if all these anomalies can still be somehow explained by the unequal perception of eyewitnesses, then the cases when objects observed at that time influenced people and technical means, already completely exclude the possibility of their linking with the launch of the satellite. This refers to the observation by the engineer Lieutenant Colonel V. G. Karjakin in the village of Chkalovsky of an elliptical object hovering at a height of 2.5 m above the ground, around which there was some kind of protective field that allowed Karjakin to come closer. This case is described in detail in the third chapter of our book.
According to reliable data, also in the period from 23-50 June 14 to 2.00 June 15 in the area of the city of Volsk, Saratov region, a spherical object was observed flying at a low speed at an altitude of 100-200 m and emitting five rays towards the ground, which then merged into one. At the same time, it is characteristic that interruptions in the operation of the engines of cars located near the ball were recorded.
It is also interesting that at 18:00 on June 15, that is, 18 hours after the launch, residents of the village of Zagoryanka, located not far from Chkalovsky, observed a small black cylinder hanging in the sky. As in September 20, 1977, unusual phenomena were observed at points located very far from Plesetsk (Penza, Kuibyshev, Saratov and Rostov-on-Don).
The journal Science and Life (1989. 8) indicated that about an hour after the launch of Cosmos-1188, unidentified luminous objects were observed over the cities of Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Aruana in Argentina.
The third case of coincidence of a satellite launch with observations of flights of unknown objects took place on the night of May 14-15, 1981.
An analysis of numerous eyewitness reports shows that in this case most of them described the launch of one of the satellites of the Meteor-2 series, which was made at 1.45 on May 15, again in Plesetsk. However, in this case, flights of some other objects that had nothing to do with the launch were also observed.
So, for example, according to reliable data, in the period from 0.50 to 1.50, preceding the launch, at the Balasheyka station of the Kuibyshev region, a flight of some flattened ball with a ray directed downward was observed, from which then rays appeared, diverging in all directions, and during of this observation in Balasheik the wire connection failed.
At the same time, a group of servicemen near Vyborg observed a hovering object, from which a visible beam slowly advanced towards the airfield.
At about 2.00 on May 15, in Lodeynoye Pole (Leningrad region), several eyewitnesses observed a luminous ball flying from east to west, which, having made 2-3 circles over Lodeynoye Pole, flew to the northeast.
In Leningrad, over 100 eyewitness testimonies of this phenomenon were collected, and some of them claimed that they observed two or even three objects at the same time.
Observations of unknown objects on the night of May 14-15 were also reported from Moscow, Tula, Tambov, Smolensk, Kaliningrad regions and Lithuania.
Thus, in all the cases considered, the launches of spacecraft were accompanied by flights of some unknown objects observed over a large area of the European part of the USSR, and sometimes even in Asia and on the territory of other countries, and these flights took place both before and during launches., and after them.
It has not yet been possible to find any acceptable explanation for these strange coincidences.
It is characteristic that even Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences V. Migulin ("Nedelya". 1984, 52) was forced to admit that "some features of anomalous phenomena observed in September 1977, in June 1980 and in May 1981, turned out to be not entirely clear to us”.
The story of the observation of an anomalous phenomenon, described in the newspaper Trud (1985, January 30) in an article by V. V. Vostrukhin "Exactly at 4.10". This article described how the crew of a Tu-134a passenger plane en route Tbilisi - Tallinn saw a thin beam of light from some unknown object located at about the same height as the plane in the area south of Minsk, which then turned into a cone. On the area illuminated by this ray, houses and roads were clearly visible. Then this beam was directed to the plane. The crew now saw a dazzling white dot surrounded by concentric colored circles.
According to their testimony, this point then flashed, and in its place a luminous ball with a diameter of half the lunar disk was formed, which suddenly fell down, then rose vertically up, darted to the right to the left and was fixed in its original position. The pilots took this as a signal and responded by periodically turning on and off the aircraft's headlights and navigation lights. After that, a green "tail" appeared from the ball, which at first was directed to the ground and then took a horizontal position. After 10 minutes, a thin beam of light appeared from the ball; directed upward, and after 25 minutes - another ray directed downward and illuminated the clouds over the Pskov lake.
At the same time, another Tu-134 passenger plane flew along the same corridor from Leningrad to Tbilisi. According to the testimony of the second pilot of this plane Kabachnikov, after receiving an order from the Minsk dispatcher to find out the situation, after a while they saw some unknown object of an oblong shape, from which five bluish rays emanated (two up and three down). In the area 25 km east of Borisov, one of these rays outlined a 10 by 15 km rectangle on the ground and with sharp zigzag movements to the right - to the left, successively passed over the entire area of this rectangle.
By the way, there is evidence from a policeman from Borisov, who was observing an unusual light source over the city at that time.
Later, another beam from the object was directed at the plane for a short time.
The total duration of the observation of the object by the crews of both aircraft was about 35 minutes, although the radars of the Minsk, Riga and Vilnius airports did not record any unknown objects in the area of the flying aircraft.
When the article "Exactly at 4.10" was published, Truda deliberately did not indicate the date of this event (September 7, 1984) in order to ensure maximum objectivity of eyewitness testimony. Therefore, among the multitude of letters received by the Central Commission on AY, of particular interest were those that began with the words: "I saw something similar on the night of September 7 …"
Analysis of these letters showed that most of them, apparently, described the launch of the satellite "Kosmos-1596", made on September 7 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, as reported in the newspaper "Izvestia" (1984. September 9). At the same time, separate reports of independent eyewitnesses confirmed the data of aircraft crews about the observation of unknown objects with rays of light illuminating the area (at a distance of 1000 km from Plesetsk?)
So the former pilot, retired lieutenant colonel A. Kovalchuk, said that he and five other adult eyewitnesses (including one aircraft manufacturer) observed a cigar-shaped cigar-shaped aircraft flying at a distance of 0.5 km from them in the first hour of the night on September 7, 1984 40 km an object about 100 m long, the flight height of which was about 500 m, and the speed of 60 km / h. From the front and back of the object, two bluish beams were directed vertically to the ground. When one of these beams illuminated a high-voltage line, there was a strong crackling sound, and the outside lighting in a nearby village immediately went out.
Kovalchuk's message confirms that on the night of September 6-7, there was some unknown object over Belarus.
All this allows us to assume that in this case, during the launch and against the background of the launch, some anomalous phenomenon occurred.
As for the opinion expressed in the newspaper Trud (September 16, 1989) that it was a "scientific and technical experiment to study the atmosphere by spraying special reagents in it", it does not look convincing enough, because it does not explain the origin of the rays, successively heading from the object to the ground and to the aircraft.
Migulin's statement in Nedelya (1989.52) that this phenomenon was generated by a special state of the atmosphere during the then testing of a homing missile looks just as unconvincing, because such a missile could not be observed for 35 minutes and emit light rays repeatedly.
The American authorities have always paid special attention to investigating reports of alleged explosions and UFO crashes, after which debris or even intact but damaged objects were found on the ground. And it is no coincidence that the model questionnaire developed by the American Air Force contains the question: "Did the object break into separate parts or explode?"
It is also characteristic that the US Air Force instructions 200-2 indicated that the discovered parts of the flying saucers should be immediately delivered to the Air Force Research Center, and the Air Force personnel were instructed to ensure the safety of actual or suspected materials from which UFOs are made.
Author: Kolchin German Konstantinovich. "UFO, FACTS AND DOCUMENTS"