Sudbury, Ontario, STAR, 1 March 1916, page 1

EASTERN FOLKS SEE AEROPLANE?
SECOND MESSAGE TO THIS EFFECT IN PAST TWO WEEKS RECEIVED IN SUDBURY LAST MONDAY NIGHT - THIS TIME FROM WARREN.

For the second time in the past ten days or two weeks Sudbury authorities have been advised from eastern points to be on the lookout for an aeroplane. Singularly both advices have been received at night. While the council was in session Monday night the local manager of the Bell Telephone Co. called up the council chamber to state that reliable persons in Warren had just communicated to him that an aeroplane had passed over Warren in the direction of Sudbury and was apparently following the C.P.R. right of way as a guide line. Mr. Henderson advised The Star that so far as Warren people were concerned the communication was serious.

About a week ago the operator at the C.P.R. - C.N.R. diamond east of Coniston tried to reach Sudbury by phone with a similar message but was unable to get through on the line. He raised Garson Mine, who in turn raised Coniston and the message was transmitted in this manner to Sudbury. He was equally positive an aeroplane was in the vicinity.

This is as much as Sudbury folks have seen or heard of the alleged night visitor in these parts, and the question is where does it come from and where does it go to? Last summer, local wags created considerable excitement and speculation by casting up toy balloons, which certainly make an imposing sight while they last. They rise to a considerable height, are illuminated, and of course, travel with the air currents.

NEW MODEL OF FLYING SAUCER CLAIMED SEEN AT MISSINABI

A brand new style of "flying saucer" is reported from the Missinabi area, where four men saw an unusual object in the sky on Saturday. Unlike the saucers that were so popular last summer, this object was long and very narrow and had an added feature - it emitted a heavy drumming noise.

Here is what one of the men , T. Van Scoy, of the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests, has to say about it:

"This morning at approximately 8:15 o'clock, two fire rangers and myself heard a heavy drumming noise, which seemed to stop and start. Dave Souliere, a ranger who was coming to work by canoe, yelled to us to come down to the lake and then showed us this object in the air."

"It looked like a short strip of very narrow cloud at about 12,000 to 15,000 feet above us. It seemed to be moving about 200 miles an hour and was shaped more or less like an arrow with light exhaust fumes coming from it."

The rangers who saw the strange object in the sky are experienced woodsmen not likely to fooled by natural things that fly. That what they saw was not a cloud they are certain, as the object was moving to the northeast, against both wind and clouds.

What they saw is as unexplained as last year's saucers.

SAW FLASH, FLYING FRAGMENTS IN SKY, SAYS CARTIER RAILROADER

A tale of seeing an exploding star at Cartier was told The Sudbury Daily Star today by C. Paquette, 74 Beech St., who works as a yardman for the C.P.R. at Cartier. He and two other workers in the Cartier yards saw the unusual sight at 2:04 a.m. Thursday, an hour when most people are not looking at the skies. Even if they were looking up in Sudbury, they would not likely have seen the explosion because of city lights, suggests Paquette.

"It was a slightly foggy night and we couldn't see the stars, but the moon was good and bright," Paquette said. "All of a sudden, there was a flash as bright as lightning that showed on the ground and then bright fragments flew out in all directions. It was just like a bursting skyrocket."

"You had to be looking up at the time to see it, for the whole thing was over in a few moments," he said. "The star exploded and that was that."

Paquette is certain of the exact time for, as a railroader, his first impulse when anything happens is to look at his watch and note the time. That was his reaction when he saw the exploding star, which appeared in the northwest section of the sky.

To back up his story, Paquette has Foreman Eddie Poirier and Yardman Jack Blanchard, who were working in the Cartier yards at the time. Both live in Cartier.

"They both saw the same thing I did and commented on it when we got together afterwards," Paquette said. "It's a lot easier to see things in the sky in the country than it is in Sudbury where there is a glow from the street lights and flashes from streetcars and from Inco."

"I've been working outside all my life and I have never seen anything like the exploding star."

There is no possibility that the trio mistook an unusually bright falling star for the explosion, Paquette says, for he sees the more common falling stars every night. He recalled that about five years ago, the Cartier yardmen had an excellent view of a meteor that flashed across the sky and was seen in most parts of Northern Ontario.

"The meteor was exciting and it lasted longer, but I have never seen anything more startling than the exploding star," he said.

FLYING SAUCERS MAKE 3RD "RAID" TIMMINS SAYS

Timmins, April 19 (CP) - Newspaper telephones buzzed here as residents reported the third "raid" of flying saucers on this Northern Ontario community since April 1.

Described as "the size of a house" and flying at about 700 feet, four Timmins residents reported the phenomena within an hour after it was seen at 9 p.m.

One of the witnesses said that the "saucer" first appeared on the sky alone, then darted away to return with another similar object.

Both appeared as blobs of light against the clouds. The "raid" lasted about 15 minutes.

On April 7, scores of Timmins residents reported seeing a "ball of flame" which they thought was a saucer. About a week before that, four lumber workers saw what they said was a saucer flying in broad daylight, north of the town.

Flying Saucers Or Bingo Cards - Who Knows?
(Special to The Sudbury Daily Star)

ESPANOLA - Those weird happenings in the skies are with us again.

At least one other person besides the two motorists en route to Sudbury saw the strange phenomenon in the sky on Monday night.

While Mrs. E. L. Shaughnessy was on her way home after attending the Odd Fellows bingo, she saw what appeared to be a flash of vivid blue lightning directly over the KVP plant above the tall smoke stack.

The sky was perfectly clear at the time, the only visible sign of a cloud was the huge billows of smoke emitting from the stack of the mill. The smoke was snow white against the peculiar flashes in the sky which came at intervals.

The odd happening was in the form of an oversize beacon light shifting from side to side. The rays made a beam of light the size of the plant, and every ray had a color that the rainbow reflected.

The observer was so fascinated by the strange, but beautiful, object, that she stopped to watch and after one particular strong flash, everything seemed pitch dark and it was a minute or so before the outline of the road could be seen.

Perhaps to anyone else the object may have seemed different but to Mrs. Shaughnessy, it was really something to talk about and she did just that when she arrived home. However, no one took the story seriously, they just put it down to too many bingo cards or something; but the lady still insists "thar's strange goings on in that thar sky."

RCAF Will Probe Reports 'Saucers' Seen at North Bay

NORTH BAY (CP) - RCAF officials plan to investigate two reports of flying saucers in this area. The reports came from airmen stationed here.

WO. E. H. Rossell, a veteran airman with 13 years in the service, and Flt. Sgt. Reg McRae, a visitor from Weston, said they spotted a "bright amber disk" in the sky over the airfield around 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

The two said the disk came from the southwest, moved across the airfield, stopped and then took off in the reverse direction. It climbed at an angle of 30 degrees at "terrific speed" and disappeared.

WO. W. J. Yeo, a master telecommunications superintendent, and Sgt. D. V. Crandell, an instrument technician, reported seeing a flying saucer the night of Jan. 1.

"The saucer appeared to be at great height, probably outside the earth's hemisphere," they testified. "It appeared to be moving at supersonic speed."

The disk was described as reddish-orange in color, "similar to a rock burning."

An RCAF spokesman said Tuesday there is no reason to doubt the validity of the reports since the men concerned are seasoned veterans familiar with conventional aircraft.

The two flyers said they were driving toward North Bay from Rossell's home in the married quarters of the station when they spotted a "bright amber disk" in the sky over the airfield at about 8:30 p.m. They said the object came from the southwest, moved across the field, stopped and reversed its direction, then climbed at an angle of 30 degrees and disappeared from sight at "terrific speed."

The report submitted by Yeo and Crandell read:

"At 22:54 hours (10:54 p.m.) while making ice at the rink in the married quarters area at the North Bay station, a flying saucer was sighted. Direction: Appeared in the northwest and proceeded to the southeast where it disappeared. Course altered slightly at times, zig-zagging, climbing and diving."

Flying Saucers Making Debut Over Soo Area

SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. (CP) - Reports of a flying saucer came to this district Sunday night. Several persons who say they saw it refrained from saying anything until reports came from other sections of the district. They were afraid of being laughed at.

Described as a bluish-white ball, trailing a fluorescent tail, the object has been reported by four persons in separate sections of the district. All four said the object flashed from north to south at "terrific speed" at 10:30 p.m. Two who say they saw the object are police constables.

Saucer Seen Again, RCAF Checks
Air Force Officer Prepares Report On Observations

The day before an RCAF investigator checked last Thursday's "flying saucer" reports in Sudbury Wednesday, a new phenomenon was sighted east of the city by Gordon Fawcett, 472 Cartier St., who reported the incident this morning.

Meanwhile, Flt. Lt. D. W. Souchen, public relations officer of North Bay fighter base, returned to North Bay with the results of a day spent in questioning witnesses to the earlier appearances, but with no conclusions as to what the silvery, slowly drifting objects seen Thursday afternoon actually were.

Fawcett, a bread-deliveryman, was on Moland St. Tuesday afternoon, facing east at the extreme western limits of the city, when he spotted a silvery object due east and about 30 degrees above the horizon. The time was approximately 5:02 p.m., two minutes after the civil defence air raid siren commenced to sound in a routine test.

'Silvery, Elongated'

"It was motionless and shone with a silvery reflection, and it appeared to be elongated," Fawcett told The Sudbury Daily Star. He estimated its length as a little less than half the diameter of a full moon, and had the impression that it was very distant.

Still observing it through the windshield of his delivery truck, he drove to a store at Eyre and Spruce streets, with the object in view almost continuously for five minutes. It was in the same relative position when he entered the store to deliver bread, and when he emerged shortly afterward. He turned up Whittaker St., to make some house deliveries, and when he finished and drove east down Elm St. 10 minutes later, the object had disappeared. Visibility was good, but there appeared to be a slight mist on the horizon beyond the object, he said.

Fawcett said he thought the object was a barrage balloon of a similar type to those he saw in England during the Second World War. He thought at the time it might have had some connection with the siren test.

"We make these investigations as a matter of routine," the RCAF officer from North Bay told The Sudbury Daily Star. "My reports will be forwarded to the commanding officer at North Bay for evaluation, and then will be sent on to higher authority."

Just what the air force thinks the objects might have been, he declined to discuss. It has been established that a North Bay jet aircraft was over the area simultaneously with the sighting of the other objects, but, Souchen said, there were no other reports of aircraft in the air or balloons adrift at the time.

Souchen interviewed Rene Pelland, manager of Laberge Lumber Company, who watched the slowly moving silvery "torpedoes" for 10 minutes from his office window with two witnesses; Mrs. Walter Kottick, 262 Bloor, who 20 minutes earlier saw a cigar-shaped white object motionless over Frood Mine for a 10-minute period; William Scott, who spotted two shining objects moving north in formation at 200 miles an hour over Minnow Lake about two hours later, and others.

Confirm Star Stories

In each case, their reports were the same as they had given to The Star earlier - at various times and places between 3 p.m. and 3:45 p.m., two or in some cases one silvery or white cigar-shaped objects had been seen moving from northwest to southeast at a low rate of speed. There was no sound, and the objects passed to the east of the city in the direction of Lake Ramsay.

They were last sighted by Mrs. T. C. Butler, 707 Griffiths St., from the corner of McLeod Rd. and Regent St., at 3:45 p.m., and at that time were high over the lake and shining in the sun.

Scott, standing in front of Chalmers' boathouse on Lake Ramsay at Austin Airways base, sighted two swiftly-moving objects travelling north an hour and 15 minutes later.

Souchen said any radar information on the incident had not been made available to him.

He agreed readily that the air force is interested in identifying any airborne objects which have not been identified by the usual methods.

From his questioning of Thursday's observers, The Star has built up the following picture of what anyone sighting a "saucer" or any other unusual aerial phenomenon should note.

Sighting Time Vital

First, the time. This is vital, in order that the reports of observers at different points can be checked. If two observers see the object simultaneously from different viewpoints and make a note of the direction, the distance of the object from them can be established, and this gives a clue as to its size.

The length of time it is under observation should be carefully noted, along with its direction of movement, and approximate speed.

Its size and shape are important. Best comparison for size, Souchen said, is with some celestial body such as the sun or moon. The positions of the sun or moon at the time of sighting should be noted, because of their bearing on reflections.

Sound, color, and color of any flame or glow emanating from the object are important, along with its brightness. Any exhaust trails or vapor trails, and any manoeuvres performed should be remembered, along with the numbers of the objects and their formations.

That 'Thing' Back Over City, Seen by Burton Ave. Residents

"I've heard about these flying saucers, but I've always thought it was just somebody's imagination," said Ted Miron, 378 Burton Ave.

That was before his wife called him into their back yard Thursday night, after she had seen something sailing through the skies shortly before 11:30 o'clock. Mrs. Miron had forgotten to take in some washing and, while getting it in, sighted the bright flying object approaching from the north.

Travelling at a high altitude and at a slow speed, the "thing" was about the size of an orange. Behind it trailed a foot-long flame, which varied from light blue to dull red, she said.

As a crowd of neighbors gathered, the noiseless object hovered overhead, then turned at a sharp angle before heading west; it then veered again to disappear to the northeast.

(The local weather office reports that pilot weather observation balloons are lighted at night by a lantern, so that its altitude and speed can be recorded by their meteorological instruments. They are released from the weather station in North Bay.)

Sight 'Flying Eel' In Espanola Sky
(Special to The Sudbury Daily Star)

ESPANOLA - Flying objects in the sky are again in the news here. This time, according to eye witnesses, the odd spectacle seen at about six o'clock in the evening was anything but a flying saucer. The object reported was described as eel-like. It had no shiny parts in the brilliant sunlight which prevailed at the time.

The sky was void of clouds, and a clear view of the phenomenon could be had by anyone looking up at the sky at that particular time. There was absolutely no noise and the object disappeared as if into thin air after hovering over the vicinity of the Espanola cemetery for some time.

Mrs. Sam Fouceault and her daughter viewed the object until it disappeared. The Espanola South resident called a relative of hers who also saw it.

This is not the first time strange things have been seen in the sky in the Espanola area. What the observant woman and her daughter saw seems to be altogether different than anything seen around these parts to date.

And speaking of odd objects in the sky, a tag from a carrier pigeon or bird of some description was found on a Mead St. Lawn. The metal tag has Jack Miner's name inscribed upon it.

Glowing Ball Reported Seen In Bay Sky

NORTH BAY (CP) - A Royal Navy veteran, employed at the RCAF station here as a mess orderly, said Tuesday he saw a "great, glowing ball of light" over the station Monday.

Henry Durdle, 40-year-old native of Nova Scotia, said the object he spotted just before dawn hovered a few feet above a telegraph pole, shooting out "tremendous sparks, like knitting needles of lightning."

Durdle said the top part of what he saw was circular in shape, about six feet in diameter, with a sort of rectangular box about 15 feet across hanging down underneath. A cone possibly six feet high projected from the circle and at its tip was a revolving globe emitting flashes of light.

Frightened at first, Durdle said he watched for a while and then called others to look. Four men did so. Tony McLeod said he saw a glow through a window. Leo Blais said he saw it from a doorway as it was moving away. George Noble, watching from outside, said he saw it moving upwards. Noble said it was a "great, glowing ball, like a pulsating heart."

Manley Bailey said he stood with Durdle and watched the object move possibly a mile away where it paused and hovered over a bush. The two men said the light expanded and contracted at about two-second intervals as they watched.

Durdle was born in Canada but his parents died when he was a baby. He was raised in Scotland by relatives and served with the Royal Navy for four years.

Report 'Flying Saucer' From Timmins District

TIMMINS (CP) - Appearance of a "flying saucer," similar in description to an object reported in North Bay Tuesday, was reported Monday night over the hydro-electric plant at Wawaitin Falls, 30 miles southeast of Timmins on the Mattagami river.

George Sheridan Sr., forest ranger for the department of lands and forests, said he and five other persons saw a "yellow ball of light with a red centre" about 10 miles to the south of the hydro dam over Lake Kenogamissi.

Flying Object Back In Sky Over North Bay

NORTH BAY (CP) - A nearby West Ferris business man said he saw an RCAF plane make a scouting flight around a mysterious flying object early Sunday.

Harold Pirie said he saw the object, emitting a white light much too bright to be a star, at about 2 a.m. Then the plane came from the direction of the North Bay air base with its running lights flashing, made a complete circle around the stationary object and headed back to its base.

Mr. Pirie said the object later sped off to the south with a tremendous red exhaust and disappeared.

Last week three workmen at the RCAF base said they watched a flying saucer hovering over the base for more than 10 minutes. A few nights later six Hydro workers at Wawaitin falls, about 245 miles north of here, said they saw a saucer hovering above the forest for several minutes.

Prepared to Shoot at Saucers Cavorting Around Cobalt Area

COBALT (CP) - The New Year has brought more reports of flying saucers in this northern Ontario mining area.

Bright white discs were sighted Friday and Saturday by at least 10 persons. Others have banded together and are planning to take shots at the objects if they prove hostile. But so far they have been harmless.

A single saucer was observed Friday over Lake Temiskaming by John Hunt, president of the Cobalt Chamber of Commerce, Ray Johnson, mechanic at Agaunico Mines, and Al Jennings, a truck driver. They said it zipped about the sky for almost two hours.

On the day after Christmas Mr. Hunt and Willy St. Jean reported seeing a bright object over the same spot.

In North Cobalt Saturday bright objects were seen by seven other persons.

Kirkland Bush Pilot Admits Taking Up 'Flying Saucer'

KIRKLAND LAKE (CP) - A bush pilot admitted Wednesday he was at the controls of the latest "flying saucer" seen in these parts.

Reports of mysterious flying objects and lights have been numerous here and in nearby Cobalt and Haileybury since Dec. 26. However, the pilot, who asked that his name not be used, said he was not responsible for the earlier reports.

He said he played his little joke Tuesday night because he knew area residents were "jittery" about unidentified flying objects.

DIRECTED BEAM

A reporter for the Northern Daily News here, working on a hunch, visited a district bush pilot.

"As I flew back to base at 500 feet," the reporter quoted the pilot as saying, "I remembered how jittery the people of north Cobalt were over flying saucers. I just couldn't resist the temptation of putting out my plane lights and directing the beam of the landing lights to the ground."
______

COBALT (CP) - Residents of this Lake Temiskaming community have their china sizes mixed.

Maurice Parent, 28, his wife, Gregor Ruddy, a neighbor, and his wife all reported seeing a flying saucer Tuesday night. They said it was as big as a soup plate.

It was the third time the Parents and Ruddys have reported the light which has been spotted, according to reports, five times since Dec. 26.

Mr. Parent said the soup plate-size saucer streaked across the sky headed north and disappeared over Haileybury.

'Flying Saucer' Seen at Sturgeon
By STAR STAFF REPORTER

CACHE BAY - A mysterious crystal ball was reported seen in the sky at 7:30 p.m. Friday by Marthe Gingras, 19. She was lying in the grass in front of her parent's farm when she sighted the object. She notified the rest of the family, who came and saw it also.

Her mother, Mrs. Alfred Gingras described it as looking like a plate, eight to 10 inches in diameter, very high up. It was travelling from southeast to west and going very slowly above the setting sun.

Those Flying Saucers Are Back Again

Could it be the Russians are infiltrating Canada's radar defences and coming close enough to study the activities of the Nickel Capital of the World?

Two reports of flying saucers being spotted in the Sudbury area have been received. In both cases they were said to have disappeared in a northwesterly direction.

Clive Taylor, of R. R. 1, Garson, saw what he described as "a ball of fire in the sky" northwest of Garson last night.

Taylor spotted the object early in the evening. He said it stayed around awhile and he was certain it was not an aircraft. In the distance it looked eight to 10 inches long. Mrs. Taylor also saw the object.

Mr. and Mrs. George Netzke, 56 Harold St., New Sudbury, reported having seen a similar object in the sky Monday night.

Mrs. Netzke described it as a flying saucer. "It looked like a bright silvery streak and was vertical when we first saw it," she said. "It turned over horizontal. In both positions it resembled a pencil. It was too bright for a jet vapor trail."

Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were watching it with binoculars. In the distance it looked three to four inches long. They watched it for about three minutes. It turned over and disappeared in a north-westerly direction.

Mr. and Mrs. Netzke just happened to glance out the window when they spotted the object.

"I feel a little foolish reporting it," she said. "Everyone will think we're crazy."

Watched 'Saucers' In Cobalt District

COBALT (CP) - Tom Cameron, 24, and Bob Cole, 28, blew in after a spot of ice-cutting and saucer-watching on Lake Anima Nipissing.

Cameron and Cole said they spotted the object in the early-night sky Saturday and gazed at it for two hours through binoculars while it swooped and soared.

They said it appeared first as an aura of light in the east over the treetops. They concluded it was about three feet across and travelled at speeds greater than a jet plane.

Saucer-watching is old stuff for Cameron's family. Eleven years ago, they said they saw a dozen small discs swoop in to a landing 75 feet from where they were cutting a channel through the ice for a boat.

'Whitish' Light in the Sky May Have Been a Comet

The "bright light with a tail" reportedly seen in the sky northwest of Sudbury Sunday night "might have been one of those things the United States government has been sending up," George Hartman, Paris St. amateur astronomer, told The Star this morning.

Hartman did not see the light himself, but it was reported to him as a comet.

Clifford Walton and John McLean, both of 56 Lorne St. N., observed the phenomenon for more than half an hour.

"It was north west of here," Walton related, "under the big dipper. It seemed to be moving quite fast. It was away up in the air at first then, in 15 minutes, it was down near the horizon. We watched it till half-past 11."

Walton described the light as "whitish" and said it closely resembled the Aren-Rolend comet, observed earlier this year.

Hartman said a "real comet" would not appear to move, to the naked eye.

The Dominion weather office at the city airport has no information on the phenomenon.

"All we have heard," said an official, "is rumor. We have no report on it."

City Boy, 15, Follows Track Of White Light

The northwestern sky holds a lot of fascination for Clifford Walton these nights. A "bright light with a tail" has him guessing.

The 15-year-old amateur astronomer of 56 Lorne St. N., watched the light for more than half an hour Sunday night. "It was under the big dipper and seemed to be moving quite fast," Walton said. He described the light as "whitish" and said it closely resembled the Arend-Rolend comet observed early this year.

Monday night Walton spotted the light again with binoculars. This time it was "light yellowish and motionless." Walton raced to the home of a friend, George Hartman, of Paris St., and together they watched the light through Hartman's 80-power telescope.

NOT AS BRIGHT

"It was not quite as bright as on Sunday," Walton related, "but I believe it's a true comet. It looks very much like the Arend-Rolend comet which was five million miles in length."

Walton felt that the light was neither a weather balloon, a flying saucer or anything else but a comet. "It's impossible that it's just an unnatural phenomenon, but I don't believe it."

Meanwhile, Walton will keep his eyes trained to the northwest, impatiently waiting for the sun to go down.

Hartman was more decisive. "It's evidently a comet of some kind," he said today. "At first I thought it was a weather balloon, but last night I got a good look. The tail is more or less transparent."

He explained that a Belgian detected the Arend-Rolend comet and plotted its course through the sky. "I don't think that comet has such a short cycle that we would be able to see it again so soon."

The amateur astronomer brushed off the light's mystery with: "I think the professional astronomers have been caught napping."

Suspect Fireball Over City May Be Meteor Passing By

Two weeks ago, a comet was seen over Sudbury. Monday, William Dubreuil, engineer at St. Joseph's Hospital, saw a fireball over the western part of the city and watched it with his wife, and son, Ronny, 20, and daughter, Claire, 17, for nearly 45 minutes.

Dubreuil described the sight as a fireball but said it looked like a "very big star." It was first seen at about 8:20 p.m. and Dubreuil kept his eyes on it until 9 o'clock.

He did not think it was an airplane because it did not move fast enough. It eventually disappeared below the horizon to the north.

The airport weather office reported that the mysterious ball could have been a meteor because one is said to be in the vicinity, but had no report on the ball itself.

Sqd. Ldr. C. Anderson, of the RCAF station, said he had no report as to what the ball could have been. He said it could possibly have been an aircraft with a light on it.

'Bright Light' Could Be Planet Venus

A "mysterious" bright light moving slowly in the sky in the southwest and then disappearing at the horizon, was reported to The Sudbury Star Monday night.

"It started as a small pinpoint like a star, then turned pinkish red, then bluish-green, and then very bright white and seemed to be flashing," said Mrs. Bert Teske, 352 Lasalle Blvd., New Sudbury, when she telephoned Monday night. The object was seen about 6:20 p.m.

"At first I thought it was an airplane, then the thing scared me as I thought it could be something from out of space," she added. "It kept blinking on and off."

Amateur astronomer George Hartman, 575 Paris St., informed The Star that at this time of year, the planet Venus is very close to the earth and gives an unusual brightness.

"Venus sets in the southwest after sundown," he said. "It is between the sun and us in a crescent shape."

Hartman has a 10-inch telescope of 80-power and has been studying astronomy as a hobby for years.

Light Over Minnow Lake Too Early for Sputnik

A bright light, spotted over Minnow Lake, Saturday, could not have been the Russian Sputnik in its dying rounds, according to Toronto reports.

Con Kelly, 878 Lakeshore Dr., told The Star he saw a bright light moving across the sky from the direction of Sudbury General Hospital toward Coniston at around 8:05, Saturday night.

Kelly said it was not as bright as a star, but brighter than an airplane.

Officials at Dunlap Observatory, near Toronto, and at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Cambridge, Mass., said the time of sighting was too early for Sputnik's scheduled trip over Northern Ontario.

Levack Astronomer Saw 'Fireball' Over District

A second report of a ball of fire in the sky over Sudbury district has been received by The Star.

On Friday, Joe Gariepy, of St. Charles said he saw what appeared to be a ball of fire over Wahnapitae.

This morning a Levack man who is a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, recalled seeing a similar thing the previous week.

Paul Drisdell was watching the sky through a telescope in the back yard of his home at 107 Hemlock St., Levack, on July 8 and saw an "unfamiliar object" angle across the sky from the west to the south. "It was very bright and 10 times the magnitude of Jupiter." He added that Jupiter is the brightest object in the sky these days, outside of the sun and the moon.

"I've been watching the sky for five years now, and I never before saw anything like this. I couldn't get a closer look at it through the telescope because it was going too fast."

He said about five seconds elapsed from the time it appeared until it disappeared over a neighbor's house.

"I'm certain this wasn't a meteor. I've seen plenty of them, and they don't look anything like this thing did. It went slower than a meteor and kept a steady course without winking."

To make doubly sure, he checked to find out if any meteor showers were due. The next one was not expected for eight days.

"I understand air force pilots can identify an aircraft in one-tenth of a second. Comparatively speaking, I had plenty of time to study this thing, and I'm pretty sure it was no natural manifestation."

He said the object appeared at "just about 10:30. I'm watching the sky closer than ever these evenings."

Origin Unknown Of Bright Light Seen Overhead

Do falling stars fall horizontally? Astronomers would say no.

So what was it William Gowan, Donald St., Neelon Township, saw flash across the horizon like a falling star about 7:30 p.m. the other day.

Gowan says he doesn't know. He described it as a white light with a bluish-green tint, about six inches in diameter and going north.

"It was really sifting," said Gowan. He estimated it at the speed of a falling star . . . but it was travelling horizontally.

The RCAF radar station, Falconbridge, said it could be the reflection of the sun on a high-flying jet plane. They have intercepted no flying saucers or other unexplained objects.

Hunter Describes Odd Light; Might Have Been Satellite

Fifty-six-year-old A. Auvinen, 34 Dell St., today described an unusual experience he had Wednesday while hunting with his son, Heikki, and a friend L. Raakkylaine.

The three were hunting deer in Totten Lake area 31 miles northwest of Sudbury about 6:15 a.m. when they spotted two streaks of light in the sky.

The first appeared as a fiery red streak which swung in a semi-circle. The spectre lasted approximately two minutes, then dropped behind a group of hills across the lake.

Minutes later, a second object streamed across the sky, going from north to south and tailing a bluish-green light. The object moved slowly, then disappeared after a minute.

"It was the funniest light I ever saw," Auvinen Sr. told The Star. "I have never seen anything like it before."

Asked what he thought it was, he replied that he thought it might have been an American satellite.

Seen any men from Mars lately? Another light-in-the-sky story

We are among those Sudburians who report "seeing things at night." About two or three months ago, we recall a peculiar red light that drifted across the sky from south to north.

We thought at first the light might be a plane, a helicopter, or even that U.S. satellite, Echo One. But its unsteady progress, seemingly haphazard course, precluded any of these.

Since that time, The Sudbury Star has printed a number of stories touching upon comparable manifestations. One yarn even embraced a red light which apparently pestered an automobile on one of the local highways.

Our latest contributor with one of these eerie accounts is Mrs. Carl Niemi, who lives on Este Dr., at Trout Lake.

Mrs. Niemi says that on clear nights, within the past two weeks, she and her husband have been seeing a lighted object in the southeastern sky. This becomes observable between 10 and 10:30 p.m., and lingers until 11:30 to midnight, when it disappears. There is a resemblance to a star, but the object is brighter. The brightness, however, is not constant. The light dims and brightens again at sporadic intervals. There also are flashes discernible in red, green and white.

In the end, the light watched by the Niemi's dims slowly and then disappears.

On one occasion, when the object in the sky was quite brilliant, Mrs. Niemi saw what seemed to be a spotlight momentarily reflected from Inco smoke.

The smoke at the time happened to be blowing toward the south. Was there a relation, Mrs. Niemi wonders, between the effect of a spotlight, and the object in the sky?

As for our own mysterious red light, we saw one a second time quite clearly, proceeding in a slow and wavering sort of way from south to north. If it was a helicopter, it was a silent version, because no sound accompanied the progress of the object across the sky.

How about you? Have you seen any little men from Mars lately?

Reports Seeing 3 Satellites

"They looked like three big stars and they were really travelling."

Mrs. Lloyd Watson, 148 Simcoe St., said she saw three satellites travelling west to east across the sky at approximately 10:40 p.m. Monday.

"My son, David, 15, first noticed them. He called us out and we watched them for about 10 minutes. They were very bright and travelled in a straight line. You could still see them after we went back inside the house. It was too cold to stay outside so I don't know how long they remained visible," she said.

Two Bright Objects In Elliot Lake Sky Baffle 3 Observers

ELLIOT LAKE - Are the Martians coming?

Milliken miner Fred Wehnde isn't sure he saw a flying saucer early this morning after shift but he knows the two objects he saw in the air weren't planes, rockets or stars.

"I was just off shift and after washing up, walked home to the trailer park," Wehnde said. "I saw these two bright, shining objects and I thought they were stars at first."

"They moved at a tremendous speed, however, faster than any stars in the sky. They moved in a jerky fashion too. They'd spin half way round, then spin back half way."

"They were just a mite larger than a star and very bright like stars. One was moving north and one south and the one object flew directly over us."

Wehnde first saw the objects about 3:15 a.m. He watched them for about half an hour with his partner Tony, and a neighbor whom they called out of the house to watch.

"The objects were at a tremendous height and it was only by accident I noticed their jerky movements. My neighbor Jack Wilson can't see too well but he could sure see the objects when I pointed them out to him," Wehnde said.

After half an hour's watch the men got tired of watching and went to bed.

For all they know the Martians - or whatever they are - are still up there watching Elliot Lake from their flying saucers.

Sudbury, Ontario, STAR, 10 November 1961, page 3

Woman Reports Seeing Strange 'Flying Object'

The sky over Sudbury was reportedly the scene of a "strange flying object" around 7:45 p.m. Thursday.

Mrs. Jean Dixon, of Ramsey Lake Rd., told The Star today she spotted the object from the parking lot at the General Hospital.

"It was quite large and was flying very low," she reports. "It seemed to be illuminated in red with a reddish glow in it. The object moved very slowly and came from the direction of the General Hospital moved towards the Idylwylde Golf course."

Mrs. Dixon stated she was accustomed to watching American "sputniks" passing over Sudbury, but had not seen "an object like that before."

She said she had observed a plane go over in the same area a few minutes before the object "and there was certainly no resemblance between the two."

There were two other people in the area who spotted it also, she said.

Three Area Men Sight Object, Identity Unknown

An object sighted in the sky Wednesday by three men returning home from work could not be explained by the RCAF radar base at Falconbridge today. A spokesman said the report would have to be classified as an unidentified flying object.

Alex Jerome, of Hanmer, said he and two of his friends were driving on Highway 69 N., at about 12:45 a.m. when a bright orange object, about the size of the north star, appeared in the sky from a westerly direction.

Jerome said the three men watched the object as it arched from west to east.

"The object wasn't burning and it didn't have a tail," said Jerome. "It moved at a constant speed, taking about 10 seconds to disappear in the east. The night was very clear."

The air force base spokesman said there had been no reports of a UFO and no manoeuvres were being undertaken at that time.

He added that if the object had been picked up by radar and classified as a UFO, stations including Falconbridge, would have been notified. No such report was made Wednesday morning.

Elliot Lake Youths Spot Flying Object Heading Northward

ELLIOT LAKE - An object which changed from a dull orange to a vivid blue appeared in the night sky over Elliot Lake Wednesday and was seen by a group of five local schoolboys.

Kim Quibell, 10 of 61 Lakeview and Donald Lundy, 12 of 30 Poplar Ave. told The Star Wednesday of their strange experience.

The boys, pupils at Elliot Lake's Central Avenue School and keen students of astronomy said that they were standing on the lawn outside the town police headquarters with Robert Quibell, Craig Bartlett and D'Arcy Rodney.

"We were looking at a constellation called the "belt of the hunter," said Lundy "when we saw this orange glow appear within the star group."

"It stopped," he said, "and just stayed there. All of a sudden it changed to a vivid blue and then moved again, and we followed it right across the sky until it disappeared almost due north."

Quibell said that the object, before disappearing from view changed again in color to a yellowish brown.

Lundy's parents, also gazing outdoors at the time confirmed that they too had witnessed the appearance.

The excited youngsters said that they dashed into the police station to report what they had seen. "But the cops wouldn't believe us," said Quibell ruefully.

No other reports have yet been received at The Star's Elliot Lake office, but checks are being made to see if any other Elliot Lake residents witnessed the phenomenon.

Flying saucer reports
Are back with us again

Dubious though we may be on the subject of flying saucers, word keeps coming in from persons who have seen such objects - or who know someone else who has done so.

Mrs. Hope Armstrong, of Austin Airways, tells of a Capreol resident who telephoned to say a red and blue saucer was over her head at that very moment. This viewer obviously had an unusually direct method of approach. She was calling Austin Airways with the suggestion that a plane be sent aloft forthwith. Unfortunately, no plane was readily available to set off for a closer look. The caller from Capreol was so insistent, however, that Mrs. Armstrong suggested she call the radio range division of the department of transport at Sudbury Airport near Falconbridge.

Ronald Kasch, of that division, had no report of any such specific call being made. However, radio range does get occasional reports of Unidentified Flying Objects seen in this area. None has been seen by any of the men on duty. The radio range staff invariably suggest that the caller may have seen a star, a satellite, a planet, or even a passing plane. Radio range holds to the official attitude that unidentified flying objects must be classified - as of now - as non-objects.

But now we must record the coincidence that shortly after the call had come from Capreol, when Mrs. Armstrong returned home for dinner, she was greeted with another UFO report, this time from a member of her own family. A nephew, Stewart Tait, told her of having seen a silvery object, floating above Murray Mine. Tait, who is a student at the University of Toronto, had watched the object for half an hour before it disappeared. Mrs. Armstrong considers her nephew level-headed and not subject to fanciful ideas. She could not help being somewhat impressed by the fact of two such reports in a single day.

Lots of People Want to Meet Them
Those Daring Young Men in the Flying Saucers

So you'd like to start an argument. Try throwing out a conversational flying saucer.

If you do, you're likely to find what some air force officers say they have discovered: many people hope these purported flying discs really are manned by little men from Mars.

The last big blitz of reported flying objects was in the 1950s when over 5,000,000 Canadians and Americans jammed newspaper switchboards to relate their stories of alien visitors.

Since September, eight unidentified flying objects have been reported to a Sudbury resident who represents two American civilian groups involved in UFO sightings. (He wants to remain unidentified because of the possibility of nuisance phone calls.)

"It was very bright and changed colors," said Ronald Berube, of Hanmer, an 18-year-old postal clerk, who with four other fellow workers watched a UFO hover in the sky for 10 minutes last week.

Earlier this fall, a 15-year-old Whitefish boy said he saw an object try to land in a field near his home. The boy, Robert Grant, said he was walking along Highway 17, when he heard a whining sound. Young Grant told provincial police his transistor radio was blacked out by the flying object which had green lights.

TAKEN ON RIDE

Not only do people see "them", but they also talk to them. Near Cochrane, a lands and forests towerman said he not only talked to the little fellows, but was given a ride in a space ship.

The towerman, a University of Toronto student who was manning a lookout post, said the visitors from outer space were friendly, spoke English and were furry.

In 1950, the sightings started in earnest. New England towns were first to report flying objects. Never slow to adopt anything American, Canada was next.

On April 19, that year, the gold mining town of Timmins was assailed by what residents described as "UFOs the size of a home" and flying at about 700 feet. They said the objects were bright against the clouds.

In February, 1953, there were five incidents of flying objects reported in The Sudbury Star.

MANY SIGHTINGS

Feb. 3 - Gordon Fawcett, 472 Cartier Ave., saw an object that was motionless and elongated and shone with a silvery reflection. He said it was due east, about 30 degrees above the horizon. He saw it at 5:02 p.m. Fawcett thought it may have been a barrage balloon of the type he saw in England during the war.

Feb. 13 - Mrs. L. W. Luke, wife of a former secretary of the Sudbury and District Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. and Mrs. Nel Stewart reported a sighting. Stewart, a former artillery officer, estimated the range at 1,000 yards, and that its shape and diameter were about the size of a full moon. He described the color of the object to be that of a flare or railway fuse. It remained motionless about 20 degrees above the horizon. It suddenly disappeared after an estimated 20 minutes. Skies were overcast.

Feb. 15 - Ed Zettler, 338 Spruce St., and Pete Bullock, 225 Albinson St., saw a strange shape in the sky in the western horizon. They said the object appeared to be a long way off and was obscured by a bluish mist. The object disappeared from view after 15 or 20 seconds.

GLOWING OBJECT

Feb. 16 - Mrs. Doug Burton, 736 Long Lake Rd., saw a glowing red object a few minutes before 11 p.m. She had been reading about flying saucers and decided to look out the window herself. It was a fiery red, grew larger as she watched and then shrank. It gradually disappeared. She said its edges were silvery. "It looked like a solid silver ball," she said.

Feb. 26 - Six Coniston men driving west towards Sudbury saw a shining cigar-shaped object glowing in the sky for more than 20 minutes, maintaining its height and changing color, but not moving in any direction. When first sighted, it was pinkish-red and of an irregular shape vaguely resembling a pencil or cigar. As they watched, it changed color and shape. It was 10 p.m. at the time.

Then after an absence of three months, the "thing" appeared again in the Sudbury sky. On July 11, 1953, Joseph Read, of Cinotti's Corner near Copper Cliff said: "It must have been travelling at 2,000 miles an hour. It was heading northwest. There was a loud humming noise like a four-motor airplane, but it was going much too fast for any type of jet planes and it wasn't a jet. It was going even faster than a jet and it didn't make the same sound."

SAW MARTIANS

Then a year later still in the "Saucerian 50s" a Sudbury man saw men from Mars.

On July 2, 1954, the planet Mars was closer to earth than ever in the past. On July 2, three men, all about 13 feet tall, with strange, hypnotic powers visited earth, one report stated.

This was the story told by a Garson Mine employee to men at the mine first aid station after he recovered from a dead faint. It is also the story he related to Garson provincial police and RCAF radar station investigators at Falconbridge.

Ennio LaSarza, 770 Charlotte St., who said he saw the three men descend from the space ship fainted at the first aid station after he had been "released from the hypnotic stare" of one of the men from Mars.

"He was as white as a ghost and passed out when he got to the station," one of the employees there said.

According to the first aid attendant's story LaSarza described the space ship as being 25 feet in diameter, had two electronic ear-like spurs on its "head"; it had three sets of arms with claws and six legs. The centre of the "ship" was described as square with a telescopic projection. LaSarza said the men were built in much the same manner.

LaSarza told fellow employees that the machine sent out radio messages - there was some confusion as to whether they actually spoke to him.

But are saucers real? "Yes," says eminent psychologist Dr. Carl Jung. "No," says Dr. Donald Menzel, Harvard University astrophysicist.

Dr. Jung said the unidentified flying objects are real and "show signs of intelligent guidance by quasi-human pilots."

And Dr. Jung also said : "...that the construction of these machines proves a scientific technique immensely superior to ours cannot be argued."

"Flying saucers are just mirages which you can create in your kitchen sink," said Dr. Menzel.

"A mirage is an image caused by a lens of air. The lens can form when a layer of cold air lies over a layer of warm air (or the converse). Light rays are bent and focused and reflected great distances," Dr. Menzel said.

The U.S. Air Force says investigation of flying saucer reports over a 10-year period produced no evidence that such things exist. The air force said the mysterious sightings proved to be balloons, aircraft, astronomical phenomena, birds, fireworks and hoaxes.

Some People Laugh, Just Won't Believe

Seems that the only thing missing the other day to make the "invasion" complete were the little green men.

While Sudbury area residents went about their daily tasks oblivious to the rest of the universe, there were strange happenings afoot.

Like two young lads being scared out of their wits when an unidentified flying object put the brakes on their car.

Like the finance corporation manager and his assistant being followed in their vehicle by another baffling machine.

"Every time we stopped, it stopped," said 25-year-old Ken Campbell. "Never seen anything like it before."

Campbell and his travelling companion were on their way back to Orillia from Sudbury when the "object" suddenly put in its appearance.

"It was about 6:30 a.m. and we were 10 miles south of Britt when Barrie woke me up," Campbell stated.

Barrie Price, of Waters township, is assistant manager to Campbell at a finance corporation office in Orillia. At weekends, the two travel back to Sudbury, where Campbell stays with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Campbell at 745 Regent St. S.

"The thing was about half a mile over to our right and seemed about half a mile up in the sky," continued Campbell.

"It moved along at exactly the same pace as our car. Naturally, at that time it was dark, but the object seemed to be silver-colored and kept flashing as though it were rotating."

"We stopped the car to get a better look - and the object stopped. It just stayed there, flashing.

"We hopped back into the car again but as soon as we started to move, this thing also moved."

"Five miles later we pulled into a service station and went to get the attendant to make sure we weren't imagining things."

"He looked up and saw it too. And it had stopped again just as it did the first time."

"It couldn't possibly have been a star, because we took its position in relation to other stars in the sky. It moved about far too much."

"Then it disappeared just as soon as it had appeared."

"I was watching it from the passenger seat and I turned round to say something to Barrie. When I turned back to the window - it had vanished."

Meanwhile back in Sudbury citizens were awaking for another day. Events passed off peacefully until "Lifeline" suddenly got a frantic phone call from two teenagers "scared out of their wits."

Their story went something like this:

"We were coming from Nickel District Collegiate to Coniston about a quarter-past three. This silver craft with flashing lights suddenly appeared about 20 feet above the car."

"Then the car stalled. It just seemed to go dead."

"We looked up and as we did so, the object disappeared."

"They were really scared," said a Lifeline spokesman, "but they wouldn't leave their names for fear of being laughed at by friends."

"No comment," replied a spokesman at Falconbridge Radar Base, when asked if anything had been "picked up" on radar.

"I've heard of flying machines, but I never thought I'd see one," added Ken Campbell.

"There's exams on at the moment. Maybe the lads had hallucinations," commented a down-to-earth Lewis C. Briggs, principal of Nickel District Collegiate.

And there rests the case in yet another chapter of Sudbury's bizarre experiences with extra-global powers.

No 'Saucer' But Balloon Travelling Far

A bright object spotted high in the sky northwest of Sudbury today has been identified as an extra-large weather balloon on its way around the world.

The balloon drifted over the city at an altitude of 100,000 to 125,000 feet at a speed of 30 to 40 miles an hour, said Capt. Barry Mitchell, Public Relations officer at the Falconbridge radar base. The balloon is 65 feet in diameter.

It was released in the United Kingdom about four days ago. Arrangements were made through Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa for the balloon to be traced across North America.

The radar base, the Sudbury weather office and The Star received many telephone calls this afternoon as people spotted the balloon in the clear sky. Sunlight reflecting off the balloon helped people to spot it. At least one caller asked about "the flying saucer."

Elliot Lake Man Sights a UFO; 'Like a Star'

ELLIOT LAKE - Rolly Piche, of 124 Mississauga Ave., reported sighting an unidentified flying object last night and a quick check with local authorities reveals no confirmation of his sighting.

Piche said that about 6:45 he was proceeding north on Highway 108 when he noticed a bright moving object in the sky which trailed a tail of light similar to a shooting star.

While watching the moving light, Piche said that he noticed a red and green light on it. "It was about 1,000 feet up...over the townsite it emitted a bright flash of light similar to the firing of a flash bulb or electronic strobe," he said.

"It continued its easterly flight until it disappeared behind the ski hill travelling in the direction of Nordic Mine," he said.

Piche was employed by the township on the police force and is now working at the Elliot Lake Centre for Continuing Education as a security guard.

Walford Area Men See 'Red Fire Ball'

WALFORD - While most of the town people were glued to their television sets watching the manoeuvers of the men on the moon, three Lee Valley men, Jack and Edmond Sonnenberg and Bob Melcher returning from work, were fascinated by a strange phenomenon.

Enroute home around 11 p.m. near the Allen Fergusson farm, a bright red ball of fire blinded them momentarily. They jammed on their brakes and dimmed their headlights. The brilliant moon-shaped object rose, moved toward the west, blinked a few times and disappeared.

Elliot Lake girl reports sighting of flying object

ELLIOT LAKE - A 16-year-old Elliot Lake girl reported the sighting of an unidentified flying object early this morning.

Marilyn Coulis, 26 Blackwell Rd., Elliot Lake, and two companions were returning home between midnight and 1 a.m. when they noticed a round, orange disc travelling across the sky over Elliot Lake.

The girl said the object emitted a humming sound with an intermittent beeping. The object travelled north towards Elliot Lake and was seen descending north of the town.

Town and provincial police authorities when interviewed by The Star this morning could give no confirmation of other sightings.

Sudbury, Ontario, STAR, 25 September 1972, page 17

Two UFO sightings reported in the Sudbury area

Two separate sightings of what were described as unidentified flying objects were spotted over the Sudbury area Saturday night.

Three youths said they saw an object with no definite shape whizz through the horizon Saturday at 9:55 p.m.

The youths, Albert Positano, 12, of 164 Boland Ave.; Steven Archer, 358 John St., and Bruce Emmerson, 158 David St., both 13, said the object made a buzzing sound and was as big as two or three houses. It had a big light in the middle and two smaller lights on the ends.

Albert was sure it was not a plane. "Planes have red and green lights while this was pure white. It was surrounded by a light haze and flew through the clouds," he stated.

The second sighting of the night was made by Robert Hayes, 13, of 1254 Hastings Cres. He and seven others saw a moon-shaped object in the sky at 8 p.m. The object rotated in the sky for more than an hour before leaving, Robert said. It was a green dome with flashing green and red lights flying just below the clouds, he stated.

The Canadian Forces base in Falconbridge would neither confirm nor deny the sighting. Cpl. Jean Briand said their radar did not record an object on the screen, but stated the radar was designed to spot airplanes hundreds of miles away and was in a poor position to pick up anything over Sudbury.

Cpl. Briand said that many sightings of UFOs were actually the planet Venus. It can be mistaken for a flying object, he added. He also stated that the radar base had been asked to be alert for a falling meteor Saturday, but never did spot it. It is possible that the objects seen were part of the meteor, he stated. However, the objects sighted were not falling toward the earth in either case.

Bright object in sky reported

TIMMINS, Ont. (CP) - Four Timmins residents reported seeing an unidentified flying object while on an ice-fishing trip to Scorch Lake, Ont., Sunday.

Terry McCormick, Leonard Simon, Ken MacNair and Con Pelletier said they saw a bright object in the sky, about three times the size of a star, travelling from west to east. They said it vanished after about one-and-a-half minutes.

Mr. MacNair, a mining engineer, said he had seen shooting stars before, but "never saw anything like this."

Scorch Lake is 60 miles west of Timmins.

Sudbury, Ontario, STAR, 9 August 1975, page 17

UFO reported seen on Island on five of six nights in row, but fails to show for reporter
By ROBIN ROWLAND, Star Staff Writer

SHEGUIANDAH - Nothing disturbed the heavens over Sheguindah Bay on Manitoulin Island Thursday night. (However, on Friday night a group of four saw it again between 11 o'clock and midnight.)

It was a bright, clear night here as some of the residents of the Bayside Cabins resort waited to see if the unidentified flying objects seven persons had seen during the past four nights would appear.

Wednesday and Thursday were the clearest nights in some time, they said. On Wednesday, the UFO appeared spectacularly; on Thursday, nothing happened.

The first thing spotted Thursday was the bright, red star Antares, one of the first visible in the summer night. The star, normally pinkish, appeared to be flashing green, blue and red. But it did not move and the watchers soon gave up on it.

(Dr. Robert Garrison, astronomer at the University of Toronto's David Dunlop Observatory in Richmond Hill said in a phone interview: "When Antares is low in the sky, the atmosphere plays tricks. It flashes blue or green color; Antares is a red supergiant and it normally appears red.")

UFOs IDENTIFIED

Later, some spotters discovered other "UFOs"; the running lights of sailboat, the distant illumination of a Canadian Pacific Railway dock and cabin lights.

As it got colder most of the spectators went away. The clear sky was perfect for astronomical observation and the faint stars of the Milky Way were clear and bright.

Finally the only two people left were John Dunlop, 13, and a reporter. Around midnight the sky was still clear and they left.

"I'm sorry you came out here and it didn't show," John said. John had been looking at the other so-called UFOs and was able to say they were not the objects he had seen.

FLASHING LIGHTS

John says he first saw the bright oval-shaped object Sunday night to the east of the resort owned by his mother. The object, with red, green, yellow and orange flashing lights, first settled down near Ten-Mile Point on Sheguindah Bay.

"When he called me Sunday, he was really upset," his mother Ruth Dunlop said. "He kept saying 'get Bill, get Bill.' I thought something was wrong with the campsite."

Bill Omnot, a neighbor who works for CP Rail, said he did not see the UFO Sunday, but did see it on Wednesday.

Omnot described what he saw as a bright oval that lit up the sky.

On Wednesday, the UFO came from the west instead of the east as it had on the three previous nights, John said. It appeared to hover over a field at one point, he added.

LIT UP SKY

John estimates it came within a quarter of a mile on Wednesday night. "It lit up the sky, it was the most spectacular thing I ever saw. It lit up the sky like an aurora, only it wasn't."

Dick Pincomb, 49, a Strathroy purchasing manager, went down to the lake after John started shouting on Wednesday.

"I saw three bright lights up in the sky," Pincomb said. "Two of them blinked on and off."

Mrs. Dunlop said she could not see well Wednesday because she did not have her glasses, but added the whole sky was bright.

One night, John says, the UFO settled off to the east, then turned off most of its lights and shot across the lake.

"It went across by an island," he said. "It was dark, about the size of two cars. It went too fast for any boat."

SAW IT MONDAY

"When you see it up in the sky, you get a good look at it," he said. John sketched an oval with lights along its centre.

Bill Fiedler, 14, of West Chester, Penn., says he was with John Monday night when they saw it.

"It was two bright lights out in the middle of the lake," Bill said.

John said the lights could not have been a boat, while Bill says he wasn't sure what it was he saw.

One night, John says, three of the UFOs appeared in the sky. One appeared to be a mother ship. A smaller ship came down to the lake, he said.

"It made no noise when it took off," he said, "and it went up and down; an airplane doesn't do that."

"John is really a quiet boy," Mrs. Dunlop said. "It's really got to him."

CHORES NEGLECTED

She said she believed he saw something and added John has been so excited that he has neglected his chores at the resort.

The Dunlops have lived in Sheguindah for 11 years. John will enter Grade 8 at Little Current Public School in September.

Although there were 40 to 50 residents and tourists in the area, only seven people have seen the UFO. Two were not available for interviews.

There are no reports to indicate what the UFO might be. Both the Falconbridge armed forces radar station and the ministry of transport control tower at Sault Ste. Marie reported nothing unusual over the island in the four days John and the others saw the objects.

NO REPORTS

Provincial police at Little Current said there were no reports of UFOs in the area.

Garrison said no astronomical phenomenon could explain it. "There is a comet in the sky right now," he said. "But you'd have to know where it is. A comet doesn't move fast; it can only be seen moving night to night, not during the night."

Garrison said the Perseid meteor shower is visible Aug. 1-12 in the area of the constellation Perseus. "It's quite spectacular," he said. "There are bright colors as various metals burn up, but what he saw doesn't fit the description."

Shining UFO sighted by nine on Manitoulin

SHEGUIANDAH - An object with a "metallic shine" was reported hovering in the air over this resort community by two of nine eyewitnesses who claim to have seen it Monday night.

John Dunlop, 13, of this resort town near Little Current, and a vacationer, John Wood, 17, of Mississauga said today they were returning from the government dock to their cottages at about 10:45 last night, when the "UFO" appeared from a bush area and covered about 200 feet overhead.

After watching the oval-shaped object for about 30 seconds, the two said they began running back to the nearby Bayside Cottages to get a pair of binoculars.

In the two minutes it took them to run the quarter mile, the object rose and moved a bit south. But still, Dunlop said, the seven cottagers who joined the duo will vow to having seen the same thing.

It remained stationary for about two more minutes before it disappeared from sight, said Wood

"I definitely saw something," he said, qualifying the statement by noting that he's sure it was neither an airplane nor a balloon.

"Last night I was shaking for a while, but I'm calm today," he said.

Wood and Dunlop said they'll be back at the government dock again tonight.

Manitoulin UFO sighted tenth time

SHEGUIANDAH - Thirteen-year-old John Dunlop saw it for the tenth time Friday night, a strange flying object hovering in the skies above Sheguiandah.

Like the other times, it loomed in the distance about 1,000 feet in the air, radiating alternating yellow and red. It speeds away after little more than a minute.

His previous sightings have been corroborated by several other cottagers in the immediate vicinity.

He has reported his sightings several times to Canadian Forces base Falconbridge which in turn has contacted the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill. Astronomers there say no celestial phenomenon explains the object.

U.S. jets scrambled on UFOs
More sightings reported; radar base won't comment
By ROB ROWLAND, Star Staff Writer

A squadron of U.S. Air National Guard F-106 interceptors were scrambled Tuesday morning to check the skies over Sudbury for UFOs spotted on radar, The Star learned today.

The jet fighters were sent aloft several hours after the last Sudbury Regional Police sighting at 7:15 a.m. A North American Air Defence (NORAD) command spokesman in North Bay said the fighters were scrambled from the U.S. Air Force base at Selfridge, Michigan, at 12:50 p.m. local time.

In Colorado Springs, Del Kindschi, a public information officer for NORAD, confirmed something had been tracked over Sudbury.

He said an object was picked up on the Falconbridge radar about 30 nautical miles south of the station. He added that whatever was spotted visually by the station personnel - three glowing lights with dark centres - was not necessarily the same thing seen on radar.

The U.S. fighters did not find anything when they reached here, Mr. Kindschi said.

In North Bay, the public affairs officer for 22nd NORAD division said North Bay-based aircraft did not respond. Sudbury is part of the 23rd division and for a routine scramble, such as the one on Tuesday, the response comes from bases in the 23rd Division.

In a real emergency, planes from North Bay would come, he said.

Another UFO was reported last night by Sudbury Regional Police. Two officers, whose names were not released saw a lighted, blinking object while on patrol on Highway 69 north, from 1:40 a.m. to 2:20 a.m.

The officers said in a report the object was definitely not a star and displayed different changing colors.

In Nairn Centre, Theresa Bouillon reported she and her two sons, Roger, 14 and Claude, 13, saw several objects over their home between 10 p.m. and midnight Tuesday.

The first object was bright yellow and orange and was seen in the eastern sky, towards Sudbury.

Later, another object, bright enough to hurt their eyes, was seen to the east, over Espanola, Mrs. Bouillon said. She said she called provincial police in Espanola but an OPP spokesman said no other reports were logged at that time.

FOUR AT ONCE

At one point, Mrs. Bouillon said, she and her sons saw a total of four objects in the sky at once. At midnight because it was cold and they were frightened they went in to go to bed.

"It's the first time I've seen one and I hope it's the last," she commented.

A spokesman at CFS Falconbridge had no comment today and referred The Star to NORAD when questioned about last night's sightings. In Colorado Springs, Mr. Kindschi said he had not yet received a report on the Tuesday night sightings.

Was it or wasn't it?

Did something from beyond earth visit Sudbury Saturday?

Four Kathleen Street residents say they saw a silver-colored metal disc hovering in the sky over Sudbury just after noon Saturday.

They are so convinced that what they saw is an unidentified flying object, they filed a report with the Department of National Defence through Canadian Forces Base North Bay. They asked, however, that their names not be used to avoid ridicule.

They said the disc flew over Sudbury from the north and hovered over the city.

Air traffic control at Sudbury Airport didn't notice anything unusual in the sky. And Environment Canada weather technicians also didn't spot the UFO.

Sudbury, Ontario, STAR, 18 August 2003, page A3

Object spotted in darkening skies over Ramsey Lake

It's unclear if red and orange triangle-shaped object witnessed over Sudbury Yacht Club was natural phenomenon or something not of this world

By Rob O'Flanagan
THE SUDBURY STAR

Something peculiar appeared in the dusk skies over Sudbury on Friday night, but whether it was otherworldly, an optical illusion or an atmospheric phenomenon is anyone's guess.

When Mark Fournier looked across Ramsey Lake as the sun went down Friday, he saw something that both dazzled and startled him.

"It was a large triangle with a small silvery disk at the top," he said, describing the shape's colour as a cross between Indian red and orange.

"I was scrambling for the phone, and looking for my binoculars. I don't have a camera, otherwise I would have snapped a picture of it." - Mark Fournier, on witnessing a strange phenomena Friday night

The stationary shape, he added, appeared to be several hundred metres above the horizon and was situated just above the Sudbury Yacht Club.

Fournier was standing in his backyard on Roderick Avenue, east of the heavenly spectacle.

The occurence happened between 8:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Friday, right around the time the sun sets.

At one point, Fournier said, the small, luminous disk detached itself from the top of the triangle, and moved horizontally, left to right.

"At first, I thought it was a weather balloon in trouble," he said. "But it was too regularly shaped. It was perfectly defined, and very bright."

"I was pretty shaken up," he said.

"I was scrambling for the phone, and looking for my binoculars. I don't have a camera, otherwise I would have snapped a picture of it."

The image appeared for about 10 to 15 minutes before vanishing, he added.

Wondrous

Allan Nursall, Science North's science director, said many wondrous things appear in the skies, especially at sunset.

"It's amazing what you see at sunset," he said, "especially when you're on a lake."

Nursall wouldn't rule out mysterious origins for the celestial appearance, but science does explain many uncommon occurrences in the skies, he said.

"I've had many discussions with people about the wonderful things in the sky," he said.

"Often, our depth cues get messed up at sunset, where even ordinary things, like a bird, take on different characteristics. This thing could have been a sun dog or a high cloud that gave off unusual reflections from ice crystals.

"I'm sure it was something."

Nursall said it can be frustrating when people see odd things in the skies and can't explain them. He remains receptive to the possibility that it was something that can't be explained.