NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION WALLOPS STATION, WALLOPS ISLAND, VIRGINIA 23337 TELEPHONE: VALLEY 4-3411 - EXITS. 584 and 579
FOR RELEASE:FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1969The National Aeronautics and Space Administration conducted seven chemical cloud experiment: between sunset last night and dawn today from its Wallops Island, Virginia, Station.
Liftoff times were 6:11 p.m., 8:00 p.m., 10:19 p.m., 12:00 p.m. (midnight), 2:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m., and 6:13 a.m.
Two-stage sounding rockets were used to carry these chemical payloads -- a Nike-Tomahawk for the first and Nike-Apaches for the other six launches.
Two different chemicals--soidum [sp ] and trimethylaluminum (TMA)--were used in this series to continue the study of wind structure in the upper atmosphere a region from around 50 statute miles up to 186 miles. Data on wind conditions were obtained by photographing the motion of the trails from five camera sites within a 100-mile radius of Wallops Island. Similar tests were conducted here last February.
The dusk and dawn firings were sodium vapor experiments which generated reddish - orange clouds visible for hundreds of miles along the East Coast. Reports of sightings were received from Pennsylvania. Connecticut, Tennessee, and Indiana. The other five payloads consisted of trimethylaluminum (TMA) which formed pale white clouds, less visible than the sodium.
In conjunction with the vapor series, the U. S. Army Ballistics Laboratory, Aberdeen, Maryland, fired six cesium experiments from Wallops in a comparative study of winds.
The cesium was carried in projectiles fired from a 7-inch gun barrel to an altitude of 330,000 feet. Liftoff times were 8:07 p.m., 10:24 p.m., 12:05 a.m., 2:05 a.m., 4:10 a.m., and 6:23 a.m. Three of these experiments were unsuccessful because the chemical was not ejected. Dispersion of the cesium, not visible to the unaided eye, is recorded by ground-based radar and Ionospheric Sounding Stations.
The launchings were conducted in cooperation with the GCA Corporation, Bedford, Massachusetts, under contract to NASA’S Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.
E. Benjamin Jackson was the Wallops Station Project Engineer, responsible for coordinating pre-launch, launch, and tracking operations.
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6
‘A Going–A Growing’
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Date in Re: February 24 or 25, 1969 Time(s): About 4:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Site: Backyard and kitchen
About 4:30 p.m.Stepping through the opening of the sliding glass doors that led from the dining room onto the small
Fig. 34. Crop of “mist over lake,” a photo courtesy of Mangus Rosenthal.outdoor patio, I proceeded on down into the backyard. Glancing left, I lifted my eyes upward in the direction of the afternoon sun in the southwestern part of the sky
Immediately, I saw the center of the sun as white light. Spreading out from the center were reddish-gold flaming edges. To my recollection, I had never been able to look directly at the sun before. On this day, the background sky was a pale blue.
Walking further out into the yard, I then spotted a gleaming silver-colored jet airplane high up
Fig. 34.1. Background sky with contrail by me; Jet photo (without lens flare) courtesy of Keith Robinson.
in the sky. It was flying in a southern direction. How tiny it appeared to be. That aircraft was so far above the earth’s surface, I could not hear the sound of its engines. It was the afternoon sunlight reflecting off the nosecone of that slender plane that got
my attention. From my position, the flash of reflected sunlight was likened to a twinkling goldcolored star.Iridescence
A little later, my five-year-old daughter Anne and I walked down to the boat pier. “There’s oil
on the water," she said. Glancing in the direction she was pointing,
I could see she was correct. There was the iridescence peculiar to
the mix of oil and water (likened to that in the photo at right) on the
water beside the pier. Most probably someone had spilled some oil
while putting it in an outboard motor. I had seen this phenomenon
many, many times before. However, I had never before noticed that
fuel oil on water produces rainbow-like colors. For one thing, the
Fig.35. “Oil & Water” photo courtesy of Alan (a.k.a. Monkeyiron).
oil and water variety of iridescence is not as pretty as the colors of rainbow arcs in the sky are. The main reason, however, for not noticing before is because my observing had been of a casual or skimming rather than a consciously focused manner. When I used to espy the as “telltale” iridescence of gas spilled on water, my thought was about the same as young Anne’s: "There’s oil on the water.” Gas spills were so common along the Mathews County waterfront where I resided during my teen years they did not arouse my curiosity.
What followed next was more than just a little interesting, . . . for when I raised my head from peering down at the oil spill effects upon the salty creek water, there was a flash. Immediately following the flash, I observed iridescent bubbles (likened to those produced from children’s commercial bubble-blowing solution ) forming and popping and reforming and popping at a distance of about four feet from my face. What I saw had the natural blue sky with clouds overhead in front of me as the background, but the bubbles that were
Fig. 35.1 Image courtesy of Bonnie Banks and Don Bailey at www.hobbyscience.com.appearing were identical in appearance with the ones in the above photo image.
When Anne and I turned around and started toward the house, I observed the same iridescent coloring along the outermost edges of the backyard pine tree needles. The outermost leaves of the two gnarled “live oak” trees in our backyard were also seen as having the iridescent fringing, but not as intensified as the needles of the pine trees.
Fig. 36. While the iridescence is not shown, this image by me is of the pine trees near shore w/ needles' close-up insert.
Daytime Moon?
Fig. 36.1. No iridescence is shown here, but this image by me is of the live oak near shore w/ leaves' close-up insert.Nearing the house, I looked up over the rooftop in the direction of the southeastern part of the
36.2. Photo-taken in Thomaston, GA is courtesy of Jared Z. Holloway, http://jzholloway.wordpress.org.
sky, . . . and lo and behold, there was the moon. The three older children had returned home from school, and I hastened to call them out to witness this natural wonder. After a polite but seemingly disinterested look, they hurried on back into the house. To be sure, a person does not have to almost die (or think he or she is dying) in order to become fully cognizant of how positively wondrous or absolutely extraordinary the natural creations are!
Considering all the time I spent in the rural outdoors during the first eighteen years of my life, why was I surprised and a bit awed to see the rising moon during the daytime? For one highly influential thing, my mind’s I had been conditioned from early childhood to think of the moon according to the biblical description
of it. And according to the author of Genesis 1:16, “God [ The Almighty Creative Power] made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night . . . .” Hence, it was my force-of-habit thinking to not expect the moon to be in the sky at the same time the sun was visible.
g Oh, how our formative years' experiences impact our adulthood expectations! Indeed, it would take me quite a while to fully de-mesmerize my psyche of the biblical fictionalized depictions of (a) the Almighty Creative Cause and (b) the nature of the natural cosmic world acquired during my growing-up years.
Jet contrails, and their effect on the earth’s life-supporting atmosphere?
Fig. 37. Photo of thunderbirds maneuver is by US Air Force Staff Sgt. Mike Meares.
While I was standing there pondering the daytime moon, a whole batch of jets showed up. I do not know whether it was one of the military stunt groups (e.g., “flying blue angels," “thunderbirds”) or not, but these pilots would steer their jets toward each other, and then fan out at the last minute before a head-on collision. This daring maneuver was repeated again and again. As I recall, the drill went on for a considerable length of time. The old man
who was hoeing in his vegetable garden next door paused and voiced his concern about the jets and weather testing rockets of February 14 “messing up” the atmosphere (and thus the very air we breathe). I tried to reassure him that involuntary nature kept things in order. Yet, I also wondered about the harmful effects of aviation waste fuels and atomic bombs' radioactive waste material upon the global air we breathe__b e c a u s e :
The contrails I was mentally perceiving at the time were of the same yucky salmon-pink hue as had been the sun’s rays in my hallway on the morning of January 15, 1969. Could the air actually be that polluted? When the jet pilots had finished their exercises, the sky overhead was so-laced with those salmon toned vapor cloud trails that the area resembled a fat pumpkin or a similarly intersticed large cantaloupe. It was a disturbing scene.
Fig. 37.1. Tinted image by me.
In truth, what effect did all the nuclear testing have upon the earth’s life-supporting atmosphere? Like the rest of us mortals, scientists are not always explicitly honest about the possible adverse effects of their experiments or tests. Also, there are times when they simply cannot predetermine the consequences. For instance, was anything reported about possibly dying of “radiation sickness” from nuclear fallout before the newly developed atomic bomb was dropped over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945?
Where I grew up, the only human-made thing you might see in the upper sky overhead would be a kite or a propeller-driven airplane. Of course, there were places in Europe and Asia during the same time period (1932 -1950) where the sky overhead was not so pristine and peaceful as it usually was in the remote small peninsula county where I was born and resided for the first eighteen and one-half years of my life
The old man and I did not compare our sightings. But there is no reason for me to think that he saw the vapor or condensation trails to be of the same tinted hue as I did. Like the yucky salmontoned pink cast I saw upon the sun rays of the morning of January 15, 1969, those seen by me on this date were pictorial vision overlays projected from somewhere within my mind. Jet vapor trails are of a white cloud color. In fact, they so closely resemble normal cloud stuff it would be very hard for a young child to distinguish the one from the other when these aircraft contrails trails are breaking up.
Fig.38. 2001 photo of jet contrails taken by me in front yard of my house.Although of adult mind, it took me a little while to be able to distinguish white jet vapor trails from real cirrus white clouds, especially when the vapor trails are spreading out and dissipating.
As it turned out, my suspicions about the possible negative effects of jet vapor trails in 1969 had some merit. For according to what is stated in "Behind the Contrail Curtain,"114an article by journalist Jim Scanlon, the heavy jet air traffic is producing undesirable effects in the earth’s atmospheric climate. See excerpt below:
Researchers from NASA's Langley Research Center presented evidence that contrails are contributing to global warming and causing local effects over areas with heavy air traffic. In April 1996, they found contrails over New York during 40 percent of the month. Above Arizona, contrails appeared during 30 percent of the month. They concluded that vapor trails are a prevalent feature over US skies and that these trails will 'affect the radiation budget at some magnitude.' The researchers also recommended that contrail reporting become part of standard meteorological practices, with measurements repeated every few years to assess the effects of increasing air traffic.
*114 See item #022469 in The Appendix for a copy of whole downloaded article, plus one by Sid Perkins on the same subject.
About 6:00 p.m.
Standing at the kitchen sink, I closed my eyelids to rest my eyes for a moment. To my shock and utter amazement__ one by one, the following sequence of forms and motions began to appear before my mind’s I:
Fig. 39. Illustration by me.
1st A speck is visible in the upper left corner of my darkened viewing range. Within a second or two, it appears as 2nd a whole gold-yellow sphere. Then it becomes as if
3rd a tri-bulging shaped sphere after the pattern of a “cloverleaf” dinner roll. Holding that shape for about the same length of time as had the single sphere, it then turns into
4th an oval shaped figure before decreasing to
5th a mere fragment of the starting sphere which fades out slightly upward and out of viewing range. Near instantly,
6th a partly distinct sphere appears high up just a bit to the right of my nose line. Even as I was straining to focus upon that small faint object, there appeared
7th a blacker-than-black, black hole with a beautiful shade of cerulean or azure blue corona fringe around it . . . , and dashing through the hole came
8th a comet-shaped sphere of the same color and near-same size as the original starter sphere. This comet-like thing was heading straight toward the lower center part of my viewing range (and nose), . . . and I blinked open my eyelids.
When the “black hole” appeared, I immediately thought of an article I had seen in a World Book publication about celestial black holes.115 But I stopped short of trying to figure out what the author was actually referring to by the illustrations of a collapsing star disappearing through a “black hole” in the universe sector of infinite space. Apart from the fact that the black hole I saw in the vision was blacker than the background blackness within my eyelids, I really did not associate the peculiarities of a collapsing star and the theoretical cosmic “black hole” to the black hole I had just observed within the darkness of my closed eyelids.
For one thing, there was the beautiful colored cerulean blue corona around the “black hole”in the vision. Although of an entirely different color, its shape was like that of the reddish gold flaming edges that encircled the “white light” center of the late afternoon sun.
This particular vision116 was emotionally straining.
Whatever the total contributing causes behind this involuntary scenic show, nothing similar to it has ever appeared again.117 I was to experience more visions, but none of a sphere going through various changes to finally pass through a beautifully fringed black hole after the manner of a speeding cosmic comet. This whole moving scene was most unique, especially the blacker-thanblack "black hole."
Some of this in-motion vision scene could have been caused from my having looked at the sun directly. But the pattern? And the definite "hole"? Could it perhaps be representative of the steps of a thought process? Memories are of both still and moving things. Albeit the information was already in mind from which to discern this truth, I had not yet recognized that my mental self/psyche is made up of both: (1) a conscious level I voluntary controlling part and (2) a subconscious level involuntary active part.
When I tried to look directly at the sun on the afternoon of May 27, 1969, I could no longer focus upon it without blinking. In my brief note for that date, I wrote:
115 Kip S. Thorne, “The Death of a Star.”, Science Year: the World Book Science Annual, 1968, ( Chicago, IL: Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, ) 70-85. W BSA68.
116 W hereas my sketch on the previous page is a very close likeness, none of the photographs or photo plus electronic sketches in this entry are as mirror images of the vision scenes I observed and have recounted of here. They just happen to be the closest likenesses I have found or can construct.
117 Actually, none of the visions were duplicates. Like the series involving iridescence, some consisted of variations of the same theme. But no single vision scene was repeated.
On several occasions since I began work on this treatise in the spring of 1996, I have tried to look at the white light of the sun in the afternoon part of the day. In each instance, a strained rapid glimpse was all I could tolerate. Upon quickly closing my eyelids, I would then see a few nondescript blobs of faintly yellowish light that slowly faded out and dissipated to leave me viewing nothing but darkness behind my closed eyelids. In contrast, all the sun-associated (and other) vision scenes or impressions I experienced between January 14, 1969, and July 14-15, 1970, were thematically graphic scenes of very, very brief duration.
Of all the iridescence scenes I observed this day, only the one of oil on the creek water was an ordinary one. Although the iridescent bubbles appeared to be part of the nearby atmosphere and the iridescent fringing part of the backyard trees, it was only because they were in-between my inner viewing mind’s I and the external environment. Since my eyelids were closed during the time of this last vision of the day, the inside of my eyelids was the background. Like the movie reel films or slides inside the projector machine, neither still nor moving vision scenes actually leave the hidden observer’s mind.
__________Epilogue
As previously explained, one major reason for not consciously noticing the daytime moon before was that I d i d n o t e x p e c t it to be visible during the daylight hours. That is how stunted or as spellbound my psychological mind-set was! Where I was born and reared between 1932 and 1950, the King James Bible was the main literary reference referred to when accounting for natural phenomena. To my recollection, I received no instruction during my twelve years of public schooling on either the “Atomic Theory” or the “Theory of Organic Evolution.” For a fact, the only science course I was required to take for graduation from high school dealt with human inventions like the radio, record player, telephone, telegraph, incandescent light bulb, etc., and combustion engines. Other than the story about Mr. Ben Franklin and his kite and key experiment with natural electricity, there was nothing special in my high school science textbook about the physics of the primary natural creations.
Although I was as awe-struck by the sun’s light rays coming into the living room glass picture window during midday of January 14, 1969, and puzzled by the yucky pinkish tint of the early morning sun rays coming down the hallway the next morning, this day was my first time of c h o o s i n g to inspect the sun. As previously mentioned, I had hitherto been inclined against independent investigation of the bible themes and science themes lest I be considered guilty of as poaching on the “territory”of the religious and science professionals. Well, things were different now. I was no longer thinking of myself as an interloper. Indeed not! Like every other adult or near-adult human being, I was at liberty to think for myself about the world I am of and in. Moreover, it would be irresponsible of me not to do so!
But on this day in 1969, I was only a few weeks into the psychologically challenging and intellectually laborious process of de-mesmerizing myself of the faulty perceptions derived from the biblical authors’ fictionalized accounts about natural phenomena. The writings of scientists had not been a major psychological barrier for me. Although figurative speech was sometimes used, the authors of the scientific and philosophical writings I reviewed did not present their theories or interpretations about the origination of the primary world and subsequent involuntary natural events as having instead come from either (1) the unknown Almighty Thou or (2) the conscience/holy spirit__like the biblical authors did.
“There is no new thing under the sun” has been a popular quote with some. But for me, the assertion seemed to be directed toward squelching the thoughts or questions of the uninitiated. After checking the context from which the above excerpt is taken 118, I find that the author appears to have meant that involuntary nature can be relied upon to not deviate from its patterns__is dependable or trustworthy. If that was the author's intent, I agree.
As it happens, the biblical chapter was closed with an admonishment about seeking too much understanding or wisdom:For in much wisdom is much grief, and he [or she] that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
Could be, but ignorance is a thousand times worse. Ignorance keeps us fearful, and fear keeps us ignorant!
Whereas the laws of nature do not change, there are always some new things under the sun. Continually remind yourself(s) that for the recently birthed child, everything under the sun is new. The babies coming into breathing existence at this moment have yet to discover the sun, the earth’s moon, the stars, and other fascinating celestial entities. And oh how important those FIRSTS or without-precedent experiences are!
Will these children grow up to someday stand in their yards and likewise be shocked to see their home planet’s satellite moon visible during the time between the rising and setting of the sun? I sincerely hope not.
118 "That which hath been is that which shall be, and that which hath been done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun. " (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
7
Nature’s Electrical Power
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Fig. 40. Crop of lightning photo by Floyd Menagh, www.crh.nooa.gov.
Date in Re: April 2, 1969
Site: Dining room sliding glass doors to backyard
Event: Thunder and lightning storm
Seated at a small table in the left corner of the dining room, I was typing away on one theme or another. A “thunder n’ lightning" storm was occurring outside. Every so often I would notice a flash of light and the clash of thunder that followed shortly after, but I did not actually look up at the lightning streaks. Suddenly, a big red flash about the size of an official softball went off just outside the sliding glass door near where I was seated. It appeared to be at about 20-24 inches from my face. In the middle of typing a sentence, I silently quipped, “Cut it out; I am busy.” But wow, that red flash did get my attention!
Later, it bothered me a bit that my quip might have been unbecomingly impertinent.119 Electrical storms are vibrant, dynamic, exhilarating, and exciting things to watch. But before
this transcendent happening, I had not been in the habit of looking very closely at thunder and lightning storms. This standoff position was, I think, partly due to my rearing. As a child, my experience with natural electricity had been to hunker down with near-bowed head during these phenomenal summertime events, because:
My paternal grandmother (LetheAnn German Hugate) would not let us grandchildren remain outdoors during an electrical storm. Whenever a storm would begin, she would make us come inside, sit down on the floor in the parlor, and keep quiet. Then Grandma Annie would generate more mystique to what was happening outside by pulling down the dark shades at the parlor windows. It was almost an act of reverence or submission before The Almighty Power presumed to have created such an awesome intermittently occurring involuntarily natural phenomenon.
At first, I thought the red flash I saw was a vision. Since then, I have learned that “red flashes” sometimes actually occur during an electrical storm. For example, lightning struck a big tree in the front yard of my daughter Anne and her family in late spring of 1997. Strips of bark were ripped from various sides of the tree. Some chunks of the wood smashed against the house and broke a window pane. Anne also reported seeing big “balls of fire” during the stormy event. As it had been with me, Anne was inside the house when the bolts appeared close to her.
World Book:Millennium 2000120 contains the following information on lightning bolts:A form of lightning called " ball lightning" differs greatly from ordinary lightning. Ball lightning appears as a glowing, fiery ball that floats for several seconds before disappearing. It has reportedly been seen during thunderstorms, usually after ordinary lightning has occurred. It is described as a red, yellow, or orange ball that may be as large as a grapefruit. It has been reported floating along the ground and inside houses, barns, and airplanes. No one knows how or why ball lightning occurs, or what it consists of.
119 I had not yet clarified the necessary difference between the unknown Almighty Thou and the projected vision of a hovered presence that I had experienced for a very brief moment on the morning of January 14, 1969.
120 Deluxe edition, CD-ROM. (W orld Book, Inc. and its licensors, 1999). W B-00
Lightning produces significant chemical changes in the atmosphere. As a stroke moves through the air, it generates tremendous heat that unites nitrogen and oxygen to form nitrates and other compounds. These compounds fall to the Earth with the rain. In this way, the atmosphere is able continually to help replenish the supply of nutrients that soil needs to produce plants. 121
Isn't that neat! Electrical storms both