Starman said:
The fact of the matter is that the Lights, were filmed at a later time of day, after the initial UFO sighting had occurred.
I've been discussing the
video that was shot in the hour of 10:00 pm (I don't remember the exact time off the top of my head). I've not been discussing the lights people saw that supposedly started in Prescott or Paulden. But if these lights
are related, then they can only
support the flare hypothesis.
Here are the facts:
1) At the graphic that I linked above that has the table of illumination flares, you'll note that there is an air-dropped illum round used by the Air Force. These are
not the same as those used by the A-10 Warthogs.
2) The video was shot depicting the direction of Sierra Estrella, which is to the south west of Phoenix. Indeed, the faint outline of the mountain can be seen in the video.
3) The flares disappear from sight as they pass
behind the mountain.
4) From Phoenix, toward the direction of Sierra Estrella in the southwest, is the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range.
5) According to
GlobalSecurity.org, this range "serves the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps as an armament and high-hazard testing area; a training area for aerial gunnery, rocketry, electronic warfare, and tactical maneuvering and air support; and a place to develop equipment and tactics. [...]This southwest Arizona military range is used by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps for aerial combat training (air-to-air and air-to-ground), as well as for land-based combat training operations."
6) The range itself begins between 20 and 50 miles from Phoenix.
7) Witness reported "V" shaped formation of lights traveling across AZ toward the range (Ortega, 1998).
8) Military aircraft often fly in
"V"-Shaped formations.
9) Witnesses reported that the lights appeared connected (Ortega, 1998).
10)
Other witnesses reported differently. In fact, Mitch Stanley, the owner of a large Dobsonian telescope, pointed his instrument at the lights and told his mother, when she asked, that he saw "planes" (Ortega, 1998).
11)
Tuscan Weekly reported the statement of an Arizona National Guard public information officer, Captain Eileen Bienz, who "had determined that the flares had been dropped at 10 p.m. over the North Tac range 30 miles southwest of Phoenix, at an unusually high altitude: 15,000 feet" (Ortega, 1998).
12) Maryland NG stated that they did not fly north of Phoenix, so they weren't the MD NG A-10s (Ortega, 1998).
13) Jim Dilettoso claimed that he performed "computerized tests" at "Village Labs" on the video of the flares that produced evidence that these were not flares, "whatever caused the 10 p.m. event, Dilettoso claims, was like no source of manmade light" (Ortega, 1998).
14) Dilettoso also "tested" the photos of Eduard "Billy" Meier. Or so Dilettoso said (Ortega, 1998).
15) A camcorder cannot record the detailed spectrum of light needed to determine what Dilettoso claims and Dilettoso has yet to publish his "methodolgy" that has allowed him to do what a camcorder is unable to do. In the words of the Phoenix New Times article: "Trying to do spectral analysis on the image produced by a camcorder [...] would be like testing a portrait of Abraham Lincoln for his DNA" (Ortega, 1998).
Starman said:
You cannot try to explain what a Ford Pickup looks like by showing and describing a grasshopper.
No. But one can easily begin to explain things that are airborne by describing
real things that are airborne. But you would have to be open-minded to accept that what occurred in Phoenix
wasn't alien spacecraft. The closed-minded person sees only alien spacecraft; hopes for alien spacecraft;
wants alien spacecraft; and
believes only alien spacecraft.
The open-minded person, such as myself, accepts that alien spacecraft are possible, but there are far more probable explanations that fit the events much better than alien spacecraft. Objects and events that
have been observed, verified, and recorded with authority being chosen over fantastical objects or events that are mythical and elude objective observation, verification and record.
A friend pointed me to this newspaper article below. I'm hopeful that you will each read it, though I expect one of you might discard it once you come across the first critical statement
against his/her established belief system.
References
Ortega, Tony (March 5, 1998).
The Hack and the Quack.
Phoenix New Times.
