Sighting No. 175, Datil, New Mexico (1950)
Enclosure 2 to the Air Force summary of 25 May 1950, captioned "Sighting No. 175 - Photograph of Unknown Aerial Phenomena taken at Datil, New Mexico by Cpl Lertis E. Stanfield, Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico on 24 and 25 Feb 1950." The frame shows a single round luminous point against black. Lincoln LaPaz, Head of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, analysed it and reached two measurements - an angular diameter of "approximately 1/4 of a degree" and an angular velocity "greater than half a degree per minute" - and concluded from them that the object "was not the moon (for the angular diameter is too small), it was not Venus or any other planet (for the angular diameter was too large), and it was not a bright fixed star slightly out of focus (for the observed rate of motion is double that due to the diurnal rotation of the earth)." WHAT HE DID NOT DO IS SAY WHAT IT WAS, and neither does the file.
In the UAP recordThe file titles it "Photograph of Unknown Aerial Phenomena".
3 of 3 connections resolve to a document you can open.
Documents1 behind a connection
Documents behind a connection
- General Correspondence of Sandia 1950-05-25
3 connections
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he took the photographGeneral Correspondence of SandiaPDF p. 61 checked against the page
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he analysed the photograph and ruled out three ordinary explanationssame document as the row abovePDF p. 61 checked against the page
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compiled in the same Air Force file, which sorted every sighting into green fireball, disc, or probably meteoricsame document as the row aboveprinted p. 1 · PDF p. 20 checked against the page
Notes on this record
The file gives "24 and 25 Feb 1950" for the photography. 24 February is the earlier of the two days it names.
The one photograph in the Air Force green fireball file, and the analysis that ruled out three ordinary explanations.