WIXLIB

IUFON-4Pae3.If th is is of an acceptab le standard , h e/she is admitted.O ne of th e ch i e f conc epts of UFOIN was that we would b e ab l e to free ours elves ofthe inevitably amat eurish image of th e pr es ent organis at ions and s o , hopeful ly, dev e lopa better r elationsh ip with local and nat ional author i t i e s es s ent ial to our work .There ar e init ial s igns that th is is b eginning to happen, though we face a cred ibi l i tygap that can only b e clos ed by practica l demons trat ion.It was also hoped that itwould be pos s ible to ma inta in a good relationship with the lo cal groups s ince we wi l lIn mos t cas es probl ems do not arrise h er e b e caus e thealways b e d ependant on th em.UFOIN memb ers tend to b e th e bes t inves t igators in the local groups , but oth erwis e th erelat ions hip is bas ed on th e pr em is s that UFOIN memb ers will cooper at e with local groupsand that loca l groups wi ll be acknowl edged in any publication.W e feel that UFOIN r epres ents a far better inv e s t i ga t ion concept than th at of th elarge , structured nat ionwide sys t ems.Meeting of Ir ish UFO Groups - Naas , 19 June 19 7 7 .Pres ent at the meet ing in Lawthers Hot el , Naas , Co . K ildare were r epr es ent atives ofSpectrum , 'the UFO R es earch As soc iation, Ir ish UFO R e s earch C entre and BUFORA ( Ir eland).The conf erence was organis ed by Torn H igg ins.The main aim as to sort out investiga t ion proceedures , s ince a cons iderab l e degr e e o f confus ion had b e en evid ent dur ing th einvest igat ion of th e Newbridge cas e.Th e f irs t mat ter cons ider ed was mergers and eventua lly it was agr eed ·that UFORA·and spectrum would negot iat e a merger s ince both operate mainly in th e Dubl in ar ea .It was also agr e ed that· s ight ings in th e Dublin area would b e dealt with mainly bySpectrum.Sinc e mo s t of th e Spectrum inves t igators have clo s e l inks with IUFORCno problems are exp ected in th i s ar ea.However, it was agreed that sighting invest i gations , in the form of in i t i al r eport forms , · would b e exch anged on all cases investig ated by both organis at ions and that , in cas es wer e UFOIN would be int eres t ed, therewould b e no ob j ection to UFO IN invest igators cooperat ing with tho s e from Sp ectrum.Inparticular , it was agr e ed that raw data , ch i ef ly tap e r ecordings o f int ervi ews, wouldbe pres erved for insp ection should a s ubs equent inves t igator r equ ir e th em.Th is wasconsider ed important , s ince it would cut down on the numb er o f int ervi ews carr ied outon any parti cular c as e.Th e sys t em h as got of f to a good start, with one consignmentof r eports already s ent from IUFORC to Mr Owen M cQuail o f Spectrum .The package o f agre ed coop erat ion may seem very loose, but we are convinced th atit will work well in pr actic e , s ince a very cord ial r e l at ionsh ip has d eveloped betweenthe groups.Problems in the pas t s eem to have b e en mainly due to communicat iondi fficui ti es.TMG Johns ton. ( RIC , BUFORA)N ews From th e F inal Front i er.The Ent erpris e , th e firs t proto type of NASA ' s space shut tle has compl eted al l ofit ' s captive t estfl ights.Th ese fl ights, to tes t th e aerodynamic properties of th eshutt l e , were conduct ed with th e Ent erpris e fixed ontQ th e top o f a Boe ing 747 jet.The first free fl ight o f tne Enterpr ise , wh i ch was to h ave taken place on June 9, hasbeen delayed due to m inor di fficult i es.· The Enterpr is e is un-powered, and th isflight , wh en it takes plac e , will b e a gl ide.Ent erpr ise is never int end ed to go intospace, but the powered vers ion, shuttl e two , is b e ing prepar ed for i t ' s first spaceflight in 19 79.NASA is be ing forced to acc ept very s evere budget r estraints by th e Ameri canCongress ( who have just approved a large incre as e i ri d efens e .spend ing) , and this maythreten th e space t el escope pro j ect as we ll as the Jupit er Orb it er probe, schudul ed for1982.·

IUFON-4· P age 3.The l ates t i s s ue o f Northern UFO News is packed with UFO reports , wi th some groupscl aiming to have· over lOO reports already.Since , under normal conditions , close encounter and occupant reports come in ata rate of three or four per year from this area, this activity represents a very majorincrease, and when a l l the reports are inve s tigated we can expect a l arge body ofinteres ting data.Ufo logis t s ·At War.The current discord in UK ufo logy has already been dealt with in an edi tori al,however I thought that perh aps readers , p articul ar ly tho se in Irel and , might like tobe given s ome more s pecific information about what is going on.I t seems that its t arted when Jenny R andles ( secret ary o f the Northern UFO Network , and then acommit tee member o f BUFORA-the British U FO Research Association) h ad several articdl ,'published in UFO journal s which were highly critical o f BUFORA .She was on ly voicingwhat h ad been p ainful ly obvious to m any o f us for a long time , but m any of those whohad doubts about the criticisms lo s t tho se boubt s wheniBUFORA ventured no t a word inreply.Basically the criticis m was th at i t was futile to try 'to be s cientific'in the inves tigation and research sense whi le so much time and effort and c as h wasbeing put into the essential public and member rel ations as pect of a mass membershiporganis ation.This was diagno sed as being the roo t c ause of the symp toms of overbeurocracy , inefficeincy, lack o f moral and shor t age o f achievement for which BU FORAhas been no ted.·Frus trated by the lack o f res ponse from BUFORA , Mis s R and les'criticism became s tronger and eventu a l ly the chairman o f BUFORA, Lionel Beer , with thebacking of the council ote to Mis s Rand les .Copies o f this let ter flut tered byvarious devious rout s onto the des ks o f v r tually every ufo logis t in the UK ( Irish U FORese arch Centre now h as on file no les s th an five copies!)The gist of the letterwas th at she was as ked to resign from the BUFORA counci l for 'activities detrimentalto BUFORA'.Unfortunatly , with monument al l ack o f t act , Mr Beer al s o m anaged toins ult virtually every ufo logi s t who had· been as s ociated with Mis s Rand les , and, in alater communication , every ufo logi s t as s ociated with NUFON.Als o unfortunatly , .atthe s ame time Mis s Randles was l aunching her impor t ant new UFO IN idea and Bufora thenrefused to cooperate with UFO IN except on impo s sible terms .At that point quite afew of BUFORA's inves tigators were forced to switch al legience to UFO I N ins tead of, aswould o therwise have been pos sible , working with both.The net res ult of al l this h as been a po laris ation into two m ain blocs in theinves tigative and public organis ation fie lds , NUFON/UFO IN and BUFORA .Incre asinglypetty 'agro' between the two is m aking it harder to work for bo th at the s ame time .I , myself, and mo s t of my active· colleagues in I re land have considerably moresymp athy.for NUFON/UFO INs po sition.We do , however , h ave s ome reservations , thechti. ef being that both NUFON and UFOIN seem to be much too dependant on the charismaticleadership of Jenny R and les.While Mis s R and les is doing an excellent job, there isa strong pos sibility th at,were she to withdraw th at leadership, the whole s ystem wouldcollapse .I wonder if it is too much to hope for that after a 'coo ling off period' thesituation wi ll improve.·The UFO Investigator's Network. A new and exciting concept in UK ufo logy is the UFO inves tigators Network ( U FOIN) .The idea was to set up a very inform al grouping of independant investigators who haddespl ayed an ability to produce good inves tigation report s .The group would offersever al es sential col lective functions without the di s s advant ages entailed by the presentnational organis ations.From the start it was intended to concentrate on highstrangenes s cases, the others already being covered quite adequately by exi s ting organ isations .The facilities now o ffered by UFO IN are financi al support , a close link wi th FSRfor public ation purpo ses , some expert back-up facilities, publication of detailedreports and li ason wi th the authorities on a national level .The initial membership of U FO IN, which now covers most of the UK was selected bypersonal recomend ation and expansion of the membership is by a kind of .test proceedure.A pros pective new member is asked to investigate a case and submitt a ful report on itr

IUFON-4Page 4 .M il e s Johns ton .THE· VOYAGER DEEP SPACE. PROBESNASA has been p l anning a m is s ion to make a ' grand tour ' o f th e outer p l anet s.of our sys t em us ing th e p l an e t ary ' s l ing-sho t1 e ffect for a long t ime .The ' grandtour ' wi1.1 in clude very c los e fly-bys of thr e e p l an e t ary s ys t ems , tho s e o f Jup i t er ,.Saturn and Uranus.Th i s i s only po s s i bl e due to a p ar t i cular rel at ive po s itioningo f th e p l anets wh i ch w i l l no t o ccur again for 400 years .The p l an is to use theemmens e gravitat ional f i eld of Jup i t er to ' s l ing ' th e s pacecraft out to either S aturn· or Uranus .N eptune was also cons id ered , but aft er· a number o f cance l l at ions o f thepro j ect th is w as s crapp ed,Two s pacecraft , des igna t ed Voyager 1 and 2 , wi l l be l aunched between Agus t , 20 and· For v ar ious · compl ex r easons th is l aunch window is very cri t i cal .S epternber , 9 1 77 .The Voyagersare upd ated M ariner s pacecr aft; th ey h ave a back-up system for nearlyeveryth ing , and are contro l ed by a very s o ph is t i cated computer .Commun i c ation isa m a j or dj.fficu l ty , and much h i gh er frequencys h ave h ad to b e used on th is spacecr aftthan wer e us ed on V iking so th at a fas t enough data trans fer rate .is po s s i b le .Th e two craft w i ll . arrive at Jupit r arround M arch , 5 1979 and July;9 1979.S aturn wi l l be r each ed by November ,l9 and Augus t , 27 1980 .Uranus w i l l no t . .beencountered unt i l s omet ime in 1986 .This means th at th e s p acecr a ft must be very. r o bust , ·and the commun icat ion d e l ay du e to th e · . hug e . d istances means that th ey mus t b-e.·larg ely s el f contro l ed - they ar e robot s in· th e l it r al s ens e o f the word .· M ar iner .·1 0 .was os t wh en. analys ing M er cury , but ue to in-bu i l t pro grammi ng i t was abl e to be.·fo.und again , and the valuab l e d' at a s tor ed on i t ' s · t apes r e covered.The d is t ances envo lved w i l l be in the order o f 1350 ·mil l ion Km to S atur·n , 600. .mill ion Km to Jup i t er , 2. 7 B i l l io n ( Thous and M i ll ion) Km to Uranus and 4. 3 · b i l l ionKm to Neptune .Th es e d i t ances wil l caus e s ever e communi ca t ion pro b l ems , wj.thr es p ect to d i ffract ion o f· th e b eam , no i s e· and · . aquis i t io n pro b lems .and t ime l ag .·One of two Mariner spacecraft launched In 1977 may be directed tofly past Jupiter and Saturn, the two largest planets in the solar system, andcontinue on to Uranus, almost 3,000 million kilometers from Earth.

P age 5 .IUFON-4Objectives :The Jovian Sys tem. This system was visited in 19 73 and in 74/ 5 by Pioneers 10 and 11 .Therefore, weare in a position to look in more det ai l at se lected areas of interes t .The systemcontains , at present , 14 s ati lites , varying from the pl ane t-sized Gali le an s ati lites,to what are e s s enti ally asteroids on'temporary lo an' .The moons of primaryinteres t wil l be I o and G anymede .Io has the property that it act s as a kind ofWhile I o c an be one of the mo sts witch for the shor twaves ernmit ted by Jupiter.reflective o bject s in the s o l ar sys tem after being in Jupiter's sh adow, while inI t' s atmosphere,s unlight this property diminishe s , the moon becomming very red.I t is one of thewhich is very thin, consis t s of hydrogen , nitrogen and sodium.o bjectives of this mis sion to find out more about the moons an their atmospheres .Jupiter c an be considered a very low power s un since it is r adi ating more heat th anit is absorbing.The energy of the r adio active particles trapped in the Jovianmagnetic field, is mi l lions of times higher th an tho se encountered near E arth, and thismay lead to additional pro blems.The Saturnian Sys tem.The sys tem of Saturn h as ten s atilite s, the mo s t interes ting of which is Ti t an.This h as an atmos phere , consis ting mainly of methane and· ammonia and a so lid s urface .There could easily be highly org anised org anic mo lecules on the surf ace and in theatmos phere.Inves tig ation of the moon , Titan , shares equal priority with s tudyingthe famous ring sys tem .O ne of the s p acecraft wil l e s timate the sizes of thep artic les which make up the sys tem and try to dis cover their compo sition and age.I t is interes ting to no te that Uranus may h ave a simil ar ring sys tem.Uranus and Neptune.Very little is known about these pl anet s , though there h as been s ome speculation thatNeptune may be covered by a sea.It wi l l be a bit touch-and-go whether thes pacecraft reach these p l anet s within their lifetimes , but it would be extreemlyinteres ting if they did .Spacecraft Description .Both s p acecraft are identical , and of the M ariner c l as s .The l aunch vehic le isI'fHIGH-GAIN ANHNNA(3.7-m DIA)WA/ · ltMGit J C , , tit.HIGH-FIELDMAGNElOMETER-',· ··INFRAIIF.D'IPfUI OMrf[RAND RJ\OIOMillKLOW-FlflDMAGNETOMETU(2)\\.PlANETARY RADIOASTRONOMY ANDPLASMA WAVEANTENNA (2)··PltOTOJ'OI.ARIMf TER-- S'\.i(16)Ot'liU\l LAllftRATll)N lt.h.llA NIJ f'l.l\.V! R UPr\ Y 5HUN II OAI.l I!AUIATOR;,

IUFON-4Page 6.The l aunch wil l be froma Titan-Centaur ( simi l ar to the l aunch vehicle for Viking).Although unchlForceAirab le fastesttheislaunch it's 800 Kg paylo ad to the s pecifi c energy requirement o f 111 Km/s , neaded toFor this reas on a sm all additiona lachieve the ballis tic trajectory to reach Jupiter.upper stage is required.This is a s o lid fuel motor in the spacecraft which wi llgive a ve lo cty increment o f 2Km/s.The s pacecr aft s ystems are powered by three plutonium oxide r adioiso tope gener ators.The heat produced by the particles released by the de cay o f the plutonium oxide isconverted to e lectricty by a thermopile.Together the generators produce 390 Watts.16 Hydrazine gas thrus ters are used to direct and stabi lise the spacecraft under thecontro l o f the on bo ard tracking sys tem.The pho tography s canning p l atform can beMost of the systems havest ab alised either by a s tar tracking sys tem or by gyro s copes.The data tr ansfer rateto be shielded from the heavy radi ation fields near Jupiter. by r adio to E arth is about 11 5k Bit s /sec from Jupiter , s lowing to 45k Bits/sec fromSaturn.The radio system uses an X b and 3 . 7 metre diameter p ar abo lic arie l.During periods of b ad weather and when the craft is low in the s ky rel ative to thetr acking station, the d at a trans fer rate wil l be s lower.The s pacecraft s cientifi c p ackage weighs 113kg and consums a total o f about 100Wof electricty.Included are medium and high res o lution TV cameras , s pectrometers,and photometric instruments for atmo s pheri c analysis.Also, there are o ther goodies,such as; r adio recievers for p l ane t ary emis sions and p l asma waves and numeroussensors for magneti c fie lds and ch arged parti cles.Conclusion.Project Voyager premi s ses to be the as tronomer' s dream o f the 2 0 th century andit cannot be repeated for another 400 years.I t seems unlikely th at there wi l lbe any m anned trips t o the p l anet s a t leas t until the end o f the century and s o wewil l h ave to rely on data from increasing ly sophisti cated ( and more intelegent)robo t probes until then.SOMESUBJECTIVE ASPECTS OF THE NAAS SIGHTINGSJohn Hind.Short ly after the last i s sue of 'Irish UFO News' came out, Mis s O livi a Robertson,a spirttuali s t, wro te to me about our report on "the N aas sightingsShedisapproved of the fact that we h ad m ade no mention o f a'psychic sitting' th at the fourof us had taken part in the morning before the sightings.I should stress that' psychic sittings' are not a normal o ccurence for any of us.This was the fir st,and to date only, such event th at I have t aken part in and my only reason for doing sowas a genuine desire to under s t and the phenomena ( i f any) involved.In my rep ly toher letter, I gave my reasons for not mentioning the sitting in my report.The mainreason was simp ly that I did not have s ufficient space to expl ain this ful ly.As Ihinted at the beginning o f the report there were subje ctive aspects , to do mainly withour re action to the sightings, and I said that I was not going to mention these.Indeed the main reas on for the report was to des cribe a who le series o f sightings, ofwhich ours were only two.I firmly , and ,! think reasonab ly , believe th at the obje ctivedetails would no t have been effected by the o ther factors and this report is not an effortto re\rrite the previous one , rather it is intended to look at the case from a differentangle.The previous report looked only at the s tri ctly objective aspe cts of thesightings , however I believed then, as I believe now , that there was annother, verydistinct aspect th at required expl anation.This aspect encompassed the subjectivephenomen a and the co-incidences, and in this sence the 'ps ychic sitting' has directre levance.I intend to des cribe this aspect here, partly to remove some wissunderstandings that have arisen , but chie fly because I think th at consideration o f the oresubjective aspects o f ufo logy is becomming more import ant.H aving s aid that, I haveadopted a phenomeno logical apro ach and leave judgement of the value of the datapres ented entirely to the reader.

IUFO N-4 P ag e 7.We had s pent th e S aturday o f th at weekend inves t igat ing th e o th er s i gh t ingsment ioned in th e repor t , and early on th e Sunday morning ( 31 s t of O cto ber , the choiceof Hal loween for th e trip was unint ent ional on our part! ) we tr avel ed down toHunt ingdon C as tle ,Hun t ingdon Cas t l e near E nnis corthy , to vis it M i s s Robertson.its elf is s event e enth century and is bu i l t as an im i t at ion o f a med i eval castle , wi thramparts and towers , but it's s i tuat ion and th e pr es ence of l arge windows show tha t i twas never re aly int end ed to be de fens ive .I t is bu i l tclos e t o th e ru ins o f a veryobvious ly Norman ( 1 1 th-12 th century) bui l d ing , probably a church or abbey .I t isd i fficul t to des cr i b e th e atmo s ph ere of th e pl ace , but a combinat ion o f th e lack o fl ight ( th er e i s no el ectr i cty) , th e fact that th e bu ild ing i s not in good repa ir , andth e s tyle of d e cor at ion comb ine to g ive an impres s ion o f a r ath er s t er eo typ e h auntedcas t l e in th e bes t Hol lywood trad i t ion.Dur ing th e morning we h ad a br i e f d is cus s ion on psych i c and as soc iat ed phenomena wi thM is s Ro bertson , fo l lowed by· th e s i tt ing alr eady ment ioned.I will quo t e from M issRobertson ' s report on th e s i t t ing or 'r i t e ' wh i ch was publ i s h ed in I s ian N ews , a psych icmagaz ine :" Is a id th at wh at we could do was to s it in med itat ion and o f fer r e cept iveminds to ' UFO ' cont act .Th is , I s aid , was as reasonable a way as any to cont actThe pos s ib il ity of t e l epathy h ad no t been ruled out bypos s ib l e ' s pace peopl e ' .cont emporary s c i ence .I as ked for. th e ir concurrence in a short R i t e .I l i t two c and l es on my smal l altar in th e dr awing room , l it an incence s t i ck and then invok ed De i ty .I expr es s ed our int ent ion , wh i ch was to contact ' s pace people ' .I then put Holy wa terfrom our Br igids W e l l on th e brow of e ach of th e young men.I as ked them to .shut th e ir eyes , and to fo l low visually my words .I told th em thatwe wer e cl imb i g up a h i l l .At th e cr es t of th e h il l was a m i s t.W e pas t through themis t and s tood on th e top of th e h i l l .We looked arround; th e m i s t h ad cov ered thes urround ing l ands cap e.Now I s aid we looked up into th e s ky .We cam e aware of abr igh t l igh t.We wat ch ed th is l i ght .I t be cam e l arger and l arger as it appro ach ed us.I t became a golden .d is c .In s il enc e , we watched th is d is c .I wa i t ed for a quart er o f an hour approximat e ly .Th en I r evers ed th e pro ceedure .I des cr ib ed th e gold en d is c r etreat ing unt i l i t becam e a po int of l igh t and finallyd i s appe ar ed.I d e s cr i bed our cl imb down the h i l l and our r eturn to th e draw ing room .I th en as ked for r epor t s .E ach young man h ad b e en abl e to vis ual i s e th e s cene I h ad d es cr i bed , includ ing thel igh t .But in th e s i l enc e , though th ey h ad felt p eaceful , th ey h ad exp er i en c ed no th ingvisual , and no ideas at al l .I found th is s tr ange .But th ey said they h ad no though tsand no ment al p i ctures .But th ey h ad felt at e as e .So I gave my report .I s a i d th atI had th e impr es s ion that we h ad been cont acted by a UFO o ccupant .My feel ing was thath e was a young man w i th long ish f a ir h a ir and d ark clo th es.He was look ing after them . "I ful ly agree with h er d es cr ipt ion o f what h appened , and my own impress ion o f wh atwas go ing on was th at she was try ing to induce a s t at e · or p er cept ion of ' non-ord inaryr eal ity ' in us , f irs tly by v ery car e fully arrang ing a s u i t abl e env ironm ent , and then bya proces s of sugges t ion ,

UFOLOGY AND PARAPSYCHOLOGY IN IRELAND July 1977 Subjective aspects of the Naas sightings. The Voyager deep space probes. Review Special: New Scientist on parascience. News and Views, Sighting Reports, Letters. No. 4 IRISH UFO NEWS JULY 1977 Irish UFO News is an independant, twice yearly magazine dealing with UFOs and related .