Close Encounters of the Video Kind

Have you ever wondered about unidentified flying objects? Have you ever seen one? Did you want to get it on videotape? Many people have, providing some of the most interesting evidence extant of unusual flying craft in, around, and through our planetary atmosphere.

One of the most amazing UFO videos of late was recorded by a young father in Kanazawa, Japan. While playing outside, his daughter noticed a strange silvery disk in the sky and ran inside to tell her dad. Dad took one look at the UFO and rushed for his Sony 8mm camcorder.

Mom got upset though, because she didn't want the footage on the tape erased (sound familiar?). With trembling fingers, Dad hurriedly ripped the cellophane off a new package of videotape and rushed outside just in time to catch the UFO performing some rather remarkable maneuvers.

According to California-based UFO investigator and author Richard Haines, "the video clearly shows a beautiful silvery aerial object with a Sawn-like halo take a sharp 90-degree turn and take off at a very high velocity. The videomaker was a good tracker because he had the presence of mind to stand so that the neighbor's roofline remained in the field of view, even during a zoom."

Why is the neighbor's roofline important? "Because it gives us relative size, speed, direction, and brightness references to the UFO," explains Haines, who recently returned from a UFO lecture/research trip to the Soviet Union.

According to statistics gathered by Soviet researchers, 97 percent of the 6000 or so yearly UFO sightings are conventional visual reports seen with the naked eye, usually from the ground. Fifty percent of the craft sighted hover and streak around the sky for at least a minute before warping out.

This, of course, makes UFO tracking an ideal activity for camcord…