Episode 123: Lights! Phoenix! Action!
Garth has returned from his special assignments, and Cody has returned from Phoenix with a tale to tell. Get out your telescopes and potato cameras, look upwards and through the past to the mid 90's as we explore one of the largest mass UFO sightings in history! And along the way we'll take a ride on a warthog too.
As always, please come join the episode discussion on the Least Haunted Discord!
Enjoy the images and videos below!
Newspaper article with artists interpretation of eye witness accounts of UFO that flew over Arizona March 13th, 1997.
Flight path of UFO. Starting in Henderson, Nevada and finishing near Tucson, Arizona. A route of approximately 370 miles or 546 Kilometers. This was traveled in 1.25 hours.
At 10:00 pm Mike Crispin looks southward across Phoenix towards "South Mountain" and captures this footage.
Approximate line of sight of Mike Crispin, with his position being the North (top) end of the line.
Arizona Governor Fife Symington III holds a press conference about The Phoenix Lights with an aide dressed as an alien.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II aka "The Warthog" Close Air Support (CAS) jet aircraft. Development began in 1972, and it entered into service in 1977. Headquartered at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.
The General Electric GAU-8 Avenger 30mm Gatling Gun.
The Gau-8 Avenger can fire 3,900 30 millimeter depleted uranium rounds a minute. The round on the left is the 30 millimeter round, with the left being the round of a 30.06 rifle for comparison.
The Barry Goldwater Gunnery Range and Training Area.
The LUU2 Illumination Parachute Flare.
Sales Brochure for the flare with selected specs. Note that it is a A-10 Warthog that is shown deploying the flare in official promotional material for the hardware.
A video Analyisis of the Crispin footage that shows what is really going on with the second set of lights seen on March 13th, 1997.
Enhanced image from the video that shows the night time lights superimposed on top of daylight footage from the same exact spot and angle. This proves that the lights were beyond South Mountain, and confirms the official explanation of a LUU2 flare training exercise over the Barry M. Goldwater Gunnery Range.
GARTH'S CORNER!
Comet Hale-Bopp
Alan Hale, Astronomer and one of two discoverers of the comet.
Thomas Bopp (1949-2018), the other discoverer of the comet.
Model of the path of Comet Hale-Bopp, credit for the animations goes to Phoenix7777 posted on Wikipedia - working from Data source: HORIZONS System, JPL, NASA.
3D model of the same
Heaven’s Gate website, which is still active.
How to report a comet: https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/how-to-report-a-comet-discovery/