Paul_Exeter
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2012
- Messages
- 4,063
This case is ne of my all time favourites, partly because it took place in my home county and not so far from where I grew up and also because of the archive interviews that take us back to the 1960s:
A 2004 interview with the now-retired coppers:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/news_features/2004/ufos.shtml
The case was even mentioned in Parliament:
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-...nov/08/unidentified-flying-object-north-devon
Skeptic Ian Ridpath was has featured this case in some detail on his skeptical website:
http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/flyingcross.html
He is firmly of the option that it was the planet Venus and cites several academics who agree with this stance and Ridpath is at times less than complimentary about the Ufologist involved in this case. Well Mr Ridpath, you might have been wrong as over at Metabunk.org a forum member has been reevaluating this case and it seems Venus has been ruled out:
"Actually I got that totally wrong. The situation for Ian Ridpath is even worse...as I had set Stellarium for London, and not for Devon. On setting Stellarium for Devon, Venus does not rise until 3.40am and at 4am is a mere 3 degrees above the horizon. Atmospheric dimming would have reduced its brightness from the usual bright -4.6...down to a far less bright -2.7 ( i.e by about 85% ) so it would NOT have been the usual glaringly bright Venus that fools so many people.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/news_features/2004/ufos.shtml"
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/devon-flying-cross-of-1967-uap.12987/
A 2004 interview with the now-retired coppers:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/news_features/2004/ufos.shtml
The case was even mentioned in Parliament:
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-...nov/08/unidentified-flying-object-north-devon
Skeptic Ian Ridpath was has featured this case in some detail on his skeptical website:
http://www.ianridpath.com/ufo/flyingcross.html
He is firmly of the option that it was the planet Venus and cites several academics who agree with this stance and Ridpath is at times less than complimentary about the Ufologist involved in this case. Well Mr Ridpath, you might have been wrong as over at Metabunk.org a forum member has been reevaluating this case and it seems Venus has been ruled out:
"Actually I got that totally wrong. The situation for Ian Ridpath is even worse...as I had set Stellarium for London, and not for Devon. On setting Stellarium for Devon, Venus does not rise until 3.40am and at 4am is a mere 3 degrees above the horizon. Atmospheric dimming would have reduced its brightness from the usual bright -4.6...down to a far less bright -2.7 ( i.e by about 85% ) so it would NOT have been the usual glaringly bright Venus that fools so many people.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/news_features/2004/ufos.shtml"
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/devon-flying-cross-of-1967-uap.12987/