 |
| Graphical representation of one of the ubiquitous black triangle UFO sightings, this time near Amsterdam, Holland and during daylight hours, Black triangles feature in a large number of reported sightings. |
ByANDY FLEMING
Immediately your friends, acquaintances and colleagues
discover that your hobby is amateur astronomy, you can prepare for the two main
predictable questions: what do you think about black holes, and have you ever
witnessed a UFO? Well here’s what I think: I love black holes though I’ve never
directly witnessed such a beast, and yes, I’ve seen a UFO that may or may not
have originated on another world. Oh, and I believe in them both despite never
observing the former with my own eyeballs. There you are, a sceptical amateur
astronomer who is prepared to place his lack of professional reputation and
total lack of funding on the line and lose nothing apart from any meagre credibility
in the astronomical community.
My friends’ former question about black holes is, of course
a perfectly commendable scientific query about an actual astronomical entity,
although still the subject of much speculation rather than fact. On the other
hand, the enquiry about UFOs raises another subject altogether. It’s commonly
referred to, often in a derogatory fashion as ‘ufology’ and involves a whole battery
of educational disciplines including, physics, astronomy, biology, sociology,
psychology, history and religion, not to mention some aeronautical engineering,
just thrown in for some good measure. Just like religion on its own, it may
well be that astronomers, whether amateur or professional are not necessarily the
best qualified individuals to comment and encroach on another field of
research.
Granted, ufology generally conjures up a whole smorgasbord
of fact, fiction, wild speculation, the paranormal, the super-natural, hearsay,
conspiracy theories, vivid imaginings, plain old charlatanry and sheer
profiteering by certain so-called ‘experts’, but these are not the exclusive
domains of ‘ufology’. It may well turn out that what we think of as our current
scientific grasp on reality (whatever that word means) may not be so firm after
all. There is, of course the whole cosmos set out before us. But there is also
a whole cosmos set out within. As Carl Sagan (1980) noted we are the Cosmos
with consciousness. In defining reality, we really need to establish which
reality we’re talking about as the cosmos has surprises and characteristics
that look increasingly beyond our measure.
On the subject of black holes, astronomers are qualified to make
valid professional comments as their field of study has gathered overwhelming (albeit
indirect) observational proof of the existence of them, and Einstein’s General
Theory of Relativity, one of the foundations of modern physics, has predicted
their existence since 1915. Indeed, most astronomers now believe that there is
a black hole of super-massive proportions at the centre of each galaxy, including
our very own Milky Way. The enormous velocities of stars at its centre as they
rotate around something with a gargantuan mass is indirect evidence from
mathematical calculations that this object, known as Sagittarius A* (pronounced
‘A-star') must be something with the density of a black hole.
Leaving astronomy to one side for now, my thoughts, views
and beliefs about UFOs, unlike my studies of black holes go one step further. I’ve
actually seen one, in the flesh, perhaps not up close and personal, but a “Close
Encounter of the First Kind” in the night sky nonetheless. So what did it look
like, this object over my home area of Teesside in north east England? Well,
I’ve made a graphical representation for illustration purposes using free
Stellarium Planetarium software, a favourite tool for amateur astronomers. In
the true spirit of astronomy and science one has to be sceptical before making
extraordinary claims. Such claims do after all, require extraordinary evidence.
Before I go further, I’d better repeat the commonly held
definition of the acronym 'UFO': a guided spacecraft of non-human origin,
emanating from either beneath the Earth, its oceans or an alien world. The proper
definition of 'natural or unnatural unidentified aerial phenomena' is somewhat
more useful. As I mentioned earlier, it
is probable that what I saw may very much have been of terrestrial origin, but
as an amateur astronomer I can certainly discount what I know it wasn't.
