My daughter and I joined the groups enjoying the rising of the full moon from Vollmer peak in Berkeley 12/21/99 around 6:00. Without warning and silently, an object of unknown dimensions appeared at approximately 10:00 from the rising moon. Fortunately, I had my digital video camera with me! I captured roughly 6 minutes of the apparition, which lasted roughly 20 minutes. I have edited it down to a 10 mbyte mpeg file which can be seen at: http://www.nanochip.com/ufosm.mpg The object seemed to be composed of 3 distinct segments, each of a different color - blue/green, red/orange, and yellow/green. It was difficult to determine the size or range from us, but could well have been hundreds of meters in size, and tens of kilometers in range. The speed and maneuverability was fantastic - it appeared to cross the distance from 10:00 to the moon, past the moon, and back in mere seconds, indicating a possible velocity of 20,000 mph! Yet no sonic boom was evident. The UFO also exhibited unusual attitude manuevers - twice performing what appeared to be a "barrel roll" (seen towards the end of the clip). These must have incurred fantastic g-forces on the occupants of the craft, for it clearly exhibited signs of being operated by an intelligence far superior to current technology. Speculation arises on the motive for it's appearance during this time - the obvious conclusion being that the full moon offered a rare opportunity to observe the earth at night under maximum illumination, with minimum exposure to view. Why it chose to be visible to us remains unknown - the lights may be a byproduct of it's "drive" mechanism. Could the beings opeating this craft have come from the moon? Perhaps they are visitors from Mars, having destroyed our attempts to view them recently (the Mars Polar Lander) and have traced us back to earth. During the final moments of the apparation, an unsual beeping sound was heard to eminate from a source nearby. The apparition seemed to be startled by this, as it suddenly darted to our right and vanished below the horizon, after which the beeping sound ceased. Given the velocity of sound, this indicates that the object may have been considerably smaller and nearer than earlier suspected. Local authorities have been contacted and are investigating the matter. -- Tom Rust Nanochip Inc Box 13249 Oakland, CA 94661 (510) 339-6263 (510) 339-9636 FAX http://www.nanochip.com RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
