Las Cruces, New Mexico: Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh sees formation of bluish-green lights
At 10:45 p.m. on August 20, 1949, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, his wife and his mother-in-law saw a formation of rectangular bluish-green lights move silently across the sky over his backyard in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Background
At 10:45 p.m. astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, his wife and his mother-in-law saw a formation of rectangular bluish-green lights from the backyard of his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The lights moved silently toward the south-southeast; as they did, the individual rectangles became foreshortened and their intensity dulled. After about 3 seconds they faded from view at about 35 degrees above the horizon. The sighting was reported in Life magazine in 1952, discussed by Donald Menzel and cited by James E. McDonald in his 1968 statement to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.