Santa Catalina Island: Round purplish-white object moves northwest toward Los Angeles
On the clear night of November 16, 1953, an Air Force technical sergeant saw a round, purplish-white object that appeared stationary over Catalina and then moved northwest toward Los Angeles on a straight, level path for about ten minutes until it disappeared. The Air Force record card gives the conclusion “Astronomical (JUPITER).”
Background
A U.S. Air Force teletype report describes a round, saucer-shaped object the size of a pea, purplish white at first and later fading to a whitish color, that the observer noticed from San Pedro, California, by a casual glance at the sky at about 45 degrees elevation. It appeared stationary over Catalina, then moved northwest toward Los Angeles on a straight and level path and faded from view after about ten minutes; the report considered the witness fairly reliable because of his association with jet aircraft activity while stationed at Long Beach Air Force Base. The record card notes that the object’s movement did not coincide with the winds aloft, cites the evaluation of an astronomer at an observatory and gives the conclusion “Astronomical (JUPITER),” while the teletype adds the astronomers’ view that such objects are possibly planets, which appear more clearly after rainfall. The records differ slightly: the card notes Jupiter on November 15 at 45 degrees elevation in the west, while the teletype gives the first sighting at 45 degrees elevation and 0 degrees azimuth. The details are taken from records released by the U.S. Department of War in PURSUE Release 07 (record code DOW-UAP-D178) and do not represent an independent determination by From Beyond Space.