Colour 16 mm motion picture footage of bright objects against a daytime sky, filmed on 2 July 1952 near Tremonton, Utah, and one of the two films analysed in PURSUE Release 05 record DOW-UAP-D098. The document itself never uses the name Tremonton; it refers only to “Utah, 2 July 1952” and to approximately 30 feet of processed film forwarded by the U.S. Air Force.
The Naval Photographic Interpretation Center analysed it over the winter of 1952 to 1953, reporting on 4 May 1953. Analysts split the film into three parts by aperture and camera behaviour, plotted object positions with a stop-frame projector at 22x magnification, and measured luminosity with a Densichron densitometer. Working from an admittedly arbitrary assumption that the objects were five miles away, they computed velocities of 2457 and 378 mph and accelerations up to 965 g, and estimated maximum and minimum sizes of 98 and 16 feet.
The report’s finding was that it was the majority opinion of the analysis group that the images are light sources, and that in either case, light source or reflective surface, the objects were of a nature the analysts could not identify in terms of natural phenomena or commonly known man-made objects. Birds, aircraft and balloons were ruled out on the computed figures. The report states that its results do not necessarily represent the official attitude of the Department of the Navy, that outside astronomy and physics consultants could not recognise the objects as man-made, and that lack of equipment, money and personnel limited the investigation.
Connections
PURSUE · Naval Photographic Interpretation Center · Great Falls Film 1950 · Robertson Panel · Project Blue Book