◆ SpookStack

dimensional radar) of all moving objects via the reflection of radar waves off of the body of the moving object. Conversely, secondary radar permits the detection and display on the screen only of moving objects equipped with a “transponder” that is able to respond to the coded signals that it emits. Thus any moving object not equipped with a “transponder” will not be detected by secondary radar. . This detail is extremely important in the case in question, because only the primary radars installed at military Control and Detection Centers (CDC) and radar detection aircraft, the Air Force AWACS and soon the Navy Hawkeyes, may detect a UFO, provided that the latter is not a “stealth” craft. Finally, it is necessary to know that all radar information detected by the totality of radar stations in the territory, airborne warning aircraft, and the radar stations of neighboring countries are being collected and processed in the STRIDA (Systeme de Traitement des Informations de Défense Aérienne [Air Defense Information Processing Center]) network, thus permitting detection coverage over a square more than 4500 km per side. Appendix 2 - Astronomers’ Sightings by Jean-Claude Ribes astronomical object. But we can expect them to be extremely reticent to relate such a sighting out of fear of ridicule, because amateurs are generally desirous of “professional” recognition. At any rate, no specific investigation has been conducted, to my knowledge, in this particular population. The results of two independent studies conducted by professional astronomers with their colleagues are quite different: in the 50s, Hynek informally questioned some forty astronomers, a little more than 10% of whom had actually sighted unexplained phenomena. Among the latter, Josef Allen Hynek cites Professor Lincoln La Paz, Director of the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of New Mexico, and Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of the planet Pluto, who died in 1997. In the 70s , Peter A. Sturrock sent a detailed questionnaire to 2611 members of the American Astronomical Association, guaranteeing them anonymity. Half responded, and sixty sightings were encountered. No systematic study of this type has been conducted in France, but a sighting by Marseilles astronomers Georges Courtés and Maurice Viton is frequently cited. One of my colleagues also related to me a sighting that he had made in his youth of an object with an apparent diameter of the moon (which, moreover, was visible), moving slowly from north to south. He was not yet a professional at the time but rather a well-informed amateur, and he does not see any explanation for his sighting, which he has never mentioned publicly. Thus it appears that the percentage of sightings by astronomers is comparable to that noted in the overall population, although there is a definite reticence among a vast