Dr. Hynek was one of the most impressive scientists I met while working on the UFO project, and I met a good many.  He didn’t do two things that some of them did:  give you the answer before he knew the question; or immediately begin to expound on his accomplishments in the field of science.  I arrived at Ohio State just before lunch, and Dr. Hynek invited me to eat with him at the faculty club.  He wanted to refer to some notes he had on the Mantell Incident and they were in his office, so we discussed UFO’s in general during lunch.

Back in his office he started to review the Mantell Incident.  He had been responsible for the weasel-worded report that the Air Force released in late 1949, and he apologized for it.  Had he known that it was going to cause so much confusion, he said, he would have been more specific.  He thought the incident was a dead issue.  The reason that Venus had been such a strong suspect was that it was in almost the same spot in the sky as the UFO.  Dr. Hynek referred to his notes and told me that at 3:00P.M., Venus had been south southwest of Godman and 33 degrees above the southern horizon.  At 3:00P.M. the people in the tower estimated the UFO to be southwest of Godman and at an elevation of about 45 degrees.  Allowing for human error in estimating directions and angles, this was close.  I agreed.  There was one big flaw in the theory, however.  Venus wasn’t bright enough to be seen.  He had computed the brilliance of the planet, and on the day in question it was only six times as bright as the surrounding sky.  Then he explained what this meant.  Six times may sound like a lot, but it isn’t.  When you start looking for a pinpoint of light only six times as bright as the surrounding sky, it’s almost impossible to find it, even on a clear day.

Dr. Hynek said that he didn’t think that the UFO was Venus.

I later found out that although it was a relatively clear day there was considerable haze.

I asked him about some of the other possibilities.  He repeated the balloon, canopy-reflection, and sundog theories but he refused to comment on them since, as he said, he was an astrophysicist and would care to comment only on the astrophysical aspects of the sightings.

I drove back to Dayton convinced that the UFO wasn’t Venus.  Dr. Hynek had said Venus would have been a pinpoint of light.  The people in the tower had been positive of their descriptions, their statements brought that out.  They couldn’t agree on a description, they called the UFO “a parachute,” “an ice cream cone tipped with red,” “round and white,” “huge and silver or metallic,” “a small white object,” “one fourth the size of the full moon,” but all the descriptions plainly indicated a large object.  None of the descriptions could even vaguely be called a pinpoint of light.

This aspect of a definite shape seemed to eliminate the sundog theory too.  Sundogs, or parhelia, as they are technically known, are caused by ice particles reflecting a diffused light.  This would not give a sharp outline.  I also recalled two instances where Air Force pilots had chased sundogs.  In both instances when the aircraft began to climb, the sundog disappeared.  This was because the angle of reflection changed as the airplane climbed several thousand feet.  These sundog-caused UFO’s also had fuzzy edges.