38_143685_box_Incident_Summaries_173-233

Text

A machine read this text from the scan. When the text and the image disagree, the image is right.

At 1640 Nov 8, 1948 Operator Solera when making a GCT weather report saw what appeared to be a comet in the southeast quadrant of the sky. It had a long cone of light which ended in a star larger than Venus. It remained visible to the naked eye for approximately 40 minutes until beginning of sunlight dimmed the brilliance of the phenomena and full sunrise obliterated it. Appeared to have about four degrees of intensity in the tail.

On Nov 6, 1948 (Nov 5 - USA time) Dr Harley Wood, astronomer in Sidney, Australia recognized a new and extraordinary comet which had a tail extending for 15 million miles.

Three days later early risers in the southern and western parts of the U. S. were able to observe the rare celestial body with the naked eye. Moving close to the sun but away from it at a speed of about 128,000 mph, the comet was visible for a brief 60 minutes before obscured by the sun's light.

See attached reproduction taken from Life.

(This to be submitted to Dr Hynek for his viewpoint as to whether the object reported and the comet mentioned in this article are one and the same.)