October 18, 1975

Mr. John Musgrave,
10510 86th Avenue,
Edmonton, Alberta

Dear Mr. Musgrave:

Undoubtedly this is but one of many letters you will receive following the "Canadian Magazine" article on your UFO efforts that was published today. I have three sightings of unidentified phenomena that are probably quite easily explained, and I pass them on to you in the possibility that they might correlate with some other observer's report.

On a Tuesday in June of 1967 (the exact date escapes me) I left my parents’ home at about 11:05 pm, heading for the bus which would take me to my summer job as an all-night bellhop in a hotel. At the time, I lived in Burnaby--a suburb of Vancouver, and as I left our house, I noticed a bright orange light high above the North Shore mountains (above Mount Seymour, to be exact). I knew that there was no star of such magnitude or colour in that area of the sky - in fact, Mars is the only object whose colour even comes close, and that's only at close-approach times. I continued to walk for a minute or so, until I came upon a policeman standing out of his patrol car looking at the object. Neither of us had any idea what it might be, and I then hit for home to wake my family. By the time we all got back outside, the object had disappeared and the policemen had driven away. Searching the sky we found it sitting about the same distance away but very low on the northwest horizon. Suddenly it blinked out and reappeared in its original position. Again, it disappeared and reappeared in the northwest sky. By this time, I was running late, and so I went off to work. My parents watched the object jump back and forth and travelling at high speeds for about half-an-hour until it disappeared altogether.

Of course I told my friends about the sighting, and two weeks to the night later, as a friend and I were walking to the bus about the same time, he said, "Bri, what's that up in the sky?" There, in the same position I’d first seen it, was my UFO. We watched for a few moments, then it suddenly seemed to move closer toward us, moving as if it were descending down a spiral. Then it blinked out, and I've never seen it since.

Three years later, in the fall of 1970, my wife and I were visiting my parents when my younger sister ran into the house yelling about some flying saucers in the sky. I ran outside and saw five objects, the same colour and size as my 1967 objects, travelling across the southern sky in this formation:

Then, as each reached a certain position in the sky (relating to other stars) it blinked out. We saw no more. They travelled at a steady but slow speed, west-to-east, and much similar to the progress of a light plane. However, no noise was heard (though this isn't conclusive of anything, because my parents home is in a highly populated area, and other sounds could confuse and distort any sound.)

Both of the 1967 sightings and the 1970 sighting occurred on clear, cloudless nights. Neither were reported in the press.

A number of sightings in our area have been found to be plastic balloons--made of dry cleaning bags, and heated by candles mounted on a framework. Such a fixture would float quite easily and give off an orange glow such as my objects did. Our prevailing winds here are the westerlies, and the 1970 sighting could easily have been a series of balloons launched from Vancouver (perhaps the University of British Columbia, which lies due west of my parents home) and accidentally formed into the above configuration. However, the 1967 sightings didn't move--but rather blinked out and reappeared in another part of the sky almost instantaneously. My parents reported that they observed the light travelling at high speed. And so, I have no plausible explanation for that sighting.

Another note: sometime in my high school years, I recall a friend rushing breathlessly into our house claiming he'd just seen a "mother" ship. The night was cloudy, and he said that on his way to my house, he’d looked up, noticed the clouds parting, and saw a long cigar-shaped object with rows of lights on its side sitting far above him. He heard no sound, and watched the object for long enough to determine that it wasn’t a plane – it simply sat in one place. Then the clouds moved back together and he could see no more.

I hope these sightings are of interest and use to you. No doubt they will prove to be among the 75 or 80 percent of sightings that can be easily explained away--but then, perhaps not.

By the way, I'm not expecting a reply from you - I'm sure you'll receive information on far more interesting sightings, and I realize your time will be taken up in evaluating these sightings and replying to their senders. So don't worry about acknowledging my report.

I'm usually very skeptical of Canada Council grants and the purposes for which they are distributed. I must, however, note that I think your study is a worthwhile one, and merits even more government support. I sincerely believe that we are not alone in the universe, and that other civilizations are observing us and have been for centuries. Tonight, in fact, I'm off to see a follow-up movie to Erich Von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods" - this one called "The Outer Space Connection." So much of this type of thing is simply speculation, but then if we're not speculators, what are we?

Good luck with your study. I hope it proves worthwhile to you and to the human race as a whole.

One day we'll know.

Yours truly,
Brian Antonson