Post by swamprat on Sept 19, 2018 15:34:59 GMT -6
The truth is out there, and it's declassified. "Blue Book" is coming soon to the History Channel.
All September long, IGN is highlighting the best TV coming your way in the 2018-2019 season. Today, we're delving into the mysterious world of Project Blue Book, executive produced by Robert Zemeckis. The sci-fi drama tells the story of Dr. Allen Hynek, a genius college professor recruited by the U.S. Air Force to spearhead the titular operation that researched thousands of real-life cases involving Unidentified Flying Objects, many of which were never solved. The series premieres this winter on History.
It's often said that truth is stranger than fiction, but nowhere is that more evident than in History Channel's new scripted drama series Project Blue Book, based on the real-life, previously classified government investigations into UFOs that took place during the 1950s and '60s.
The show stars Game of Thrones alum Aidan Gillen as Dr. Allen Hynek, an inquisitive but practical scientist who became one of the world's leading ufologists thanks to what he encountered while working on the top-secret government project.
Gillen admits that Hynek's real-life trajectory proved to be one of the most surprising and compelling aspects of the series for him. "For somebody who joined the US Air Force as a scientific advisor, to ultimately become the person who sets up the Center for UFO Studies, and a leading figure in that world, and still retain his credibility as a scientist... He wasn’t a quack who was convinced human beings were visited daily by little green men, you know? That’s really interesting," Gillen tells IGN.
"He started as a skeptic, and did not end as a skeptic. He was a very open-minded scientist who would never take an easy out and always thought logically. At the same time, he didn’t jump to explain things away in illogical ways, like, 'well these are definitely visitors from other planets.' In fact, he was quite wary of that kind of assumption. He wanted people to keep an open mind about the possibility that there was stuff there, but not be too quick to assume where it came from."
In the show, as in reality, Hynek is recruited by the Air Force to investigate inexplicable phenomena, but rather than seeking the truth, it soon becomes clear that the government is far more interested in providing palatable, mundane answers for these extraordinary encounters in an attempt to prevent mass hysteria. Thus, he's partnered up with Captain Michael Quinn (Michael Malarkey), a by-the-book military man who is initially happy to toe the party line without asking too many questions. Quinn is an amalgam of real-life characters, but was initially based on Edward J. Ruppelt, an Air Force Captain who oversaw Project Blue Book and its predecessor, Project Grudge.
www.ign.com/articles/2018/09/18/project-blue-book-history-channel-true-story-ufo-aidan-gillen-michael-malarkey-ign-first
www.history.com/shows/project-blue-book
Aah! J. Allen Hynek! My Illinois hero! I first met him in the late 60s.
During World War II, Hynek was a civilian scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he helped to develop the United States Navy's radio proximity fuze.
After the war, Hynek returned to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Ohio State, rising to full professor in 1950. In 1953, Hynek submitted a report on the fluctuations in the brightness and color of starlight and daylight, with an emphasis on daytime observations.
In 1956, he left to join Professor Fred Whipple, the Harvard astronomer, at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, which had combined with the Harvard Observatory at Harvard. Hynek had the assignment of directing the tracking of an American space satellite, a project for the International Geophysical Year in 1956 and thereafter. In addition to over 200 teams of amateur scientists around the world that were part of Operation Moonwatch, there were also 12 photographic Baker-Nunn stations. A special camera was devised for the task and a prototype was built and tested and then stripped apart again when, on Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched its first satellite, Sputnik 1.
After completing his work on the satellite program, Hynek went back to teaching, taking the position of professor and chairman of the astronomy department at Northwestern University in 1960.
Skepticism
In response to numerous reports of "flying saucers", the United States Air Force established Project Sign in 1948 to examine sightings of unidentified flying objects. Hynek was contacted to act as a scientific consultant to Project Sign. He studied UFO reports and decided whether the phenomena described therein suggested known astronomical objects.
When Project Sign hired Hynek, he was skeptical of UFO reports. Hynek suspected that they were made by unreliable witnesses, or by persons who had misidentified man-made or natural objects. In 1948, Hynek said that "the whole subject seems utterly ridiculous," and described it as a fad that would soon pass. For the first few years of his UFO studies, Hynek could safely be described as a debunker. He thought that a great many UFOs could be explained as prosaic phenomena misidentified by an observer. In his 1977 book, Hynek admitted that he enjoyed his role as a debunker for the Air Force. He also noted that debunking was what the Air Force expected of him.
Change of opinion
Hynek's opinions about UFOs began a slow and gradual shift. After examining hundreds of UFO reports over the decades (including some made by credible witnesses, including astronomers, pilots, police officers, and military personnel), Hynek concluded that some reports represented genuine empirical evidence.
Another shift in Hynek's opinions came after conducting an informal poll of his astronomer colleagues in the early 1950s. Among those he queried was Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the dwarf planet Pluto. Of 44 astronomers, five (over 11 percent) had seen aerial objects that they could not account for with established, mainstream science. Most of these astronomers had not widely shared their accounts for fear of ridicule or of damage to their reputations or careers (Tombaugh was an exception, having openly discussed his own UFO sightings) Hynek also noted that this 11% figure was, according to most polls, greater than those in the general public who claimed to have seen UFOs. Furthermore, the astronomers were presumably more knowledgeable about observing and evaluating the skies than the general public, so their observations were arguably more impressive. Hynek was also distressed by what he regarded as the dismissive or arrogant attitude of many mainstream scientists towards UFO reports and witnesses.
Early evidence of the shift in Hynek's opinions appeared in 1953, when Hynek wrote an article for the April 1953 issue of the Journal of the Optical Society of America titled "Unusual Aerial Phenomena," which contained what would become perhaps Hynek's best known statement:
"Ridicule is not part of the scientific method, and people should not be taught that it is. The steady flow of reports, often made in concert by reliable observers, raises questions of scientific obligation and responsibility. Is there ... any residue that is worthy of scientific attention? Or, if there isn't, does not an obligation exist to say so to the public—not in words of open ridicule but seriously, to keep faith with the trust the public places in science and scientists?"
In 1953, Hynek was an associate member of the Robertson Panel, which concluded that there was nothing anomalous about UFOs, and that a public relations campaign should be undertaken to debunk the subject and reduce public interest. Hynek would later lament that the Robertson Panel had helped make UFOs a disreputable field of study.
When the UFO reports continued at a steady pace, Hynek devoted some time to studying the reports and determined that some were deeply puzzling, even after considerable study. He once said, "As a scientist I must be mindful of the lessons of the past; all too often it has happened that matters of great value to science were overlooked because the new phenomenon did not fit the accepted scientific outlook of the time."
In a 1985 interview, when asked what caused his change of opinion, Hynek responded, "Two things, really. One was the completely negative and unyielding attitude of the Air Force. They wouldn't give UFOs the chance of existing, even if they were flying up and down the street in broad daylight. Everything had to have an explanation. I began to resent that, even though I basically felt the same way, because I still thought they weren't going about it in the right way. You can't assume that everything is black no matter what. Secondly, the caliber of the witnesses began to trouble me. Quite a few instances were reported by military pilots, for example, and I knew them to be fairly well-trained, so this is when I first began to think that, well, maybe there was something to all this."
SOURCE: Wikipedia
All September long, IGN is highlighting the best TV coming your way in the 2018-2019 season. Today, we're delving into the mysterious world of Project Blue Book, executive produced by Robert Zemeckis. The sci-fi drama tells the story of Dr. Allen Hynek, a genius college professor recruited by the U.S. Air Force to spearhead the titular operation that researched thousands of real-life cases involving Unidentified Flying Objects, many of which were never solved. The series premieres this winter on History.
It's often said that truth is stranger than fiction, but nowhere is that more evident than in History Channel's new scripted drama series Project Blue Book, based on the real-life, previously classified government investigations into UFOs that took place during the 1950s and '60s.
The show stars Game of Thrones alum Aidan Gillen as Dr. Allen Hynek, an inquisitive but practical scientist who became one of the world's leading ufologists thanks to what he encountered while working on the top-secret government project.
Gillen admits that Hynek's real-life trajectory proved to be one of the most surprising and compelling aspects of the series for him. "For somebody who joined the US Air Force as a scientific advisor, to ultimately become the person who sets up the Center for UFO Studies, and a leading figure in that world, and still retain his credibility as a scientist... He wasn’t a quack who was convinced human beings were visited daily by little green men, you know? That’s really interesting," Gillen tells IGN.
"He started as a skeptic, and did not end as a skeptic. He was a very open-minded scientist who would never take an easy out and always thought logically. At the same time, he didn’t jump to explain things away in illogical ways, like, 'well these are definitely visitors from other planets.' In fact, he was quite wary of that kind of assumption. He wanted people to keep an open mind about the possibility that there was stuff there, but not be too quick to assume where it came from."
In the show, as in reality, Hynek is recruited by the Air Force to investigate inexplicable phenomena, but rather than seeking the truth, it soon becomes clear that the government is far more interested in providing palatable, mundane answers for these extraordinary encounters in an attempt to prevent mass hysteria. Thus, he's partnered up with Captain Michael Quinn (Michael Malarkey), a by-the-book military man who is initially happy to toe the party line without asking too many questions. Quinn is an amalgam of real-life characters, but was initially based on Edward J. Ruppelt, an Air Force Captain who oversaw Project Blue Book and its predecessor, Project Grudge.
www.ign.com/articles/2018/09/18/project-blue-book-history-channel-true-story-ufo-aidan-gillen-michael-malarkey-ign-first
www.history.com/shows/project-blue-book
Aah! J. Allen Hynek! My Illinois hero! I first met him in the late 60s.
During World War II, Hynek was a civilian scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he helped to develop the United States Navy's radio proximity fuze.
After the war, Hynek returned to the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Ohio State, rising to full professor in 1950. In 1953, Hynek submitted a report on the fluctuations in the brightness and color of starlight and daylight, with an emphasis on daytime observations.
In 1956, he left to join Professor Fred Whipple, the Harvard astronomer, at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, which had combined with the Harvard Observatory at Harvard. Hynek had the assignment of directing the tracking of an American space satellite, a project for the International Geophysical Year in 1956 and thereafter. In addition to over 200 teams of amateur scientists around the world that were part of Operation Moonwatch, there were also 12 photographic Baker-Nunn stations. A special camera was devised for the task and a prototype was built and tested and then stripped apart again when, on Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched its first satellite, Sputnik 1.
After completing his work on the satellite program, Hynek went back to teaching, taking the position of professor and chairman of the astronomy department at Northwestern University in 1960.
Skepticism
In response to numerous reports of "flying saucers", the United States Air Force established Project Sign in 1948 to examine sightings of unidentified flying objects. Hynek was contacted to act as a scientific consultant to Project Sign. He studied UFO reports and decided whether the phenomena described therein suggested known astronomical objects.
When Project Sign hired Hynek, he was skeptical of UFO reports. Hynek suspected that they were made by unreliable witnesses, or by persons who had misidentified man-made or natural objects. In 1948, Hynek said that "the whole subject seems utterly ridiculous," and described it as a fad that would soon pass. For the first few years of his UFO studies, Hynek could safely be described as a debunker. He thought that a great many UFOs could be explained as prosaic phenomena misidentified by an observer. In his 1977 book, Hynek admitted that he enjoyed his role as a debunker for the Air Force. He also noted that debunking was what the Air Force expected of him.
Change of opinion
Hynek's opinions about UFOs began a slow and gradual shift. After examining hundreds of UFO reports over the decades (including some made by credible witnesses, including astronomers, pilots, police officers, and military personnel), Hynek concluded that some reports represented genuine empirical evidence.
Another shift in Hynek's opinions came after conducting an informal poll of his astronomer colleagues in the early 1950s. Among those he queried was Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the dwarf planet Pluto. Of 44 astronomers, five (over 11 percent) had seen aerial objects that they could not account for with established, mainstream science. Most of these astronomers had not widely shared their accounts for fear of ridicule or of damage to their reputations or careers (Tombaugh was an exception, having openly discussed his own UFO sightings) Hynek also noted that this 11% figure was, according to most polls, greater than those in the general public who claimed to have seen UFOs. Furthermore, the astronomers were presumably more knowledgeable about observing and evaluating the skies than the general public, so their observations were arguably more impressive. Hynek was also distressed by what he regarded as the dismissive or arrogant attitude of many mainstream scientists towards UFO reports and witnesses.
Early evidence of the shift in Hynek's opinions appeared in 1953, when Hynek wrote an article for the April 1953 issue of the Journal of the Optical Society of America titled "Unusual Aerial Phenomena," which contained what would become perhaps Hynek's best known statement:
"Ridicule is not part of the scientific method, and people should not be taught that it is. The steady flow of reports, often made in concert by reliable observers, raises questions of scientific obligation and responsibility. Is there ... any residue that is worthy of scientific attention? Or, if there isn't, does not an obligation exist to say so to the public—not in words of open ridicule but seriously, to keep faith with the trust the public places in science and scientists?"
In 1953, Hynek was an associate member of the Robertson Panel, which concluded that there was nothing anomalous about UFOs, and that a public relations campaign should be undertaken to debunk the subject and reduce public interest. Hynek would later lament that the Robertson Panel had helped make UFOs a disreputable field of study.
When the UFO reports continued at a steady pace, Hynek devoted some time to studying the reports and determined that some were deeply puzzling, even after considerable study. He once said, "As a scientist I must be mindful of the lessons of the past; all too often it has happened that matters of great value to science were overlooked because the new phenomenon did not fit the accepted scientific outlook of the time."
In a 1985 interview, when asked what caused his change of opinion, Hynek responded, "Two things, really. One was the completely negative and unyielding attitude of the Air Force. They wouldn't give UFOs the chance of existing, even if they were flying up and down the street in broad daylight. Everything had to have an explanation. I began to resent that, even though I basically felt the same way, because I still thought they weren't going about it in the right way. You can't assume that everything is black no matter what. Secondly, the caliber of the witnesses began to trouble me. Quite a few instances were reported by military pilots, for example, and I knew them to be fairly well-trained, so this is when I first began to think that, well, maybe there was something to all this."
SOURCE: Wikipedia