"Drone" Madness - Drones VS. Astronomers!

The Science (?) of UFOOLogy takes many strange twists, but here is one I didn't see coming. For decades, people seeing, and misidentifying, stars, planets, and airplanes were reporting them as 'alien UFOs.' But suddenly, they aren't aliens any more - they're drones!

Dude, that is an airplane, not a Mystery Drone!

It all began in 2019, when "Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed By Mysterious ‘Drones’ Off California Over Numerous Nights. The disturbing series of events during the summer of 2019 resulted in an investigation that made its way to the highest echelons of the Navy.." This, however, did not have much influence on  the public until 2021. The main video released of "Pyramid-shaped UFOs", and cited by UFO promoter Jeremy Corbell (and others) was later shown to be an airplane flying past Jupiter, and the stars of the constellation Scorpius. The apparent pyramid shape of everything (!) was shown to be an effect of bokeh, or 'how the optics represents an out-of-focus object'

Now news reports of "drones" hovering over certain areas at night are everywhere, just like the classic Flying Saucer "waves" of yore.

 UFO historian and researcher Jeff Knox wrote on Facebook of this photo,

This is peak stupidity by one of the Twitterverse's biggest UFO accounts. Lue crew. Sadly, many very popular accounts and pseudo-journalist (like Marik [von Rennenkampff ] ) who just published an article on The Hill) are promoting this same utter nonsense. This is what the disclosure community has these days....air planes they think are cloaked UFOs.

Longtime UFO researcher Barry Greenwood added, "The right-angle turn appears to be a simple pivot of the camera rather than the object itself turning."

The point needs to be made that there are many different kinds of "drones", of different origin and purpose. Some belong to the military, some belong to law enforcement, others to civilians. Some have horizontal propellers, enabling them to hover in one place. Others are more like conventional fixed-wing aircraft, but smaller because they do not carry a pilot (like the RQ-7, below). As is the case with UFOs, identifying or "solving" one series of drone sightings does not necessarily have any bearing on other sightings. However, the "solved" drone incidents described below are very instructive of what is happening in some cases.

Something isn't right here, other than the usual incoherent reporting. I want to know WHY the military has never brought down, or recovered, one of these supposed drones. For that matter, I don't think they have ever even tried! Surely the military has every right to bring down any unidentified and unauthorized craft encroaching on its territory, and has the means to do so. Some news reports are saying it would be illegal to shoot at drones. While that is true for you and me, if you are a military commander defending a position, you have every right to engage unknown and potentially harmful intruders. (Although it would not be necessary to shoot bullets at it. They can bring it down by interfering with its electronics.) Then they could study it to determine its origin, and perhaps its purpose. The military cannot take the risk of letting unknown, possibly hostile, craft operate over its territory. It could have weapons, explosives, surveillance, biological agents, etc. Yet they seem completely uninterested in bringing one down to investigate. Perhaps because they already know what it is.

The RQ-7 Drone, as is being regularly flown by the Army out of Ft. Huachuca in Arizona.

 

I decided to turn to my best source for all things military and astronomical, Maj. James McGaha (USAF retired). He is an astronomer, as well as a longtime skeptical researcher of UFO claims. James is the owner of the Sabino Canyon Observatory just outside Tucson. He also operates the Grasslands Observatory, south of Tucson, close to the Mexican border.  

James McGaha

James is a former pilot who flew C-130s at Air Force bases around the world. When I asked James about the latest drone mania, he noted that several astronomers had come to him, asking the same thing. What he said next, however, surprised me: there really are drones circling military bases and other places of interest, but they are our own! Here is what he said.

One night in 2012, James was doing some imaging at Grasslands. Modern astrophotography typically utilizes not one long exposure, but a series of shorter exposures that are then combined via software, extracting the maximum detail. He saw an object approach from the direction of Ft. Huachuca, the US Army Base at  Sierra Vista, Arizona, which is only about twenty miles from Grasslands. The drone operator apparently saw his big telescope, and decided to "orbit" it. (James suggested that perhaps with the observatory roof rolled back, the big scope looked like a cannon. But one would expect that a drone pilot around Tucson could recognize an astronomical observatory, in the astronomy capital of the US!) As might be expected, this ruined all of his images. James contacted Ft. Huachuca to complain. They admitted that the drone was theirs, but invoked 'national security' to justify its intrusive behavior. James, who knows all of the rules governing military flight operations, told them that justification applies only when they are operating in a Military Operations Area (MOA), which they were not. Apparently they agreed - Ft. Huachuca is still flying drones, but now they fly past the observatory without stopping. When James sent this photo to me, he wrote,

We were imaging NGC 2359 (Thor's Hammer) with a 180mm astrograph. You can see the  green trail (constant on light) and strobe lights flash 4 times

James McGaha, MS, FRAS

 

3-21-2012: One of the images from Grasslands Observatory of NGC 2359 ruined by "orbiting"  RQ-7 drone

 

A few months later, similar drones were seen around the Sabino Canyon Observatory in James' back yard. This is quite close to the entrance to the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, east of Tucson. These appeared to be the same drones seen at Grasslands, about fifty miles away. Then, drones appearing to be of a different origin were seen at Sabino Canyon. These flew over the mountain peaks, then down the other side - well within the capabilities of drones like the RQ-7 (and successor models). These drones, too, took an interest in James' observatory, ruining some images.

Sabino Canyon Recreation Area (photo by author).

From their direction of arrival and departure, James concluded that the drones were coming from an airport at Marana, Arizona, a place frequently used for military training - for example, parachutists. James has himself received training there. There don't seem to be any other possibilities. He contacted the FAA, which adamantly refused to acknowledge any drones flying out of that airport.

 

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Pinal Airpark in Marana:

Pinal Airpark (Evergreen International Aviation) is located just north of Marana in Pinal County. Many commercial airlines send their airplanes to this site for storage. It was well known in the 1970s and 1980s as an air base for the CIA. The airport was said to be a U.S. Forest Service air tanker base, but when a series of forest fires broke out in the mountains surrounding Tucson in the early 1970s, Airpark officials had to admit that these planes were not Forest Service tankers. Locals had asked for them to put out the fires. Airpark officials said these were actually paramilitary cargo planes. Access to the Airpark is stringently monitored.

 

Based on the above, it seems entirely reasonable to suspect some kind of 'sneaky business' is going on in Marana!

James related one more Drone Encounter he had in 2023. He was in the national forest near Tucson, shooting at targets (which is perfectly legal so long as certain safety precautions are observed). He set up inside a dirt circle atop a hill, often used by shooters. From there you cannot see what is happening at the bottom of the hill. 

 

Concentrating on his targets, he became aware of some large object nearby. Looking up, he saw a huge quad-copter drone hovering about 100 feet directly over his head. But who did it belong to? Walking over to the road leading down, with the drone following him, he saw a big, official-looking SUV, with some men taking out equipment and setting it up. It was the Border Patrol, testing some very expensive drone whose manufacturer hoped to sell it to them for border surveillance. It was about 5 or 6 feet in diameter. Its propellers were each about 12" long. James explained to them that it is not legal to hover the drone over someone's head, nor to use it to follow or harass people. He never did find out if the BP purchased any of those drones, but looking at news reports from the border, I suspect that the answer would be "no."