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.

I had always heard a lot of wild speculation about the condition of
Mantell's crashed F-51, so I wired for a copy of the accident report.
It arrived several days after my visit with Dr. Hynek. The report
said that the F-51 had lost a wing due to excessive speed in a dive
after Mantell had "blacked out" due to the lack of oxygen. Mantell's