A few years ago, as we were driving home from a Thanksgiving trip to North Carolina, I glanced up and saw something in the sky that looked like the sun with a short section of a rainbow in front of it. As I looked, I saw that it couldn't be the sun, because the disc of the sun was much brighter and was in another part of the sky. Then I realized that what I was looking at was a sundog, or a false sun. A sundog or a parhelion is a bright spot on a halo around the sun. This halo is caused by ice crystals high in the atmosphere, usually associated with cirrus clouds. The light refracted by the crystals forms a halo around the sun, and at points on either side, bright spots can sometimes be seen. Often the halo itself isn't visible, just the bright spots. If the ice crystals are only on one side of the sun, then the bright spot will only be seen on that side. Although it's much rarer, the moon can sometimes produce the same effect. Then it's called a moondog or a paraselene. Because the ice crystals are hexagonal, the sundogs are always the same distance (22 degrees) in the sky from the Sun or Moon.

As I looked at the sundog, I recalled reading about a UFO sighting case that had been "explained" as a sundog, and made a mental note to look up the case when I got home.

The case was one that meteorologist James McDonald used in his Statement on Unidentified Flying Objects submitted to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics on July 29, 1968.

Salt Lake City, Utah,
Oct. 2, 1961

Waldo J. Harris, a private pilot, was taking of from the Utah Central Airport at about noon on a very clear day when he noticed an object in the distance that he at first thought was an airplane. After he became airborne, he saw it again, noticing that had not seemed to change position at all. It seemed to tilt, and he could not identify it as any aircraft that he knew. Seeking to get a better view of the object, he climbed towards it, finding that he was on a level with the object at a little over 6,000 feet. At this level, the object appeared to be lens-shaped and metallic gray, with no wings or tail. Harris radioed back to the airport, and seven people there viewed the object, taking turns watching it through binoculars. These included the airport operator and his wife. Harris attempted to close on the object, and when he was between two and three miles from it, with Mount Nebo in the back of the object, it suddenly rose about 1000 feet vertically. This sudden move was also noticed by the ground observers. As Harris continued to try to get closer to the object, it moved off to the southeast, easily outdistancing Harris' small plane. It seemed to hover for a moment at a new distance of about ten miles, then it began to rise and move westward, rapidly vanishing up into the southwestern sky. Jay Galbraith, the airport operator, later said that the final climb was very steep, about 20° from vertical. Another ground witness, Robert G. Butler, noted that the climb was faster than any jet. Harris estimated the size of the object to be 50 - 60 feet in diameter and about five feet thick. The ground observers felt that it was much larger, as they could compare it to Harris plane, which was only a speck beside the much more visible object. All the witnesses said that the object seemed to wobble when it hovered.

The first "official" explanation given for the sighting was that it was the planet Venus. Besides the fact that Venus would not be very bright in the noon sky on a sunny day, McDonald points out that Venus was in the southwestern sky, while everyone first saw the object in the southeast. Also, Harris saw the object appear between him and Mount Nebo, which would have been quite an impossible position for Venus to occupy.

Donald Menzel, the astronomer and noted debunker of UFO sightings (and purported MJ-12 member), championed the explanation that the object was a sundog (Menzel, D.H., and L.G. Boyd, 1963: The World of Flying Saucers), and this was adopted as the new official explanation.

McDonald had this to say about the sundog hypothesis:
But sundogs (parhelia), for well-known reasons, occur at elevation angles equal to or slightly greater than the sun, which lay about 40 degrees above the southern horizon at noon in Salt Lake that day. Such a solar position would imply that a sundog might have lain to the southeast (22 degrees to the left of the sun), but at an elevation angle that completely fails to match Harris' dead level viewing (against a distant mountain, to further embarrass the sundog hypothesis). Finally, to check the witness' statements about cloud-free skies, I checked with the Salt Lake City Weather Bureau office, and their logs showed completely clear skies and 40 miles visibility. Sundogs cannot occur with out ice crystal clouds present.

Menzel rebutted McDonald in UFOs: The Modern Myth, here quoted from UFOs: A Scientific Debate, edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page. He says:
As Harris tried to intercept it, the UFO began to move and finally, with a sudden burst of speed, faded into the distance. During this time ground observers reported no motion whatever.

There are many details corroborating the identification of the UFO as a sundog phenomenon, more properly called parhelia. McDonald claims that the UFO could not have been a sundog. He reported "the skies were almost cloudless." This is as though he had said, "It couldn't have been a rainbow because it had almost stopped raining." Sundogs require only a very thin layer of cirrus to become visible. Later, without explanation for his change of mind, he stated that the skies were "completely clear."

For his second point McDonald objected that a sundog would have occurred either 22° to the left or right of the sun and at a higher elevation. On the contrary, the lower tangential arc, theoretically and practically, lies directly beneath the sun, a pencil-shaped object, at an altitude in close agreement with Harris' estimate of the observer. You can no more intercept a sundog than you can a rainbow. It is well known that parhelia possess a metallic sheen, but that does not indicate the presence of metal in the apparition. McDonald blindly accepts the observer's conclusion that he had seen a solid, metallic object.

This exchange is illustrative of the "dueling" that was occurring at the time between debunking astronomer Menzel and pro-UFO meteorologist McDonald.

Who won this particular skirmish? Well, let's see:

1. Menzel flatly states that During this time ground observers reported no motion whatever., while McDonald offers statements from two ground witnesses that indicate that they did indeed see the object move. McDonald actually went and interviewed the witnesses, while Menzel presumably got his information from the Air Force report. Remember, in 1961 the Air Force was in full "debunk" mode.
2. McDonald verified that the skies were clear by checking with the Salt Lake City Weather Bureau, while Menzel harps on the distinction between almost cloudless and clear.
3. Harris said that what he saw looked like "sand-blasted aluminum" - gray and metallic. Menzel says that It is well-known that parhelia possess a metallic sheen. Is it well known? Is "possessing a metallic sheen" the same as "gray and metallic"? Can sundogs appear gray? Sundogs are bright splotches of light - false suns - and/or small sections of rainbow. Check out the multitude of photos of sundogs around the Internet and see if any of them look metallic or gray.
4. Finally, Menzel states that sundogs can appear above and below the sun as well as to either side, and he states that the lower tangental arc is a pencil-shaped object as if that were a hard and fast rule. Is it? I could find nothing to back up Menzel's statement, and the bright splotches of light that are most photographed sundogs do not appear pencil-shaped.

   What do you think? Did Menzel prove his case for this UFO being a sundog?

   This article was previously published in 2000. It has been revised slightly by removing dead links and adding new ones as needed.

   Print References: • UFOs: A Scientific Debate, edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page A collection of evidence and opinion from both sides.