a rare eclipse of midnight sun

A midnight eclipse is possible if you live in a region at the time of year when the sun does not set, it sounds like a contradiction but an eclipse could occur at any hour. The picture at left shows a midnight eclipse taken from northern Sweden on July 31, 2000. A Space Daily article by NASA writer Tony Phillips reports the greatest eclipse occurs on June 1st at 21:16 Universal Time, "...an eclipse of magnitude 0.601 will be visible from the Arctic coast of western Siberia as the midnight sun skirts the northern horizon." Tomorrow's eclipse will be twice as deep as the one pictured, but many believe will enhance any picture potential with the promise of "...a crescent, surrounded by the red and orange hues of a sunset sky." Phillip's original article at the NASA website is available here. I can't wait to see the pix!

friendship case: il caso amicizia

Memorial weekend italiano extraterrestre stravaganza concludes with the Friendship Case. Il Caso Amicizia comes to light with publication of a book "Mass Contacts" by Stefano Breccia and covered in a 2009 Michael Salla article. The exotic story spans from the mid-fifties to the late seventies and a highly regarded UFO encounter. The story includes telepathy, teleportation, underground and underwater bases, yet remains credible with "... the testimony of Bruno Sammaciccia, a highly qualified Italian scholar with degrees in psychology and psychiatry, and author of 160 books. Sammaciccia’s testimony contains his claims of direct physical contact with extraterrestrials over several decades." Sammaciccia and two friends first encounter two human-looking aliens in April 1956 after an old map took them to a castle near Rocca Pia, Italy. The aliens, although human in appearance, differed markedly in size from Earth inhabitants, one three feet and the other nine feet in height. The encounter marked a beginning in a long relationship between the aliens, who are collectively known as W56 and the close knit circle of Italians, who know and aid them.

Friendship has a cold war theme. W56 concerned about the human race's destructive capacity with nuclear weapons. The aliens ask the group "to help us help you". It is also a good and bad guy morality play with W56, radiating loyalty and love, and an opposing materialistic group, the contrarians or CTRs. The Contrarians, an amoral science-worshipping lot, are one reason W56 established bases in an attempt to counter them. "Eventually, the underground bases of Sammaciccia’s extraterrestrial friends was destroyed in 1978. Survivors had to leave the Earth but promised to return at a future time when humanity was ready for a more ethical future of humanity interacting with extraterrestrials," writes Salla.

The technology makes an extraordinary story and borders on magical. Breccia refers to unstable corridors and underground facilities, which enable W56 to open and close bases like a suitcase. Food is teleported and aliens communicate through regular radio and television with humans. Perhaps, the most astonishing aspect, is the huge W56 base under the Adriatic Sea along the Italian coast or a birdseye view of a nuclear test by a UFO. Nicola Duper, another member of the Friendship, shares his separate story here. Il Caso Amicizia makes clear Italians didn't need UFO B-movies in the fifties, they had the real thing--an astonishing story!

space trackers: judica cordiglia bros.

A memorial weekend italiano extraterrestre stravaganza provided for your pleasure! Let's go Space Truckin'. First, the amazing Judica Cordiglia brothers who tracked radio transmissions of early space missions. In the late fifties, Achille and Giovanni set up an amateur tracking station just outside Turin, Italy in a former convalescent home at a place they called Torre Bert. Soviet secrecy inspired the two to seek out their communications. Turin, in Northern Italy, made Soviets the program of choice, since launches in the Caucasus flew over them. The brothers soon realized the need for additional help to make their station work. Maria Theresa, a sister, learned Russian to become their interpreter. Giovanni's fiancee, Laura Furbatto, became organizer of a worldwide network of amateur tracking stations: the Zeus Network.

The Cordiglia brothers became local space experts that led to a invitation on The Fair of Dreams (Fiera dei Sogni), a quiz show. The brothers won and the winnings afforded a personal visit in 1964 to NASA, a dream fulfilled. The amateur space trackers successfully intercepted beeps of Sputnik 1, Explorer 1, heard the dog Laika's heartbeat during Sputnik 2 and John Glenn's Mercury Friendship 7 flight. The amateur space trackers' career culminated with the Apollo 11 moon landing on June,20, 1969. The brothers soon realized though, television had taken away the mystery and with it their hobby was "finito", ended.

Notoriety follows the Cordiglia brothers with allegations their purported recordings of lost cosmonauts are fake. A prior post on the topic is also available, "lost cosmonauts: airbrushed from memory." The recordings include an "SOS to the World" in Morse Code from a soviet spacecraft as it fades into outer space on November, 28, 1960. The labored breathing and heartbeat of an unconscious cosmonaut near death recorded February 2, 1961. A heartrending plea of a woman cosmonaut as she burns up on re-entry May 23, 1961. A good list of dead cosmonauts can be found here, which includes several early suborbital fatalities. The wikipedia entry for Lost Cosmonauts is a valuable resource.

"Space Hackers The Judica Brothers" is a recent documentary of the Cordiglia brothers and the Torre Bert enclave and a wonderful story! Soviets irritated by the brothers' monitoring, once threw an aspersion the two were "space gangsters". Don't miss it! While others are enjoying la dolce vita this weekend, you can get a really sweet story!

cyberattack targets lockheed martin

from usa today: Hackers launched a "significant and tenacious" cyberattack on Lockheed Martin, a major defense contractor holding highly sensitive information, but its secrets remained safe, the company said Saturday. Lockheed Martin, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon confirmed that the contractor's information systems had come under attack. Lt. Col. April Cunningham, speaking for the Defense Department, said the impact on the Pentagon "is minimal and we don't expect any adverse effect." Still, the concerted attempt to breach the contractor's systems underscored the risk to the nation's critical defense data. Chris Ortman, Homeland Security spokesman, said his agency and the Pentagon were working with the company to determine the breadth of the attack and "provide recommendations to mitigate further risk." Lockheed Martin said in a statement that it detected the May 21 attack "almost immediately" and took countermeasures. As a result, "our systems remain secure; no customer, program or employee personal data has been compromised." The company's security team is still working to restore employee access to the targeted network. Neither Lockheed Martin nor the federal agencies revealed specifics of the attack.