Clarification of Trent/Mcminnville case
There has been a lot of recent speculative talk about the McMinnville photos. I just need to clarify a couple of points.
First, the “it was a truck mirror” devolution. This was first proposed about 10 years ago by Joel Carpenter and was the result of a long search for something he could “hang” a hoax on.
1. There is no evidence that Trent even had such a mirror.
2. The edge outlines of the mirror and the UFO, while similar, are not identical.
3. The mirror has a central mount while the UFO’s “central pole” is off-centre.
4. The mirror is round while the UFO is not. (If you look carefully at the UFO in photo 1, you will note that the left edge is very slightly “V-shaped”. This is illustrated by Dr Maccabee here: (
http://brumac.8k.com/trent2.html).
Second, careful analysis by Dr Maccabee has shown that the “sightlines” do NOT cross under the overhead wires as has been speculated by the UFO debunkers in this thread (specifically Stray Cat and his “diagram”): This has been demonstrated here (
http://brumac.8k.com/trent2c.html - just after Appendix B) in the following
scale diagram (something Stray Cat has not provided and also refuses to supply ANY of his calculations to show us how he worked out the dimensions not only of the UFO but of the scene and surroundings as well).
Dr Maccabee's calculations are provided on his website to show how he derived this image (
http://brumac.8k.com/trent2c.html - just after Appendix B).
Anyone who reads the complete Trent2 document (
http://brumac.8k.com/trent2.html)
and understands it, will realize that this attempt to locate the SLC (sighting line crossover) relative to the wires, is basically a search for evidence pointing toward a hoax - since it would be a "suspicious coincidence" if a moving object and moving cameraman were to accidently have sighting lines that passed exactly beneath the overhead wires. The result is that there is no clear evidence of a hoax. However, this doesn't
prove it is not a hoax. The object could be on a thread (color matched to the horizon) and swinging like a pendulum toward and away from the cameraman - or he could have slid the suspension point along the wires… but then, why would he bother to move between pictures?
As I have pointed out before, a mere photo a UFO does not make. At best it can act as an aide to the witness(es) recollection and our understanding of what was observed by the witness. At worst it can provide direct evidence of a hoax. The Trent/ McMinnville case ultimately has to be based on the circumstantial evidence. Given all the evidence, the probability that the Trents, of all people, would even think of a hoax, to say nothing of carrying one out seems remote.