1238  01-30-89 12:11 aes  
    
  Researchers say photos show UFO  
     GULF BREEZE, Fla. (UPI) _ UFO experts are debating the authenticity  
  of photographs of an eerie cylindrical object glowing in the night sky  
  over the Florida Panhandle town of Gulf Breeze.  
     More than 135 residents in the past 18 months have reported seeing  
  a strange craft hovering in skies over Gulf Breeze, the Tampa Tribune  
  reported Sunday.  
     One resident, asked to be identified only as "Ed," has produced  
  photographs showing a cylindrical craft ringed with lights and what may  
  be windows.  
     The pictures have sparked a battle between two UFO investigating  
  groups.  
     The Mutual UFO Network, a 20-year-old group of scientists and  
  layman researchers, believes Ed's pictures are real. The Center for UFO  
  Studies, a non-profit group founded by the late astronomer J. Allen  
  Hynek, does not.  
     The network cites a 90-page study by Navy physicist Bruce Maccabee,  
  who says Ed could not have fabricated such convincing photographs.  
     "A professional magician would have a difficult time doing this,"  
  he said.  
     The center relies on its researchers and on Robert Nathan, of  
  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He said the photos show glaring  
  inconsistencies typical of double exposures.  
     Mark Rodeghier of the Center for UFO Studies said the case has  
  "deteriorated into a shouting match" between the two groups, and that  
  the network's endorsement of the pictures biased Maccabee's study.  
     "Except those intimately connected with the network, 90 percent of  
  serious UFO researchers think (the) Gulf Breeze (case) is a hoax,"  
  Rodeghier said.  
     But residents of the town of 6,000 think they know what they saw.  
     "I was exhilarated," said Brenda Pollak, a City Council member  
  who claimed to see a large, lighted craft twice in one night last spring  
  over Pensacola Bay. "I can tell you now _ for every one person who has  
  reported seeing the craft, there are 10 who talk about it but don't want  
  anyone to know."  
    
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