The 2010 Perseid meteor shower is underway. “Last night I counted 28 Perseids between 1 am and 4 am–including a bright one zinging past Jupiter,” says Pete Glastonbury of Devizes, Wiltshire, UK. Across the Atlantic in Mahaffey, Pennslyvania, sky watcher Kristin Troilo reports seeing “5 or 6 fantastic Perseids per hour.” Rates should increase 10-fold by Thursday, August 12th, when the shower peaks. These early reports are a promising sign of things to come.

UPDATE–DOUBLE PERSEID: “The meteor rate is getting so high that last night we captured two Perseid fireballs at the same time using our all-sky camera in Walker County, Georgia, reports NASA astronomer Bill Cooke.

Go to www.spaceweather.com for more exciting space news.

There will be no June Colorado MUFON meeting due to room renovations at the TIVOLI.

July is the international Symposium, FMI go to: www.mufon.com Please attend.

August we will be taking a summer break to spend the warm nights UFO watching.

September, join us for a camp out Labor Day weekend at the UFO Watchtower. www.ufowatchtower.com

We will resume normal meetings in October at the TIVOLU

Have a great summer!

ATLANTIS-ISS, DOCKED: Space shuttle Atlantis has docked to the International Space Station (ISS), forming a bright and busy ensemble of two spacecraft. Sky watchers everywhere should be alert for ISS-Atlantis flybys of on Sunday evening.

Go to this link to find out when ISS adn the shuttle will be flying by:

http://spaceweather.com/flybys/?PHPSESSID=4hn9alphvrfpva2e87rv6m0bs7

We will meet at our usual location, TIVOLI Student Center, Auraria Campus, Denver.

Our Galactic Visitors: The Extraterrestrial Influence

Dr. Bob Siblerud will speak on May 8 at the Colorado MUFON meeting about the various extraterrestrial civilizations that have been interacting with Earth and their influence, based upon his book entitled Our Galactic Visitors: The Extraterrestrial Influence. Bob will talk about the main ET civilizations that have influenced the evolution of humanity, including the Pleiadians, the Sirians, the Arcturians, the Zetas (Grays), the Reptilians, and the Anunnaki. He will also talk about the Nordics, Andromedans, Ranthians, Aethians (Praying Mantis), Lyrans, Vegans, Ashtar Command, and the Quenventelliue (Sasquatch). Most of these races are here to help us evolve into the Fifth Dimension, but several of them, the Rigelians (negative Grays) and Dracons (negative Reptilians), are here to control us. Discover how humans have a genetic link to most of these ET civilizations. Finally, Bob will speak about the Inner Earth civilizations and the evidence of their existence.

Bob Siblerud is the co-founder and director of the Institute for the Study of Galactic Civilizations that is dedicated to researching extraterrestrial civilizations and educating the public about these galactic visitors. He is also the co-founder and director of the International Association for New Science along with Maury Albertson, Ph.D. (former director of research at CSU) that convened major conferences for over two decades on new science topics. Bob also co-founded the Institute for UFO Research that convened the Rocky Mountain UFO conferences at the University of Wyoming.

Bob has written seven books on new paradigm science. He is an environmental physiologist and former optometrist. He has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in research grants over the years to study the harmful effects of mercury dental fillings, a connection he made in the doctorate program at CSU, with sixteen scientific papers published. He has also researched the healing properties of light and sound.

In place of our August state meeting, please join us at the MUFON International symposium at the DTC Marriott.  Go to www.MUFON.com for more information.

If you think that police do not see or report UFO’s then you need to attend our next meeting.  We will have Ken storch, a retired police officer speak to us about police and UFO encounters.

As always we will meet at the TIVOLI Student Center Auraria Campus, Denver from 2 to 5 PM.

Admission free if you are a MUFON member, $5 if not.

Our next state meeting will be June 13 from 2 to 5 PM at the TIVOLI  Student Center Auraria Campus, Denver.

Gail Staehlin was THE cattle mutilation investigator in New Mexico in the 90’s and early 2000’s. She has been on many TV programs and most recently the UFO Hunters program used some of her video footage for their show. She worked closely with Chris O’Brien in the San Luis Valley a few years ago as well as Dr. Artschuler and has some hair-raising stories and theories to tell you about and video to show. Gail is entertaining and informative and she will explain how she got into this business and what she has learned from the many, many hands-on investigations that she has done and few ever do.

If Chuck Zakowski is present, he might update us on the Trinidad mutilations.

Stan Romanek http://www.stanromanek.com/ The World’s most documented ET contact will speak at the Colorado MUFON state meeting Saturday February 14 from 2 to 5 PM

The meeting will be held at the TIVOLI Student Center on the Auraria Campus, Denver, CO.

MUFON and COMUFON members enter free.  General public $5 donation request.

Join MUFON at www.mufon.com

NAKED-EYE COMET: Comet Lulin is now visible to the naked eye from dark-sky sites. “This morning, I noticed a faint smudge above Zubenelgenubi,” reports Jeff Barton from the Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus in West Texas. “I then trained my 9×63 binoculars on the fuzzy patch. Yep, nailed it! I was thrilled to finally bag Comet Lulin without optical aid.”

If optical aid is offered, however, don’t refuse it. The view through a small telescope is dynamite:

Gregg Ruppel took the picture from his backyard observatory in Ellisville, Missouri. It shows the green comet gliding by double star Zubenelgenubi on Feb. 6th.

Photo deleted 7/9/2009.  Visit www.spaceweather.com archives to view.

Another report of naked-eye visibility comes from Martin McKenna of Maghera, Northern Ireland: “I went out for a look at Comet Lulin this morning before dawn with my telescope and binoculars. The Moon was very low, so I stood within the shadow of my house and tried to see the comet without optical aid. Using averted vision, I was able to glimpse the comet perhaps a dozen times! It looked like a large grey patch of light very close to Zubenelgenubi. The sight gave me a warm glow on such a frigid frosty night.”

Comet Lulin rises in the east just a few hours before the sun. See for yourself: sky map.

CLOSE ENCOUNTER: Comet Lulin is having a close encounter with Zubenelgenubi, a naked-eye double star in the constellation Libra. Zubenelgenubi is not only fun to say (zuBEN-el-JA-newbee), but also a handy guide to the comet. Point your binoculars at the star and voilà!–Lulin materializes in the field of view. The best time to look is just before dawn on Friday, Feb 6th: sky map.

Editors note:  CO MUFON has been closely checking to see if this comet is related to our Lulin but so far she is remaining quiet.