Dansk hjemmeside om korncirkler
At August 22, 2001 - the speakers at Radio DR-Syd suddently interrupted their news program - connecting directly to their field reporter standing at this expected UFO landing site close to Sønderborg. .
Previous to this on location Radio Broadcast - several crop circle enthusiasts had phoned both TV, Radio and Newspapers.
As we however did reveal during this radio transmission - this cropcircle is not of extra terrestrial origin.
This circle was simply constructed as an experiment by astronomy students at Amtsgymnasiet in Sonderborg - following a request from the children program called "Bugs Bunny's Sundays Club", National TV2.
Before start - the farmer who owned these fields had given TV2 his accept.
Why this particular pattern ?
We did choose this circle - because it has appeared once before in our country - close to the city Aarhus - August 2000. :
Photo - Claus Bonnerup - Polfoto - (C) 2001
During the intense media coverage of this circle - so called Crop Circle Researchers claimed that these mathematical circle-diagram was far to complicated in order to be performed by humans. Click for details.
However - as we demonstrate in this TV Programme - it took these eager astronomy students merely 1,5 hour to construct the basic circle of same size. Next time we could do this even faster. Actually - our students have now initiated their own company - Danish Crop Circle Central - contact us if you want e.g. an astronishing full landscape crop circle commercial.
Technical advices how to do this may be found at our original classical 1996 homepage below ...
Other links of skeptical interest : Skepdic
Extremely detailed Cropcircle - as ordered by HTV
Wonderful Cropcircle - ordered by the British BBC
"The Old Danish Battlefield UFO story..." Fact or fiction ? - decide yourself.....
Worldwide, UFO enthusiasts have reported several crop circles.
Are these circles due to UFO-s ? According to several magazines and UFO associations, there is such a connection (click here for an UFO + Cropcircle rendering).
Recently, these crop circles have also been observed in Denmark.
Crop-circles were registered in 1997 close to Randers, and 1996, we had a cropcircle at Lolland, as well as a circle close to the old 1864 Battle Field Dybbøl, near Sønderborg. Click for aerial photo at the Danish Crop Circle Enthusiasts Homepage.
Dybbøl 1996 - a Fake Crop Circle ? - click to get 900 kB detailed image.
At a first look, these patterns appear most convincing.
Are these cropcircles really the work of Extra terrestrial UFO-visitors , or could there be another - maybe more likely explanation ?
As described in the newspaper Jydske Vestkysten Aug 1996, this Dybbøl Crop Circle did consist of 3 circles, connected with 2 lines.
The first photo above was taken from one of the smaller circles.
The next image shows the connecting line between the main circle, and one of the smaller circles.
Dybbøl 1996 - a Fake Crop Circle ? - click to get 900 kB detailed image.
As you may notice, all corn is bend down in a clear , straight manner. So far, everything looks great and amazing.
The next picture shows however the main circle. Here we have what looks like the first error.
Dybbøl 1996 - a Fake Crop Circle ? - click to get a detailed image.
This maincircle is not perfectly round, instead, it appears as the combination of several short straight lines. This may just be what you would expect, if this cropcircle was due to unexperienced , playful wags.
At least 2 wags (humans or ET-s ?) have been at work, one bending the crop, and another one directing him/her/it from the circle centre. Clear foot prints were visible at the centre.
Following the intense media discussion, my son Jens and I performed experiments on how to construct such a circle. This is what you need
1. a wooden piece of board, and
2. two pieces of rope.
Here is how to do.
First of all, take your two pieces of rope, and connect them to your piece of board.
My son, Jens, age 13 with his homemade "UFO equipment" click to get a detailed image.
After this preparation, just walk, it is SO EASY !! !!
"-.... follow that UFO, please !"
click to get a detailed image .
The crop is not cut in anyway, as this detail-image may show you.
A word of caution : if you do these experiments, remember to ask the field-owner for permission.
Do not make these cropcircles for fun, first of all, because cropcircles are a costly, illegal destruction of a farmers property.
Were the Dybbøl Crop Circles genuine ?
Both the Danish cropcircle at Dybbøl and the 1997 Randers cropcircle followed shortly after TV transmissions on this topic (1996 : Discovery, 1997 : Danish DR TV1 Transmission of a National Geographic Crop Circle Programme).
This was pointed out during a hot 3 days both pro et contra discussion in the local newspaper Jydske Vestkysten.
Several obvious errors described above were pointed out, and described honestly by Jydske Vestkysten (they even brought a cartoon).
But still a number of magazines tried to declare this circle as being genuine.
Following an angry and quite interesting phonecall by an UFO-believer, it appeared to me that some people desperately wanted this Dybbøl crop circle to be genuine.
Tony Blews made similar experiences, while constructing 4 fake cropcircles together with his friends.
Tony writes :
"In my opinion the self-proclaimed experts and book writers desperately want us to believe that it's something more than a hoax"....
According to some New Age groups these circles are even due to an awesome, " tachyonic energy" - , an undefined phenomena by which you might be able to cure yourself from a lot of dreadful diseases like e.g. cancer.
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So, was this Battle Field Crop Circle genuine, as declared, or a fake ?
In the end, this crop circle really MAY be due to some dangerous green Gremlin monsters, running havoc at the old Dybbøl 1864 Battlefield.
But - maybe more likely - these circles could just as well be the work of two playful wags, kids or fellows who now really relish these UFO articles. :-).
Fact or fiction ? - decide yourself.
- Quoting James Randi, 1997 :" If the truth is out there, how will you find it? "
Looking back at this media discussion, I have a few personal words.
Skeptics claim these circles seems to be a question of faith, and not a question of science.
The idea of constructing cropcircles may go back to two elderly English denizens Doug Bower and David Chorley.
Irrespective of this, these UFO related stories often get immense TV coverage. The absolute unskeptical way, these stories are presented, may actually scare some people. The incredible Hale Bopp UFO story is just one example of media UFO-hysteria.
This UFO was merely an amateur telescope error, but it gave rise to continued worldwide headlines, irrespective of the fast, honest and corrections by astronomers like e.g. Hale.
The well known Heavens Gate Suicide is just one example of how pseudoscience becomes interpreted as the wholy truth.
A similar story is an even nationwide UFO Panic, which arose in 1938 while Orson Welles transmitted his famous Invasion from Mars - radio story.
Are UFO-observations real ?
The sky often shows natural or artificial phenomena, which at a first sight may be interpreted as UFO-s. In 1995 we experienced a long range commercial searchlight (click for colour image).
Night after night this computer controlled "skyspot" projector was moving in strange, computercontrolled patterns across the sky.
When vieving from long distances, you could not see the searchlight itself. So of course the illuminated parts of the cloud cover were reported in the newspaper as being due to UFO-s.
Following protests by e.g. the Danish Nature and Wildlife Association, these searchlights are now being banned by the Danish minister of Environment.
Today, companies like e.g. Lasertainment and Martin Industries do sell even more sofisticated mobile sky projection equipment.
Some products are intendedly designed to give an UFO like symbol on the sky.
Visual ranges are typically 50 km, other companies talk about 80 km range, just imagine..
Take a look at this article - "The Sky I Love and the Sky I Hate" -
showing these commercial searchlights in action
Besides this, a lot of other phenomena may give rise to an UFO experience. Weather ballons often reflect sunlight - and may be interpreted as UFO in particular during sunsets. Here is an interesting example of such a dreadful weather balloon
Together with my students here in Denmark, and during my previous stays at observatories in Chile and Arizona, I have had thousands of logged sky observing hours.
We have seen a lot of exciting sky phenomena, Auroras ,Noctilucent Clouds, fireballs, and exciting comets
Some of these phenomena COULD have been interpreted as being "UFO-s", but so far, there has ALWAYS been a far more reasonable and natural explanation.
Are flying saucers real ?
The first flying saucers were reported already in 1947, but still no bullet-proof evidence has been given.
How come ? Next time you drive along a highway, please look how we humans litter the nature with beercans, burgerboxes, and even old refrigerators. Why don't these (otherwise unshy) UFO-people leave just a tiny piece of scrap as a single proof of their very existence ?
As pointed out in a magnificent interview with late prof. Carl Sagan, how is it possible that nobody has ever found a single material evidence from these all so busy spaceships ?
Just a tiny sample of ET-scrap would be of immense scientific value.
According to dr. Carl Sagan, there is no doubt that any such material would be investigated publicly by the Worlds most leading scientists.
Unfortunately, so far, not a single gram has appeared - irrespective of more than 50 years of intensive UFO reports.
Are we really alone ?
The question of Life in the Universe is an obvious question, maybe the most important and most interesting question of science itself.
Looking at the evidence, the sky is full of deep sky splendors, e.g. here a photo of the Horsehead Nebula, taken by my students.
Recent research even show planets around other stars.
Infrared and Radio investigations show the Universe is full of numerous exciting molecules, material which may very likely give rise to living organismes, etc...
But the ods being high for Extra Terristrical Life, is not the same as blindly accepting every UFO and Crop Circle report.
Space is huge, these distances are vast beyond Human imagination.
The idea of travelling by "person" is a very costly enterprise. Why should any ET spend huge energies, travelling into unknown nowhere, if a single 5 Dollar electricity radio signal would do a much better job ?
Considering the noise we humans make in Radio, VHF, UHF etc. - our Universe should be full of electronic communication. But as the Nobel Scientist Enrico Fermi once asked, "if there is life out there, why don't we register it ?"
So far, unfortunately no Radio - SETI search has had succes. Thousands of stars have been surveyed by different methods at huge radio-instruments.
Sofar, these important SETI searches have been without any reliable succes.
How come this paradox ? Why is it so silent out there ?
Could it be a law of Nature itself, that any civilisation sooner or later will reach the technological level of potential selfdestruction ?
Humanity has had that level since the 1960-s, our nuclear arsenals still have a most significant overkill, not to mention the potential dangers from pollution, greenhouse effects, ozone depletion, etc.
So may be the potential selfdestruction of technologically skilled civilisations is the main reason why our universe remains so amazingly silent.
Quite thought-provoking - this silence. May be Man's biggest enemy is not some violent Hollywoodlike Mars alien, but merely Man himself ?
Mogens Winther (c)
National representative of EAAE a Europewide association for both enhancing astronomy education, and giving our students skeptical information about present pseudosciences.
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Astronomy pictures - Students at AGS
Cropcircle Photos from the 2001 Experiments - by Mads C
Skeptical articles on Superstition . (Danish only)