Smith, Alan. The 14-year-old paperboy who snapped a color photograph of a UFO over Tulsa, August of 1965. The time was about 1:45 a.m. on August 2 (some sources are unclear on the date).
His father and at least three other witnesses were present to see the object. Although some charged that the image was a fraud (a Christmas light was the number one choice of tool for the hoax) various studies into the image had stood up well over time and give strong support for its veracity. Additionally, other sightings from the time do suggest people were seeing a similar object.
Cited problems with the Christmas wheel solution:
Item: Experts were unclear how the young photographer was able to capture the panels of colors without surroundings bleeding in - unless it was actually in the sky.
Item: All through 1965 there are other reports of multi-colored objects that bear a striking resemblance to the object shown in the image.
Item: The Air Force files show attempts to duplicate the end result - and they all appear to fall short (if not they would have been touted as proof positive of a hoax).
Item: Subsequent research of measurements and angles appeared to support the reality of a large object in the sky at the distance indicated by witnesses.
The group Ground Saucer Watch in 1977 analyzed the photo and said it displayed an extraordinary object, a “craft of large dimension.” USAF Photo Analysis Division, according to one source, analyzed the picture for Project Blue Book. Most agreed it was a material object, less than a mile (1.6km) from the camera, and about 30ft (10m) in diameter. They also observe, pushing forward the hoax angle, that it resembled the effect “obtained by photographing a multicolored revolving filter flood light.” There is no report in Project Blue Book to determine what they did, what tests they ran, or the investigations they conducted.
There is a 23-page file of photos showing an attempt to replicate the photo but failing to deliver one that adequately duplicated the image. It appears, to this day, to have been an image of something in the sky that night. Thus, verifying what people were reporting at the time all across the state, and matches numerous reports of objects reported in the years before (and since) that had panels of colors on them.
(Source. Used by Permission. Sooner Saucers: Volume Two, Marilyn A. Hudson, p182)
For a technical reading see Tulsa paperboy made UFO history in 1965 (edmondlifeandleisure.com) and UFO Casebook's follow up Tulsa's 1965 UFO Still Unidentified - UFO Casebook Files
From Project Blue Book - one of the attempts to copy the end result. The original image was copyrighted by a major news publication. Many images used to illustrate the image are actually images of a Christmas tree light of the era.
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