Documents:

Sources:

1. "UFO" no. 3 1986 pp. 4-6
2. "UFO" no. 4 1986 p. 14
3. Almanakk for Norge 1986 (Almanac for Norway 1986)
4. Amatorastronomen (The Amateur Astronomer), tiding published by the Norwegian Astronomical Society; no. 2/3 1986 pp. 39-43
5. Personal communication between Odd-Gunnar Roed and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute/ Ground Saucer Watch 1987
6. Personal communication between Mentz Kaarbo and Erling Strand 1987

HESSDALEN UPDATE

By Mentz Kaarbo

Introduction

During the winter of 1984 and 1985, Project Hessdalen became world famous when ufologists from Norway and Sweden performed one of the first, heavily instrumented on-site UFO investigations in history. This desolate mountain valley in Southern Norway had been haunted by strange light-phenomena for several years, causing much commotion among both ufologists and the inhabitants in Hessdalen. However, due to a recent, continuing low activity of UFO sightings in the area, the project has not been able to obtain funds for further direct research. Hence, Project Hessdalen has been inactive regarding field research and so-called "hardcore" investigation the last 31/2 years.

Initially, we gained support from various scientific research institutions: the universities of Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim, together with the military research foundation Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (NDRE). The latter institute gradually became our closest collaborator, especially during the last season (1985).

However, the fact that we to some extent were supported by these institutions, must not lead people to believe that we received any sort of significant, financial funds for our purposes; it was limited to professional consultance, in addition to kindly equipping the project with various instrumentation on our request. But many of our cooperative partners (often individuals in charge of their departments or sections at the universities) expressed a sincere (however unofficial) curiosity and interest regarding the phenomena in Hessdalen, from which we were able to profit. During the last period, we experienced an even higher interest in our research, which among other things, resulted in a brand new headquarter at Hessdalskjolen transported to the site by vehicles from the Norwegian Army. (for details see NUFON no. 1/2 1984 and no. 2 1985). This connection with the military authorities was mainly established through NDRE, giving us certain advantages seldom offered to civilian UFO-groups.

If the sightings of these phenomena had continued at the same scale as initially (i.e. in the period 1982-84), the project might have benefited from significant economical support the next year (1986). The funds would be given from the Norges Almenvitenskapelige Forskningsrad (Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities), with NDRE as the recommending authority. In this way Project Hessdalen could have become a common, public research program at the same level as ordinary university projects. However, due to a limited activity in 1985 and even lower during subsequent years, neither the project committee nor the NDRE could justify such a request for funds