The Close Encounters Man Mark Oconnell by Mark O'connell 9780062484178, 0062484176 instant download after payment.

The
wildly entertaining and eye-opening biography of J. Allen Hynek, the
astronomer who invented the concept of "Close Encounters" with alien
life, inspired Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster classic science fiction
epic film and is the subject of History Channel's Project Blue Book, and made an entire nation want to believe in UFOs.

In
June 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold looked out his cockpit window
and saw a group of nine silvery crescents weaving between the peaks of
the Cascade Mountains at an estimated 1,200 miles an hour. The media,
the military, and the scientific community—led by J. Allen Hynek, an
astronomer hired by the Air Force—debunked this and many other
Unidentified Flying Object sightings reported across the country. But
after years of denials, Hynek made a shocking pronouncement: UFOs are real.

Thirty
years after his death, Hynek’s agonizing transformation from skepticism
to true believer remains one of the great misunderstood stories of
science. In this definitive biography, Mark O'Connell reveals for the
first time how Hynek’s work both as a celebrated astronomer and as the
U. S. Air Force’s go-to UFO expert for nearly twenty years stretched the
boundaries of modern science, laid the groundwork for acceptance of the
possibility of UFOs, and was the basis of the hit film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
With unprecedented access to Hynek’s personal and professional files,
O’Connell smashes conventional wisdom to reveal the intriguing man and
scientist beneath the legend.

Tracing Hynek’s
career, O'Connell examines Hynek’s often-ignored work as a professional
astronomer to create a complete portrait of a groundbreaking enthusiast
who became an American cult icon and transformed the way we see our
world and our universe.