Adamski 'Orthon' Venusian Contact & Photos (1952).
discreditedclose_encounterContactee & UFO Religion
Adamski's claimed 20 Nov 1952 desert meeting near Desert Center, CA with 'Orthon', a long-haired Venusian, plus the famous 'scout ship' telescope photographs. Foundational template for the movement; the contact and photos are discredited.
[CLAIM] Adamski said he walked alone into the desert, met Orthon (telepathy + gestures), received an anti-nuclear apocalyptic warning, and photographed the Venusian scout ship through a 6-inch telescope; plaster casts of 'Orthon's' symbol-bearing shoe prints were produced by associate George Hunt Williamson. [DISCREDITED] The photo was matched to a 1930s pressurized-gas-lantern reflector (Joel Carpenter, 2012) with GE bulbs as struts (Riedel); prints sold by Adamski were heavily retouched; Moseley found Williamson did not actually witness the encounter. The craft design appears borrowed from Frank Scully's 1950 hoax book. Despite this, the imagery defined the visual genre of the UFO photograph.