A suggestion on the identity of the object The arrows below indicate chrome-plated rear-view mirrors on a 1939 Ford pickup truck. Similar mirrors were installed by the tens of thousands on cars and trucks of all makes as early as the nineteen-tens. The profile of these particular mirrors is similar to, but not identical to, the Trent object. Assembly sketch of typical mirror of this type. Diameter is 4.5 to 5 inches. A 1911 Ford Model T mirror is shown below. Diameter 5 inches, brass-colored plating, suspended by nylon monofilament fishing line, photographed at a distance of about 30 inches. This particular mirror used a fixed ball-shaped stem for adjustment, but the overall profile is similar to the Trent object. The enlargements below particularly emphasize the similarity of the object to these types of auto mirrors. The strange skewed "antenna" of the UFO would be the threaded mounting stem behind the mirror if this conjecture is correct. The chrome-plated upper surface and glass underside could help explain the brightness of the object detected in densitometry scans. Additional mirror images are available for reference (large images). See: Auto Mirrors - several examples Tracing an enlargement of the side-view photo in a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) program yields interesting results. The object is subtly asymmetrical, with its conical upper structure offset to the left of the centerline of the base width dimension. (Units are notional). The "spike" or "antenna" appears offset from all these centerlines as well, in addition to being tilted away from the camera. Why would Trent - who is consistently described by proponents of the photos as dimwitted, unimaginative, and otherwise unlikely or unable to perpetrate a hoax - have created such a hoax object? One possibility is that he was constructing a bird-scare using shiny objects. The photo was taken in spring, and McMinnville is in a fertile farming area. Shiny objects such as mirrors and pie pans are commonly used as bird-scares by farmers and gardeners. Perhaps he was in the process of attaching an old, damaged car mirror to a length of fishing line when inspiration struck... How might the object have been suspended? One argument used by Dr Maccabee and other promoters of the theory that the photos show a genuine UFO is that triangulation of the object indicates that it was not directly under the overhead wires, supposedly proving that a small hoax object could not have fit the geometry. Here's a proposal for a simple, fast method for suspending an object like a mirror in the necessary manner. See: Concept for a suspension method