Barney and Betty Hill were an American couple who claimed they were abducted by extraterrestrials in a rural portion of the state of New Hampshire from September 19 to 20, The incident came to be called the "Hill Abduction" and the "Zeta Reticuli Incident" because two ufologists connected the star map shown to Betty Hill with the Zeta Reticuli system. Most of Betty Hill's notes, tapes, and other items have been placed in the permanent collection at the University of New Hampshire , her alma mater.
The Hills' story was widely publicized in books and movies. The Hills lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. They were an interracial couple at a time when it was particularly uncommon in the United States; Barney was black and Betty was white.
According to a variety of reports given by the Hills, the alleged UFO sighting happened about p. September 19, Just south of Lancaster, New Hampshire , Betty claimed to have observed a bright point of light in the sky that moved from below the Moon and the planet Jupiter , upward to the west of the Moon.
While Barney navigated U. Route 3 , Betty reasoned that she was observing a falling star, only it moved upward. Barney stopped at a scenic picnic area just south of Twin Mountain. Betty, looking through binoculars, observed an "odd-shaped" craft flashing multicolored lights travel across the face of the Moon. Through binoculars, Barney observed what he reasoned was a commercial airliner traveling toward Vermont on its way to Montreal. However, he soon changed his mind, because without looking as if it had turned, the craft rapidly descended in his direction.
This observation caused Barney to realize, "this object that was a plane was not a plane. The Hills said they continued driving on the quiet and isolated road, moving very slowly through Franconia Notch in order to observe the object as it came even closer. At one point, the object passed above a restaurant and signal tower on top of Cannon Mountain and came out near the Old Man of the Mountain. Betty testified that it was at least one and a half times the length of the granite cliff profile, which was 40 feet 12 m long, and that it seemed to be rotating.
