Circle over Rio Rancho, NM
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Circle of light drops from the night sky toward earth then disappears
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center. Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2012-02-03 → 2012-02-20
From the same sky
Related entries
September 4, 2023 · 8:49 PM · UNKNOWN
Rio Rancho, NM
The objects were green and flashed, it is not clear that these objects were starlink as there was not enough and moved too fast [NUFORC annotation: Starlink - Certain]
June 5, 2023 · 9:28 AM · CIGAR
Rio Rancho, NM
Cigar shaped object glinted in the sun as if it were chromed. The glint is what caught my eye. It came from the south and veered to the SW. I don't know how far away it was so I do not know the size. It was fast and it was unlike any aircraft I have ever seen. I heard a noise that was very similar to a hot air balloon inflator, but also very different. We hear balloons all day every day. It got my german shepherd's attention because he hates balloons, but the dog just seemed puzzled as it zipped away.
December 15, 2022 · 3:36 PM · UNKNOWN
Rio Rancho, NM
Noticed strange objects in afternoon sky. 5 objects moving South across the sky turning In southwest direction, almost veering right. Visible for about 2 minutes then gone.
November 3, 2022 · 6:32 PM · OVAL
Rio Rancho, NM
I saw what I believe to be some sort of flying saucer last month. I was coming home to visit my parents after work and saw it when I got out of my car at their house. It was a windy night and I could visibly see the clouds moving but these lights weren’t moving and they blocked out the stars behind it in an oval shape and that’s what caught my attention. Some facts: • I was located near Rio Rancho, New Mexico • I saw it when visiting my parents. I parked and was walking around the car to go inside when I saw it • We are approximately 15miles North of Kirtland Air Force Base • The object I saw seemed to be at around 40,000 feet above ground level • It was tilted around 30ish degrees to the side • It had one bright light in the middle and several smaller ones on the “back” (my guess based on the direction it was tilted) with one smaller one on the front • It stayed still in one spot for approximately 5 minutes. I was able to run inside and grab my camera and change the lens to my long lens and get a few photos of it in about 1 minute before it just vanished. It was very hard to get focus on it (not unusual at full zoom, the lens is old) • When it vanished it kind of just faded. The best (nerdy) comparison I can describe is shadowmeld from WoW, like it just increased in transparency over a split second until it was gone • I am a published photographer- It was already dark so I had to handhold the camera and manually set the shutter speed as long as possible to minimize the ISO and get the clearest shot possible. I used a 300mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera for an equivalent focal length of 600mm. I had trouble getting focus and I tried a few combos of shtter speed and iso so I have more out of focus shots than in-focus ones • It seemed to be on the East side of the ridge of the Sandia mountains • There are several radio towers near the crest of the Sandia mountains. The object was far too high to be one of them, as well as the fact that the towers have red lights and the object was bright white light. I have taken pictures of the towers before and they look nothing like the object. I told my friends about this encounter and 2 of them told me it has to be the radio towers but I know it wasn’t. • I’m a minor aviation geek and it was absolutely not a plane, but it did seem to be about the height that commercial airliners fly. If I had to guess, the size would be about twice as long as a 767 • The elevation where I’m at is about 5,280 feet exactly, the mountains are about 5,000feet higher than that.
February 25, 2022 · 3:00 PM · CHANGING
Rio Rancho, NM
Crafts were about 1/4 mile from us and were about 1,000 feet above the ground. Crafts were transparent and gray in color. The main craft was shaped like a jellyfish and three ball shared objects were orbiting the main craft. Objects flew in all directions and would occasionally disappear and reappear. Event lasted 3.0 seconds. There had been a military plane flying in the same location 30 minutes prior to the event.
February 18, 2022 · 9:30 PM · CHANGING
Rio Rancho, NM
Started out as too bright lights next to each other like an airplane. Continued to watch after grabbing Canon camera. Approximately 7 and 1/2 minutes of film showing multiple lights 15 to 20. A couple seem to move in unison but others seem to be swapping lights back and forth. Occasional red but rare. Round orbs are more like octangular then circular but then seem to morph into disk like shapes before morphing back to the octangular type shapes. Provided video to Linda Moulton Howe in Albuquerque and after reviewing with Brad, said she had not seen anything quite like it. It appeared to be over the desert, reservation land, Northeast towards Santa Fe high in the sky but film shows full moon not far from the activity. Photos submitted is of downloaded film on still frame. Video will not be uploaded until I receive contact from a specialist.