Formation over Chapel Hill, NC
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Was driving south on 15/501 following a friend to get pizza up the road past Manns Chapel. About 7:30-7:40 pm. I have text messages to corroborate the day/time even though it has been a year. An array of lights multi-colored red/green/blue drifted into view moving slowish and appearing fairly low in the sky. The lights seemed to change colors and moved in a sequenced pattern almost mandalic effect. Drifted into view and hung over the highway for a few moments, the array was floating parallell to the ground in a disc/rectangular formation (though no actual physical substance seemed to tie the lights together). It was dusk/ almost dark so perspective was weird, but the tree line ended up obscuring it from my vision after driving by. Seemed to be traveling fairly slowly (less than 50mph), and seemed to be headed in the opposite-ish direction (north). My buddy was just as freaked out as I was when we arrived at our destination a few minutes later. He drove in a! separate vehicle and was in front of me by about 200 yards. It has been on my mind for the past year. One of the most unusual things I’ve ever experienced. Found this site after hanging around a Reddit subthread and realized someone else reported this in NORTH chapel hill same day same time- I was south of chapel hill but I (and my friend) can corroborate this sighting. My phone was almost dead and it happened so quickly while driving I couldn’t get a video or pic. I would also love to know if anyone else saw this, or a light array like this elsewhere and what the prevailing theories are on it!
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #159569). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2019-10-02 → 2019-10-19
From the same sky
Related entries
August 13, 2022 · 12:01 AM · LIGHT
Chapel Hill, NC
It was a Friday night and I was playing with my insomniac toddler in our apartment which is on the top (third) floor. Then our neighbor started smoking which came into our shared bathroom vent and filled the apartment. I had no choice but to open our sliding balcony door which runs the length of our living room. It was approaching midnight and suddenly I saw a satellite flying very close above the distant trees to the point that it was as large as an airplane. It had red lights on one vertical panel and blue lights on the other and flew silently and slowly. Since it was odd, I threw a ball into the other room so my toddler would run out of sight. Less than a minute later I looked and it was flying the same path with the same slow speed which confused me because it should have passed out of sight already. This time it did and passed over our building out of sight. Ten minutes later I decided to go outside the balcony and hope my toddler would not notice. It was probably after midnight and then I saw three satellites across the sky above the trees and among the stars. They were not stars because they had that distinct satellite flashing with red or white lights and were moving slowly in different directions. My toddler found me and ran on the balcony. “Look at all those satellites!” I exclaimed. “Wow so many!” Leaning over the railing, I pointed to each one— one on the far left higher up and two directly ahead in the sky. Combined with three stationary stars in a diagonal, they made a formation that reminded me of the Big Dipper constellation. Then suddenly right after I pointed, all three satellites disappeared within a few seconds of each other. The sky went completely black where they had been flying. They were nowhere to be seen and never re-emerged. We could only see the three diagonal stationary stars. Up till that point, I had assumed these were all satellites owned by a private company or government…but I don’t believe satellites just suddenly disappear without a trace like that. They didn’t slowly fly out of sight like the original satellite with the red and blue. So I thought I better report this odd incident in case it helps form a bigger picture of something…
July 18, 2022 · 11:01 PM · UNKNOWN
Chapel Hill, NC
I was taking my dog out and looked up at the sky, which was clear and with stars out. I noticed red/green lights quite high up in the NE as if it were an aircraft. I live close to RDU and often see flights approaching/leaving the airport, which is 16 miles away. The lights were unblinking and did not move at all, which caught my attention. I watched this for quite a while (2-5 minutes?). Suddenly, the lights jerked sharply towards the NW, then zipped back again and remained still for some time. This repeated twice more. I took a live photo with my iPhone and was able to capture the speed with which it moved. I went inside after taking the picture.
July 6, 2021 · 7:44 PM · OTHER
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April 23, 2020 · 10:00 PM · CIRCLE
Chapel Hill, NC
Was out with a group of friends to watch the meteor shower. Never saw any meteors, up and ahead of us we spotted a white circular (object?) shape move east. it was very very high up and hard to discern what it was, but it wasn't blinking like a plane and it was way too high and far away to be a drone. (And no, it wasn't a meteor - one of the people is super nerdy into this stuff and they didn't know what this was) It moved organically - a bit strange - as if someone was drawing on the sky with a laser pointer. It proceeded in that direction for about a minute, second by second a different person in our group noticing it until it became so dim it was gone. About 10 minutes later, we saw a bright white flash / explosion around the same area it originated. Never seen anything like this!
August 30, 2017 · 1:00 AM
Chapel Hill, NC
I've been watching documentaries on UFOs and I had a weird thought to request a visit. My dog started barking unexpectedly and I didn't know why. I went to sleep and woke up to this on my window. It looks like something pressing a face against the window. It wasn't me and the pressing is on the outside of the window.
June 29, 2015 · 12:30 PM · CYLINDER
Chapel Hill, NC
On June 29, 2015, about 10 miles outside of Chapel Hill, NC, travelling south towards Charlotte, NC, I witnessed an object that looked very much like a disc or possibly cylindrical craft. It was apparently a considerable distance away, so it was difficult to ascertain whether it was truly a disc, or whether it was a cylinder; however, it appeared to have no wings and did not have any type of propulsion mechanism that could be seen. It was clearly a silver or gray color. I cannot provide an accurate distance of the object from my vantage point, but it seemed to be somewhat equidistant between the locations of frequently sighted high-flying commercial jets and lower flying, small, private airplanes. I realize this estimate is not very helpful, but it was just too difficult to give a good estimate of distance. Although based on the uncertainty introduced by the distance of the craft from my vantage point, one could perhaps attempt to explain it away as some type of mundane craft; however, it was the observations regarding the apparent shape, coupled with the speed of the object that made me decide to report it. The speed truly caught my attention. I originally sighted the craft directly ahead of my vantage point looking south and at about 30deg up from the horizon against a clear blue sky. From the time I spotted the object until it moved across the south to western span of the sky to below the tree line on the western horizon, only about 4-5 seconds passed, maybe a little less. As I watched it move, it was clearly far faster crossing the sky than the apparent movement of a high-flying commercial jet (which appears to move very slowly as most anyone knows who has seen a high-flying jet followed by its contrail). Likewise, it was much, much faster than the apparent speed of low flying, small, private planes. It appeared to move across that expanse of the sky even faster than the speed of some lower-flying military jets that I have seen in the past. From the time I saw it until I could get my daughter's attention to try to look at it, the object was already out of sight behind the trees on the western horizon. If the distance I had estimated was accurate, then this craft was moving at an extremely high speed. It was truly moving faster than any conventional aircraft that I have seen. So, in summary, it was not only the apparent disc or cylindrical shape of the craft that caught my attention, but also the speed that made me think it was something truly unusual. Although I was unable to take a photograph, it looked very much like the object in the photo of the High Plains, Oregon, sighting of June 14, 2015, at 1230hrs (Pacific), which is shown on the NUFORC website (although the object I saw was quite a bit more distant and probably a third of the apparent size as seen from my vantage point). Furthermore, I was in a car when the sighting took place, so I cannot make any comment about the possible sound of the craft. ((ADDENDUM #1 FROM WITNESS Dear Mr. Davenport, Thank you for your interest. Your work on the NUFORC site is admirable. First, the size, as compared to the moon at that same location (on a hypothetical full-moon night), was estimated to be about 1/10th the size of a full moon (at a 30-35 degree location and not exaggerated by atmospheric effects). Again, I estimate this based on envisioning a cylinder/disc sitting over a full-moon and deducing the amount of the moon covered. The following is my best estimate regarding movement: As I stated, the object originally appeared to be about 30-35 degrees above the horizon, directly in front of me. When it went out of sight about 4-5 sec later, it was hidden because of the interference of the tops of trees on the western horizon. Those tree tops were approximately 10 degrees from the horizon. So, I suppose one could say the object traversed an expanse from 30 degreess to 10 degrees in about 5 seconds. Does this help answer your question? If you need more detail, let me know, and I'll do the best I can. Remember, I have a chemistry background, not physics. Ha! I will leave the heavy lifting to you. And to the last point - no, my daughter was never able to see the object. It simply moved too quickly. Best regards, ((name deleted ((END ADDENDUM #1 ((ADDENDUM #2 Dear Mr. Davenport, I hope my contacting you so soon after my response to your inquiry about my initial UFO report does not damage my credibility as a witness; however, the more I think about my response, I believe I have let that Oregon photo on your site cloud my objectivity. I simply do not believe the object I saw was as large as 1/10 of the full moon. Please pardon my excitement and erroneous description in response to your question. To explain, I responded by saying that I thought the object I saw was 1/10th the size of a full moon, but the more I consider it, I believe this quick response is not accurate. Considering my difficulty in judging the shape of the craft (disc vs cylinder) leads me back to a more reasonable estimate of size as 1/20th the size of a full moon. I feel that this is a far more accurate reflection of what I observed. The object was quite small, but still clearly a disc or cylinder shape and apparently not a plane or commercial jet due to its speed. It becomes clear to me, as I honestly endeavor to provide accurate information, how difficult it is to obtain reliable witness testimony, especially when there is only one witness. I so wish that my daughter had also observed the object, so that I would have some confirmation of my perceptions. Please consider this updated information as an addendum to my initial report. Best regards, ((END ADDENDUM #2 ((BEGIN ADDENDUM #3 Dear Mr. Davenport, I recently reported a sighting (Chapel Hill, NC on June 29) and was perusing the NUFORC database to see if any other similar reports had been made on that day. I noticed at the bottom of my report entry there was a NUFORC note saying that we had spoken by phone and that I describe myself as an aviation expert. That information is incorrect. I am writing simply to inform you that I believe you are mistaken and possibly have me confused with someone else. We never spoke by phone, and I am a chemist and polymer/chemical patent research professional - nothing to do with aviation. I assume you might want to correct this data entry for the integrity of the report. Thanks for all of your great work. Best regards, END ADDENDUM #3))