Flash over Virginia City, NV
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
Between kids looking into the scope, I looked into the eyepiece to verify that Mars was centered in the view and saw what looked like a satellite pass through the field of view - not too unusual but rare. The little girl asked me "which one are we looking at?" I looked up from the scope to show her Mars but there were two VERY bright lights south of Mars by about 2 degrees and separated by about 1 arc minute. They persisted about 20 to 25 seconds and faded out. There was no discernible motion to them. I pointed the scope to where they had been and searched but saw nothing but stars. No planes in that area, no other unusual lights. We watched that area for about 10 more minutes but nothing else was observed.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #161268). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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What would the paper say?
For a dated, located U.S. sighting, FAA radar data and ATC communications are the records most likely to exist. Through Aletheca, the house instrument, anyone can commission the request — filed, chased, and published in the open, refusals included. The draft goes over already written: the records sought, and the date window they would live in.
Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2020-12-18 → 2021-01-04
From the same sky