As reported

Circle over Centreville, MD

A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.

The report, as filed

What we viewed appeared to be a round light rather than an object (it was very far away). It seemed to be pulsating, so at first we thought it was a star. But then it would change shape just a bit, and it would suddenly drop, climb again, and move from left to right. It would also change colors, going from white to red to green and back to white. I'm not sure how long this went on, as I had time to go get my phone (camera), film it for a minute-and-a-half, and it was still there when I went back inside. I am certain it was visible for at least five minutes. Perhaps this was some sort of government "thing," but I have certainly never seen anything like this in the sky before.

Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #171205). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.

Ask for the records

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.

Commission this request on Aletheca →

Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2022-08-09 → 2022-08-26

From the same sky

Related entries

October 12, 2023 · 8:30 PM · LIGHT

Centreville, MD

As I was leaving a family member’s house, I stopped in the driveway with my girlfriend to stargaze for a few minutes. We usually like to pick out constellations, identify satellites, and can sometimes see the faint glow of the Milky Way - on especially clear nights. I am not an expert, by any means, but I do love to stargaze and can tell the difference between comets, planes, satellites, etc. While looking SE, at roughly a 30 degree angle, I noticed what I first thought was a satellite moving relatively slowly and in a horizontal line across the sky. After moving at this rate for about 3 seconds, the white object accelerated at an incredible speed, and then disappeared. I thought that it could be a shooting star, but when I’ve seen them, they last about a second and are moving rapidly the entire time. The object I saw, in this instance, picked up speed at a quite unbelievable rate. Another thing that set this experience apart was how long I was able to see it - 5 seconds is much longer than the length one would see a shooting star. I also considered the possibility that it could be a satellite. However, when I’ve seen satellites, the light is much dimmer than what I saw, in this instance, they move at a uniform speed, and you can track them throughout their journey in the sky. This light was only visible for a few moments and disappeared while there was plenty of sky left. I would say I am a UFO/UAP skeptic, but seeing this object compelled me enough to actually think a report may be useful. Maybe I am missing something here, but it was extremely impressive. I again would like to reiterate just how quickly this object accelerated. Not to be cliche, but it was like seeing a light moving at the speed of a plane, and then it accelerated like the Millennium Falcon jumping into hyperspace - no joke meant here, but I feel like it is a good analogy to really help illustrate its speed.

December 14, 2018 · 3:15 AM · LIGHT

Centreville, MD

Woke up around 3 a.m. to what sounded like an animal screeching. Looked out bedroom window but didn't see anything. Looked up to the sky. At first glance it could have appeared as a star but I realized it was moving. Watched the "light" (yellow in color) for awhile and saw it hover right, left and down slightly. Woke my husband so that he could confirm what I was seeing and he did. He also confirmed what I was already thinking...that occasionally there would be a flash of light to the left or right of this main light. The light never moved much aside from the slight hovering movements. After about 30 mins I saw flashes of white lights just above the tree line behind my house but in the distance. There was about 4 or 5 of them. Each would continuously flash. One moved more right away from the others and slightly up in the air while the others disappeared. I continued to keep an eye on the main light that was still moving slightly in the same spot. When directly looking at it, I didn't see much around it. When I looked to the right it appeared like there was a shadow in the sky to the left of the light. I couldn't make out what it was and when I looked directly at it, I could not see it.

October 25, 2018 · 8:15 PM · UNKNOWN