The catalog
Sightings
Witness reports, held as-reported. Each entry keeps its source, its coordinates where the record has them, and its place in the larger pattern.
114,092 entries
July 4, 2017 · 10:00 PM · CHANGING
Buffalo, NY
The lower right light slowly merged into the upper right light, then the left light disappeared, then the lower right light separated slowly then those two disappeared as well. Myself, one retired fire fighter, and one person with a Master's degree. ((initials deleted))... in unexplainable. Source of the report elects to remain anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
July 4, 2017 · 10:00 PM · LIGHT
New York City (Queens)(Hollis), NY
At a eastern view in the night sky about 10pm on 7/4/2017. These 4 orange lights of gradual movements of 10 degrees than disappears, they appeared very high above flying aircraft region ceil. Then, I called Walter (17 years old) neighbor over to see, if saw he same. He concurred. They were seen by me for maybe 30 seconds. The night sky were clear. If I had to guess, they were 100,000 feet above the earth.
July 4, 2017 · 10:00 PM · CHANGING
Garden City Beach, SC
While watching Murrells Inlet Fireworks, I watched a number of lights positioned at various points surrounding me, and changing position, color, and apparent shape frequently. Some remained fairly stationary, retaining their magenta/red hue, seemingly drifting up, down, and sideways un-eventfully, yet maintaining their brightness. Others would blink on, grow brighter, and race from position to position, moving what I estimate to be about a mile in seconds. Some would dim and blink out, only to re-appear nearby, growing brighter as they moved rapidly from side to side, then up and down. The best was a magenta light that changed to a brilliant emerald green color and started blinking rapidly. This ship stayed close, brilliant and visible the whole time I was watching. There was also one very bright stationary magenta craft that followed this same pattern. I could not make out craft shapes due to their distance from me, however there is no doubt they were intelligently controlled, and in my opinion, 'not from around here'. It was very interesting that although there were about 30 folks with us watching the fireworks, none saw the lights, or at least none remarked as such. All of this stopped once the fireworks were over. One craft that did come close, may have had a bell shape, not sure. AMAZING!!!
July 4, 2017 · 10:00 PM · CIRCLE
Montebello, CA
One orange dot moving then stayed atill then started to go up higher and jyst disappear. I have video. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. Hence, we are unable to request permission to view the video. PD
July 4, 2017 · 10:00 PM · CIRCLE
Buchanan, MI
Me and my friends and neighbors were letting off mortars for our lil gran finally and a huge cloud of smoke was left behind from itt. i started cleaning up when my neighbor said hey what's that? When I looked up the smoke revealed two circular crafts more than 100 yds, in diameter no lights camo'd by the black sky, hovering maybe 40 ft above the tallest trees n the area right above redbud tr 50yds west from Where we were .me and my friend started both recording it and they started creeping slowly NW when the craft on the left turned on 1 fire color orange light for about 5 secs then they moved NSYNC side to side and shot thru the sky..when I went to show another neighbor the footage on my phone, it was gone along with all the rest of my media data… Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
July 4, 2017 · 10:00 PM · SPHERE
Franklin Square, NY
On July 4tharound 10 pm my wife and I were cleaning up from guests and watching the neighborhood fireworks experts do their thing, when I saw a reddish ball in the sky looking north. It put on a showy display of flashing, pulsing lights. My wife was in the adjacent kitchen and came out to see for herself. The craft then displayed a white light that went left to right, then repeated, as though the light were encircling the object. As it was after sundown I could not discern the shape of the craft. I ran upstairs to get my video camera, my wife kept watching the skies, when I returned and trained my camera the object had decreased in magnitude and was gone before I could capture it. Approximately 15 minutes later, I saw an object, when looking southward. I was able to get my camera and record the event for two minutes. The object was glowing red, apparently spherical, it then disappeared briefly, but a flashing white light came from the location it had been. Another blinking object appeared lower left. The second object disappeared below the tree line, the first drifted off to the east as it grew fainter. Upon reviewing my footage I became aware of 3 additional objects. There is a white object that moves quickly across the screen, another that zigzags twice before seeming to split off into two different directions, as two objects. Here is the youtube link: https://youtu.be/3aAm3w6j_-c Thanks!
July 4, 2017 · 9:55 PM · LIGHT
Woodinville, WA
I am open to any explanation as to what I saw, but, I feel I am pretty good at identifying aerial phenomenon, and I can’t figure this one out. 7/4/2017, 2155 hours PST, watching fireworks. I already know what you are thinking. No. Not 30 seconds before I stated, maybe we will see a UFO. And then there it was. The following is why I am baffled. Location, general, King County, Washington State, general street coordinates 195 Av NE/NE 175 St. Direction of flight, southeast. Appearance, looked like the ISS going over, but about 5 or more times faster in travel, and….maybe twice as bright. ISS is not supposed to be visible here tonight. There was an Iridium Flare listed for about 2155, but I thought it was going to flare to the north, not travel southeast-bound like a bright, non-dimming object that looked like a bright ISS. My millisecond thought process as I watched it for about 4-5 seconds (it was moving out!) was at first….oh, there’s a piece of burning magnesium powder from a firework. Wait, it is not dimming, and it is moving in a straight line. Oh, looks like the ISS. Negative, it is not visible tonight. This is too fast, the speed is like a low flying airplane going over. But it is bright. Maybe an aircraft, no, not seeing any green/red navigation lights, just looks exactly like a bright ISS. The only way I can try to explain it is, but I don’t believe my own explanation because of what I saw, was, a helicopter flying over with a bright search light shining mainly downward, drowning out the red/green nav lights, and I can’t hear it because of the fireworks in the area. So, UFO is correct in that, I can’t identify what I saw. I would welcome any explanation because I am not sure how to classify this in my own mind. If I could look at radar recordings in this area, I would do so. If anybody can, and they can tell me what the heck it was that we saw, I would appreciate it. I only had, at best, 10 degrees of view because of a nearby tree, but we saw it continue on, without dimming, through the branches a couple times. UPDATE: I started reporting this at about 2245 hours PST, 7/4/2017. My brother texted, and we have since spoken on the phone. He is in Maui. His text, at 2252 hours PST was, “I think I just saw the space station go over Maui here and it was hauling as_”. More texts, and I had to call him. He is in Kaanapoli. Looking WNW between Molokai and Lanai Islands. He sees something in the sky to the SW, south of Lanai, moving generally west to east, but south of his location. I questioned him carefully. No nav lights, looked exactly like the ISS, not dimmer or brighter, but many times faster. He thought, jet airliner altitude (30000 feet or so). He explained it away as the ISS, but hauling as_. He next explained it away as a satellite losing altitude and coming back to earth. No trail at all, like shooting stars or space debris (which I have seen back in I believe the 90’s when a piece of Soviet debris came down and was visible from Washington State, it left a green trail! as it burned on re-entry). How long did he see it? 2 to 3 seconds! Wow. Mine was 4-5 seconds, and I am sure he had a better view in Maui. The thing was moving fast!. Ok, I am done for now. I have not been stumped by objects in the sky until tonight, and I am in my 50’s. So, there it is, for comparison to other reports. My gut feeling is, if my girlfriend and I saw something and my brother saw something far away in Maui, there may be a slew of sightings coming in! While I was typing this, my girlfriend already found youtube videos from tonight with ufo’s, UFO spotted in Norwalk, California, July 7th 2017. But, the ufo in that video was barely moving compared to what we saw. And, what we saw was more of a white light, like the ISS, not orange. Signing off. I hope to learn from other reports if I am still waiting to see my first UFO, or if this is explainable and I need to keep looking. Thanks PD! And, PD, please reply if this can be explained.
July 4, 2017 · 9:50 PM · SPHERE
Port Charlotte, FL
While neighbors were lighting off fireworks at 9:45-10:00 pm, I observed a red lighted object in the northern sky, from my screened porch at approx. 40 degrees above horizon in the far distance. Much further below this light was another light that appeared more whitish, but I only got a glimpse of it. I went in and retrieved my binoculars, when I returned, the lower light was out of sight, but I could see the red light very well. The red light object was more ball-shaped with no other lights and was moving slowly westward, almost appeared to be drifting. I was nearly convinced it was a Chinese lantern, but after maybe a minute of observing it, the red light began to pulsate from dim to bright red, repeatedly. When this started, the object seemed to moving along more quickly. Trees in the distance began to block my view and I soon lost complete sight of it. I have found a video on youtube that matches it very well, titled "UFO RED PULSATING OR BLINKING LIGHT FRESNO anyone see this sort of thing?"
July 4, 2017 · 9:50 PM · LIGHT
Rantoul, IL
I went outside to head to a friend's house and to the south east i saw a very bright light in the sky just hovering there, no noise other than some residual fireworks and my car dinging. At first i dismissed it thinking it was maybe a helicopter or a drone, The light coming from it was very bright but not flooding and did not strobe or flash. I checked a flight radar app and there where no planes in the area at all. I took a picture of the light and a short video clip. The area I live in is on the decommissioned air force here in town.
July 4, 2017 · 9:46 PM · SPHERE
Rice Lake, WI
On July 4th, 2017, at 21:46 hours, I was sitting on the benches waiting for the fireworks display to begin. While watching the skies, I noticed a red orb light slowly moving from the North East across the lake from where I was sitting which was at Lakeshore Drive and East Humbird Street. When I spotted this red light moving about slowly, I noticed it was moving in a slow vertical pattern and then it started moving in circles. It began turning into the colors green, white, and blue. It continued doing this for 3.5 minutes and then disappeared.
July 4, 2017 · 9:45 PM · LIGHT
Rockville, MD
I live near Washington, DC, and got up to look out the window to see if I could spot any fireworks. As a preface, I do not drink or smoke, and although I was a little tired when this took place, I was looking out the window simply out of curiosity. While I'm interested in UFOs, on the whole I have generally been a skeptic in this field. Sometimes I have seen objects that I think are unusual, but it turns out to be a plane or a planet. This was different given the motion of the object and the clarity. Being the Fourth of July, I also thought a rogue firework might be behind this, but the object was visible for 20-30 minutes, moved with purpose, and was soundless. I noticed a green light which was pulsating at regular intervals, hovering several miles away without moving. I thought this was a helicopter, but it was unusual because the light was blinking green (no other colors) and wasn’t moving. As it so happened, a plane/helicopter flew by as I was watching this object, and there were a few main differences easily apparent - 1.) The plane moved in a linear direction. Helicopters, when seen, generally do too. This object was stationary. 2.) The plane had a blinking white tail light, along with red and green running lights. The object I was seeing had neither. Shortly after the plane passed, the object ascended rapidly and stopped. I thought this was odd because usually helicopters will gather momentum as they ascend and they’ll stop as they reach their new destination. This object simply went up and stopped. I moved to another room with a better vantage point and viewed the object directly for ~15 minutes as it moved occasionally. The object was located to my south and would have been by my estimation about 4-8 miles away. It blinked green continuously (no light, green light, no light) at regular intervals. It moved behind a tree and I believe I saw it flash more rapidly with a pinkish color but I am not certain. During this time it moved in one direction, stop briefly, then would reverse direction or move in another direction. Planes and other aircraft curve to meet a path - this moved fairly linearly. I don’t believe this was a drone as I don’t think I would have been able to see it as far away as it was, given the distance, and it moved past the trees, and moved back to near its original position. I attempted to take several photographs and videos of the object, but it is difficult to make out in most. The object then moved directly towards me and I saw there were two lights as part of the object. I could not identify a shape of the object but it seemed as though the lights were on the underside, if indeed there was an object. It passed directly over my residence and hovered there for a second, before moving on. The lights were bright and there were very clearly two of them, side by side (left-right oriented). The lights were two large to be running lights on an aircraft, my best analogy is as though someone put two small flashlights together and pointed them down. I went out my front door to look at it and saw it moving in the reverse direction, but it was silent. I could still clearly see two green lights. I estimate it was flying lower than typical small plane but cannot estimate its altitude in feet/meters. I went to go outside to try to take more footage but as I was doing so, the object went back to its original position, hovered, then moved off to the W-SW. I was able to capture video of it moving from a stationary camera on a tripod, as well as phone video. Given the darkness it is difficult to see but the blinking light(s) are visible in these files. Unfortunately I did not capture the moment that it flew over my location, but it is clearly visible in one photograph that the object had two distinct lights.
July 4, 2017 · 9:45 PM · SPHERE
Spokane Valley, WA
I observed two closely spaced (in time and space) sightings on July 4th. First object crossed sky, a point source, star like, about the brightness of Saturn, following an arc from about Arcturus in Bootes across the face of the moon (or behind?) and disappeared near the planet Saturn. Assuming the object fell into Earth’s shadow, it was slightly higher than LEO. From the fact this object was noiseless, covered the distance in about 12 seconds and using the ISS for reference it was travelling about 80 miles/second, or about 5 times orbital escape velocity in LEO. The next series of star like objects occurred about 10:05 (p.m.?), when I noticed a bright object, about 5 moon widths to the west of Zubeneschamali in Libra, after noticing this first object, about the brightness of Saturn. Within a second or two, two dimmer objects, the first about ½ degree north of Zubeneschamali, the second directly north about 3 moon widths. The effect was to create an isosceles triangle, with the base composed of two dimmer stars and the brighter star at the apex forming a triangle pointing to the west. The three objects slowly moved to the north, but disappeared before moving a Moon’s width (1/2 degree) and within 2-3 seconds of the 10:05 sighting of the apex star like object. I have verified there were NO satellites of sufficient magnitude to have been mistaken for the objects. Neither were the objects asteroids or meteors, there was no ionization trail, and there are no visible Earth-crossing asteroids at this time. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
July 4, 2017 · 9:45 PM · LIGHT
Oklahoma City, OK
After going into the backyard to watch the fireworks, we saw two light hovering above the firework display. Another appeared below it and to the right. We recorded 15 minutes of it with a cell phone. It was flashing non-stop between red, green, and white. We thought it was a helicopter, since it did not move at all for almost the whole time, but we could not hear the rotor. It was pretty loud during the firework display, but in between the fireworks we should have been able to hear if it was a helicopter. Another flashing object appeared under it and to the right. That object was flashing at about half the speed of the first one. A third object flew across the sky, but the camera phone was unable to pick it up. We both saw the third one fly through the smoke of the fireworks. I have it recorded, and would happily email it to your team. The problem is that the video is 1.86 GB in size, and I have no idea how to send a file that large.
July 4, 2017 · 9:45 PM · LIGHT
Jal, NM
Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
July 4, 2017 · 9:42 PM · OVAL
Broadview Heights, OH
While sitting in front yard of home to spot fireworks my husband and I spotted a dark two dimensional oval shape gliding from right to left (northwest to west) over the tree tops. There were no fireworks in the sky in this area at the time and no sounds of fireworks. This object had no lights and emitted no sound at all, it did not have any edges like a winged bird or known craft. It simply glided above the tree line until out of our site. My husband is former Air Force who worked on fighter jets and is very knowledgeable of aircraft and he has no idea of what we saw.
July 4, 2017 · 9:42 PM · LIGHT
Jacksonville, FL
Two bright orange lights moving south to north. No “contrails” seen, no sound. Second light followed path of first light, approximately 10-15 seconds later. Disappeared in extreme northern sky. Sky was clear. Difficult to determine altitude or speed, but seemed to be moving faster than typical aircraft. Steady northward movement, but seemed to have gentle “zig-zag” motion in flight.
July 4, 2017 · 9:40 PM · SPHERE
Orange Park, FL
One reddish green flashing or pulsation orb was moving south east to north west. No sound was noted to this object. The sky was clear and firework had just finished up in the eastern direction. Could not determine speed or height the orb was moving at though it was moving faster than a conventional aircraft and was moving up and down or wobbling at the same time it was moving forward.
July 4, 2017 · 9:38 PM · FORMATION
Denver, CO
4-5 bright white lights in group - appeared to change formation slightly with some of the lights going on and off slowly - saw for about 1 minute before they disappeared without moving Did not appear to be drones as the lights were very bright and too far away to be from that small of craft Just as fireworks began citywide post dusk (approx 9:25) and was pointed out by a relative while our firework show was launching above us Looking North towards West Denver from North Englewood, low in sky approx 4-6 miles away (guess) Short video clip posted to YouTube
July 4, 2017 · 9:37 PM · FIREBALL
Plymouth, MA
Bright orange ball, flying south east to north northeast, brightens then fades while accelerating.
July 4, 2017 · 9:30 PM · FIREBALL
Corona, CA
Fire ball in sky, not fireworks.
July 4, 2017 · 9:30 PM · FIREBALL
Levittown, NY
Three orange lights appeared in a slightly curved line moving at an extremely slow pace. A forth light shone a number of feet behind them. They were not airplanes. They barely moved in the sky. Then the 3 lights vanished and the 4th one lingered for another minute or so. I saw this same thing approx. 4 years ago while again watching fireworks on July 4. At that time there were numerous reports of that sighting.
July 4, 2017 · 9:30 PM · DISK
Wabasha, MN
As we have done every year since 2006, my wife and I attended a July 4th public fireworks display presented by the Wabasha Fire Department, not far from the west bank of the Mississippi River, in southeastern Minnesota, some eighty-five miles south from Minneapolis. Shortly after sundown, around 9:00 p.m., we arrived on the east side of the city lagoon, over which the pyrotechnical show would take place. As it began at 9:30 under a clear sky of unlimited visibility---save somewhat less so in the west, where thin clouds had gathered --- with a waxing-gibbous moon rising behind us, three objects appeared, one behind the other, around one thousand-foot altitude or less. I estimate each of the nearly identical craft was thirty to thirty-five feet in diameter. From underneath them, golden flames projected downward in a rough, splayed pattern. Reflecting in these flames was the reddish-orange underside of the objects. They seemed disc-shaped to me, but my wife wondered if they may have been more spherical, as only the structures’ ventral area might have been illuminated by the fiery discharge streaming from the craft’s bottom section. The three objects were regularly spaced from one another by approximately one hundred twenty feet or one hundred fifty feet, in a line formation that took them from the east, directly above the fireworks display, over which their initially rapid advance slowed to little more than a crawl, before they picked up a bit more speed, while executing a broad, climbing curve toward the west, one craft after another, gradually disappearing into the thin cloud cover. Their construction appeared utterly unaerodynamic, and they seemed to less actually fly, than to be moved, not propelled, across the sky in the manner a stone picked up and transported from one place to another. That, in any case, was the impression their flight made. During long pauses in the exploding fireworks, we strained our ears, but failed to perceive any sound from the flying objects passing practically overhead. Perhaps five minutes after they became hardly more than faint sparks in the western sky, another group of almost identical craft --- also, perhaps, in threes--approached on precisely the exact, same heading executed in the night sky by their predecessors. Like them, the newcomers arrived speedily, but quickly decelerated, cruising directly above the fireworks, then somewhat increased their velocity to follow the first set of craft identically into the west, no less precisely than if they were riding on a railroad track. Other groups of the same kind of vehicles followed in circa five-minute intervals; all behaved in identical fashion, abiding unswervingly to the same, broadly curving course from east to west. Their only apparent differentiations included color and its intensity. One or two of the objects were entirely bright white, while most were reddish-orange, some more pronounced than others. On three or four of them, I discerned darker, indistinct details lining the illuminated “disc”. At first sight, I assumed for a moment that the objects must have been hot-air balloons, flying lanterns or aerostats of some kind, because they did partially resemble them at a distance. But as they approached nearer, their varying speeds, unvarying course, and downward extending flames immediately identified them as something else. The penultimate object was especially distinct and brightly lit in its discoidal or spherical configuration. Altogether, we counted fifteen such craft. The last one sailed directly above the fireworks’ big finale, over the center of the exploding display. Total duration of all Wabasha sightings on the evening of July 4, 2017, coincided with the city’s Independence Day pyrotechnical program from the moment it began until its final shot, as though the disc pilots somehow knew the program in advance, allowing their own, perfect timing. Their behavior made us both feel that they were solely interested in observing the fireworks.
July 4, 2017 · 9:30 PM · LIGHT
Manchester, NJ
This happened twice, same amount of red lights
July 4, 2017 · 9:30 PM · CIRCLE
Brandon, FL
My wife and I were in our backyard watching fireworks, when we looked to the North and noticed a very bright red/yellow circular object flying east to west. The craft was flying low, no sound, and when it flew under a cloud its lights turned off, but the object was still visible. Two minutes later, a second object, with the same characteristics, flew past, and again extinguished lights and disappeared.