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.
3,749 entries
December 17, 2018 · 11:45 AM · CIRCLE
Chicago, IL
On Monday December 17th, I was sitting in my car in a parking lot eating something quickly before my next appointment. When I looked up at the sky I noticed a plane and a distance behind it I noticed two silver round objects. The two silver round objects were moving very quickly, I almost got the feeling that they were playing around as they were circling each other in and out and then they both quickly speed and went northwest and disappeared into the clouds. One reappeared and went eastbound, the same direction the plane was headed. It happened so fast I tried to reach for my phone but couldn’t get it on time. I’ve tried to search on line to see if anyone else reported the sighting but have found nothing, I’m especially curious because it was around lunch time in brought day light.
December 16, 2018 · 7:15 PM · LIGHT
Forest Park, IL
I live in. 5th floor condo in Forest Park. It faces east with an excellent view of downtown Chicago, through the floor to ceiling glass sliding doors. While sitting on my couch, I witnessed a single very bright white light swoop down from west to east,disappearing in the eastern sky. It took about 2 seconds. Coincidentally (or not), I had just finished watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
December 15, 2018 · 6:00 AM · LIGHT
Lake Villa, IL
3,4 orange lights traveling north to south, west of my location. Hovering, then moving south, then hovering again. Not an even or straight line.
December 11, 2018 · 5:30 PM · SPHERE
Aurora, IL
Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
November 30, 2018 · 1:00 PM · RECTANGLE
Chicago, IL
On November 30, 2018, I was traveling on Northwest Highway in Chicago. It was approximately 1:00pm and it was a clear, sunny day. While sitting in traffic, I looked up and ahead through my windshield and saw what I can only describe as a “transparent flag” moving North to South. I looked carefully to make sure it wasn’t a bag or garbage, but it was much too high in the sky for that. It was not a sign being pulled by a small plane, as I would have certainly seen the plane on such a clear day. The object was moving in a very steady, deliberately North to South and a steady pace. Imagine a flag waving in the sky, but it’s transparent, and because it’s waving, the transparency is a little distorted. That’s how I was able to make out its shape. I looked out my driver side window to make sure it wasn’t simply my view through my windshield. It was not. The object was still there. I saw it for a full minute, then it slowly went to what I can only describe as “full transparency”. Again, not a cloud in the sky.
November 23, 2018 · 5:15 PM · TRIANGLE
Wheeling, IL
I am a retired ex-IT professional (15+ years, degreed, ex-ACM member). I was northbound on Illinois I-94 at approx. 5:15pm CT, near the Dundee exit, in/near Wheeling, IL. Traffic was fairly heavy, I kept to the right-hand lane. Initially, a white semi- ahead of me appeared to be having difficulty staying in the lane, drifting onto the shoulder every so often; I remained substantially behind him for a mile or so, eventually he pulled onto the shoulder. [It occurred to me later that perhaps he'd also seen the UFO and was dumbfounded or panicked and might be communicating via CB.] Shortly thereafter, I glanced to my right and observed a triangular craft for several seconds, solid black against the night sky, with very large globular (warning?) lights at the apices, these emitting a fairly bright but dark red glow [Wikipedia: approx. 650? nm], easily seen against the night sky. The form appeared to be equilateral, with no reflective qualities; impossible to gauge its dimensions. I could not discern any sound. My velocity was approx. 55mph; the object appeared almost stationary but seemed to be traveling southbound because of it's orientation, i.e. it was 'pointed' southward, and seemed to be paralleling the highway. I have been attempting to guesstimate its size -- at best I'd say its elevation was 100 to 150 feet and perhaps 100 to 150 feet on a side, but I could be off significantly, there were no reference points. What astonished me most was the size of the globular 'lights', they were quite large, possibly the diameter of a quarter held two feet away, so that the distance between a fore- and aft- light may have been 20-25 such diameters? [conjecture] I lost sight of it after perhaps 10 seconds of travel; I did not have time (and did not think) to attempt photographing it with my cellphone... Recognition was immediate [have been a Coast fan for 20 years and am familiar with Peter's reports of similar craft]. I was astonished at the circumstantial nature of this sighting and uttered a few choice expletives, never having thought I'd actually see one of these. I felt...vindicated in a sense, and quite excited, being a firm believer in such phenomena given the massive evidence available.
November 22, 2018 · 5:10 AM · CIRCLE
Mattoon, IL
Me and my brother were leaving thanksgiving dinner, I was in my car and my brother stared pointing up, I got out and saw a very bright orange light, it was rather close, about the height a helicopter would fly. It was not blinking, but just a stale light. It was moving at a somewhat fast speed, but I managed to get 2 pictures of it. I got 3 other family members to come out and see it. By the time they got there it was nearly out of sight. We watched it until it was fully out of sight. It didn't travel up, but away.
November 21, 2018 · 8:30 PM · LIGHT
Bethalto, IL
I’m an amateur astronomer (been observing for several years now) and was testing out some new accessories for my telescope. I had gone inside and when I came back out, that’s when I spotted the UFO. It was already halfway across the sky, (I first saw it at the zenith) it was traveling from NE to SW in a straight line. Its rate of travel was comparable to satellites you often see in the night sky. However, it wasn’t small like a satellite. The light was a rich orange and looked about the size of a streetlight you’d see while driving. I believe it was at high altitude and no sound came from the object. As stated in the beginning I was using my telescope that night, but saw the object with the naked eye.
November 4, 2018 · 9:36 PM · CIRCLE
Barrington, IL
(I saw this same thing on Monday, October 8th, 2018, 22:55 hrs., in Barrington, Illinois, with clear skies. Me and my dog originally saw 3 orange-ish lights, all in one line, stacked on top of each other, like a traffic light....the lights were spaced closely to one another, changing color to like yellowy color and back to orange.) Barrington/Barrington Hills, SW Night Sky...Sunday 11/4/2018 about 9:36 pm/21:36 hrs. some clouds in the night sky, but it had been raining most of the day and night. Cold 48' and ptly cloudy skies. At time of sighting no rain. Some clouds moving in night sky. Tonight took my dog potty, and floating about a half mile or less away in the night sky (in Barrington/Barrington Hills sky) were these same 3 orange colored lights. They were obstructed behind a barren tree, I took photos and a video, but it kept moving and reappearing a few hundred feet from where it was. I ran into my house, took photos using night mode, and took a video… I am including it for your review. My wife came out, and saw it also and she thought first it was a drone, then secondly, that it was a satellite. She is unsure what it is. This is my second sighting and now I have another witness and some photos. I do not hear anything, and none of the lights on the object are blinking or flashing red....object does change colors from orange to yellow ish and back to orange. Update I went back outside with binoculars and my camera, and now it is raining, but I took some more photos of the area it was in. I did not see the object/s this time. I would like to know if anyone is seeing/seen these lights/objects in the area?
October 31, 2018 · 9:15 AM · DISK
Evanston, IL
Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
October 29, 2018 · 4:30 PM · CIGAR
Danville, IL
I was out taking fall pictures at Kickapoo State Park. I didn't notice anything while I was on location, but when I got home to download my pictures onto my computer, I noticed that there is one picture that has an anomaly in the sky. I took a couple of shots in the same general area and only one of the pictures has this object in the sky. I have the RAW file to prove that the object was not added post production.
October 24, 2018 · 6:37 AM · RECTANGLE
Rockford (south of), IL
October 24, 2018. This morning on my way to work in IL going North on I-90, I was watching the moon. The sky had a few clouds and the moon was both bright and big. South of Rockford, I saw a rectangular shape, like that of a ruler, start to cross the moon from the upper right side. If the moon was a clock, around 1-2 o’clock. It headed both down and across the moon, as if it were following an orbit. This shape was too large to be a satellite or the space station. Though relatively thin, it was long, not quit the radius of the moon, but almost.
October 22, 2018 · 11:44 AM · SPHERE
Henry, IL
Very large orb of light making a quick downard zigzag motion before disappearing. It was a very light blue.
October 21, 2018 · 12:00 AM · DISK
Carlinville, IL
I was sleeping and was awoke by very bright light. It had five bright white lights the were flashing it was very close to my house and I watched as the lights quit flashing and turned into one solid white light it stayed in the same place for at least 15 minutes something was shot to the ground two balls of white light then it just disappeared and it made no sound
October 13, 2018 · 6:00 AM · TRIANGLE
Addison, IL
They were floating still in the sky and then zipped off towards Schaumburg. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
October 8, 2018 · 10:55 PM · LIGHT
Barrington, IL
1st time me & dog have both been in observance of 3 orange lights, all in one line, spaced closely to one another. Moved directly over my neighbors house, 1,000 feet above perhaps. 3 orange lights had no noise, no blinking lights. Stopped directly over my house and stopped. My dog and I stared directly at the orange 3 lights, as my dog did also...both looking up for like 2 minutes. They as I tried to take photos, 3 orange lights immediately flew upwards. So fast out of sight. No photos. I came inside my house & my wife asked why we were both outside so long... She said both outside over for 45 minutes...I said no, we me and dog, just went outside to let dog go potty...quickly. She looked outside couple of windows but saw or heard nothing. She asked me, so were did those 40 plus minutes go? Experience has left me sleepless tonight.
September 29, 2018 · 11:56 PM · OTHER
Round Lake, IL
If You do see lights in round lake that flash red and white while moving unpredictable you're not alone. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
September 27, 2018 · 7:00 PM · DIAMOND
Wheaton, IL
Four lights hovering motionlessly in a near-perfect square formation. No sound. Lights began to move overhead us and we could tell the looked like small blimps with fighter jet wings. 3 leave in a single line and the fourth moves to a new position and begins hovering again. We could see it appeared to have clear panels on it which were leaking light. It was hovering pretty low then we had to head home. We captured crude video footage of the event.
September 26, 2018 · 11:00 PM · SPHERE
Schaumburg, IL
Leaving my office after working well into the night, an amber orb of light moved across the sky above me to the south of my location and then seemed to become multiple lights (still in one unit) and became more white colored. The light blinked at an interval but not like any plane I’ve seen. It made no sound yet was only a couple hundred feet above ground. It then turned west and south and I lost sight of it for a few seconds behind buildings as I drove. It then came flying back north right over me as I drove West it. Then it got higher in the sky and trurned sharply east towards Chicago and paralleled interstate 90 (which I was now on going east as well) and it traveled around 90-100 mph before blinking out of site ahead of me. I noticed several other small lights in the sky. I felt some moved and were planes others may be stars. But this area doesn’t get much visibility to stars because of light pollution. This is O'Hare airport area, but this was not typical for flight patterns and it turned to fast and was too small to be a plane. My car's engine light and lights went on for the first time ever (the car is in great shape) after the incident.
September 26, 2018 · 11:30 AM · DISK
Streator, IL
I seen 2 white objects flying fast from the east part of the sky to the west. They looked to be flying within the clouds and in formation. Then they met up with what looked to be 5 others. Then they flew around each other in a small area and slowly moved south east as they mingled with each other. The whole thing lasted maybe 15 minutes. I got a picture and a short video of them. After the video was on the computer, I noticed more dark objects flying past that I didn’t notice when I filmed it.
September 26, 2018 · 10:06 AM · DISK
Matteson, IL
I have a picture of 2 disk shaped bright lights in the sky , a military helicopter was also flying low to ground appears that it was watching the 2 bright disk lights also, at Ridgeland and Lincoln Hwy in Matteson, Illinois.
September 23, 2018 · 8:45 PM · CIRCLE
Batavia, IL
At about 8:45 p.m. Central time my wife arrived home after orchestra practice exclaiming to me that there were strange lights in the sky circling above our part of town. I quickly went outside to see what she was talking about. We saw three distinct orange lights circle about three times. From beginning to end the event lasted no more than 15 minutes. They were flying low and silently. The fact they were orange peaked my interest because that is not the color of regulation aircraft lighting. The whole night struck me as odd because two hours earlier while coming home from picking up a pizza for dinner I saw three stationary white lights in the eastern sky near the moon. I assumed they were news helicopters, but now I am not so sure.
September 23, 2018 · 3:00 AM · CIRCLE
Westmont, IL
Did anyone else see the green ball of light in the south at around 3:17 AM this morning? It came from the lower part of the sky and fell down slanting to the left and what I presume hit the ground. I seen this while walking my dog.
September 21, 2018 · 1:30 PM · OTHER
Carbondale, IL
Location and conditions: Carbondale, IL, 09/21/2018, time 1:30 PM (about). Sky partly cloudy, visibility very good, temp about 85 F. Slight breeze from the north which the weather channel had reported as 5-10 mph. I was traveling east on the University Mall Drive, approaching the Post Office. I happened to look up and saw a black object moving from, approximately, North to South at about the speed you would expect a helicopter to travel about 60 mph. We frequently have medi-vac helicopters in the area as there is a local hospital 3 miles west of that location and I am used to seeing them in the air. In fact I used to be one of the ride-along RNs many times in them so I am used to watching them. I estimate the altitude at about 800-1000 ft. or so. This was not a helicopter, I am certain. Because of the unusual characteristics of this object, however, I continued to look at it as best I could while driving. Although the altitude and speed were similar to a helicopter, as mentioned, no other aspects matched. There was no noise, no tail boom, no skids, no windows, and was a completely different shape. This appeared to be sort of an elongated, many-sided polyhedron. As it moved, the sun would reflect off a shiny facet now and then as if it had a glossy surface. It did not move like a balloon. There was no bobbing or slight irregularity in motion as one would expect from a balloon. Its course was steady. Also, the speed at which is was traveling, as above, estimated at about 60 mph, was way above the surface wind speed by a lot. I do not have a wind report for the altitude the object was traveling at (800-1000ft), but there was at least one vulture aloft also in the area, about 300 yards further away than the flight path of the object and I judged, from the steady circling of the vulture, that winds aloft were not very high. That is, there was not a noticeable southward drift of the vulture's pattern that could match the speed of the object. I pulled into the Post Office parking lot and got out of my car to get a better look. My cell phone was in a zippered bag and I was concerned it would take too long to retrieve so I just continued observing. It came directly over IL Hwy 13, the major East-West route through town, passed the Post Office and appeared to make one course change from about SSE to about due East, then head in that direction at a steady speed. This would be unusual behavior if it was a balloon because the course change happened cleanly with no bobbling or turbulence as one might see if a different air mass intercepted the object. The course change looked to me like I would see a helicopter perform, but, as I mentioned, there was no noise, no tail boom and no other characteristics like a helicopter. I watched it until I could not longer see it due to buildings and trees behind the Post Office. The most striking features: 1. Silent and swift with no apparent lift surfaces or engine sounds. 2. Steady course with one course change. Stayed at same altitude during period of observation. 3. Nothing like anything I have ever seen in the sky. This I knew within seconds of spotting it.