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 9, 2017 · 8:15 PM · FORMATION
Carbondale, IL
At approximately 8:15 PM, my husband was coming home from work and spotted a formation of lights in the sky. He called me and told me to go outside and look at the lights. The lights were directly over our property and were approximately 1/4 mile wide. There were 18-20 red lights that were flashing in a sequential order. The lights were exactly the same distance apart and looked liked they bowed near the end. There was absolutely no sound and the object was moving very slowly. I called our neighbor and asked her to go out and look. She saw and reported the exact same thing. I also called the Jackson County Sheriff's office and they dispatched a deputy out. The deputy reported to me that he had seen the exact same formation and really didn't know what it was. He also said they had been getting reports from towns and counties in surrounding areas. We live a few miles from the regional airport and are very familiar with small planes and helicopters flying over. This formation was flying at about the same height. It was flying low. I did receive a call back from the Jackson County Sheriff's dispatcher, and she said Scott Air Force base had been contacted and they claimed they had planes flying in a formation over the region. This is absolutely impossible, but not unexpected. The object blocked out the stars, was moving much too slowly for a plane (s) or even helicopters, the formation of lights did not deviate position at all, and there was absolutely no noise.
December 7, 2017 · 11:00 AM · EGG
Champaign, IL
I was on the way to class with friend and noticed an egg shaped object hovering and what sounded like a cracking sound. The object was too far to discern any other details. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
December 1, 2017 · 5:05 PM · CIGAR
Springfield, IL
Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
November 25, 2017 · 3:02 PM · CIRCLE
Springfield, IL
I look towards the east and it looked like birds circling around, but upon second glance, I noticed a pin sized light in each object. There were roughly 10-15 objects. As I watched, they continued flying in circular formation, criss crossing one another, at the same time rising higher and higher. I ran inside to grab my phone and tried to record it, but when I got back out, (literally 3 seconds later) the objects were so high in the sky I could barely see them anymore. My camera could not detect anything. I continued watching them move up, and a little southeast until they finally disappeared completely. All of this happened within the timeframe of 1 minute, just minutes past the 3 o'clock hour, central time.
November 23, 2017 · 9:39 PM · CIRCLE
Wilmette, IL
White round light flying quick, like a shooting star, but closer to the earth. Flew with a low quick sweep east to west, then shot up to disappear in the sky. It was a very unusually clear night sky with many stars and
November 21, 2017 · 8:30 PM · OVAL
Springfield, IL
Seen outdoor at western edge of town, looking west. Dark sky. Body was a bluish light with smaller lashing red light. Objects seemed equally spaced, very far apart, much too high for commercial flight, moving ever so slowly. Went to quickly call ham operator. They were gone when I returned.
November 15, 2017 · 9:00 PM · CIRCLE
Champaign, IL
I was on a Greyhound going to Chicago from Champaign with my boyfriend and it was about 9pm, probably several miles away from Champaign. We both saw a very large half circle that was orange in the sky. I thought it was the moon at first but we saw the moon, and this was completely different. It was very large, like almost bigger than a billboard on a highway. I noticed another passenger was frantically looking for it as well, when it disappeared in a matter of seconds. You saw it, blinked, and it was gone. Source of report indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD
November 9, 2017 · 4:20 PM · SPHERE
Batavia, IL
I saw 3 lights they occured at different times in the sky one of them moved around then disapeared. The sun was about to set it was still very light outside so it couldn't of been a plane or star. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
October 27, 2017 · 3:15 PM · SPHERE
Chicago, IL
I was headed southbound on the CTA bus on Damen Ave. on 10/27/17 the day way heavily overcast. Somewhere between Clyborn street and Webster where less buildings were the best to my recolection is where I noticed this object in the sky. I was looking up towards the West sky noticed how thickly covered in clouds it was then that moment there was a parting of the clouds and I saw a shpere. It was gray with a glow almost luner like, did not do anything but just stay there for that brief moment and the clouds covered it up again.
October 18, 2017 · 2:00 AM · OTHER
Sparland, IL
Possible sighting of a "twinkling" star, or perhaps Venus, we wonder. PD
October 12, 2017 · 4:15 PM · CIGAR
Effingham, IL
I was driving into my neighborhood after picking up my daughter from school. I saw something flying behind our subdivision over a forest area. I got my phone out and started recording it. It was moving very slowly and at first I thought maybe it was a drone. It was way to large to be a drone though. As I got closer to it, I turned off my video to turn it to camera to take a pic and I looked back up and it was gone. I drove home to grab something at my house and as I am pulling out my driveway I see it again, just slowly moving and hovering over the forest again. As I got closer I tried to get my camera view on again and it disappeared again. That was it, but I did get a view of it on video. My phone would not work for a little bit either. I couldn’t call anyone or upload the video at first.
October 8, 2017 · 7:30 PM · LIGHT
Bloomington, IL
2 lights, about 4 to 6 inches apart from eye view, just over the roof of our garage in the eastern sky. Went over central Illinois regional airport. I first thought they was stars, but they were brighter than any other star in the sky. At I thought wow wth stars are those? But then quickly noticed they were moving. Ran through the house to see better and they disappeared over the tree line. Clearly, was no plane, although there were other planes in the vicinity. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
October 8, 2017 · 8:30 AM · CHANGING
Leland, IL
I was driving south on rt23 after just turn off rt34. I noticed the Sun in the east skies above the crop field and thought about how great that would be as a photo so i took images of the sun, realizing that my window was up and would probably make the picture not what I wanted I put the window down and took a few more images of the east sky. As i was uploading the images I noticed a spot, since I had changed the color filter on them to negative. I became curious and looked at the others and on the normal photos there is a bright green spot and you see it travel from the top of the crops up to the southern skies and then I had one out of focus but the shape was not a spot but looked like the planet Saturn. All spots were that same green and turned a black when in the negative filter. I was not able to really look at what I was shooting because I was driving though it moves in elevation while the shot is taken at a very close same position from my window. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
October 4, 2017 · 6:40 PM · SPHERE
O'Fallon, IL
Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
September 30, 2017 · 5:00 PM · TRIANGLE
Lasalle, IL
I was walking down the street, down hill, in a neighborhood. Its a little past dusk.. When I a blacklight looking light caught my eye. I thought it might be a drone. So I stop to check it out. When I noticed that it looked like plasma fire that started to change colors. Then I realized that there where three of them on each point. Then this ship probably about the size of a medium size house started to turn at an angle. Now the circular balls of color changing "Plamsa Fire" is the best example can give. They stated pulsing to the center of the ship. And as the ship moved off at an angle, it like .. For my only example would be like a cloaking ship off star trek it shimmered off.
September 29, 2017 · 7:00 PM · SPHERE
Rockford/Belvidere, IL
Objects would dim and disappear, then light up again. After roughly 5-6 minutes, they seemed to mimic normal aircraft with flashing lights, then would return to the orange sphere and slowly rise until out of sight.
September 28, 2017 · 3:54 PM · CYLINDER
Mattoon, IL
Slow flying aircraft...cylinder shaped and silver. There was a low pitched humming sound...not loud like a jet. At first I thought it was a jet but it was moving too slow and had no wings. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
September 27, 2017 · 9:00 PM · TRIANGLE
Johnston City, IL
Counted at least 9 triangle or V shaped objects, seemingly hovering then moving in formation slightly forward then backward or shifting side to side. Some would sporadically move extremely fast almost appearing as falling stars, then stopping abruptly.
September 20, 2017 · 6:53 AM · LIGHT
Normal, IL
White/yellow ball of light that started high in the sky and slowly moved down toward earth. Did not land. Faded out slowly as it got closer. No blinking, just a steady bright light until it faded out. Looked almost like a plane in holding, but it was nowhere near the airport.
September 12, 2017 · 6:12 AM · LIGHT
Elmwood Park, IL
Looking from my bedroom window to the west, I saw 6 sparkling lights in the sky. At first I thought that they were possibly airplanes, satellites, or twinkling stars, but they were bright and close enough together not to be planes. They were slowly moving downward in a southern direction. Two of them slowly faded away while holding their position, while the remaining four kept moving in a southern direction until I couldn't see them anymore. I've never seen sparkling lights in the morning sky moving in such a curved, symmetrical pattern. Interesting to watch, but odd.
September 9, 2017 · 10:00 PM · FLASH
Blyton, IL
My family and I were standing in our field looking at the cloudless, 2/3 full moon, southwestern night sky when all of us said, "Did you see that?!" We all saw a very bright, white flash in the northeast sky. What was weird was all of us saw this flash out of the corner of our eyes so that attests to how bright and spread out the flash was.
September 6, 2017 · 11:00 AM · SPHERE
Warsaw, IL
I was in my garage, when all of a sudden, there was a giant sonic boom it knocked a few things off the wall it was so big. i immediately ran outside to investigate because i could hear a jet off in the distance. when i stepped out of the garage and looked in the direction of the jet sound, i saw a giant silver sphere, just hovering. It was about a half mile away and maybe a hundred yards up in the air. My son was standing in the doorway of our house and i said, "check this out it's a ((word deleted)) ufo!!" he took 2 steps out of the house and it moved to the right a little bit and just faded away. It didn't speed off, it just literally faded away.
September 4, 2017 · 9:36 PM · SPHERE
La Salle, IL
Called my son to come look at it. We both observed it moving back and forth up and down for another minute, then it moved closer to us and shot up up so fast I can't even describe it to you. No sound. Just brilliant orange light. And it moved like nothing I ever seen before.
September 2, 2017 · 8:29 PM · LIGHT
Lewistown, IL
I am a 56 year old female, with two years of college education and I have worked in county government for 36 years. My friend is 57 years old and an elementary school teacher. She has a Bachelor’s and two Master’s degrees in the field of education. Her husband is 72 years old and retired. He Is a US Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, is also a college graduate. He returned to this area and retired from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. We are all from Fulton County originally and have lived in this area most of our lives. We were enjoying an evening campfire on their property which is located approximately 2 ½ miles southwest of Lewistown, IL. Around 8:30 pm, I was kicked back in a zero gravity chair, when I noticed a mostly red light moving horizontally across the sky. The way we were sitting, my friends had their backs to it, and so, I immediately started yelling for them to look! We like to go to this same spot to enjoy the yearly Perseid or Leonid meteor showers and at first, I thought we were being treated to a rather large random meteor. However, that was not the case. It continued to move slowly across the sky in a southwest to northeast direction. While we were focused on it as it moved away from us, I noticed another one coming from the same area! It was the same thing, a solid, mostly red light, moving slowly and in a southwest to northeasterly direction. When I say mostly red, it is because it did appear to have some white with it or around it. My friend was able to get ! some video of it using her iPhone. Needless to say, this sparked some very lively discussion for a while as we speculated on a possible explanation for them. There was no noise of any kind associated with them, they were not huge and we guessed they were flying at 500’ or less. We almost immediately thought of them as drones of some sort, but, then wondered about the logistics and legalities of flying them at night? We also thought it might be some sort of study being conducted by the Department of Natural Resources or some other such agency, perhaps studying animal activity at night? Along those lines, we concluded that they were traversing the area in a grid like pattern. We came to that conclusion because the trailing one, while appearing to follow the first, was offset, so to speak, flying at the same altitude, but, parallel to the first and not directly behind it. We were still in the same location, I was again kicked back in the zero gravity lawn chair and at 9:20 or so, when another one appeared!! Same size, same color, everything. It was much farther offset than the first two, but, traveling in the same general direction and at the same altitude and speed as the first two. We waited and watched the sky for quite some time, thinking another “trailer” might be behind it, but, we didn’t see anymore. We wondered, if perhaps, we had missed the lead one and the one we saw this time was the second one? Again, there was no noise associated with it, nothing that would have made you look up, I just happened to be looking up. All three of them just moved steadily across the sky until they appeared to blink in and out until you couldn’t see them anymore. We didn’t feel like they “disappeared.” It was more like, they just got far away and probably went behind the cloud cover. We left probably 40 minutes after the second sighting and went back to town. None of us had seen anything like them before.