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
August 2, 2016 · 10:00 PM · LIGHT
Winthrop Harbor, IL
This might have been two satellites, but we have never seen one following the other that close. Unfortunately my wife and I did not take pictures. We did not have a camera with.
August 2, 2016 · 9:35 PM · LIGHT
Champaign, IL
At 9:35 PM, I was sitting outside on my patio, looking at an unusually clear sky in Champaign County. Out of the corner of my eye, a white light drew my attention. I looked to the NW sky and saw what I thought to be a satellite or space station. However, upon a closer look, I saw two lights moving at the same speed, one seemingly following the other. I watched them move across the sky toward the south-west. They were moving at a speed similar to the space station I saw overhead last month. But there were two of them. Both lights disappeared behind what must have been a cloud high in the sky. However, keeping my eyes focused in that direction, I witnessed a single light, moving at what looked to be the same speed, only this time it was moving in the exact opposite direction, as though it was retracing its steps. I have never seen anything quite like this, and I am at a loss for a logical explanation.
July 30, 2016 · 9:00 PM · LIGHT
Tinley Park, IL
I am a 53 yr old female and have seen strange lights in the sky over the years, but nothing like this! I scrambled to get camera and video but could only get some still shots due to memory and low batteries. Over the course of about 15 minutes, I observed at least 25 red orange lights coming over my yard low and silent. They came from the northeast and most traveled Southwest, with a few veering off to the west and south. They would come over one or two at a time. I was so excited, I started flashing some patio lights and in response I believe, one of the craft shut its light off. I could then see that there was a much larger circular shaped dark object where the light had been. Another one shut its light off a bit later and that time it looked more rectangular and flat to me. I was left wondering who was that? Us or them? Is that our government testing things or is that something from a place far away? I waited this year to see if they would come back on the same day but nothing. My photos only look like fuzzy lights, but show the red orange color and I have some shots with 2 lights, time stamps 9 PM to 9:10
July 29, 2016 · 4:00 PM · OTHER
Bloomington, IL
Photos taken in Bloomington, IL, of my daughter and me when she dropped me off at the regional airport appear to show two different types of craft in the sky above us, triangular and so-called cigar shaped. The photos were taken on my Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphone in immediate succession, yet the craft are in different positions. In addition, no similar shapes appeared in photos before or since, indicating not a defect with the phone's CCD. I heard nothing; the craft simply were in the photos. ((ADDENDUM FROM WITNESS)) Have you looked at the photos at all? This response is incomprehensible! ((END ADDENDUM)) The witness provides several photos of the object, and although we are unable to identify the object positively, our impression is that it may be a streetlamp, located behind one of the individuals in the photo. The sourch of the report disagrees sharply with our assessment, and we provide his comments below. PD
July 27, 2016 · 11:00 PM · TRIANGLE
Wheaton, IL
I was standing next to my car looking up in the sky, and all of a sudden, a triangular shaped object passed by real fast and silent. It had to be about 500 feet up in the air. It had like green lights on its under belly that just floored me because it was going so fast and was so silent that you could hear a pin drop before you got a sound out of this craft.
July 25, 2016 · 9:26 PM · LIGHT
Rock Falls, IL
I was smoking a cigarette and I can see plans around area. I see a round bright light moving right to left pretty far away then it turned was coming closer. Not close enough to make a clear judgement what it was and then went backwards and back to moving left. It was moving key fat also. Very of how it moved which is why I took notice. I came in because I was getting ate up by mosquitos. Very odd though.
July 21, 2016 · 9:15 AM · RECTANGLE
Oswego, IL
this was an object that was a rectangular shape with blue on the outering of it and then red and white on the inside of it. it traveled south ward just before we had a big lighting storm , it hovered for a minute then traveled south for a second, hovered again and then traveled south west.
July 18, 2016 · 1:20 AM · SPHERE
Maryville, IL
Let my dog out one last time before bed at 1:20 AM. Saw a singular large, bright orange sphere materialize over the cornfield behind my house and then speed off across the field where it seemed to disappear in mid air. It traveled south to north, I heard no noise coming from the object, saw no tail, and saw no other lights. My dog did not seem to react to this object.
July 17, 2016 · 1:00 AM · TRIANGLE
Macomb, IL
What I saw happened during the Leonids Perseid shower. I wish I had written this down after the event but I am only now writing anything about 2 months later. I wanted to go see the meteor shower and I convinced a friend to brave the IL cold of November with me and watch the sky. I know it is best to watch the showers late night/early morning and away from city lights. I decided to drive to Spring Lake Park outside of Macomb. I believe what my friend and I witnessed happened around 1-2AM. The sky was partly cloudy which mostly foiled our plans of meteor watching. Anyway, as I was staring up I saw something move. It was no meteor and I don’t think satellites move the way this thing was. I told my friend I saw something strange and tried to get her to see it, which she did. We ended up watching this thing for about 45 minutes. But enough stage setting, this is what I saw: It was bright and triangular shaped. It was high up in the sky, higher than planes fly. It moved way faster than a plane. But the strange thing is it moved in short bursts. When it made turns, these turns were almost immediate and in 90 degrees. It also didn’t move across the whole sky, just in the same area of space; as if testing out its speed and maneuvers. If you held a notecard out with your arm extended and the card facing you, the area of the card would block out the area of the sky this object moved in the entire time I watched (~45 min). The craft would sit still for amounts of time between its bursts of high speed moving. When it did make the sharp turns it would start out fast and then slow down just before the turn. If I remember correctly it took a break after making turns. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides little contact information. PD
July 16, 2016 · 11:00 PM · LIGHT
Murphysboro, IL
Driving home at night, I witnessed a bright ball of light hovering above the horizon line. The light was absurdly bright, and I didn't notice it until I did a double take and saw the light. It was no more than 15 feet in diameter and seemed perfectly spherical. After observing the light for a couple seconds, it tracked backward and away at an inconceivable pace.
July 16, 2016 · 9:30 PM · LIGHT
Shorewood, IL
Observer: Retired commercial pilot with over 45 years of flying experience. ((ADDENDUM FROM WITNESS)) Peter: My house is in a cul de sac and faces 060 degrees. Traffic into Midway all day and evening were using 4R approach, which I am about 500ft to the right of center line. The object appeared to be about 3 time the size of Venus, only red. Altitude is difficult to determine at night, but I would say not more than 5000 agl, as that is what I'm estimating from observing the aircraft and personal experience flying into Midway in this area. I was also the director of Flight Standards for ((deleted--aviation entity)) and Chief Check Pilot for ((deleted)) yrs in addition to my 40 some years of flying in the Chicago area. The object appeared to be heading 270 degrees from our perspective, (right to left). My wife and grandson also observed the object. No aircraft are vectored into Midway from that direction (to tight of a turn on to the localizer). It was no aircraft, as when I first saw it I ruled out Mars, as it was too low in the sky and much brighter. Then I did look for position lights, and saw none. It was at that time I called my wife outside, as I our grandson was already outside with me. We then observed it for about another 3 minutes when it got to approximately 10 degrees to the right of our house, it went straight up and disappeared. Distance from out house approximately 1-2 miles. Drivers eastbound on I-80 and northbound on I-55 would have seen it also. It was awsome. Glad we were able to observe it. Hope this helps ((END ADDENDUM))
July 10, 2016 · 9:30 PM · FIREBALL
Lake Zurich, IL
In a 1t minute period there were 3 fireballs heading north spced evenly apart.
July 9, 2016 · 11:45 PM · LIGHT
Wonder Lake, IL
The lights seemed to form a rectangular shape with a point on the front. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
July 8, 2016 · 11:50 PM · LIGHT
Ottawa, IL
Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
July 8, 2016 · 8:04 PM · CIRCLE
Plainfield, IL
I was at my neighborhood gazebo located next to a pond, when I saw a bright white light in the sky, it obviously wasn't a plane nor was it a bird! I took 3 pictures but because it was so small it only appeared on one. Although when I looked at the photo it appears the craft is grey, I biked home immediately and here I am!
July 4, 2016 · 11:45 PM · LIGHT
Hometown, IL
The object looked like a ball of light in the sky. I first saw it on Cicero Ave it was floating south. I walked the dog and then I saw three lighted objects followed by four more and then 3 or 4 more behind them they came from the west (Oak Lawn) and flew over hometown, and they went east.
July 4, 2016 · 10:00 PM · CIRCLE
Oswego, IL
I had seen an orange sphere traveling east towards Chicago. The UFO was flickering, and had almost appeared to be on fire. Went either threw or above a cloud but was still visible. Exited the cloud and as it was about to enter another cloud it has slowly faded away. But never had exited the other cloud. The UFO had appeared to be traveling at the speed of a commercial aircraft. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
July 4, 2016 · 9:37 PM · CIGAR
Joliet, IL
it was a very bright blue and it had 3 lights on what looked like the side to the right and on the left side what could have been its back side was 2 lights and the back side was white it was just sitting there i went to get binoculars to try to see better thats when i seen lights on it i watched and watched while it sat still then i went to get my phone to take a picture i took the pictures and then continued to watch about two or three minutes after taking the picture it began to move slowly to the right then slowly to the left hovering for seconds and the it started descending slowly until it was out of sight
July 4, 2016 · 9:30 PM · SPHERE
South Elgin, IL
My family witnessed about 20 or more orange lights in the sky.... not too high up. They looked like they were hovering bot not moving too much if at all. My wife and I agreed that the only explanation would be helicopters. I have a cell phone picture.
July 3, 2016 · 10:30 PM · SPHERE
Matteson, IL
I just saw 9 ufo's about half hour ago. I was taking my dogs for a walk. When we were out in front of the house, I looked up and saw two round orange lights up in the sky. They were moving from east to west silently. Suddenly there were four orange glowing lights above me. I called brian and two dissappeared. Finally the other two dissappeared. Five minutes later two more appeared east and moved towards the west. It was over the house and a third orange round light appeared. Two more appeared then no more. They very bright, orange, much bigger than stars. The sky was cloudy tonight. And completely silent. I don't drink, or do drugs. WHAT DID WE SEE? I have a video.
July 2, 2016 · 10:30 PM · FIREBALL
Downers Grove, IL
My boyfriend and I were outside after cooking out. Some neighbors down the street were doing fireworks. After they finished, I looked in the other direction and noticed a large orange fiery orb moving towards us. I grabbed my boyfriend and said, "uhhhh, what is THAT?!" we both stood there watching. This orange ball of light, which looked fiery, was coming from the west of the sky. It moved slowly, made NO SOUND, and hovered through the sky. It came in our direction, and then made a sudden complete 90 degree turn, heading north. It was hovering slowly, silently, and then literally zipped out of sight like lightning. The entire event was less than three minutes. It was too high in the atmosphere to be residual fireworks; and nobody was doing any fireworks at the exact time this happened. It absolutely was NOT AN AIRPLANE. we stood there, completely dumbfounded.
July 2, 2016 · 9:30 PM · FIREBALL
Lively Grove, IL
Looked like a orange star at first off on the distance. We were driving east. As we got closer it looked like a orange fireball. We drove under it and as it got fit her behind us it started rising up in the sky, until eventually disappearing. It was fairly high and slow. Hard to tell, it was pitch dark
June 29, 2016 · 10:30 PM · FIREBALL
Schaumburg, IL
An object arose from he trees so fast it looked like a time lapse of a blood moon roaring but it was an aura this object only had the aura for 30 sec before I ran to get the camera when I came back it was a fireball almost this object was "breathing" a red light it would dim and brighter slowly the further it got the smaller the light became also there was no noise to the object unlike the thousands of planes we get over here ever day this made no sound
June 25, 2016 · 10:00 PM · CIRCLE
Orland Park, IL
saw blue green disk holding position in western sky. no clouds in the area.