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.
4,277 entries
June 29, 2018 · 8:30 PM · FIREBALL
Petrified Forest National Park, AZ
Fireball had a fiery green trail in its wake, it was very transient and no trace of smoke or anything remained in the sky after it disappeared. It was seen during twilight with the sky still dimly blue, not yet dark enough for stars or comets to be visible. One witness said it made a sound like whistling. Coordinates: 35.102758, -109.791433
June 21, 2018 · 9:00 PM · LIGHT
Chandler, AZ
This is the second incident where I've seen the same occurrences. I saw a solid white dot racing through the upper atmosphere of the night sky. I thought it could've possibly been a satellite until I saw another one, then another at the same time. I went and grabbed my binoculars and my high powered telescope and my daughter and I continued to scan the sky. I tried to keep up with an object with my telescope but it was extremely fast. I couldn't make out a shape but it was a brilliant, white, solid, light. I yelled for my boyfriend to witness what we were seeing and he saw the same things. They were way too high to be an airplane or drone. If they didn't slow down, speed up, change direction and sometimes completely just vanish, I would think they were just satellites.
June 17, 2018 · 11:30 PM · CHANGING
Anthem, AZ
My friend was driving tonight, he saw these lights ghat resembled the Phoenix lights, so he pulled out his phone and took this, both of us are currently working to become pilots so we found this pretty cool, i just figured id report it to see if anyone saw something similar. Video clip shows a group of moderately bright lights, moving against a dark sky. PD
June 11, 2018 · 11:30 PM · FLASH
Gilbert, AZ
(( Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD))
June 10, 2018 · 8:00 PM · SPHERE
Mesa, AZ
Saw a circular UFO while walking my dogs tonight around 8:00pm MST. Glanced up and saw a violet-turning-magenta colored circular figure (I can only explain the violet color as looking like your nails do when you're in a room that has a black light on) in the sky sitting dead still. At first I thought it may be a plane or helicopter coming straight toward me, appearing to be still, but then the object started moving to the left (eastern sky beginning at dead-center east, then slightly left of east across horizon and back). The object moved slowly to begin but glided unlike anything I have ever seen. It then stood at a dead stop once again for about 30 seconds. After this it ZIPPED QUICKLY AND UNNATURALLY to the left about an entire palms-length when held up to the horizon. After this it stood still for a moment once more, then zipped back to the right to its original position and lowered itself straight down at an unnatural speed. This happened three times and I have three separate videos of the event. Directly before recording the third video, a helicopter made a brief attempt at chasing the object (which prompted me to run into my home to grab my camera for a third recording). (( Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD))
June 6, 2018 · 8:00 PM · OTHER
Scottsdale, AZ
Hovering bright red light in southwest sky then extremely fast moving south to north. Moving in a very straight, smooth line north. Oval shape with tail that had a green light. This happened south of Camelback and Hayden Roads and moved very fast north. Color may have been light blue or gray.
June 6, 2018 · 2:00 AM · CIRCLE
Mesa (Historic part), AZ
• Went out on porch for a smoke just after 2a.m. • Saw a perfect circle of red (only) lights blinking all blinked at same time, no other lights were seen. • All the lights blinked at the same time and blinked quickly, seemed faster than any other aircraft lights blink. • It looked like it was flying on its side. Like a dinner plate on its side. • It was flying very fast, planes go over me every night, and I am in the airport flight pattern for landing. The object was going the opposite direction than all other aircraft normally go. • There was no noise; it was close enough that I should have heard it. I hear other aircraft in the same area and I do hear those. • It seemed to be flying much closer to the ground than the usual aircraft fly even if landing or taking off. • Did anyone else see it, or am I losing my mind?
May 29, 2018 · 7:45 PM · RECTANGLE
Mesa, AZ
As I watched the sun set and planes making their way to Sky Harbor airport, I noticed a black, square aircraft almost directly overhead. It was much further away compared to the planes heading to the airport. And it didn’t move much. Watching for a few minutes, I saw that when it did move, it was slow and bobbing. This was potentially a balloon or drone. But it would have to be jet sized or bigger, judging by the planes for reference. The craft was too far away to take a meaningful picture. It was just too small. But I ran inside to get some binoculars just in case they would help show some detail. I came back outside less than 60 seconds later, and it was gone without a trace. Nothing in the sky either above, or on the horizon. It was far too slow to have moved completely over the horizon or up out of sight in less than a minute. After a brief search, I’d say the closest similar sighting is one recorded in McAllen, Texas, on Dec 6th 2014. (( Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD))
May 29, 2018 · 12:00 AM · CIRCLE
Phoenix, AZ
A family member of mine was walking their dog outside in my neighborhood last night at about 11:00pm - 12:00pm when they brought the dog in and raced to bring me outside to see what they had just seen. they described what they saw as a drone type thing flying around more like hovering about 50 over the houses and had 2 red dot laser looking lights in the top or front and one green light that flashed on the bottom but only flashed when it traveled upwards. the witness says they stopped and looked at the drone thinking at first that it was a kids toy or someone flying a drone but the way it moved couldn't ever be a drone. the drone seemed to peer over at the witness as if they were looking at eachother and the witness turned away and walked the rest of the way home after watching the drone shoot straight up into the sky into the clouds faster than anything could move, they described it as unreal seemingly fast. at this point the witness was coming inside to get! me where we both left the dog inside and came out front to look down the street and see the drone again so i can see it for the first time. i did not see the drone myself but as we were searching the sky about a few hundred feet away id say a mile or half mile away and a few hundred feet high was some red lights and a green flashing light that seemed to be moving left to right then stopped and turned right to start facing me and looked like it was heading towards us then stopped still pretty far away and lit up very bright like a streetlight but bigger and is just stayed there until a little bit later after going back inside i walked outside again to look at the light and sure enough it was there until a few seconds later it seemed to move away and disappear and thats the last we saw of it. (( Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD))
May 17, 2018 · 9:00 PM · DISK
Rio Rico, AZ
At approximately 8:30 to 8:45 p.m. on Thursday May 17, 2018, I was in my backyard in Rio Rico, Arizona. I was on the phone with a friend from San Diego. I witnessed several strange anomalies in the western sky while I was on the phone with her. Things like, what looked like silvery/white lights that at first I thought were airplanes but could not possibly have been because they were not blinking. Solid light. They were stationary for periods of time and then would move up, down, then move in a straight line then move diagonally and up and down then completely disappear like someone flipping a light switch. This went on for around 30 minutes on and off. At around somewhere between 9:00 to 9:30 p.m., the unthinkable occurred. I had my eyes fixated on the more North Western part of the sky, and it was very dark out because the new moon had already dipped below the horizon, but several stars were visible in the night sky, and in the EXACT location where my eyes were looking, a huge, I mean GARGANTUAN formation of lights appeared in a long BAND. It just appeared as though, again, someone had flipped a light switch. Like, it was not there and then suddenly THERE! It seemed extremely close to me, like no more than a football field away up there. It was stationary, did not move from its location, however, it did many odd things that will be difficult to describe, but I will try. The object was perfectly visible to me and the experience lasted, to the best of my recollection, for about 10, maybe 12 or so seconds. A rather long time! During this time, the following occurred very quickly: The band of lights looked somewhat like an engagement ring, with a big light in the center and three slightly smaller lights on either side for a total of 7 lights. They were perfectly visible and SQUARE…but perhaps not entirely square, more on the rectangular side, yet almost square. Then…the band of lights did a really odd “morphing” type of thing (for lack of a better way to describe it), where it seemed to become “one” long band of light for a split second and then when it returned to separate rectangles again, the object seemed CLOSER to me. It did this 3 times and on the 3rd time, it seemed ever so much closer to me than when it appeared the first time and I CLEARLY saw a slight shadowy structure around the rectangular band of lights! But it had no color…just a darkness that seemed to fill in the spaces and it looked very “saucer-like” in an obscure way. THEN...I became acutely aware that it was aware me ME, all in a couple of seconds of time before it did the fol! lowing: each of the lights blinked of and on in a nonsensical way, then all of the lights were back on and then in a flash, it completely disappeared. I used to listen to a lot of Linda Moulton Howe back in the day, so I immediately had the presence of mind to assess how large the object would be if I held something in between my thumb and index finger and stretched my arm out as far as it could go, up against the night sky. So, if you had one of those clear plastic Bic Pens, with the blue cap on, and took the cap off, and held it in the aforementioned manner, THAT is how big this damn thing was! It was HUGE. One more tidbit: Last year, in 2017, at around the same time of year as I recall, my husband and I saw a LOT of anomalous activity in the very same sky where we lived then, and now. I had another experience with the same kind of “engagement ring” band of light, but it was fully in the Western sky as opposed to the NW. But, this band was only 5 lights and they were a fiery brilliant orange color. The ones from last night were totally white. And like last night, the experience from last year also caused me a strange feeling of “it is aware of me” because it was coming towards me, just like last nights experience. To conclude, I know a few people in this area, who have also seen many strange anomalies in our Rio Rico Arizona skies. I did not report last years events. But the one that happened last night was so huge and so blatant and so incredibly amazing that I felt I really needed to share it. It is a couple of days later as I write this and it is still bothering me to know that I saw what I saw. I feel very strange. It made absolutely no sense at all. It left me with the feeling that something had occurred on an inter-dimensional level. There was no sound. My mind does not know how to process this. Thank you for your time and consideration. PS! A side note I almost forgot to include! I tried to film it with my iPhone, but the video button portion was completely missing! I tried to use the photo feature, but when I pressed it NOTHING HAPPENED! I quickly gave up because I did not want my eyes to miss anything. After the event was over, and my poor friend on the other end of the line had to listen to me kind of freaking out and asking me a ton of questions about what was happening, the camera feature in my phone would still not work at all and the video button was still missing. After I ended the call, I rebooted my phone and still, the video portion of my phone’s camera was NOT THERE…and nothing worked. At bedtime, at around midnight, I plugged my phone into the charger and fell asleep. I had a horrible nightmare about the event and when I woke up, it was the first thing on my mind. When I unplugged my iPhone from the charger, the first thing I did was go straight to my camera and lo and behold, the video ! button had returned and everything worked as normal. Just FYI!
May 16, 2018 · 8:57 PM · OTHER
Apache Junction, AZ
Not as big as moon but bigger than Venus very white bright light big. Lasted less than 2/3 minutes. It was freaky and exciting all at once. Not anything I have ever witnessed. It was east of Apache Junction just south of Superstition Mountains out towards Florence, Az. or Superior, Az. What a sight.
May 16, 2018 · 7:30 PM · UNKNOWN
Queen Creek, AZ
Then they moved instantly a little more North and started doing the leap frog again but heading West only about 5 times and then nothing. The first set would only have 2 on at a time (just a bright dot). The second group would have 3 on. The whole event lasted less than a minute and did not happen again. I did not see any objects as the lights were very far away. When talking with my father in law he mentioned he got them on camera and I have a clip.
May 8, 2018 · 11:00 PM · FIREBALL
Prescott, AZ
I’m a 24 year old Male, with two college degrees. One in hard science, one in architecture. I have had sightings before but I like to think it’s because I pay close attention to the sky at all times. Last night - the night of May 8th, 2018, I was at a friend's house. I was standing in the backyard and happened to be looking in the sky, slightly to the SW (looking in the direction of Thumb Butte for those of you who know the area) and all of a sudden a fiery ball of light that pulsed between green and yellow light frequencies streamed through the sky at high speeds. It lasted for only about 5 seconds. Right when it entered our field of sight, the 4 dogs that live on the property started freaking out. This was not a meteorite. I have seen multiple and many meteorites at varying distances in our atmosphere, and this was not one. It was too low and not fast enough and the color was not that of a meteor burning up. Only one other person in the backyard saw it with me.
May 8, 2018 · 12:00 AM · OTHER
Apache Junction, AZ
My sister and I were driving a back road. A green beam from 3-5 miles away shot a straight beam at us. My eyes still hurt. It repeated 7 times at first it seems it was a lost hiker. I pointed me headlights at the light and turned them off and on. The light appeared to climb the mountain side very quickly. The it became 2 light sources. Sudden flicker appeared as stardust, then again back to a green beam. I flashed a flashlight in flames of 3 hoping for more communication. And only a faint light remained then disappeared. The event lasted about 30 minutes. This was not my first encounter, just a new experience!
May 3, 2018 · 9:15 PM · CIRCLE
Bullhead City, AZ
First saw this shape with a light pattern on 5/2/18 at the same time of day. Was able to focus a telescope on it for about 2 minutes before it vanished. On 5/3/18, I saw it again. Sky is clear. No moon yet. I observed it for the full duration through the telescope. There is a very definitive and intricate pattern to the lights. It was also moving very slowly as I had to keep adjusting the scope. I was able to record approximately 20 seconds of video and got one decent picture using an iPhone. From the north end of Bullhead City and just east of the airport, the scope is aimed to 300 degrees and 4 degrees up from horizontal. The light pattern has been visible the last two nights. Without moving the scope from last night’s viewing, I looked through it this morning and all I could see was clear sky.
May 1, 2018 · 8:00 PM · FLASH
Apache Junction, AZ
There were 2 bright lights, that could only be seen through the telescope, and they were white. Then a third one appeared and they moved into a triangle formation, after chasing each other around in the sky just above the saddle of the mountain, when looking from Apache Junction. Once they settled into the triangle formation, they began "crashing" into each other, for lack of better description, almost in turns. When this happened, they would glow bright and then dim back down, and would change color as they got hit, almost like it was showing damage. They went from white, to green, to red to an orange or amber color. Every now and then, one of the lights would shoot off and disappear, and another would come back to replace it in just a few minutes. This went on for at least an hour, until 2 extremely bright lights flew in from the south, moving like helicopters, and chased the color changing lights behind the mountain, where they did not reappear from behind of. These lights were only visible through the telescope, but the flashes could be seen with the naked eye. My son was very freaked out, and I was texting multiple people a play-by-play as it was happening, eyes glued to the telescope. I was unable to get any photo documentation due to this fact. Times and dates are estimated, but within reasonable range. The event occurred between the middle of april to end of may, and it had been dark already for a while. I did not realize such a thing as this existed, or I would have reported this the moment it happened
April 29, 2018 · 9:15 PM · RECTANGLE
Benson, AZ
3 red lights blinking but they were far apart. At first we were not sure if they were moving. But then the lights rhythm changed and it starting moving towards the Rincon Mountains, where it looked like it landed.
April 16, 2018 · 10:05 PM · OVAL
Glendale, AZ
Orange/red ball floating across the sky from west south west to north north east. Was not a fireball, but rather a fairly bright object. At very end of sight, appeared to have a long tail from the end of the light. Began seeing when directly above. Never have seen anything like this. Too slow for a comet. But moving faster than a small plane. Elevation seemed somewhat higher than a small plane. Moved at same speed. Did not ascend or descend. Very small haze around the ball. Did not leave trail while moving.
April 14, 2018 · 8:30 PM · OTHER
Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale, AZ 85260 - Near Shea Boulevard and 101 Loop (Highway). Approximately 8:30 pm Saturday, April 14th, 2018. At approximately 8:30 pm Saturday, April 14th, 2018 I arrived at my home, parked my car and stepped to the backyard. I am in a neighborhood that is dark, does not have streetlights and the properties are all close to 1 acre plus in size, the night is clear, still has some suspended dust particles in the lower atmosphere/sky that can affect the color like a filter. I unplugged the lights that illuminate a Paolo Verde tree in my backyard. I looked to the South West and saw the “Belt of Orion” the significantly identifiable constellation that I recall my children always pointing out to me. I was alone and enjoying the dark sky and the stars straight up and to the north. After seeing the “North Star” as directed by the “Big Dipper’s” outer ladle stars I turned back to view towards the South East and saw a magenta colored object with sequential lights, like a 1970 Ford Thunderbird with its right turn signal on, observed rolling from my left to right moving at a steady swift speed in a Southern and lower trajectory; maybe below 10,000 to 15,000 feet. The object seemed to stay on the same altitude in my field of vision. The lights were red and then bright white and the background of the lights lit up in magenta (magenta, somewhere midway between blue and red); it was very pretty and very different. The lights where arranged in similarity to a shallow bowl, curving upwards and at an apex point above there was a point that was not lit but visible with some opaque connection from the curved lit zone upward to that apex point. The sequential movement of the light created a visual image that made the object seem to be spinning, however it was very quick and this was unlike anything I have seen in the sky before. I witnessed the sighting for about 5 to 10 seconds, then ran into my house and gathered my binoculars which were very close to the screen door to view. I was excited to view the same outline however, the sequential movement of the lights changed to an “all on” or all illuminated pattern but, the apex point (at the top of the curved bowl shape) and the outline of a structure was more evident. I quickly went back into my house to grab my camera that can zoom and potentially capture an image. At first because the screen is very small and aligning the camera in the night with a moving object in the sky I didn’t think I captured the image. However, I do have something on the camera. It is very small and only visible for about less than 1.5 seconds. The camera shows a more blue in color but, I do not have a good way to review the video yet. On the counter between 6 and 8 seconds, the small spot in the field of view on the top half of the screen shows, what I believe is the moving object described above. It is very quick and very poor, the larger light was unfortunately one of my solar powered lawn lights. I am willing to share the video, the sighting in the video is on the higher side of the field of view than the garden light I ended up targeting instead for the remainder of the shoot.
April 13, 2018 · 8:30 PM · LIGHT
Scottsdale, AZ
I am a semi-retired finance professional with an advanced degree. I rarely drink and do not do any drugs. I am also an amateur astronomer with a small scope, and because the airport is fairly close, a plane watcher with binocs on the outside table at all times. The point is that I am intelligent, sober, rational, skeptical, and I can recognize planes, man-made satellites (have seen 3), and stars/planets. What I saw was not one of these. On 4/12, at 10:30 PM, took dogs outside for the normal business. As usual I looked at the stars. Visibility was good – a bit hazy at about 20 degrees and below from a dust storm earlier in the day but generally clear directly overhead with major constellations visible. Saw a bright flash (about as bright as landing lights turning on but much farther away and not in the flight pattern) due west at about a 70 degree elevation. The light was flashing at 15 second intervals (I measured it) which is too infrequent even for a plane at cruising altitude. It was moving south for about 3 minutes but moving too slow for an aircraft and much much too slow for a satellite. It also did not seem to be moving in a straight line (somewhat difficult to tell due to infrequency of flashes). Over this time the light gradually dimmed and took-on a slight reddish hue before it became too dim to see. On 4/13 at 8:30 PM went outside for some fresh air. Looked up and saw the identical scene with these changes: I did not see initial flash and the direction was south/southeast. The sky was much clearer tonight. Also, about 8 weeks ago I was up very early 3:00AM to catch a flight. Outside with the dogs. Looked up and saw a moving, steady light (no flashing or colored lights) about the size and magnitude of a typical star. It was moving slower than satellites I have seen before, and seemed much too high for an aircraft (my first thought was that it was a private jet a high altitude). The light moved straight south covering about a 20 degree arc and then quickly faded at about Orion’s shoulders. The third sighting in the list very well could have been a satellite, but the other two were definitely neither planes, satellites, nor meteorites.
April 7, 2018 · 11:00 AM · CIGAR
Florence/Apache Jct. (between), AZ
Returning from Florence through Apache Junction. Noticed two grey objects, spaced apart and moving congruently across the sky, going south to north. Appeared to turn west or to elevate, and then one vanished; immediately the other.
April 6, 2018 · 12:20 AM · FIREBALL
Florence, AZ
We were out at Country Thunder (and very sober!). Saw an orange ball of light in the sky, slowly making its way across the desert south to northeast. Too high to be a floating lantern.
April 3, 2018 · 8:30 PM · LIGHT
Phoenix, AZ
A bright red light moved left, right, then left, and then faded out. Roughly NNE of Phoenix. I initially thought it was a military aircraft, but the red light was odd. Being prior Air Force, I thought it might have come from Luke AFB, but no aircraft can move laterally like that.
April 2, 2018 · 5:38 AM · LIGHT
Tucson, AZ
I have been seeing lights in the direction of the AFB for quite some time, especially in the couple of hours just before dawn, but they seem to be more blatant and odd lately. They appear as points of light that are either white, red, or green and they move rather strangely. Sometimes there is only one light moving around but lately there have been two. They move laterally, diagonally, and vertically. The oddest part to me is that sometimes they appear to be shaky. They show these little micro-movements that remind me of Somebody with a shaky hand holding a laser pointer. This night there were two lights vertically stacked on each other. They would blink on and off and change color (white to red), and they seemed to be able to move both independently and in unison. In addition to these lights that I normally see, two nights ago (4/7/18) in the same direction there was what appeared to be a normal aircraft, moving normally, with blinking white lights and a stable red light. However, it would be ascending diagonally, get to the same point in the sky, and then disappear only to reappear where it began and follow the same trajectory again. It did this cycle at least 3-4 times that I saw.