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
February 12, 2023 · 3:00 PM · SPHERE
Manhattan, IL
Observed brightly shining traveling south away from position. Thought it was another spy balloon. Took out phone and began recording. While watching, the orb appeared to have disappeared. Later review of the video showed orb did not dissappear, but rather flew away at a high rate of speed, following a arched trajectory.
February 11, 2023 · 9:20 PM · TRIANGLE
Plainfield, IL
5 triangles in a formation close together , almost transparent, glow light , but faint light pulsing from each of the triangles kind of like a firefly light. That’s what caught my attention I watched it as it was heading south for about 10-15 seconds then it all just vanished. It’s a super clear night tonight . Never have witnessed anything like it
February 7, 2023 · 6:29 PM · CHANGING
Alsip, IL
I was outside smoking a cigarette with my brother in-law. I was looking north of my location in the sky talking about the comet with him when i got a strange feeling to look behind me. When i looked behind me to the south in the sky above my house i noticed a object that i can explain and a transparent long-bow. The object i can only explain as clear with a glow or aura similar to a halo around something. Like a see through cloak. But it bended light. It traveled east from the west but as it moved steadily it shifted into a square but the same glow around it. It is a clear night and i was still able to see the big dipper through the object. How i can explain it better is as a glass cup in your hand sideways in the air you can see through the glass but you still see the outline of the cup.
February 5, 2023 · 6:56 PM · TRIANGLE
Highland, IL
Traveling west/southwest in sky almost like a low flying plane small dim-lights atypical of placement on a plane. Trajectory was not straight it hovered back and forth while moving forward. Object was shaped as a v or triangle with a series of very dim lights down both sides in direction it was flying. 4-5 lights down each side. Silent.
February 1, 2023 · 5:48 PM · LIGHT
Gurnee, IL
Alright, LEGIT just saw TWO UAP's..... Definitely NOT PLANES... brighter one was following another that was dim, BUT still showed up on video.....took screenshots from Flightradar24 to show NOTHING was supposed to be crossing that area..... Last seen heading east over Lake Michigan Gurnee Illinois February 1, 2023 5:48 pm
January 11, 2023 · 6:41 PM · CHANGING
Quincy, IL
I went outside of my job and sat on the stairs of 509 south 9th street and looked towards the left and the abandoned school.. Some distance above it was a rather large bright white light that was pulsating its brightness, after about a minute of hovering and strobing brightness it seemed to get so bright it almost looked like it split into 2. If you slow the video down you can see clear space between 2 different color orbs. The object then start moving in a straight line left. Its color was more of a red oramge now, still pulsing. Not like a plane flashing its lights, not a helicoper(because our hospital has a helipad and helicopter) and its movement an and height in sky didn't look like a drone, or anything I've ever seen(and I observe the night sky every chamce I get, im learning the cosmos). It moved in a straight line until disappearing from my view. The weirdest part is that when I'd zoom in to get a better pic on video, it was as f it disapeared, like it didn’t want to be seen. I took still shots of it in slowmo and no clear shape other than an s rotated sideways was shown
January 5, 2023 · 10:45 PM · UNKNOWN
East St louis, IL
We don't know what we saw we just want to share this video and live a peaceful life not to be interviewed by every one.
December 27, 2022 · 4:30 AM · CIRCLE
Chicago, IL
Several lights, circling each other at high altitude and very high speeds, SE of Chicago, well above our 35,000 feet
December 18, 2022 · 4:15 PM · LIGHT
Effingham, IL
Me and my wife were standing out side I looked at the “star for a good 30 sec before telling my wife to look at it because it stood out so bight and big in the middle of the day. As I’m saying this is unlike any star or planet I’ve seen in middle of they day it just disappears in a blink of an eye. We looked and looked to see if we could see anything else but we couldn’t. They sky was clear nothing in the other than 1 UFO and 3 jets/planes the 3 planes where all in a pretty close flying formation in the direction of a military installation so I believe it was a Air Force exercise witch happen to catch the attention of a ufo that me and my wife just happen to see.
December 17, 2022 · 9:00 PM · TRIANGLE
Springfield, IL
Was a triangular object with multiple lights on the underside heading south towards St. Louis was around 9 at night on Saturday the 17th my wife and I were shocked when we seen it happened so fast we both were in disbelief
December 11, 2022 · 7:00 PM · DISK
Homewood, IL
About 7pm I saw a bright orange saucer shaped craft flying/hovering heading East toward my house. West South/West. It was cloudy, and it was just inside the clouds. It was generaly flying East and at times was hovering. I didn't hear any sound from it. I'm an Army veteran. It wasn't flying like an airplane, or hovering like a hellicopter.I unlocked the door and got my wife and showed her. Then got my younger son. The first thing my wife said is that "It's hovering." By the time I got my younger son to see it. It was heading West and much further away. It's flight characteristics were all wrong.
December 9, 2022 · 4:45 AM · SPHERE
Southern MI/Northern IN, IL
I was the Captain on a flight from LAX to JFK on December 8, 2022. Upon returning to the flight deck from a bathroom break, I was told by the first officer to quickly look outside and see what he was viewing. There was a large white orb, with a second one above it and slightly right, in the night sky. As pilots we try to rationalize and determine what we are looking at and verify that it is no issue for our aircraft. The orbs stayed for a bit and then suddenly vanished. The first officer and the flight attendant, who was in the cockpit while I was in the bathroom, said there had been an even brighter orb which looked like oncoming aircraft traffic just a few moments prior. They had looked at the TCAS with nothing on the display. The night sky was quite bright due to a full moon in the western sky which was lighting up our whole eastern view of the sky. There was a low overcast layer which kept the ground light from shining through. A few moments later we noticed the orbs again and were shocked by how bright they were. We had heard earlier that day that Mars would be the second brightest object in the sky, after the moon, due to its proximity to our planet this evening. The orbs that we saw were larger and much brighter than Mars, which we had seen in the western sky during our departure out of LAX. I radioed ATC to have an adjacent UPS flight come up on a separate frequency. I asked them if they were seeing anything in the eastern sky when the orbs showed up again. They said they also saw them. Cleveland ATC got involved in the discussion and asked us to report everything we were seeing. Our location was just east of Chicago airspace near Indiana/Michigan border. ATC then queried other planes, including an Alaska Airlines flight. Other planes, including a private jet, also reported seeing the orbs. We probably saw the orbs come back into our views seven or eight times over the period of 25 minutes. As I said previously, we tried to rationalize to figure out what we are looking at. The interesting thing to me was the fact that they were extremely bright, and moved extremely quickly when they did. During one of the viewings there were multiple orbs, I counted six, and one of them had moved in an arcing manner. I have seen Starlink satellites numerous times in my career, including a launch chain of Starlink satellites on a flight over the Pacific four years ago. These orbs, when they moved, moved much faster than a Starlink satellite or a common satellite. I estimate the orbs were at a much higher altitude than a satellite would normally be at, as I just by chance was able to see a satellite moving slowly across the sky right after one of our sightings. Approximately 15 minutes in I viewed what I thought was a shooting star. I have seen many shooting stars during my 32 year career at the airlines. I thought hard about this one and realized most of the shooting stars I have ever seen are very brief and move across or slightly down. This one moved almost straight down from 12 o’clock to 7 o’clock and was extremely bright like the orbs we had been viewing in the previous 15 minutes. It struck me as kind of odd as it moved in a direct straight line and didn’t have the typical tail you would see on a shooting star. About two minutes later, another orb moved the exact same way, exactly parallel to the one I had seen prior. After that I saw a distant orb a few minutes later and that was the last activity witnessed by me. In total, I estimate that 6-7 flights had some type of viewing of the same orbs we viewed, based on the chatter on ATC frequency. Cleveland ATC did comment that they have have a large uptick in unexplained sightings in the last few months over the Great Lakes area. I am not an aerodynamic engineer or physicist but I don’t know of anything man made that could fly at that altitude, move that quickly, and be able to turn at that speed and sustain that type of G load. What we witnessed was unexplainable to me. The hair on my neck was standing and my heart was racing due to what we were viewing. In total I viewed the orbs 7-8 times during my 25 minute encounter. The First Officer has some photos and videos that he will add with his report.
December 9, 2022 · 4:30 AM · LIGHT
Chicago, IL
Saw two lights, that would become very bright to dim...changing speeds and directions constantly. Watched them for about 45min. High up in the sky, we were 35000ft and they were well above us. Multiple aircraft were reporting seeing the lights.
December 5, 2022 · 5:00 AM · RECTANGLE
Genoa, IL
May to August 1979. On paper route at around 5:30-6:00 Am. I stopped to adjust the paper bag on my handlebars and something made me look to the west of VFW. One spot (light), then two, then three. They all moved same direction very slow moving East. Lights made a triangle. Came out of Dekalb Co. cornfields. Headed west, so slow and so huge should have fallen from the sky. These were slower than a blimp. Was not scared, just stuck looking at it. No recollection of rest of day. I have a clear picture in my head of the occurrence that I’ve seen over and over in my head for 45yrs. Told parents and brother. Mom didn’t believe me but my brother did. He believes I saw something, but stops short of agreeing with me. Current sightings identified recently look the same as my sighting. Have pictures of same thing as mine. Why the cornfields? How so big and slow, but not falling? 1979? Witnesses? This has haunted me for decades. Anything anybody? Not a joke. Take seriously please. Would like to know before I die. Thank you.
December 4, 2022 · 1:04 AM · CHANGING
Carol stream, IL
Bright orb shaped changing to saucer shape. Rapidly moving in all directions looks like it was collecting energy when it stopped it would burst little sparkles off of it and take off and change directions at blink of an eye when I first seen it it looked like a black hole behind it. At times it stood still I seen other little lights dropping down to it.
November 23, 2022 · 8:12 PM · CHANGING
Normal, IL
Watching out back I saw 2 lights, and called for my husband. Him and our son came out. We watched the lights dance around. Some colors were blue, yellow, orange. I recorded it. The object morphed from a diamond, cylinder, oval, rectangle, and a house shape (a square w a triangle on top) about 10 minutes and they just disappeared. My phone went whacko n wouldn't turn on at first. I have video footage but cannot figure out why it won't attach here.
November 23, 2022 · 7:15 PM · CHANGING
Normal, IL
I was on my backyard Deck, and looked Southwest to notice jumping around dots in the sky. They changed colors and shapes. One fell out of the sky. Another (3) zoomed off in the very beginning. There was many of them. My phone wouldn't turn off when I tried to. I have 8 min. Of video I can share with you. This is now our 3rd sighting. We have video of another sighting w the 2 white crafts. All sightings were from our backyard Deck. The 1st one was a triangular shape like a slice of pizza. We (my husband and i) could only see the 3 corners lit up. Our daughter also saw it. We didn't get video of that one.
November 23, 2022 · 12:30 AM · TRIANGLE
Flora, IL
On 11/23/22 around 12:30AM, I was outside with my dog before bed. The sky is absolutely clear so I look up at all the bright stars looking for constellations as always. From the north/west, I see this big dark triangular shaped object fly right above my house. I can see the entire bottom of it. It reminded me of a Lego piece. It was flying so low and steady. There were no lights and it was completely silent. It flew to the south/east over my yard. It was so remarkable I couldn’t even move. It was gone within 8 seconds.
November 22, 2022 · 6:05 PM · TRIANGLE
Carbondale, IL
My wife and I were sitting outside by our fire pit enjoying the fire when I happened to look up to the North East sky and I saw this V shaped object flying overhead coming towards us moving west, I told my wife to look up as well and we both watched this object pass over us. It was a very brief sighting as it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
November 22, 2022 · 5:56 PM · LIGHT
Chicago, IL
This three small lights were spotted near Chicago area on 11/22/2022
November 22, 2022 · 8:40 AM · OVAL
Wauconda, IL
I was driving south east on Rand Road, and saw an oval shaped object that was sitting vertically made of shiny metal. The object disappeared suddenly and then reappeared to the far right of me while I was driving, hovered there and then completely disappeared in thin air.
November 21, 2022 · 8:30 PM · UNKNOWN
Steger, IL
From the patio of my home looking south I spotted an object in the sky with red and green lights. The 2 red lights were blinking sequentially and the green light was steady and seemed to cover a larger portion of the object perhaps covered a section of it. It's very hard to tell the altitude of the object. There are common flight paths coming from the Midway and O'Hare airports to the north and other flight paths going to and from other regional airports, so I am very familiar with seeing them come and go. They behave in a predictable manner. This object was primarily hovering at first. I saw at least 3 jets traveling at various directions at the same time as observing this object. One jet flying south passed either directly over or under this object. With naked eyes it's clear that the object was meandering, easy to notice when referencing trees and other land objects. When I realized this object was not ordinary I went inside and got my phone to record this object. The night sky recording is far inferior to my eyes and did not focus well on the object for most of the recording. The camera also did not pick up the trees or nearby homes to have a reference for altitude or size. I did think I heard a sound from the object. It was hard to tell as the house is close to railroad tracks that are way too busy with train horns and passing train car rumblings. But, it seem the camera did pick up a droning of some kind, either a faint prop or an indeterminate whooshing sound that seemed to wax and wane. The object was stationary but them meandered east and then north which eventually placed it directly above my home where I was standing. Unfortunately this was exactly when a train began blowing its horn and disturbed the sound recording. At this point the camera was able to focus a little better to see the red lights more clearly as they were blinking sequentially, and the solid green light underneath or to the sides. In the darkness the camera is not good enough to focus on the object itself but only recording the lights on it. After the object passed overhead and further east it changed direction to the south again and then to the west, over the forest preserves. It proceeded far into the western sky until I could only view it deep into the tree line. At that point it changed direction again and flew N/NW which again kept it basically flying over the extensive forest preserve area. It kept on that course until it vanished behind the tree line and presumably out of my horizon line of sight. I am not that familiar with drones and my suspicion was that it perhaps was a drone or perhaps a sort of helicopter but I've seen and heard many helicopters flying over this house and they are much louder and they fly along a straight path. If it was a drone it seems it was a pretty advanced one to fly at night and that high and far from a possible remote control. The forest preserve parking areas it flew over were all closed at this time of night. If it was controlled from a town neighborhood area that would be about 2 miles away at its closest. It is worth mentioning that just one block south of my home there is a cell tower. I tried to use that tower's height to estimate the altitude of the object and that's assuming the object was smaller than a single engine plane. I'd estimate the object's altitude was at least 1,000 feet but again depending on its size maybe much higher, or maybe a bit lower, but if so not much lower. I am almost sure the sound I heard briefly was coming from the object. I think if the pilot of that commercial flight that passed over that path looked down they'd have seen the red and green lights. If this object was inside the flight path I think it might have been seen on the control tower radar, but again I am not very familiar with these protocols. addendum: if I knew the maximum size allowed for uploading a video i would try again but after 3 edited videos and 3 failures to do so it's not going to happen I guess.
November 19, 2022 · 5:55 PM · RECTANGLE
Chicago, IL
While taking a video of Magnificent Mile lights show I accidentally recorded an unidentified flying object. It appeared to have a gap in the middle of some sort as if it has two parts that are joined together inside a bubble. There were many people around but it lasted just few seconds.
November 11, 2022 · 9:05 PM · FORMATION
Lisle, IL
The lights were in clusters of 3 and would spread to singular almost choreographed, they were at least 15. There was one light that seemed dominant in the upper right hand. There is a reflection of my phone and our car radio but it's clearly distinguishable. I was afraid to get out of the car because my mind couldn't wrap itself around what I was seeing before I made the snapchats, which I deleted feeling confused and embarrassed. My boyfriend and I are 19 and do not believe in conspiracies, UFO's do not cross my mind. I cannot I unsee what happened last night. I am leaving my Mom's email and phone number because I was using snapchat and did not have service, but I am available most mornings.