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.
3,270 entries
January 7, 2015 · 9:00 PM · DIAMOND
Durham, NC
On the way to a gas station in northern Durham, North Carolina, my girlfriend and I witnessed an extremely bright hovering object, amber in color. We decided to drive around to get a better view of it over the treetops and witnessed what looked like a triangular light pattern -- one very large, very bright amber light in the nose and a smaller flashing light on each wingtip and center which stayed illuminated but strobed brighter in order from left to right. It passed in the opposite direction of our car. Because it was so far away we could not make out any structure. The large light was unlike anything we had seen in the sky before in terms of its size and brightness. Once it was out of view we continued to the gas station. On the way back to the house we saw the object again, hovering back close to its original position. It was much closer and we turned into a neighborhood to get a good look: The object was very close. I would compare it to watching a plane in take-off pass overhead in terms of its distance. As we pulled into the neighborhood it stopped hovering and began moving -- drifting might be a more fitting verb -- across the sky towards us. We parked the car and got out as the object passed directly overhead. As it did we both witnessed the solid black outline of an equilateral diamond: a small white running light in the center and at each tip with an over-sized, amber-colored seemingly directional (forward to forward-down) light at its nose and a significantly dimmer light on its tail. The three lights from wingtip to wingtip constantly strobed in a left-to-right direction as it moved away from us. The object was silent as it passed over and disappeared behind the tree line. We jumped back into our car to try and get a better angle to continue watching it but as we circled the woods which it had passed over it was nowhere in sight -- until we happened to catch the faint strobe of the object now a great distance away. We drove to my girlfriend's parents' house and watched this object glide back and forth across the sky at a great distance -- like a commercial plane at altitude --silently for over an hour. At one point her mother came outside to watch it pass at about 45 degrees above the horizon close enough to make out the triangular front of the object. We kept noticing that it seemed to pass in a straight line until we could not see it anymore and then begin its trajectory again from where it started -- but we never saw it fly back. We assumed that we simply missed its return path. Finally we watched one disappear not behind trees but simply into the distance and made sure to watch for its return. It never flew back. Suddenly it was once again close and over our left shoulders. We were in disbelief that it could have 1) flown back to this position with such speed and 2) have done so without us noticing. We tracked the object as it passed about 60 degrees above the horizon when suddenly we noticed a second, identical object flying towards us from a great distance. We continued watching these two objects pass back across the sky. The total sighting lasted from 9:20pm to 10:45pm, which is to say that at 10:45pm I finally came inside out of the frigid cold to write this report.
January 2, 2015 · 3:20 PM · TRIANGLE
Cary, NC
On Sturdivant, saw silent large dark triangular craft with six round lights below it. I lost sight of it due to tree coverage.
January 2, 2015 · 12:05 AM · FIREBALL
Durham, NC
I was driving down the road and happened to notice in the sky 3 red balls in the air, they were equally spaced apart traveling fairly quickly. There was no sound from what I could hear. I got on a round about to proceed onto the highway and got my camera out but as I got positioned to capture them on camera they were gone.
January 1, 2015 · 1:20 AM · LIGHT
Mebane, NC
At 1:20AM on New Year's Day 2015 my wife called me to the second story window of our house to look at a bright orange light that was traversing the sky in a steady arc from the Western horizon up over our house. It was not blinking and it did not change in intensity or direction. When we were no longer able to see it through the window she went outside to view it on the other side of the house and I went to a second story window on the other side of the house to see it. I watched it until it disappeared out of sight below the Eastern horizon. My wife watched it from outside during the same time and reported that she did not hear any noises associated with the light's movement. It was within sight for an estimated 45 seconds to 1 minute. She first noticed it when it was about 25 degrees above the Western horizon and I saw disappear in the Eastern sky at about 15 degrees above the horizon. We have seen the International Space Station move across the sky at a similar rate of transit many times before. This light was a bright orange color in contrast to the bright white of the ISS. This light was also about 4-5 times brighter than the brightest ISS sightings we have ever experienced. This light could not have been reflected sunlight since it was about 6 hours after sunset. The night was perfectly clear and 24 degrees Fahrenheit. The 3/4 full moon was in the Western part of the sky near where my wife first saw the light. We did not get any pictures or videos.
December 31, 2014 · 9:00 PM · CIRCLE
Rolesville, NC
I'm 50 years old and seen alot of planes in the skies these were weird did anyone else see these? They were brite thanks for reading.
December 31, 2014 · 8:00 PM · LIGHT
Fayetteville, NC
Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
December 30, 2014 · 12:05 AM · LIGHT
Swannanoa, NC
Looked like flares going up, but when they went to arc, they silently flew horizontally off to the south east not loosing any altitude (no parachutes either)
December 27, 2014 · 9:30 PM · LIGHT
Raleigh, NC
Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
December 27, 2014 · 8:30 PM · FIREBALL
Fayetteville, NC
Bright blue light falling from the sky.
December 26, 2014 · 8:00 PM · LIGHT
Leland, NC
It appeared somewhat oblong in shape.
December 15, 2014 · 2:00 AM · LIGHT
Raleigh, NC
Bright fast light crossed the sky at great speed.
December 14, 2014 · 9:00 PM · OTHER
Charlotte, NC
My friend called me to report two bright "stars" in the sky flashing multi-colored lights. He gave me the approximate location so I went outside with my phone and binoculars and saw the larger orb. I could see the flashing lights with my naked eye - green, red, white, blue. When I used my binoculars, they were very bright and clear, like an LED light, not blurry, and flashing in a rotating pattern around a glowing orb. I live near a flight line and witnessed several planes pass by. This was not a plane. It hovered in the same spot for about fifteen minutes and then began to slowly drift south. Not fast. I could barely tell it was moving. At one point it disappeared then reappeared within a few seconds. As it drifted south, the flashing lights lessened in intensity. I could only see them with binoculars at that point as the light seemed to be getting a bit smaller and looked more like a bright star to the naked eye. I brought my husband outside to w! itness the phenomena. He is ex military and said it was not a plane or helicopter. There was no sound. I took a video with my phone. Granted, it's not the greatest and the orb looks small but you can still see the flashing lights. I'm not sure what it was. I've tried to debunk but honestly, I can't come up with an answer. At one point on the video, I describe it as resembling a flashing Christmas tree full of multi-colored lights. What impressed me most was the brilliance of the lights. It may not be anything but I wanted to report it since it was so unusual. Probable sighting of Sirius. PD
December 13, 2014 · 5:00 PM · SPHERE
Winston-Salem, NC
Orb that moved erratically and shifted from white to a blue violet color. The blue shift seemed to affect my camera's focus. We watched it til it went over the horizon at an unbelievable speed.
December 11, 2014 · 10:00 PM · LIGHT
Burlington, NC
My wife and I, on the night of Dec 11th, around 9 PM to about 10 PM, watched a formation of lights. We live north of Burlington, NC. The lights were to the south southeast at about 4 o’clock high. They moved around slightly and in a tight formation and were flickering. I watched one drop down a ways then went back up to the others. They stayed in the same place all the time. I called the sheriff’s office and reported it. They said they had no other reports but would look into it. Never heard back from them. We know what we saw were not airplanes. Not unless the fly in one place for almost an hour. No doubt they were very high up. Then all of a sudden, they disappeared. Bound to have been seen by others. Thanks
December 11, 2014 · 8:00 PM · DISK
Franklin, NC
There were 5 or 6 lights in a row blinking, whites and reds. It was just sitting there over top the ridge of the mountain, then it just totally disappeared. This was my very first sighting...skeptical at first at what my eyes were seeing, but now other explanation. We live in a very rural area in the mountains, now houses up on that knob, and very little airplane traffic, and a plane doesn't just sit there anyway! I'm kinda excited!
December 10, 2014 · 7:00 PM · LIGHT
Garner, NC
Lights in distance quickly moving in every direction then shooting up at great speed.
December 3, 2014 · 10:43 PM · CIRCLE
Bunn, NC
I went outside to walk my dogs, and I was looking up at the moon. There were clouds, but a large break in the clouds. Then just north of the moon a bright white circular object moved across the sky at a high rate of speed. It moved a lot faster than any aircraft can move, but not at fast as a meteor. As it moved from east to west it got very bright for a second then kept moving at the previous brightness. I contacted the local news department, and the local airport radar facility to see if any one else saw the sighting.
December 3, 2014 · 9:30 PM · TRIANGLE
Kannapolis, NC
3 bright white lights in a triangle formation. Seen in the NW sky completely still for a minute or so and then slowly descended straight down below tree line and was out of sight.
December 1, 2014 · 6:20 PM · SPHERE
Indian Trail, NC
As i looked back up in the sky, an object flew past overhead. At first I thought it was a shooting star because of the speed but the colors changed from red to yellow or amber. I have never seen anything move that fast in my life. Although I should have been able to watch it for a while longer it seemed to simply disappear in front of me. Not sure what it was but it was definitely different. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
November 30, 2014 · 8:00 PM · TRIANGLE
Leland, NC
Bright orange/yellow light came across the sky. Underneath the craft I was able to make out that it was triangular in shape. Red and orange lights. The craft was silent and seemed to just glide across the sky and a fast speed.
November 28, 2014 · 11:30 PM · FIREBALL
Cape Carteret (Emerald Isle), NC
November 28, 2014, between 11:30 and 11:59pm. My 14 year old son and I noticed from a distance a floating red light in the sky and thought nothing of it. As we got to the beach and started walking, I noticed another glowing red light – too close to be an airplane. It looked like someone had “set it free” from the beach not too far from us and it hovered toward us. I thought it was a drone or remote controlled aircraft, BUT there was no sound at all. They moved slowly and seemed to be “floating” in the sky. One came closer to us and then sailed out over the ocean and finally disappeared as it got too far away to see. Another one followed it but never came close to us. Then another. There were 5-6 of these with 3 visible at once. There was no wind and very little sound other than the crashing waves. We continued walking toward where we thought they were being “released” but then they were gone. 8-10 minutes from the first sighting and they were gone.
November 28, 2014 · 10:18 PM · FIREBALL
Greenville, NC
Saw what appeared to be two burning round objects in the sky moving upward. Objects were orange and flickering. They moved slowly and then after a minute or so seemed to burn out and disappear. About five minutes later another of the same objects appeared and did the same thing as previous two.
November 28, 2014 · 9:40 PM · OTHER
Raleigh, NC
While driving on I-40 from Raleigh to Chapel Hill, my family and I (both parents and my brother) and witnessed multiple objects flying relatively low, utterly soundless. Opaque darkness obscured stars above the area between lights; one object was a triangular shape and one was a slightly arced line. The lights were a burnt orange color, quite bright and steady, and lasted for 3-5 minutes. We first saw the lights from a distance and drove directly under them and they disappeared from view a couple of minutes after we passed. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
November 26, 2014 · 7:00 PM · TRIANGLE
Lincolnton, NC
Similar to aviation lights except for layout Wich was three main lights in triangular pattern with one flashing light separate from the other. Craft was flying just above some very low clouds and following the path of the clouds. No noise what so ever was heard. Not a jet or prop plane. Total silence. Flew as to stay in as much cloud cover as possible. Never seen anything fly that smoothly. As if there was no effort. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD