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
June 17, 2014 · 9:25 PM · LIGHT
North Topsail Beach, NC
Witnessed a series of orange/red light off the ocean shore. Lights would appear in one spot for 5 to ten seconds, then the light would fade out. Lights appeared at various height from the horizon. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
June 17, 2014 · 8:30 PM · UNKNOWN
Kure Beach, NC
After dusk, when the sky was darker, but not totally black, we saw an orange light (single) come on and fade out gradually over a duration of a few seconds. Then about 45 seconds later, a second light came on towards the south of the original (same pattern/duration). Then it started about 5 minutes later even further south. Again, seeing two (but this time one of them had a double vertical light). 15 minutes later they were spotted north (double the area they were at previously). Only this time there were three of them. One was a single light, one was a double light and the last had three horizontal lights (like square window shapes - while the double was verticle circles). Then a few minutes later, they showed back up around the same area, but the three lighted one was much closer to us. They were way out over the ocean, had no streak marks like a flare or firework would. We thought they could be military craft, but they didn't "fly" right.
June 17, 2014 · 8:00 PM · SPHERE
Topsail, NC
Over the period of 10 minutes, ten orange spheres of light appeared and disappeared in 10 second intervals. They were miles over the ocean high in the cloud layer. Some appeared to be paired with a twin with each group spread out miles from each other in the line of sight but at the same approximate level of altitude. Each ball appeared to fade in and out over the 10 seconds they were visible.
June 15, 2014 · 8:00 PM · CHANGING
Charlotte, NC
I have never really believed in this sort of thing, but I just saw an object in the sky over south Charlotte at 8:00 p.m., 6/15/2014. It was black and seemed to be a semi-circular shape but seemed to change shape in a slow, wobbly manner. Almost like a blob or jellyish type structure. It did not look natural. It either had a bright white light or some sort of reflection of the sun, but it was slowly spinning so the light would come and go. It was directly over me and in plain sight at low altitude. Someone with terrible eyesight could have easily seen it. I watched it for over five minutes, probably closer to ten. It moved very slowly, gaining in altitude pretty steeply in regard to how quickly it became too difficult to see. I recorded it from my phone, but it has no zoom. By the time I decided to find my phone and record, it had floated quite a distance. It was indistinguishable on the screen because of its altitude and the sun and lack of zooming ability. My neighbor walked out as I was filming. He watched it with me. By the time he saw it, the object was at a greater distance and higher altitude so he asked if maybe it was a weather balloon. It was not, though. It was almost thickly transparent-like, but then it would “morph” into a jet black with absolutely no plasma look to it. It did not look like it was “made of matter” in the sense that we usually perceive matter. I am somewhat shocked because I am a hard sceptic of almost any phenomena reported on any subject. I called the airport. They said that they know of nothing in the sky, that there is a National Guard Base nearby. Really though, I’m not sure why I called them because this “object” did not look natural and moved in a very unnatural manner as well. It was not a “vehicle” per se. I am truly at a loss for words. I saw it earlier this week too, but it was very far away so I didn’t call or make a report because I wasn’t sure what I saw. On that day, it seemed to hover in a completely still position and darted off at an extremely high speed. I was intrigued as to what it could be, but it was very far away and pretty much a small, dark spot in the sky. I am certain now that this was this object or something very similar that I observed.
June 14, 2014 · 8:37 PM · FIREBALL
Lake Lure, NC
in the distance was a plane beyond these,, at first I thought it was the moon shining on planes,,but they were larger and went quick lye,,, tried to grab my camera but it was too late!!! Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
June 13, 2014 · 8:30 PM · LIGHT
Corolla, NC
I was carrying some of our luggage out of our rental vacation house the night before we left for home. On one of the trips to the car I noticed in the distance several bright orange lights approaching from the southwest. The lights appeared orange in color and I thought at the time they would probably turn out to be the red and green wing lights of an aircraft, once they got closer and I could see more detail. I soon could see that there were three orange lights each separated by perhaps a half mile. They moved one after the other towards the northeast and then each in turn seemed to turn more northward in direction. I thought anytime now I would see the flashing strobes of the planes, as we had seen various private and military aircraft all week. The strobes never appeared, only a very bright intense orange light which never wavered. I have since read reports of “Chinese lanterns” being released in the past, while researching what I had seen, but I find it hard to believe the quality of the light I witnessed was the flickering of a candle. In addition the height and speed of the objects approximated that of the aircraft I had been seeing in the preceding days. The first orange light flew almost directly overhead and while I listened intently for the sound of an engine there was total silence except for the occasional sound of thunder from a lightning storm just to my northwest. I turned to ask one of our traveling companions to take a look and then looked back at the lights and the third light had disappeared, I don’t know what happened to it as I had only turned away for a second. However, as the second orange light passed by, there was an extended lightning strike from the storm which lit up the sky. I could see nothing but the second orange light with no shape or body connected to it. But moving across the sky behind it was a black or dark grey shadow that seemed to pulsate and change shapes stretching first longways and then sideways in an alternating fashion. I then lost sight of all three objects.
June 12, 2014 · 9:30 PM · RECTANGLE
Thomasville, NC
I was browsing this list to see if anyone else had seen what me & my brother saw this same night. I have been trying to figure out this whole time what exactly this thing was & was so shocked to find that someone had actually reported this thing & saw it besides us. On this night, my brother left his house on one side of town (but on the side of town our home was located) going wherever he was going, when he phoned me to tell me about this incredible thing he was looking at as we speak. Some big square/rectangle like object just slowly cruising through the sky not far from the ground. I listened & payed him no mind really as he can be kind of goofy at times. But I did hear him out only because he sounded so ecstatic while telling me. Shortly after, I had to leave to go to my daughters house, (also on the same side of town as me) when I turned on one of the streets to get there, as I approached the bridge I noticed a big foreign object in the sky. Exactly the! description the person reported in this list, almost invisible but only because it blended into the night sky & I was only able to make out some strange rectangle like shape in an upright position just cruising on over the bridge right above me as I slowed to a crawl continuing underneath it. I watched this thing float over the bridge from right to left as I passed under it. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It amazed me so that the only thing I could think to do was to call my brother as fast as I could & tell him what I had just witnessed. I only had a cheap flip phone at the time & was not able to catch a picture, plus I was driving, riding in my car, freaked out at the sight of it anyhow. Unfortunately, I was the only one on the road at the time. So no one else saw it on this back road on the outskirts of town. We reside in the county. All of us do. And it was dark. I phoned my husband immediately after, to tell him that I think I saw what my brother had just seen. And of course I told my daughter when I arrived at her house. ! I hate that I wasn't able to catch it on film but I did do a drawing of it as soon as I got home. I still have that sketch & have just been sitting on it since then because I honestly believed that no one else had seen this thing other than me & my brother. It did have huge black windows across (what I would believe to be) the front of it & only a few little flashing lights in various places along it. It was like a dark greyish color with a "boxy" type shape. Like a square nose, then a vertical rectangle like body with a triangle like top but off to one side. From my direction the triangle top would be off to the right top side. It was very strange. No sound at all. It made no noise. Just hovering but moving at the same time. Slowly. I watched it as long as I could while continuing to drive & trying frantically to make a phone call to my brother until it had gone off in the distance opposite to where I was going. I watched it until I couldn't see it anymore. But this thin! g couldn't have been more than several hundred feet above the ground because with the bridge I was on, the thing wasn't more than 100 ft or so above me? Or so it seemed. It was huge & seemed to float right over me? But I'm not very good at measurements, so I can't say for sure. I have just been curious if anyone else had seen anything similar in or around our town. Then I found this site. Never knew it existed til today but I am relieved to find that someone else may have witnessed this thing also. Sorry for the long, drawn out story...I am just excited to be able to tell it again.
June 12, 2014 · 9:00 PM · CHANGING
Asheville, NC
At 9:00 p.m. on June 12, 2014, my friend and I saw over the Kenilworth section of Asheville, NC, groups of orange fiery lights or shapes that would head in to cluster, then cross, and drift apart. We saw this phenomena as it drifted toward the east (individually, not as a piece) for five minutes as a hot-air balloons might. Objects, comparatively speaking, were much bigger than a star.
June 12, 2014 · 5:00 PM · RECTANGLE
Thomasville, NC
I heard a buzzing noise, so looked around for aircraft and saw a plane, and this square object the color of the sky almost invisible but it had 4 red lights in each corner at first 2 of the lights on the same side were blinking then only one blinked then there were just 2 red lights on one side and 4 yellow lights 2 in each corner. The object went faster than a plane and went in an octagonal path then after circling a few times flew away into a cloud. Source of report provides two illustrations, which are posted to the NUFORC homepage. PD
June 11, 2014 · 9:25 PM · OTHER
Washington, NC
I'm a pizza driver, and this sighting occurred on a delivery! Immediately upon pulling out of our store's parking lot, my attention was drawn to a bright orange light moving across the sky. It was somewhat close to the Moon at first. My eyes were glued to its position, because this was no plane or helicopter. I could tell by its movement which was obviously free of any particular direction. Then, after a few seconds, the light turned off as it swooped down at an incalculable speed. It flew directly over my car and I saw a grey, squared shaped craft with a dark circle on the bottom. However, it was flying in the opposite direction from where I was driving, so I lost sight afterwords. I have witnessed orange lights a few other times in this area recently, but this experience was the closest. Most visually apparent an unknown craft has made itself to me.
June 10, 2014 · 10:30 PM · DIAMOND
Oakboro, NC
It glided over my house at the treetops. It was dark And I was in the yard with the dogs. I expect it was 200 feet up in the air. It appeared to be glass and glowing fluorescent white from the inside. It had ribs with flashing colored lights along the connections in the glass panels. It had no wings. It had a circular disk around the back section. It made no smoke trail, but it did make a high pitched whirling roar. Just glided on past and over the next ridge. We suspect that the report is an attempt to hoax us. Telephone number and e-address provided by witness are non-functional. That usually indicates a hoaxed report. PD
June 8, 2014 · 10:00 PM · CIRCLE
Warrenton, NC
Then it just disappeared after I watched it for at least 10 minutes. Was seen about 1/2 mile south of Warrenton, NC, where no street lights or house lights were present.
June 8, 2014 · 9:45 PM · LIGHT
Marble, NC
Two bright orangish-red lighted circle were moving slowly across the sky in a close and tight formation. There was no sound on a very quiet night. They suddenly disappeared and vanished.
June 7, 2014 · 11:14 PM · OTHER
Nags Head, NC
My 2 coworkers and I were taking out the garbage, one of them saw what appeared to be a constellation in the eastern sky. I looked up and thought “wow, I have never seen that constellation before.” Upon looking closer we saw that the objects were moving. They looked like stars, a few brighter than the rest and one being much bigger and square shaped. They were moving from west to east, directly overhead. The formation was about the size of the Big Dipper. There were at least 30 objects, maybe even 60 and possibly more. There were some flying backwards, some diagonal, but most were staying straight. I called my friend and he confirmed seeing them for a short time. As soon as they were in the vicinity of the moon, we could no longer see them. During the sighting I tried to take a picture or video with my phone but that program was not working.
June 7, 2014 · 9:15 PM · SPHERE
Wake Forest, NC
Streaming in formation over horizon for about 20 minutes. Have pictures and video. Engineer and a Dr/Scientist observed with 4 other people. All dumbfounded. Too large for incendiary or weather balloons. Also some in parallel formations with 5 or 7 all moving at same speed. Others in a vertical line, trailing each other.
June 3, 2014 · 1:00 AM · SPHERE
Kannapolis, NC
After the fire got going, I sat down to relax. After about ten minutes, I had the strangest sensation that someone was looking at me. I looked to my right and I saw this orb which was white in color, the same color as a star. I would say their size was about the size of a softball, maybe as big as a basketball. Hard to tell. However, this orb wasn't a celestial body as it was maybe only 100 feet above my trees running down the property line. The object was static for approx. 30 seconds as I initially observed it. While looking at it, I was trying to figure out what it could have been. Then after half a minute, the object started pulsing (bright, gone, bright, gone) and began moving erratically over my property, changing altitude, direction, and velocity. It emitted no sound at all that was perceivable to me. At this point, I ran in the house and got my friends to come outside and observe. We could not identify the phenomenon, however, one friend offered up that they could be fireflies. This was the closest explanation, however it failed to explain the color (object(s) were bright white, not greenish-yellow), nor the speed at which they were able to traverse the sky (very quickly as to meandering around). We then began seeing other orbs spontaneously appearing in the night sky, and they began to fly in formation. The maneuvers would then break off in different directions and start kind of behaving randomly again. An orb would appear in a place in the sky, disappear, then pop up in another location. The pulsing of the light was not static either. Sometimes they would strobe faster, other times they would appear to flicker. We tried to photograph them, but they did not appear in the digital photographs, which was odd because they were much more luminous than the regular celestial objects appearing in the night sky. In total there were four of us obs! erving. I was also using binoculars to see them upclose, however, I was unable to make out any shape or physical form as the light they emitted was intense and not translucent. At one point, I believe I heard a helicopter nearby, and wondered if they were seeing this. There was also a jet aircraft moving quite fast and flying low which came out of nowhere and was traveling in the direction that the orbs were present. Several of them shot up vertically to the flight's altitude and got very close to the aircraft. Immediately proceeding this event, the sky seemed to be brimming with these objects flying in formation in groups of two's or three's, disappearing, and then emerging way across the sky in the same flight path in another location. It seemed to me that they were "jumping" almost. Very weird. When the phenomena had stopped for about an hour, I was outside and had this thought to myself that was something like, "Wow, I wish I could see them one more time, it was so cool" and immediately, as if on cue, one was literally at the tree tops in my back yard right above my head. The object seemed to persist until I finally called it a night and went back inside. No further sightings since. My friend said that the color at times appeared slightly orangish, but I can say that I definitely did not see any orange, or any other color, except pure white.
June 2, 2014 · 6:50 PM · RECTANGLE
Gastonia, NC
Around 6:30 pm traveling I-85 S. past Bessemer City Exit. As I checked my rear view mirror, I saw a large rectangle shape hovering over I85 N. Inside the rectangle was like a hologram and it had multicolored light that moved or resembled flames. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. Possible hoax, we suspect. PD
June 1, 2014 · 9:27 PM · UNKNOWN
Greensboro, NC
me and my fiance were taking our daughter on a walk it was about 9:27 pm today june 1st 2014 when my fiance says "look!" i look upwards and there were two bright redish orange lights far apart the width between the lights were very far apart it looked longer then a football field. It seemed pretty close and there was no sound at all what so ever theres no way it could have been a air plane my grandfather was in the airforce so i know the difference between the two. My fiance pulled out his camera and started recording as soon as he did the furthest light started what seem like throbbing and trying to fade out and as it was trying to fade out the unidentified aircraft start turning and the lights were no longer aligned side to side but looked almost diagonal then the one light completely went out then the closest light faded and eventually went out as well the whole time me and my fiance were backing away from it to get under a tree because we are ! not taking any risks you never know what could happen and i was not goin to put my 4 month old at risk or exposure but my fiance did record it until it faded completely out and disappered into thin air my whole body was shaking and my heart was beating so fast i called my mother right away and we quickly walked back to our apartment and called in the event.
May 29, 2014 · 9:30 PM · OTHER
Charlotte, NC
I was walking home from work and I was looking up at the sky and 3 Pyramid shape ships where flying very fast then there went up very high into the sky and out of view.
May 28, 2014 · 9:25 PM · CHANGING
South Topsail Beach, NC
DATE: MAY/ 28/ 2014 9:25PM LOCATION- South Topsail Beach/Surf City (near the old watch tower) One orange glowing ball and/or balls- the color was alot like the sun on a late afternoon. SIZE- it was in my perspective off in the sky - the object(s) were about the size of the eraser end of a pencil in circumference What happened????- The first orange ball appeared( became visible) in the sky- and almost instantaneously (give or take two or three seconds), the second orange ball became visible right beside (side-by-side) with the first ball (like the two balls looked like they were touching)- the second ball then simultaneously with what seemed like supersonic speed shot over directly to the right of the first ball* (about 1 or 2 inches separated the two balls in my perspective- then again almost instantaneously a line exactly the color of the two orange balls shot out to the right and connects the two balls to one another- it was almost like a laser or whatever you would call it was shot from the first ball to the second and connected them. SHAPE- the general shape of what I saw was a lot like a line segment on a line graph **TIME- the entirety of the event was roughly 2-4 seconds( give or take)- like I said the whole thing happened so fast hard to really pin point exact time
May 26, 2014 · 8:00 PM
Kannapolis, NC
The six of us were out in the yard throwing the football around after dinner on Memorial Day, 2014. We were looking at some birds over the house when in the distance was spotted a black object, S-shaped, slowly rotating higher than the birds. It was a decent size based on the birds in the sky and much further up and away. It moved slowly from from SW to NE (Concord to Salisbury direction). There was no noise associated with the object. We first noticed it with our eyes but folowed it using binoculars until it disappeared behind some distant clouds. The sky was perfectly clear at the time of sighting with only some clouds at the NE which it was hidden from view at the end.
May 25, 2014 · 9:25 PM · LIGHT
Bryson City, NC
Large red/purple ball of light, very bright. It hovered then disappeared. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
May 24, 2014 · 11:42 PM · LIGHT
Fayetteville, NC
At 11:42 pm, two of my buddies and I were about to walk in to my house, when i seen a shooting star, that stopped in place. It was the size of a star, blue in color. And zipped around the sky for almost 2 minutes. Where I live is wide open sky, and I've seen many jets, plans, helicopters. And northing move as fast as this. And it would stop on a dime and the light would get dim and bright again. Then back to zipping around. My niece stepped outside and saw it and she called my dad who also saw it. I really don't know what it was. And would love to find out what it was.
May 24, 2014 · 2:45 AM · TRIANGLE
Clayton, NC
We saw a lot of strange activity in Clayton, NC, USA during the meteor shower last night/this morning. We first saw 3 "stars" moving in formation across the sky from north to south, stopped and started to rotate and change the shape of the triangle. We had already noted what we thought were satellites that you would normally see, but after an hour we realized we had seen over 100 "satellites" and most were moving in unison with at least one more off in the distance and converging somewhere beyond the horizon. Other "stars" or "satellites" would appear, begin to move, stop and disappear from vision. Others would line up within the triangle we first saw and then either disappear or begin to move out of the formation. We also noticed what we first thought was a bright star over the horizon, but after it not moving for 3 hours we watched it closer and it, too, was dancing around in a somewhat static location. The craziest thing I have ever witnessed. I think we watched all this from 2:45am EST to 5:30am (EDT). We noticed what seemed to be military aircraft occasionally flying directly below the triangle formation on 3 occasions. We also noticed what may have been the ISS pass directly below it around 3:30 a.m. EDT. although I have not checked to see where it was at that time.