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
December 18, 2023 · 11:15 PM · SPHERE
Waterloo, IL
I'm submitting this report on behalf of a friend. We'll call him M for the sake of privacy. This happened at around 11:15 p.m. on road 156 traveling west, leaving Waterloo IL and driving towards Valmeyer IL. M was just outside the city limits of Waterloo, and his sighting was brief. He describes "looking at the moon" on the way back from work when all of a sudden 3 "balls of light" in a trianglular formation caught his eye off to his right, so that would be rougly due north/north-west based off of his direction of travel. He reports the lights "fell" from roughly 200-250 (rough approximation) feet down to the ground with baffling speed. Faster than anything should be able to fall, or fly, for that matter. The entire sighting lasted less than 5 seconds. He was driving and did not stop to see what happened to the lights once they reached the ground, or near ground level. According to him, they did not illuminate the ground, houses, or trees that he could see. As for personal notes, he assures me he is positive it wasn't any mistaken reflection, his eyes playing tricks on him, or a case of mistaken lights, like that of a street light, radio tower, or any known craft, including helicopters, planes, or drones. He says he feels it was "close", that he could "walk over to it" within a short amount of time if he wanted. His guess is less than half a mile away. For his background, he works at a manufacturing facility that I won't name, and was getting off of work driving home. He is a man in his early 20s. If it matters at all, he is a deeply religious Christian, and has told me in conversations previously (much before this incident) about this topic that his belief is the same as the church father's writings. That "UFOs" people see are demons. I did not ask him if he wanted to clarify or change his personal belief about "UFOs", as he seemed to need more time to contexualize his feelings about the matter and his sighting.
December 14, 2023 · 7:41 AM · TRIANGLE
IdentifiedChicago, IL
I saw a line cloud descending from space looked like it was falling really fast it was silent [NUFORC annotation: Contrail - Certain]
November 30, 2023 · 11:26 AM · FORMATION
Woodstock, IL
Thursday Nov.30th, 2023 11:26 am cst Woodstock, IL. I'm looking North out my front window at an airliner high above me (75degrees up) traveling east in clear blue-sky and then another airliner going west came into view seconds later. That's when directly across my street facing North/3degrees East... I'll say 40degrees above horizon about 5 feet above the streetlight (it was not on) in my clear sight were 2 groups of silver bright lights/orbs (at least 20 in each group) with one circular group above the other in view for only about 10 seconds max when the lower group faded quickly into blue-sky then the group above faded immediately after into clear blue-sky too. There was no motion or movement just a fadeout. I stared for a few minutes and grabbed my binoculars to scan the sky but nothing there. I checked the time on my phone, and I decided to draw in pencil what was in my memory and write a description on the back of an envelope. Each circular group was about the size of my index fingernail held out arm's length. I waited a week to make a report, but I felt that I should still write this…. I told my 2 neighbors and showed them my drawing.
November 28, 2023 · 6:13 AM · CIRCLE
New Lenox, IL
At 6:00 am this morning I was out walking my dog as usual. I always find myself looking up at the sky while he is sniffing around. On this particular morning, I looked up and immediately noticed a large bright deep yellow sphere with a thin red bottom, with a long firey tail traveling from the north, heading south. I knew it was not an airplane. I see many planes in the sky coming and going from Midway and O'Hare airports. This object did not have any flashing lights whatsoever. I also knew that it was not a shooting star. I have seen several of those when visiting my parents in Arizona. I immediately thought that it was a comet until it went into a descending diagonal flight, paused very briefly, dropped into a vertical flight, and then flew parallel to the ground heading south. There was absolutely no noise coming from this object. It was at this point I noticed an area of the sky become distorted and the object flew into it and then disappeared. Special note: This object maintained its original shape and appearance throughout my observation of its flight.
November 24, 2023 · 2:00 PM · SPHERE
Odell, IL
There were 4 of us flying in a Cessna 172. We were at 5500 feet heading south bound and saw a black, round object off our right wing. It was about 10 feet in diameter and 50 feet or less from our plane. I saw it at the 1:00 position from our plane and I continued watching it for about 5-10 seconds until we passed it. After watching it for about 2 seconds and I called out to the others in the plane, “What is that black, round thing?” Two others in the plane witnessed the object as well.
November 22, 2023 · 10:00 PM · CIRCLE
Hillsboro, IL
I went out behind my house to smoke a cig. I looked to the north east and kept seeing Something. At first I thought it was a plant or a big star. It is at night. I looked again it was rotating lights in a circle saw at 10 pm and laying down now at 11:03 pm it is still there. Also it moved not far then it moved back almost to same spot. Now it is still to the north but more east now. Very weird looking thought I better report it.
November 18, 2023 · 10:40 AM · SPHERE
Fairfield, IL
The sphere was about 500 ft in the air at about 1,200 yards away. Sitting dead still. Shiny perfectly smooth sphere. Watched it for about 2 mins then it just disappeared. I don’t know if it flew off at super high speeds I couldn’t see or if it cloaked itself. I’ve had other hunters in my club see objects over the years they can’t explain either.
November 17, 2023 · 12:58 PM · OTHER
Lincolnshire, IL
I was driving home with my wife beside me and spotted something above and ahead of us close to the road. My 40 degree angle of visual contact was becoming more steep as we approached and I turned onto the driveway, causing me to lose sight of the craft. Jumping out of the car, I grabbed my phone from my pocket while running toward the street with the intention of taking a photograph, but it was completely gone when I got there. I scanned the sky and saw only a smaller private jet, which was also white. What interested me most here was the jet's path: its movement was curved and put me and anything directly above me at the center of the near semicircle it was following. It is a good possibility that a person or persons on that aircraft saw what I had just seen. I have a series of photos that can document the curved path of which I speak. Description of the machine: My estimation of the object's size is 8' x 20'. The entire thing had a very white matte finish. There were no markings of any kind that were visible to me. Upon first spotting the object I focused on what I thought of as its front end. It appeared to be a perfect sphere from my vantage point. There were no windows and this portion of the form looked seamless. My gaze then moved to the platform type structure and I especially focused on what appeared to be panels on the platform's side. I was fixated on how the two panels that hung down beyond the bottom of the main part of the structure were exactly the same size in length and width as the two panels directly above each of them. Any details that I observed about the bottom of the craft were done mostly with peripheral vision but I did focus on the bottom for a fraction of a second. I left the bottom of the craft unaddressed in my drawing, but I do know there was additional architecture there. I believe I saw a tubular structure that was molded seamlessly and extended from the front to the back of the platform's bottom, presenting itself as something like a half round. I saw other components mostly as a general impression, but I also believe I saw two more extensions on the bottom of the opposite side and their thickness extended below the main body of the craft. The lower panels did not extend as far down below the platform's bottom as my drawing would indicate, but I have not been able to draw all of the proportions to my satisfaction. There is no doubt that the sphere and platform were attached, but because of the way I visually jumped from one aspect of its construction to the other I am not completely sure of how these two main parts transitioned. I am open to sharing more with any interested parties but understand that that may be of limited usefulness unless there are other witnesses. Location details: Most of the leaves where still on the trees. The craft was just above the smallest larger tree on the right side of the street in the photo Using a nearby by utility pole (estimated at 45 feet tall) as a reference, the craft was around 60 feet off the ground. The craft seemed nestled in and around the trees, although it was obvious that it was not in direct contact with them or anything else. As I said before, it was stationary and silent. Even though my wife was with me as my story unfolded, she was focused on her device and apparently didn't react to my statement, "What is that" as we approached. She later claimed her own sighting on November 22 which she hopefully will report.
November 15, 2023 · 9:00 PM · RECTANGLE
Lincolnshire, IL
I was driving with my wife and noticed this unusual object moving quickly over the tree line of the forest preserve.Watching it reminded me of a flat bed truck traveling down the highway at too fast a speed. Since the quality of the light was so unusual and I do not draw well, the image I attached is more of a schematic.The single arrow in front of the craft shows the forward movement. The very back was not illuminated; I represented this by shading that area. The side I could see best had enough light to show a sharp edge, but I had no sense of how tall the side was ...except that it was very close to the trees. I believe I saw two rows of four dim blue/violet lights that nicely light almost all of the platform surface. There was a second, less defined, yet radiating, light source coming from the front in a hue somewhere between a warm white LED bulb and yellow represented by the three grouped arrows. It was a bit brighter in both color and intensity and intermingled with the other color to some extent. For the question about the size of the object, it was really more like the size of two pennies at something like a two to one ratio. Even though the sighting was very brief, it made a strong impression. And even though it made a strong impression, I would not have made this report if I didn't have another event two days later. My notes are from two days after this experience.
November 14, 2023 · 11:00 PM · CIGAR
Chicago, IL
Was in the midst of playing guitar and drumming and was exiting the bathroom when I went to go shut the window and blinds. The angle I was at gave me clear view of the 7/11 across the train tracks adjacent to my building. I saw a cigar shaped saucer with four lights on the underbelly of the craft, and a blue haze was being emitted from the underbelly. I was freaking out, yelling at my neighbor's to look out the window, and it stayed out until others went to observe, but it was still visible as it descended behind the building next to 7/11. It eventually disappeared and no one saw it fly away, but as we awaited it's departure, a second craft came in from the southwest and flew rather erratically and didn't fly like how I traditionally propelled aircraft would. The crafts also exhibited both horizontal and VTOL flight capabilities, with them seeming propelled by the propulsion source on the underside of the craft that emits a blue glow akin to the same glow emitted by uranium fuel rods when submerged in a cooling pool in a nuclear power plant, or like the glow of the tesseract in the Avengers film. A blue glow emanated from both craft's undersides.
November 12, 2023 · 8:00 PM · FORMATION
La Grange Park, IL
While looking west at approximately 8:00 pm I noticed a light coming fast from the south to the north several miles away and fairly low. As it crossed my position in front of me I could make out a shape with two points of light at each end. It continued north and then made a turn to the east and appeared to circle to the south as I lost sight of it. The shape was moving faster relative to the planes in the sky as I am situated on a flight path to midway airport and o’hare. I have seen military jets up close and didn’t hear the tell tale afterburners.
November 9, 2023 · 6:45 PM · FORMATION
Probable conventionalBatavia, IL
Standing in the Wendy's parking lot looking westbound over the Chase Bank parking lot at approximately 6:45 p.m. on November 9th, I witnessed 19 lights in a straight line appear out of the dark sky slowly float eastbound. The line of lights slowly changed brightness like the dimming of a dining room light in different sequences and then in gradation from one end to the other in a repeated pattern. As the single line of lights traveled eastbound overhead and higher into the sky the 19 lights starting at the most northern point started to dim out of existence until the last light went dark. This display of lights occurred for approximately 5 to 10 minutes. [NUFORC annotation: Starlink - Probable]
November 9, 2023 · 6:28 PM · UNKNOWN
Probable conventionalJoliet, IL
We were on the way home my wife and two children, the lights appeared in the sky, we talked about it, took a photo and kept going home to look up what it was we might have seen. [NUFORC annotation: Starlink - Probable]
November 9, 2023 · 6:15 PM · FORMATION
Little Rock, IL
It appeared fixed in the black sky for 15 seconds. I was driving and couldn’t pull j er due to traffic. I rounded a bend and it appeared in a different area of the sky at the same elevation. It’s possible it was in the same location and just appeared to move due to orientation of the road but I don’t think so. Then it simply disappeared
November 8, 2023 · 12:40 AM · OVAL
Chicago, IL
I was walking my dog down the sidewalk, around 12:40 am. I’m not sure of the exact time, but it was at some point between 12:30 and 12:50. The light was oval-shaped, but it was more like 2 curved lines that didn’t quite meet at the north and south ends. I was startled by how fast it was, faster than a commercial airplane. Within less than three seconds, the light was past my point of view. It also seemed too close to the ground, maybe a bit above the cloud line, to be a satellite. It was fairly cloudy, but not overcast, and all I could see of the object was the light. It was also quite windy, so I’m not sure if it made any sound. The light itself was a soft white, with a hint of yellow. It reminded me of a ring light, in terms of its brightness. It moved straight from north to south, until I couldn’t see beyond the tree line in the neighborhood. I’m not sure of its exact size, because I couldn’t tell how far away it was, but I would guess about the size of a plane. As for my own background, I’m a 30 year old woman. I wasn’t tired when this occurred, since I’m used to being up late, and I was sober.
November 3, 2023 · 2:05 AM · CUBE
Sterling, IL
Did not move much. Perhaps very slow [NUFORC annotation: Planet/Star - Possible]
October 17, 2023 · 4:00 AM · CIRCLE
Chicago, IL
The bright light was clearly over the water and not land. There was a much smaller less bright light be side it. And later in the video you can see dashes of other objects. When zooming in the object looked like a perfect circle with a ring around it. I video taped for about 3.5 minutes and nothing happened so I got back in bed. I laid there for a while (still able to see clearly out of the window) but fell asleep. When I woke up it was still dark out but that light or whatever it was, was gone. There was a plane in the area and you could tell it was a plane because it had a blinking light and was moving. This was not doing either. [NUFORC annotation: Planet/Star - Possible]
October 16, 2023 · 9:45 PM · CIRCLE
Grayslake, IL
The craft moved slowly eastward as it changed brightness every few seconds then an airliner appeared under it in the sky and it disappeared. Possibly a lone satellite not starlink I looked at it using 15 power binoculars [NUFORC annotation: Satellite - Possible]
October 14, 2023 · 8:00 PM · SPHERE
Probable conventionalOswego, IL
At first I thought the object was some spotlights from either the high school stadium or a Halloween decoration, but as I drove home I never seemed to get closer or further from the object. It seemed to follow me until I entered my subdivision and then it just vanished. The lights seemed to move in an elliptical path that was at least a mile long and all converged in a center. It was mostly obscured by clouds so I couldn’t get many details [NUFORC annotation: Searchlight - Probable]
October 14, 2023 · 5:48 AM · UNKNOWN
Murphysboro, IL
My brother and I were leaving St. Joseph's Memorial Hospital in Murphysboro, IL around 5:40am, and on the way home, I noticed something strange in the sky. At first, I thought it was a weird bright star that I hadn't noticed before. Shortly after discovering it, I realized it was moving. I then told my brother to look up at the sky, and as soon as I did, it was much closer as well as brighter. It then shifted to my side of the vehicle, and I decided to pull over to take pictures in amazement. I started to feel very nauseous, which isn't an uncommon symptom I experience, however this was also met with an uneasy "start driving away" feeling. So, I did exactly that. I got back off the side of the road, and I continued to drive home. As we watched this object move in an oddly quiet, quick, and peculiar motion, I grew more nervous then drove to a gas station. On the way there, it shifted to my side of the vehicle, and almost had what looked like rays of light beam off it. I began to panic and stopped at a gas station called Moto Mart in Carterville, IL, and convinced the attendant to step outside. I'm not certain if everything she saw, but I did ask her to step outside to view the object. When she did, the object was high in the atmosphere, which made it difficult to see. She did say that she stepped back outside after we left and the object was still there. Yet, we were followed until we reached two roads from our house, then it completely vanished. During the entire time we noticed the object in a still form, and rarely with flashing lights. Majority of the time the lights were a solid color. We believe there were actually as many as four objects all together. We noticed several different shapes through the course of the interaction, as well as different colors. I first noticed a tic tac shape which is partially what drew me to the "star", then we noticed a formation which looked like several different crafts, then we noticed a straight line, then an almost boomerang shape, and we noticed a triangle with a straight line through the middle. We were able to see this with a naked eye, even during the daylight.
October 12, 2023 · 7:33 PM · CIRCLE
Decatur, IL
Saw a blinking light as I was driving, the light was not moving in any direction, just stationary in one spot in the sky . I then zoomed 30x in with my phone camera and saw two white circles blinking steadily, blinks about 1 second apart. To the naked eye, it looked like one single blinking light. This was not a plane, not a radio tower, and too far away and high in the sky to be a drone. I drove by again 20 minutes later, and the lights were gone.
October 9, 2023 · 8:09 PM · CIRCLE
IdentifiedHinsdale, IL
I saw at least 10 lights moving slowly in a line and then moving straight up until they disappeared one by one. One of them moved erratically before it disappeared. [NUFORC annotation: Starlink - Certain]
October 8, 2023 · 9:05 PM · LIGHT
Gurnee, IL
I was on the Goliath roller coaster at 9pm hour and as we approached the first drop I looked up and I saw what looked like a star (light) come to a sudden stop. It was already in motion when I looked up but I thought maybe i was imagining the movement. I remember thinking "what is that"? Then it moved impossibly fast in a sw direction and came to another stop for maybe 1.5 seconds. And then it did it again this time slightly changing direction (s) and came to a stop for another second. By then we were going down the first drop but I was totally ignoring the roller coaster while going down forst drop wherr insaw it move again. but I lost track of it since there was a moment of going into a tunnel at the bottom of the first drop. I could see that it wasn't just an orb but that the light was part of a craft. It was very high in the sky. I would say it was at least as high as one of our highest airplanes that look very small in the sky. Yet the light was still about as big as we see on of our planets in the sky from our perspective. It did not get brighter as it moved from stop to stop, no noise. It just moved across the sky without even a streak or trail of light as it moved. And it moved impossibly fast and unlike anything I have ever seen or heard of. It was fast enough to know that if anything was inside the craft, it would have been devastated by g forces. Im 38 years old and have seen alot of things, i never imagined i would ever see something like this. Therefore I am convinced that either we, humans, have secret anti gravity tech that would neutralize g forces, or there really are visitors from outer space.
October 7, 2023 · 10:00 PM · LIGHT
Waterloo, IL
My Husband and I were camping with our Son near Waterloo, IL on the evening of October 7th, 2023. It was maybe 10 or 11 pm, our Son was asleep, my Husband and I were by the campfire and all of a sudden there was a very bright light shining through the trees. There was no sound and it wasn't moving. In my opinion it was way too bright to be a star or planet and just as suddenly as it appeared it disappeared. My Husband was in the Navy for many years and he had no idea what it could be.