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
December 13, 2023 · 11:00 PM · SPHERE
Greensboro, NC
Around 7AM on Dec 13th, I was on the front porch of my home and saw an extremely intense light above the tree line on the hole of the golf course that my house is situated on. The trees are roughly 500-750 ft from my front porch viewpoint. It was hovering left and right with periods of standstill. It was difficult for me to gauge the elevation of the object but it appeared lower than a plane in the sky at the time. Also of note is that there were no visible stars in that field of view, or in my periphery. The only stars faintly visible were directly above my head. With regard to directional positioning, it was just a tad west of the rising sun, but not by much, and was lower than the sun in my field of vision. It caught my eye as it was so intensely bright. It was very mesmerizing. And as it got my attention, I noticed it was periodically emitting a blue light, almost like a beam but more of a tentacle appearance than a typical “linear” laser we think of. The object was relatively stable and hard to get an idea of the exact shape because the light was so bright. However, it looked almost like a pyramid in nature. But would hover around in a small vicinity without much perceived pattern, at least to my eye. I wanted to get a picture but my phone was dead. As I was in awe, a member of the household was leaving for work and saw the same thing. She agreed it was strange but had to leave for work. The object was gone when I came back outside with a family member’s charged phone, within 2 mins of me going inside to retrieve the phone. I probably would have dismissed this or even forgotten about the morning event but late that evening around midnight, I was called outside by a family member who claimed they saw an “orb.” Remembering the event from 18 hrs ago, I came outside and saw the same thing I did in the morning along with lots of animal sounds, like they were disturbed. This time, it was much closer to my house - it was basically above my yard and hovering around the ¾ acre that we live on from above. This time, the pyramid structure was a bit more defined and the light was more of a gold color than the intense bright light I saw in the same morning. It would stay in one place for a few minutes and then hover around aimlessly. In addition to blue lights, this one also emitted red and green lights, both in a tentacle fashion. The majority of the mass of the object would appear in a more rounded muted orange color when the projections were not coming from it. There were moments when it appeared to be transitioning between the two states (pyramid/tentacle structure and orb structure). It also seemed to have a noticeable blackness around it, almost like a cloud when I the pyramid form. About 30 minutes later, 2 family members are watching this with me and another identical object appears on the other side of the house. It seemed to be the same type of object. These things hovered around for about 3 hrs and slowly moved from above our yard to the west. I still had a visual on one from my window when I came to bed and got a video of it jetting away. After many many tries of trying to focus I finally did, right in time for it to be caught ZOOMING away!!! I was in total disbelief but this is the best evidence I have. From what I can see in the video, it moved away so fast that it left a blur with the video recording at 60fps. It went from basically standstill to these speeds. Of note, a family member has claimed he has seen similar things and many orbs on this property but I gave it no attention due to “stigma.” I now believe every word he has said. Now this is speculation but it felt like these things knew they were being watched, there was even a moment when it was behind trees when I was trying to record it and it seemed to move to areas that had optimal tree cover. Since I couldn't get a good in-focus picture, I sketched what I saw to the best of my ability. (the pyramid form) and the video shows the orb form zooming away. The 2 most anomalous things I recall - 1) the speed of which this thing took off from a complete standstill 2) I lost sight one of the objects when viewing it from my room window only to find it, and when I did, this time it appeared to be casting a straight blue beam down to the ground. I did not have view of the ground beneath however the beam was linear this time, casting much further from the object than the wavy lights in the picture. It also appeared to be in orb form during this behavior. The "tentacle" lights only appeared when it was in pyramid form.
December 13, 2023 · 3:34 PM · DISK
Benson, NC
My daughter who is 30 and myself. I am 51. We were riding in the car together and out of our windshield ahead of us we saw this object in the sky that at first I thought was a weather balloon and as I looked at it. I said to my daughter. What is that and she said mom? I was just thinking the same thing and we watched it. It never moved it was big. It was the shape of the planet Saturn. It was mirrored or silver. And it was extremely bright and all of a sudden. It just disappeared. We pulled into a neighborhood after it disappeared to see if we could spot it again and it was just gone.I still don't know. What it is we saw but it was a unidentified flying object! We searched the sky after pulling into the neighborhood and saw 2 planes off in the distance. Not near where the sighting was and they looked nothing like what we saw and there was nothing else in the sky. It was a blue sky and whatever we saw was gone. There was nothing!
November 29, 2023 · 1:45 PM · OTHER
Fairmont, NC
At approximately 1:45pm, in Fairmont, North Carolina, I saw a small light colored object traveling very very fast in a NW direction. It was either round or square, not oblong like a plane or jet. I'm guessing it was at 30,000-40,000 feet. As I was watching it, it disappeared in an instant. That is what makes me think it was a UFO. An aircraft would be visible for quite a longer distance till it was too far away to see. The object I saw simply vanished from the sky.
November 27, 2023 · 5:46 PM · LIGHT
Manteo, NC
3 bright white objects traveling from the north to the southeast. They were not traveling in a straight line and were staggered in distance in unequal distances. Observed for about 40 seconds and videotaped for 25 seconds until they were out of sight. I verified it was not Starlink and using satellite tracker app verified that there were no satellites in that area.
November 9, 2023 · 6:45 AM · DISK
Elkin, NC
On my way to work I saw off to my right a silver metallic disk like craft rising vertically from the ground. It seemed to be half a mile away rising from an open field. I watched it until the nearby woods obscured it. Once I got clear of the trees I stopped to look for it but it was gone. The disc was flat with a slight bulge in the center top. I could see the sunlight reflecting off the outside. I drove back and forth the same way the same time over several days trying to see if it was caused by the rising sun but I never saw anything like it again.
November 6, 2023 · 11:19 PM · SPHERE
Greensboro, NC
On Thursday, November 6th, 2023, I was asleep around 11:00 pm when I was awakened, unknown if this event is what woke me up. Because I was awakened, I went to the restroom, which is connected to my bedroom. The toilet in the bathroom has a window that is able to see an open field, my driveway, the main road, the house next door, and the construction site that is in front of my house. While using the restroom, I noticed what I thought to be movement at the construction site, which is lit up by a pole light. Because my phone camera is better than my eyes, I went to go get my phone that was sitting beside my bed. I came back into the toilet area and started recording the construction area in case there was actually something there that I couldn’t see or in case there was some vandalism going on, which I would check with the site manager in the morning. (Video #1 - 6:21 minutes). Meanwhile, on the northern, left side of my bathroom window these purple orb lights started going off and rotating in a circular motion. There were 3-4 in a cluster, plus 1 in the sky. These purple lights would actually black out and disappear, but then when they would reappear, there would be a fewer number of them, and they would be split apart and closer to my camera. By the time the video is over, you can see these purple, orb-like lights actually shooting electricity between them, almost like sharing energy in order to maintain its presence. Once the lights have narrowed down to only two existing lights, you can see that the purple lights turn to white and then there is a single red light. Eventually, you can see that these lights disappear altogether into the pitch blackness of the night into the same direction that they came from. (Video #2 - 10:19). I have contacted the local police department and the local FAA office, which tell me that these two videos should be reported to you in particular because they are unaware of any device that matches this criteria. They have these videos sent to them through email.
November 4, 2023 · 7:27 PM · FORMATION
Probable conventionalClayton, NC
Saw flashing lights in night sky that were in a formation. It was flying fairly low [NUFORC annotation: Aircraft - Probable]
October 30, 2023 · 7:55 AM · CHANGING
Burlington, NC
This morning at 7:55 AM I was walking my dog and looked up into the sky and saw the moon. I was standing on Spring Street at the corner of Fourth Street at that time. To the lower right of the moon there was an odd shaped flying object in the sky that was clearly visible and not a plane. It was whitish-silver in color, it had the appearance of a solid object that resembled a rounded edged double decker bus. At one point it briefly changed shape into a flatter version within a gray cloud of dust then returned to the rounded double decker bus shape and the gray cloud of dust disappeared as quickly as it appeared. The object flew in a northern direction for approximately 5 minutes as I walked along the street with my dog and then it disappeared from view when the bright sunlight struck the object as I reached the corner of Spring and E. Morehead Streets. When it was visible it was extremely high in the sky and there was no exhaust trail.
October 29, 2023 · 1:22 AM · SPHERE
Marshville, NC
Object moved slowly to the north east direction. Object made no sound had no trail and promptly disappeared before my eyes. Extremely bright, the size was slightly smaller than a basket ball appeared to be perhaps a mile overhead. I am prior army and have never seen anything like it. Was not a typical meteor or fireball as some might try to say it was.
October 21, 2023 · 11:45 PM · FIREBALL
Monroe, NC
I saw a bright orange/yellow light hanging in the sky, brighter than any star or planet by far. While watching it, it suddenly moved south for a moment then suddenly stopped again. After a few seconds it quickly moved north out of my line of sight.
October 21, 2023 · 10:45 PM · CIRCLE
Charlotte, NC
My husband called to me to come out back last night (@9:45 PM) to 'see the light." What we saw was three (3) lights in a circle enclosed in a circle. My husband said he saw it 'move jerkily back and forth, and then stopped moving. When I got there, it had stopped moving and I saw those three lights, and then they disappeared and the object we saw was one bright light. At that point, we started guessing what it could be...Airplane was ruled out, it was not moving, no noise, it wasn't a copter, for the same reasons, it wasn't anything we could figure out, including a satellite. We both started taking photos with our cell phones and later I was back in the house, I used my finger to spread the light in the photos closer in. It was an amazing blob of light, and in each frame for each photo, they went from a point of light in the sky, to these amorphous blobs of light, very bright and pretty stationary in the sky.
October 15, 2023 · 8:46 PM · LIGHT
IdentifiedWaxhaw, NC
Camera alerted to activity in the driveway. It appears to be a beam of some kind from the sky starting in the top left frame. You can see the beam hit through the two trees in the lawn, but terminates into an orb instead of hitting the ground. The orb periodically splits into two and reforms into one again. If you look closely there is a black line in the orbs when they split and reform, the line alternates from one side to the other. Once the orbs reform into one orb the line is gone. The beam also hits the siding of the house at the top of the frame at the end creating another orb reflection perhaps. It is not acting like a laser or other source of light beam. It never reflects off of the ground. We suspected it was the vehicle reflection that later passes, but it doesn't make any sense as it would be impossible to hit the top of the trees and leaves straight down from the sky. Also it wouldn't be moving all over the place like it is. Activity starts 20 seconds in. Spiderweb [NUFORC annotation: Insect - Certain]
October 13, 2023 · 6:11 AM · LIGHT
North Wilkesboro, NC
I always look at the sky at night or early morning because I've seen strange lights or objects dozens of times over the past year and a half. I've taken hundreds of videos and photographs, I am including as many of the videos as possible taken today 10-13-23. I witnessed multiple objects at the same time, the the longest video with a duration of 2 mins 9 seconds you will see one star like object passing by Jupiter and then meeting up with a 2nd Star like object next to the little dipper before flying in Separate directions. My hair was standing on end like I was about to discharge static electricity, ive only experienced this phenomenon 3 or 3 times when witnessing a ufo/uap. I TRIED TO ATTACH VIDEOS BUT THEY WERE ALL TOO BIG TO ATTACH. I don't want to downgrade the quality, they were taken in 2160×3840 on my Samsung Galaxy s23 Ultra. If the investigator wants to see the videos I can attach to Email.
October 11, 2023 · 8:07 PM · OVAL
Gastonia, NC
Spotted as I was coming down Dixon, it was ahead of and above me on that road, traveling or rather tumbling and was emitting a dark red light from within. It looked transparent and seemed to have small points of red light within it. The inside area of the outer shape seemed to be illuminated, which is what made me think its light was internal And coming out of a transparent object. I’ll try to draw something and attach it, but I’m no artist at all. There was no discernible sound, but there was some general noise from traffic around me. The craft was oval or oblong, an odd roundish shape that was either changing or tumbling as it moved smoothly in a straight line. Its edges weren’t static, but also not undulating - this is very hard to describe. If you could imagine a sentient blob from a Hollywood movie, more round than any other shape, and it’s exterior was bulging or being pushed out from within slightly but constantly in various directions, it’s like that. But it also appeared translucent and not solid. I just now remembered a cartoon from a couple decades ago called Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which has a character called Meatwad. It kind of moved like Meatwad does in that show. Not undulating, but tumbling, if a YouTube clip of that character may better explain the type of similar motion I saw on this object. I turned North onto Burtonwood to whip into a church parking lot so I could jump out of the car away from most of the trees. Jumping out, I now noticed the single-engine prop plane which appeared initially to be following it as i was turning into the parking lot was now farther from it. I considered my initially seeing the two together may have been a forced perspective and that the plane perhaps wasn’t following it, and they were at two different altitudes and going in two different trajectories. If it’s possible to research small aircraft air traffic in that area at exactly 8:07p on Oct 11, 2023, then it’s also possible that pilot or any passengers may have also seen it. In the 20 seconds or so of me trying to get into the parking lot and out of the car to record it, it had already moved a considerable distance and now appeared much smaller, and had turned from the deep red to an almost white color. Looking at my included map, I first saw it above Dixon, just 50’ or so to the west of Burtonwood, traveling NNW over First Presbyterian Church. It was heading towards, and then across, E Garrison Blvd, and the Middle School. As it was crossing over E Garrison, I could still see the ‘tumbling’ but now instead of it looking like it had originally, with dark red lights within that were initially visible and with the craft appearing translucent, now the craft itself seemed to be a solid not-bright white color and was still on its same path it had been from when I’d first seen it. It disappeared behind the trees as it crossed over the William P Grier Middle School and there was no way I could’ve tailed it with the amount of traffic and red lights and stop signs all around that area compared to its speed. And, as per what is apparently necessary to occur in practically all of these events, my iPhone 13 Pro’s camera, which was designed especially for videography and creating movies, was stumbling all over itself trying to decide what to focus on with so many things in its view. Zooming in didn’t help much. The larger white blob in the video is the object, the Cessna is now appearing above and much farther from it than it had just moments before. If their respective altitudes in the vid are correct, then the object would have possibly been too far below them for any occupants to see it but, again, initially it looked to me like the Cessna was right behind it when the object was red. If an investigator would like to contact me, you may do so with my included information. ATTACHED MEDIA: In the attached map pic, the yellow egg is me traveling W, then cutting N on Burtonwood for a clear shot away from trees. The red egg is the craft when I’d first seen it, the blue line it’s trajectory. The white egg is where I next saw it after jumping out of my car to record, before it disappeared behind trees at the middle school. My attempt at drawing a rough shape of the initially-transparent craft is attached. Imagine a smooth yet ‘moving’ slate gray outer surface, with dark red light reflecting on the inside of that outer ring, and points of light inside. How it can be transparent so it appears as a hollow-yet-3D ring to me, with depth and lights inside it and moving around - it defies anything I’ve ever seen before and is confounding And frustrating to attempt to describe. In the attached vid, you can see the Cessna now some distance away from the object, where just moments before it appeared to be tailing the object which was perhaps my mistake from a forced perspective of the aircraft and the object. Then again, it’s also possible the Cessna was tailing it then suddenly became concerned and veered away from it. I hope this information is helpful, as it’s the first object in the air that I could not identify since the last one I’d seen back in 1997, so I’ve had a very very long dry spell. Thanks!
October 8, 2023 · 11:18 PM · CIRCLE
Wake Forest, NC
Saw three circles of light forming a triangle, they were moving around at a slow pace, in circular and diagonal patterns. They were also twinkling, like stars, but I checked an astronomical map, and they didn’t match any known objects.
October 4, 2023 · 5:30 AM · DISK
Pinehurst, NC
Taking dog out and looking up at the sky I saw the object and wrote down the time when I got inside!
October 3, 2023 · 3:15 PM · CIGAR
Greensboro, NC
I was in an American Airlines Boeing 737 - just left Charlotte NC and weren't quite at cruising altitude (maybe 10 minutes into the flight) and saw a cigar shaped craft going SUPER fast below us. Maybe 10-20 seconds of flight. It did NOT look like a plane and it was going so fast I can't imagine it was another plane.
September 30, 2023 · 2:50 PM · RECTANGLE
Clyde, NC
Me and my fiance went out onto our driveway to do work around the property when she had seen something in the sky and gotten my attention, we both witnessed an extremely large rectangular reflective object move from the left to the right slowly. the craft made zero noise, we have never seen anything even close to this. The size is larger than any plane I've ever seen, we called and made a police report with the Haywood County sheriff's office and were told by the officer that he has also seen strange things recently in the sky. Nearby animal life had gone completely silent when what we saw was closest to us, zero clouds in the sky. The weather was clear, there was nothing obstructing our view and we witnessed this craft or whatever it was for no more than 20 seconds clearly, after that we watched it through the trees and saw its speed accelerate.
September 30, 2023 · 2:46 AM · TRIANGLE
Forest City, NC
They can sit stationary for hrs and also move/fly rather slowly horizontal to the horizon. I have seen them drop down in a vertical line but never noticed it going up. Almost always horizontally. I've seen just one, 3-4 and dozens at a time. I've been noticing them most of the summer, but can't find any info online of a triangle shaped craft, satellite, drone or anything. I took pics on the 9-30-22 10-3-23 and 10-5-23 the 3rd and 5th shows a thing and not a triangle. I may have more dates if not deleted. The objects always show up in pics as a circular blur and never the lights or true shape except once it shows 3 white dots where the light are almost always present. At times they will go dark unexpectedly. Pics are from an iphone se2nd gen which isn't great. But no matter how clear it always blurs even when the moon and stars Do Not. Stars show up these things never photograph clearly. I've seen them at all kinds of heights and I don't think it's ET but I also have no idea what it is. Most often there are red or white lights on the perimeter only sometimes both colors. The pics with the moon is just for reference my mailing address is 28043 but my area is Bostic, NC
September 23, 2023 · 5:30 AM · FLASH
Huntersville, NC
I am an Airline Pilot flying a Boeing 767 from Memphis, TN to Charlotte, NC. All month the same other Pilot and I have been witnessing strange lights in the sky. On this particular early morning, we had two more strange occurrences. The first happened at cruising altitude. I can’t recall if we were at 34000 or 36000 feet. We were scanning the skies because we have seen numerous strange light occurrences all week. They have always been small lights appearing and disappearing that seem to be in outer space. This one was different. Within 5-10 seconds, right as we were looking outside the left window of the aircraft cockpit, we both saw 3 separate very bright flashes of light in the same vicinity of each other that were bluish green in color. They flashed in sequential order then never reappeared. About 20 minutes later, on our descent into Charlotte, NC I saw a small white light from deep outer space that quickly flew towards my side of the cockpit on the right side until it appeared as a large white orb then vanished. It started as a small light like a shooting star, then within 3-5 seconds it was a large orb that felt like was within 5-10 miles from us. The orb was about the size of a basketball before it vanished. I was truly in awe of what I had just witnessed. The other Pilot did not see this orb as it happened so fast. What was really disturbing to me, is that I felt the orb could read my thoughts. Just prior to this happening, I was still trying to digest the previous 3 flashes of light on the left side of the airplane. I distinctly remember thinking to myself without speaking, asking whatever light phenomenon to show me sometimes definitive so I could rule out satellites, etc. Within a minute of me thinking this, the orb appeared. The other Pilot also told me he almost felt like these light phenomenon were reading our minds or telepathically communicating with us. I know this sounds absolutely insane, but it is what we experienced.
September 16, 2023 · 4:26 AM · UNKNOWN
Kinston, NC
I don’t know how to explain it I just know I was scared and thought of calling the police then I realized the police takes over 45 minutes to get to my home cause I’m on the border line of two counties and they might’ve thought I was crazy if I didn’t have proof so I recorded and took pictures as I always do. I saw these orbs look like it was in a triangle form and a being above it that looked like some sort of insect or praying mantis with two glowing lights on the face but it didn’t have a face and it looked like it was holding something.
September 9, 2023 · 6:30 PM · LIGHT
Edenton, NC
I had just climbed out of my hunting stand and noticed a bright white light traveling in the sky. It reminded me of a landing light on an airplane. I really didn't think much of it because there are a few runways around. As I watched it, it took a instant 90 degree shift (not like a turn) to the west. I went behind the tops of trees out of my sight. So, I pulled up my binoculars and started searching the sky at the end of the tree line. Never saw the bright white light come out the other side, but what I did see were to small lights (one red, one white) heading back in a southerly at an unreal rate of speed. They were not blinking like navigation lights. The movement of the white light was smooth and instantly shifted to the west unlike anything I have ever seen move in the sky.
September 7, 2023 · 11:00 PM · LIGHT
Knoxville, NC
While flying from Charlotte to Memphis, I was piloting a jet aircraft at 34000 to 36000 feet. I was on a heading of approximately 273 degrees. The Big Dipper was to the right of the airplane. Approximately 30 minutes prior to touchdown around 1115pm to 11:30pm eastern standard time, a light appeared below the handle of the Big Dipper. It appeared very dim like a distant star, then increased in brightness very quickly. When it was full bright, we could see approximately 3-4 smaller very faint dim lights that would fly around the main light. After 5-10 seconds, they would all disappear. A couple minutes later, they would all reappear in the same area. A few minutes later the same thing would happen, except they would be above the handle of the Big Dipper. A couple of times, there would be 2 bright stars far apart from each other. They would appear full bright and quickly fly to each other then disappear. These lights had no aircraft strobes or red/green position lights. This kept happening for at least 30 minutes until we landed in Memphis. It could have gone on longer, but as we approached the city, the lights of the town made it difficult to see the sighting location. In my opinion, these lights appeared to be in outer space, and not in our atmosphere. It was definitely not satellites, star link, shooting stars, etc.
September 7, 2023 · 7:28 PM · UNKNOWN
Raleigh, NC
While driving west on Lynn Rd I noticed what I originally thought was a meteor. It appeared to be something falling with a tail lit up behind it. I also noticed 2 small objects to the right of the falling object. I thought they were small planes watching from a safe distance what was happening. They were just lights or light reflecting from the sun off of them. Instantly one of the small lights disappeared, and then the other did as well. The falling object made a steep change towards the opposite direction and continued to fall. I watched as I turned north on Leesville Rd until the trees obstructed my view. I took a picture on my phone of the falling object from my car. The object appears just above the lower trees on the left. You have to zoom in to see it. It looks like a fuzzy streak and that distance. [NUFORC annotation: Contrail - Possible]