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.
9,368 entries
August 17, 2014 · 8:00 PM · FIREBALL
Adams, NY
Three of us all witnessed what appeared to be a meteor "distress Flare" at first however it did not rise or fall but remained at the same approximate altitude of 500ft. above the deck. It was bright red, noiseless, and moved over our heads and across the night sky. It very much resembled a flare except the center seemed to emit a yellowish glow like a flashlight would. One of the observers said he thought it was a small UAV and had seen one at an event the weekend before where they hover around shooting video. It is possible this was one and the lights were LED, however this was very bright, made no noise, did not flash, change altitude or course. We live and I work on a nearby Military Air Field and am very used to seeing/hearing aircraft flying VFR and IRF over our house to it and this certainly was not one.
August 16, 2014 · 9:45 PM · FIREBALL
Hanover, PA
Just prior to the sighting, a CH-47 military helicopter flew by going north to south, at a low altitude. CH-47s are seen here occasionally, but not at a low altitude like this one. Immediately, after the helicopter passed out of view, a silent, red fireball sped by traveling west to east at a right angle to the path of the copter. It appeared to travel at a level altitude and at a constant speed. It did not appear to be a Chinese lantern. It was about the size of a thumb nail at arms length. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
August 16, 2014 · 9:26 PM · FIREBALL
Smithfield, PA
While traveling south on Rte. 43, we (me, my husband and two children) noticed two fireball shaped objects in the sky that were traveling north. They were staying about one mile in distance away from each other. They were in the sky lower than the horizon of the mountains on the skyline to the east. They made no sound. We pulled over and were able to take a video of one of the fireballs. We can only best describe the color of the fireball as that of a flickering candle flame. The size was estimated to be of a Volkswagen Beetle.
August 16, 2014 · 9:00 PM · FIREBALL
Phoenixville, PA
On Saturday August 16, 2014, at approximately 9:00PM (EST), I was returning home to Northridge Village (Townhouse Community) in Phoenixville, PA, with my girlfriend when we observed my neighbor walking two dogs and standing in the middle of the street/lane that led to my driveway. She appeared to be shocked by something and had forgotten about the dogs until I slowed almost to a stop; she then reined the dogs in to give my car room to pass by. I drove into my garage and then my neighbor called me over to show me something in the sky. I saw what appeared to be a large, very bright orange fireball object moving in a straight line away from our position heading North-Northeast. My girlfriend then came out to meet us and observed the object as well. My neighbor stated the object had come from the South directly towards her at a very low altitude. She stated that right when I was turning in to pass her, the object changed direction just as it was above my neighbor’s house which is directly behind mine. She repeatedly commented on how low the object was flying towards her (I later asked her if it was as high as a commercial plane flying at approximately 5,000 feet that was very distinguishable and she said the object had been much lower). I asked her if she could make any features out on the object before it changed direction and she stated that it was circular. We watched the fireball object continue on its flight path for approximately 20-30 seconds until it appeared to gain significant altitude and eventually appear like other stars in the sky before finally winking out of view. I estimate the object’s distance to us at the closest point of approach to have been approximately 3-5 miles away. There were a few commercial aircraft visible during the flight of the fireball object and immediately after it disappeared. Regardless of altitude, all of the commercial aircraft displayed lights and a few of them could be heard. The orange fireball object displayed no lights and made no sound despite the high velocity at which it appeared to be traveling across the sky (I would estimate at least 4-5 times the speed that you would observe a commercial airline pass overhead). It also did not have any type of visible tail or vapor trail despite its high rate of speed. Approximately a minute after the orange object disappeared, my girlfriend was discussing the object with my neighbor when I observed a blue and white light approximately 600-700 yards away, above the wooded area adjacent to our community. It was bright (it reminded me of a firework) and falling towards the ground. It was visible for about 2-3 seconds before it disappeared. We discussed the fireball object and what it possibly could have been with my neighbor for a few minutes and then went home. At approximately 10:00PM (EST), I stepped out onto my deck to watch the sky to see if I would see anything else. After about five minutes, I saw another bright object traveling from the south toward my position (it was nowhere near as close as the first object so I could not discern any additional characteristics). I could immediately tell it was not a typical commercial aircraft so I called out to my girlfriend to come look and we both grabbed our iPhones in case it approached close enough to try to record it. The object appeared to be approximately 12-15 miles away and had not yet reached Phoenixville. As my girlfriend was trying to ready her iPhone to record video, her flash came on for a few seconds. At the same time the object changed its flight path approximately 110 degrees to its starboard and flew due east. It remained visible for only a few more seconds before disappearing. We then turned and looked back towards the direction the original object had traveled in and observed what was possibly a third object on the horizon above the wooded area adjacent to our community. It was too far away and only visible for about 5 seconds, making it impossible to determine what it might have been. I then went inside to conduct some research and confirmed that the Perseids meteor shower had been most active between August 9th-14th; however, these meteors were supposed to appear to come from the constellation Perseus which was North of my house at the time of incident and not from the South like we observed. Additionally, most Perseids are estimated to disappear in the Earth’s atmosphere at heights above 50 miles. The object we observed with my neighbor was significantly lower. The object also did not leave a tail as one might expect if it were a meteor. I also have never heard of a meteor that suddenly changed directions, let alone one that gained altitude until it disappeared. I next came across a similar incident that had occurred in the vicinity of Maisfield Road in Phoenixville, PA. The recollections of that person’s observations were eerily similar to what we saw. That incident occurred on December 23, 2013. I did not find anything to indicate there was any type of meteor shower or other phenomena during that time frame. If anyone is interested in my account, I would strongly advise you to read about this incident as well as it appears to possibly be the same type of object. We also discussed the possibility of the object being some type of rocket, but again there was no visible tail and no sound despite the high rate of speed. Additionally, my girlfriend and I had observed the NASA Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) probe launch from Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia from our house on September 6, 2013 and it was a totally different experience than the fireball object we observed. The NASA rocket launch had a clearly defined tail and was without a doubt much, much farther away. I do not know of any rockets that would fly so low, yet leave no vapor trails and make no sound. A third theory was discussed of the object possibly being a Chinese lantern or some other balloon type object. My opinion is the object was too large and bright to be either and that the sheer speed that it moved at (4-5 times faster than the visible planes in the sky) would preclude it from being such an object. Lastly we discussed the possibility of the object being some type of drone or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), possibly out of Willow Grove Naval Air Station (NAS). I have never seen a drone in flight, but I do not believe it would be bright orange at night to attract unwanted attention, nor that it would not make any noise if breaking the sound barrier. According to local media reporting, Willow Grove NAS does not physically launch/recover any drones; the base is used only as a remote controlled command location. The object we observed at close range was circular and did not resemble any known types of UAVs. I have 13 years of military/law enforcement experience and have worked in environments where I have observed numerous types of military aircraft in operation. I have also spent many nights out on the open ocean thousands of miles from any land observing the night sky and constellations. I have never seen anything like the bright orange fireball that I saw on the 16th and I cannot at this point even venture a guess as to what it might have been.
August 16, 2014 · 8:00 PM · FIREBALL
Easton, PA
Two separate sets of orange fiery orbs flying together from horizon and moving vertically into the sky disappearing into a dark cloud. There were two sets of them about 8-10 total... We have seen these on and off for over a year now. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
August 16, 2014 · 7:40 PM · FIREBALL
Houma, LA
Redish to orange lights 7 at one time then more showed up, total of 18,
August 16, 2014 · 12:00 AM · FIREBALL
Ocean City, NJ
Sitting on my balcony I saw one bright light moving slowly across the sky, another followed behind. Another appeared soon after and the lights seemed to make a triangular formation. The lights slowly, one after the other, grew smaller and vanished faintly until they had all disappeared completely .
August 15, 2014 · 10:15 PM · FIREBALL
Lumberton, MS
A bright greenish ball a little smaller then a basketball came on and angle from north to south almost a 45• fall as it got closer coming to the ground it turned more yellow it looked as if it was going to land in the field but as it passed a large walnut tree we lost site of it but it was coming straight down. We could not find no sign of it not a sound, smell, or glow as bright as it was you would think you could see something on fire Tomorrow we will be able to see and hopefully locate what it is or was are where it might have landed. It came down not horizontal like I said on a 45•( \ ) from north to south down.
August 15, 2014 · 10:00 PM · FIREBALL
Pass Christian, MS
THE NEXT NIGHT, WHILE RIDING HORSES TOWARD THE RIVER, WE SAW THE SAME FIREBALL ABOVE THE TREE LINE IN THE SKY MOVING EAST TO WEST. Most green fireballs, we suspect, are meteors, i.e. rocks coming in at high velocity from space, containing copper, which incandesces green. However, if the witness's estimate of the duration is anywhere close to being accurate, the object, almost certainly, was not a meteor. A one-minute sighting is too long for the overwhelming majority of meteors, and probably all of them. PD
August 15, 2014 · 9:40 PM · FIREBALL
Takoma Park, MD
U.F.O sighting occurred on August 15, 2014. I was on Carroll Avenue between Carroll and Ethan Allen Avenue. The event lasted around 10 minutes from 9:40pm until 9:50pm. I was not the only one who witnessed these objects there was a women there she looked to be of Ethiopian decent she also saw the objects. The Objects in question were three large bright orange almost sun colored objects with no distinguishable shape. They really just looked like floating orbs of light. They were moving in a manner that I have never seen before and were impossible for any Earth based terrestrial aircraft to achieve. At times the objects would just completely disappear from sight and then reappear in a completely different location to far away for any normal aircraft to achieve with known technology. At times they would travel in a straight vertical motion in a way that only a rocket would be able to move and move directly at one another one coming down and the other going up and then meeting in the middle. Eventually all three U.F.O left the atmosphere traveling straight up in the air and then eventually the light just disappear not because they were too high to see but just out of nowhere the light just vanished.
August 15, 2014 · 9:00 PM · FIREBALL
Green Bay, WI
It came over the horizon from the Southwest and headed Northeast. We all started looking at it around the same time. We were very surprised because it didn't behave like anything we had ever seen in the sky before. It was moving faster than a plane. It seemed close; under 10,000 feet. The quality of the light was warm like fire and it twinkled slightly. There was also a low hum that accompanied it. It seemed to be traveling very smoothly and gaining altitude slightly as it moved out of our view. It then disppeared into what looked like a very black dot; an area much darker than the surrounding night sky. About 20 min later it appeared again, this time stationary in the sky. It expanded slightly and again disappeared into a black dot. Only I saw it the second time. The rest of the group had already left. We had no experience of missing time or contact with the object.
August 15, 2014 · 8:45 PM · FIREBALL
Nags Head, NC
Traveling below cloud level bright orange coming from south towards north, then changed directon northeast. Saw fireball orange disappear in a matter of seconds. No moon some light stars
August 15, 2014 · 8:45 PM · FIREBALL
New Orleans, LA
I stepped on the back porch facing West at 8:45 pm. I observed 3 orange lights in the same spot I had observed, photographed and recorded video of them on September, 14, 2013. Less than 10 miles away, over the South off shore of Lake Pontchartrain, bordering New Orleans to the North. I grabbed my camera and took a few shots before they disappeared. Cloud cover may have obscured them. The top one disappeared first. The middle one seemed to move either up or closer to my position before it was not able to be seen. The 3rd one, the bottom one, acted the same way, moving up or closer and then was not able to be seen. It lasted less than 2 minutes. 7 still shots and 7 seconds of video taken. No signs or sounds of aircraft in the area. The dogs in the area were barking.
August 15, 2014 · 12:00 AM · FIREBALL
Longwood, FL
To start this off, first I must say for the simple fact of myself even telling this story is difficult. The witness contact made me feel a little eerie but I’ll take a chance anyway. After reading a few other UFO sighting reports and understanding what happened to a few of those people such as, “The Maury Island Incident,” it’s made me feel inclined to shutting my mouth. Please don’t think this is fake because I “N/A” my personal information. I wouldn’t waste an hour writing a fake story about what I’ve seen because it’s a serious matter. Anyone who fakes these stories should be ashamed. The story is, I am a rapper. I travel quite a bit honestly and don’t see much UFO activity, nor have I seen any since this night. I don’t go out looking for this stuff! Sometime in Mid-August of 2014, I had an all-night studio session. On the way to the studio, I called my friend to accompany me and he agreed to tag along. When we got there my engineer was upstairs waiting and we began our night. About 2 or 3 hours into recording, I finished a song and told my engineer I was stepping out for a smoke with my friend. It was a black n’ mild (tobacco), not weed so I’m pretty damn sure there were no hallucinations. When we came downstairs we walked to the middle of the empty parking lot (besides my car) and lit it and started talking about things non related to the issue. A moment passed and I looked up (I like to star gaze) and far in the air was something I’ve never seen before. I tapped my friend and pointed up, cursing. Honestly because I was a little scared, I’ve never seen anything like that before. We sat there well over a minute staring at whatever this thing is floating in the air. Here’s where things get technical. First off the sky was clear, nothing to mistake this for. The moon was full and the object height wise was next to the moon. Distance wise, it was at least 4 or 5 miles away from us. To get a better idea of this think about a plane passing by in the sky, only this object was “floating.” If you were to look at a full moon, put your hand up and make a 3 to 4 inch gap with your fingers from the edge of the moon and that is how far the object looked away from the moon from our point of view. It was bright orange, with a little yellow. It was smoking and had an orange fog around it as if it was about to explode. Initially we thought it was an aircraft that exploded in the air. Contrary to that there were no airplanes or helicopters visible anywhere within our sight! That’s weird especially in Central Florida speaking on how we have nonstop air traffic. One thing I did notice was that a few birds were flying in the opposite direction of this thing in the sky. It was circular, large and almost seemed like something ran into it, or hit it with something. It began to smoke heavily but the smoke was drifting to the side of it where we could still clearly see it. As the smoke thickened pieces of it began to fly off, almost looking like it was getting shot by another aircraft. About 3 mini, non-hearable explosions took place before we started backing up. About 8 to 10 minutes went by before I finally pulled out my phone and called my engineer to immediately come outside. I don’t know why his reaction was like this but he didn’t seem pretty surprised. He actually told us it’s probably just the “military’s doing.” I told him he was full of it and tried to take a picture. The damn thing showed up as a blur on every single one of my pictures! I’ve always owned an iPhone which is generally known for taking good pictures but tonight it was as if something prevented my phone from snapping a picture clearly. After maybe 5 more minutes of staring, the fog around it began to consume the craft and eventually as oddly as it was the in the sky, it dissipated, slowly fell and disintegrated almost to what seemed into thin air. Not believing what I’d just seen I looked around to see if anyone else was outside staring at the phenomenon and sure enough right in front of us was a man walking by on the sidewalk stopping to stare in the same area we were looking. As there was no way to show evidence and prove what we had seen to anyone else we shook it off, went back into the studio and honestly never spoke about it again. Witness elects to remain totally anonymous; provides no contact information. PD
August 14, 2014 · 9:00 PM · FIREBALL
Frisco, NC
We were sitting on the beach at night looking at the horizon. A bright fireball just appeared right above the horizon and then split into two equally bright circles and then disappeared completely after about five seconds. About two minutes later, it reappeared to the left of us and a lot closer than before. It appeared as one and just before it split into two again, something like a duller red spear shot off of the fireball and traveled a short distance to the right and angled towards the ground and then it disappeared. Then within seconds the fireball split into two and disappeared again.
August 13, 2014 · 9:35 PM · FIREBALL
Bradenton, FL
I took my dog out to the front lawn around 9:30 p.m. At this moment, I could hear a commercial airliner flying above. The airliner traveled from East to West at a high altitude. It was at this moment when a bright orange fireball in the sky caught my attention. The fireball appeared as a oversized star and I assumed it could be a possible satellite in orbit. The object traveled from West to East. It moved slightly faster than a commercial airliner. The object appeared as a orange fireball in the Western sky. As it flew direct overhead, the light faded away. Although there was no light or glow to the object, I could see the object continue in the sky to the far East. Now the object appears to be larger with no lights.
August 13, 2014 · 8:55 PM · FIREBALL
Clifton Park, NY
Saw 2 bright lights going from north to south. They were very bright yellowish orange color. They were below the height of a normal airplane and some what near to what a helicopter would fly. They went out of sight after about 10 mins. They did not make any sound.
August 13, 2014 · 8:45 PM · FIREBALL
Wilmington, DE
It was white like a star, had white streak could have been a meteor And it made no sound and disappears
August 13, 2014 · 8:03 PM · FIREBALL
Mission (Canada), BC · Canada
it was quite but the fire ball passed over our heads we were at a coffee shop down town mission bc its a small town this fire ball was a size of a house with a tail and behind the tail there was smoke the whole even lasted seconds we lost site of the fire ball when it flew behind the buildings and over the river the fire ball was red yellow orange and it wasent traveling very fast we are bikers we stopped at the local coffee shop to meet for coffee and saw this event What little contact information is provided by witness is defective. Possible hoax, we wonder?? PD
August 12, 2014 · 11:00 PM · FIREBALL
Patterson, LA
Me and 2 of my friends were sitting outside and my friend said look. We all looked up to see a what I can only describe as a fireball flying through the sky. I got a good look at it but by the time I thought to film it it disappeared behind the tree line and looked as though it was heading to earth. I almost wanted to get in my truck and go towards it.
August 11, 2014 · 10:45 PM · FIREBALL
Norcross, GA
I just drove onto Ga 141 @ Peachtree Blvd & just above my car, out the front window, I saw a orange fire ball flying on a path that curved to the left for a few seconds. Just as it apeared, it just disappeared into nothing. When it disappeared, it looked like a very minimal distortion of light happened but it happened so fast it was hard to discern. It has a bit a regtanular shape to it & it was not very high. I want to say it was under 2000 feet. It was flying in a North East path.
August 11, 2014 · 8:00 PM · FIREBALL
Grand Canyon Village, AZ
It was dusk, still quite light out, and my brother and I witnessed a very large moon size bright white light with a long tail arc across the sky right in front of us. It was so close that we thought it landed somewhere and actually drove around looking for evidence. We were driving on the main road out of Grand Canyon National Park on the south rim. When we looked behind us after the arc disappeared we witnessed two fighter planes accelerating strait up (and leaving contrails) from somewhere on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.
August 10, 2014 · 11:00 PM · FIREBALL
Katy/Fulshear, TX
Saw multiple lights in sky all coming from one direction, thought at first airplanes or military helicopters, but no noise. The lights on the ones we saw close up to us, did not appear to be planes or helicopter lights, too bright (red and white). They all came in from the West, moving slowly, then seeming to float around, and then headed northward or slowly descending downward to land. Either they disappeared into night sky behind clouds or dropped to ground, stayed lit for a few seconds, and then light disappeared. Witness provides little contact information. PD
August 10, 2014 · 10:00 PM · FIREBALL
Red Lion, PA
Three silent glowing objects seen in total over a 30 minute period starting at around 9:50pm. The first was a red fireball that was traveling over the Winterstown area as seen from Red Lion near Route 24. It appeared suddenly and as it approached the woods in the distance it went completely black, I could make out an almost stationary triangular object illuminated by the full moon. It then continued to travel and as it drifted behind the tree line it again ignited a bright red. The second object was orange, rose from the horizon in the same area, went black as it rose and appeared to go up and around the moon from my perspective. It then went almost straight down and dipped behind the horizon. I was able to capture this on my cell phone on a short video. The third was again red and rose from a similar point of origin on the horizon. Although all three had slightly different origin points they appeared to be coming from the same area. This third and final object rose into the sky and flew in a large arch towards the main town of Red Lion. Again, this was caught on video. All 3 objects were accompanied by the sound of a dog barking in the distance, you can hear it clearing on the video of the third object. During the video my girlfriend and I are bouncing ideas off each other of what we are seeing. We feel it "could" have been Memorial lanterns, but at the same time with the lack of wind and their speed we are just unsure.