The pattern
Statistics 139,459 entries, 1906–2026, computed live from the catalog. Read these as measurements of reporting — where people are, when they look up, and which institutions were taking calls — before reading them as measurements of anything else. That caution is itself the finding.
By year 1941: 1 sightings 1942: 2 sightings 1943: 9 sightings 1944: 9 sightings 1945: 9 sightings 1946: 10 sightings 1947: 47 sightings 1948: 13 sightings 1949: 29 sightings 1950: 51 sightings 1951: 42 sightings 1952: 253 sightings 1953: 70 sightings 1954: 117 sightings 1955: 54 sightings 1956: 58 sightings 1957: 86 sightings 1958: 56 sightings 1959: 61 sightings 1960: 83 sightings 1961: 57 sightings 1962: 85 sightings 1963: 99 sightings 1964: 108 sightings 1965: 206 sightings 1966: 222 sightings 1967: 205 sightings 1968: 222 sightings 1969: 157 sightings 1970: 149 sightings 1971: 131 sightings 1972: 159 sightings 1973: 228 sightings 1974: 276 sightings 1975: 326 sightings 1976: 354 sightings 1977: 346 sightings 1978: 422 sightings 1979: 354 sightings 1980: 351 sightings 1981: 223 sightings 1982: 217 sightings 1983: 192 sightings 1984: 207 sightings 1985: 254 sightings 1986: 207 sightings 1987: 237 sightings 1988: 273 sightings 1989: 276 sightings 1990: 291 sightings 1991: 252 sightings 1992: 271 sightings 1993: 370 sightings 1994: 470 sightings 1995: 1,104 sightings 1996: 856 sightings 1997: 1,731 sightings 1998: 2,043 sightings 1999: 3,068 sightings 2000: 2,985 sightings 2001: 3,338 sightings 2002: 3,359 sightings 2003: 4,070 sightings 2004: 4,369 sightings 2005: 4,227 sightings 2006: 3,808 sightings 2007: 4,422 sightings 2008: 5,121 sightings 2009: 5,385 sightings 2010: 4,422 sightings 2011: 5,241 sightings 2012: 7,533 sightings 2013: 7,246 sightings 2014: 8,569 sightings 2015: 7,243 sightings 2016: 5,885 sightings 2017: 5,250 sightings 2018: 3,459 sightings 2019: 5,963 sightings 2020: 6,790 sightings 2021: 3,320 sightings 2022: 4,990 sightings 2023: 4,242 sightings 2024: 64 sightings 2025: 68 sightings 2026: 11 sightings 1941 2026 Peak year: 2014 with 8,569 entries. The climb after 1995 is the web replacing the telephone hotline — a fact about reporting, not about the sky.
By hour of night 00:00 — 7,913 sightings 01:00 — 5,130 sightings 02:00 — 3,790 sightings 03:00 — 3,461 sightings 04:00 — 2,820 sightings 05:00 — 3,205 sightings 06:00 — 2,578 sightings 07:00 — 1,764 sightings 08:00 — 1,476 sightings 09:00 — 1,746 sightings 10:00 — 2,102 sightings 11:00 — 2,005 sightings 12:00 — 2,278 sightings 13:00 — 2,109 sightings 14:00 — 2,177 sightings 15:00 — 2,403 sightings 16:00 — 2,830 sightings 17:00 — 4,476 sightings 18:00 — 7,345 sightings 19:00 — 10,758 sightings 20:00 — 14,847 sightings 21:00 — 19,838 sightings 22:00 — 18,000 sightings 23:00 — 12,805 sightings 00 06 12 18 23 Local witness time. The sky is watched when people are outside and it is dark — the 21:00 hour leads with 19,838 entries.
By country The catalog's founding tranche is a U.S. reporting center's log, and it shows. Balancing the geography is the archive's standing acquisition project.