5 Mi N of Ann Arbor, MichiganMarch 1959

Insufficient Data

Summary

At 1:30 a.m. on March 22, 1959, a man and woman driving on a country road north of Ann Arbor, Michigan, spotted a strange object in the sky. They described it as egg shaped with a dome on top, roughly twenty to thirty feet in diameter. Two intense pale-yellow shafts of light streamed from the bottom and converged at the top, making the object look like a lit-up bird cage. The object hung about two hundred feet above the ground, roughly two miles away, and appeared to follow their car for about a mile as they drove east.

As the witnesses continued driving, the yellow lights went dim. Then a circle of eight to ten red lights suddenly appeared underneath the object. The object rose straight up very rapidly and vanished within five to ten seconds. The total sighting lasted between five and ten minutes.

The Air Force investigated the report by checking local airports, looking for aircraft, and examining whether any known planets or stars could explain what the witnesses saw. All these possibilities were ruled out. A deeper dive revealed the real answer: the University of Michigan's 85-foot radio telescope on Peach Mountain, located near the witnesses' position. The telescope dish had a wire-mesh underside that resembled a bird cage. The bright yellow lights came from a floodlight used to illuminate the telescope, enhanced by the light from an almost full moon. The red lights were aircraft-warning lights on the nearby WUOM radio tower, which sat directly in line with the telescope as seen from the witnesses' position. As astronomers operating the telescope rotated the dish upward from the horizon toward the zenith (directly overhead), the witnesses saw less of its surface and more of its birdcage-like frame. When the dish reached the zenith, the operators turned off the floodlights, making it vanish from sight. The witnesses interpreted this sudden darkening as the object zooming away into the sky.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 17 scanned pages.

Reported location

5 Mi N of Ann Arbor, Michigan

Date of incident

March 1959

State / country

MI / US

Page count

17 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 35

wv ( . Fr : 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS | ‘ 0 Vas Balloon Bo Mas 00 5 ni § of Ann arbor, Michiga 00 Probably Balloon i —ARPTY LR odor 1. ni li OL ann rDOT, MICULERI fa prota ac con 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION 4 | N20 0 Was Aircraft TL JO © 1 BC SS — O.Ground- Visual O Ground-Rador : L - G QO Probably Aircraft 250A30Y7 May 59 . . i ] OMT..22922302 Yar D9 0 Air Visual DO Air-Intercept Rador 0 Possibly Aireratr 5. PHOTOS « SOURC 0 Was Astronomical O Yes 0 Probably Astronomical 8 No civilinn 01: Possibly Astranomigsl ore 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BI 3 BI itis 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation : 0 Unknown : 8.14 mina ono > ¢ 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS ; Shining obj w/ flashing red lights, 20-30 Fu a rpt fm Univ of lich. observatory : . . - 2 . Ne « a w a4 » a . ' . . - - ' N Pt in diameter, "Looked like a lit-up bird cege.//it is concluded the witnesses waw Lit up surrounding area. Very low vhen first [the cbservatory crew working w/ thelr sighted. Disgppeared at high alt. Straight & |radio-telescope, This telescope was lignga level, then zoomed up. Climbed rapidly out w/a floodlight & an almost full moon, The of sight. disn alsc has wire mech attached which sould create Lhe "bird-ca ge" rptd by soupc Red lights could be {fm the WOM radio top- : y which is in lan w/source’ } location jé ochservatory., The telescope was clevated [nm the SW, loeation cof obj to the zenish tuk: “he ann 00d 1 1oh A . rey os turns 1 ~ Pe tind & 4 Be Lp » hpiv Wek UVWLIICHK Olly, CICAT LOZ ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP $2) ni. rE wih: ( [A ' - . - 1 : - Bi IA ba ARG or SL ba A Ri BUBB al i de dab ar Rt Sa et 1 ad | y