Centerville, OhioAugust 1960

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the evening of August 27, 1960, a person lying in a hammock in Centerville, Ohio, noticed an object in the southern sky that appeared to be a star. The object seemed to move from side to side and remained in view for about five minutes before disappearing from sight.

The witness said the object appeared roughly 60 to 80 degrees above the horizon (measuring the angle upward from the ground). The witness did not see the object actually vanish, but rather stopped observing it after a few minutes.

Air Force investigators checked whether a weather balloon might explain the sighting. The Sulphur Grove weather station, located southeast of Centerville, had released a weather balloon earlier that evening. The balloon had broken and was descending from 90,000 feet at around 8:00 p.m., which roughly matched the time of the sighting. However, the investigators concluded that the witness had most likely been watching the star Altair, a bright star visible in the southeast sky at that time of year. Because the witness was lying down in a hammock, small shifts in viewing angle as they looked at the star through the swaying hammock probably created the impression that the object was moving back and forth. The Air Force marked the case as a probable astronomical observation, meaning the object was likely a known star rather than anything unusual.

The full case file, comprising 12 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Centerville, Ohio

Date of incident

August 1960

State / country

OH / US

Page count

12 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 39

1 ATIC MOUS | i PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD ji eee CoC LUS IONS | 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLU SIONS i 27 Aug 60 Centerville, Chi dub Roe pag ; | . spin O Probobly Bolloon © | 3. DATE-TIME GROUP i. TYPE OF OBSERVATION STR | Whi ih fl A 20 5 i 1 | TSHUCIN "CTR. & Ground. Visual 0 Ground-Rodar a Sei Riversts j nA " : 4 * NT BOfOLR08 0 Air VYisuol O Air-intercept Rador DO Possibly Aireralt | 5. PHOTOS . SOURCE tX Was Astronomical Alfalr : Q Yes O Probably Astrenomicol i & Ne Not given 0 Possibly Astroriomicoi 1 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 3. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 0 Other i 0 insufficient Deta for Evaluation | 5 min one stationary WE ——— | 1 i% BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS | | Object that appeared to be 3 star was seen in | The star Altalr was in the position Ck 2 NE a at . . - : a 1 | the south at 60-30° =zbove the horizon. IT given by the witnesses, which is probably | sopeared to move from side to side. Was not the cause for this sighting. E | s2=2n $0 disappear. | | | FE | | | rE | 3 \TIC PORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 32) 3 : | | # i