Englewood, OhioNovember 1961

Unidentified

Summary

On a cloudy night in August or September 1961, a witness in Englewood, Ohio saw a round object that glowed yellow-orange in the sky. The object appeared as bright as a star, only much brighter. It disappeared toward the east. The witness reported seeing similar objects on multiple occasions.

The Air Force investigators concluded that the sightings were likely caused by natural phenomena rather than anything unusual. They suggested the witness had probably observed the bright star Regulus (magnitude 1.3), which is located in the constellation Leo. The moon, which would have been near or just below the horizon at the time, may have appeared distorted by atmospheric refraction (the bending of light as it passes through layers of air at different temperatures). This optical effect could have confused the witness about what they were seeing. The investigators also noted that the witness's earlier sightings might have been caused by a lunar eclipse on August 20 or the occultation (passage) of the star Aldebaran on September 1.

The Air Force marked this case as "unidentified" on its official record card, though the comments section suggests the investigators believed a natural explanation was most probable.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 9 pages of microfilm.

Reported location

Englewood, Ohio

Date of incident

November 1961

State / country

OH / US

Page count

9 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 44

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 9

View transcribed text

:
3 53 v PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD :
: 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
Eo ~ a EN 0 Was Balloon
i’ 29 Nov Ol Englewood, Czio O Probobly Balloon
1 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION 17. TOIRNY Senen
2 5316 52 : i 0 Was Aircraft
4 Loe dh 0 B°Ground- Visual 0 Ground-Radar 0 Probobly Aivcroft
; ALEo 3
a GMT. 3004152 2 AirVYisuval O Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Arey irmm dn
3 5. PHOTOS . SOURCE 18 Was Astronemical K& 4 iS
x 0 Yes “1 Probably Astronomical
3 Z0Ne Civilian O Possibly Astronomical
3 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE vs fal | [AE ER Sey
E D Insufficient Dato for Eveluotion
E: py? ! 1 ; 0 Unknown
30 nmin + *
3 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING Round objt about like |V1. COMMENTSProbably moon and brignit star
E star, only brighter; yellow-orange as glow Im | egulus (Leo) magnitude 1.3. Moon is on
bE fire, disappeared to E. Viewed in August and or just below horizon and is probably
September. distorted by atmospheric refraction.
4 Ldding to confusion of witness in near
E | occultation of star Regulus. Earlier
3 sightings by witness were probably due
4 { to eigher eclipse of moon on 20 ‘ug or
i | occultation of Aldebaran on 1 Ser Bl.
:
E i
1 H -
: |
f: ATIC FORM 329 (RBV 26 SEP $52)
3 A
j : h
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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28995713