Project Blue Book Case File
Franklin, OhioOctober 1959
Summary
On the evening of October 17, 1959, a resident of Franklin, Ohio, watched an object moving slowly across the sky that changed shape by becoming larger and smaller. The witness was looking toward the northwest and saw the object for at least thirty minutes. It was very bright, which the witness compared to a lantern, and moved up, down, and sideways across the night sky.
The Air Force investigators who reviewed the case noted that the witness could not provide an exact position for the object. They observed that the star Vega was low on the horizon in the northwest at the time of the report. In their evaluation, the Air Force concluded that the object was probably the star Vega or possibly another bright star or planet visible in the sky at that time.
The OCR quality of the witness questionnaire is poor in several sections, making it difficult to extract additional specific details about the sighting. The full case file, consisting of 11 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.
Reported location
Franklin, Ohio
Date of incident
October 1959
State / country
OH / US
Page count
11 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 37