Project Blue Book Case File
Ft. Collins, ColoradoSeptember 1956
Summary
# Summary
On the evening of September 24, 1956, a witness in Fort Collins, Colorado saw an unusual object in the sky. The object appeared round, about the size of a baseball, and displayed red and green colors that seemed to reverse. At times it looked silver. The witness watched it for about one hour as it flew in a straight, level path from north to west.
The Air Force investigators noted that the object moved toward the west, which was against the direction of the wind that evening. This detail ruled out a simple aircraft sighting. The investigators also determined that the bright star Vega was overhead at the time and setting toward the west. In their final assessment, they concluded that the sighting was probably astronomical in nature, and that the object's apparent northward movement was likely the result of visual misinterpretation rather than actual motion by the object itself.
A second sighting from the same day was recorded in Pueblo, Colorado. That witness reported seeing a round, bright object about the size of a washtub at arm's length. It appeared at a 90-degree elevation (directly overhead) and moved in a straight, level path northward. The observation lasted 30 seconds. Investigators concluded that this sighting was probably caused by an aircraft.
The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, across 7 pages of microfilm.
Reported location
Ft. Collins, Colorado
Date of incident
September 1956
State / country
CO / US
Page count
7 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 26