Hampton Sydney, VirginiaFebruary 1956

# Hampton-Sydney College UFO Sighting, February 22, 1956

Six college students at Hampton-Sydney College in Virginia reported seeing an unusual glowing object in the night sky on February 22, 1956, around 6:15 a.m. The witnesses described it as round, about the size of a silver dollar held at arm's length, with light that flashed and changed from red to green to blue and sometimes brilliant white. One student who had studied astronomy said it was not a shooting star.

The object appeared to move slowly in a southwest direction. Witnesses watched it through a 60-power portable telescope and reported seeing it change size, from appearing as large as a half-dollar to shrinking to a pinpoint. Some observers noted what looked like smoke or a thin trail coming from the object. The sighting lasted about 45 minutes to an hour and 15 minutes, depending on which student gave the account. Importantly, none of the witnesses heard any sound associated with the object.

The Air Force investigation interviewed all the students and conducted several follow-up checks. Investigators contacted the U.S. Weather Bureau and confirmed that weather balloons could not have drifted into the area. They also checked with the 84th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron at Manassas and other radar stations. A radar plot from Bedford, Virginia did show an object at the time of the sighting, tracked at roughly 180 knots (200 miles per hour) and an altitude of 12,000 feet. The Civil Aeronautics Administration tower at a local airport reported no aircraft in the area.

However, investigators also reached out to the U.S. Naval Observatory and the University of Virginia's astronomy department. Both sources pointed to the bright stars Sirius and Procyon as the likely explanation. Both stars are known to sparkle dramatically when viewed low on the horizon, showing red, green, and blue colors due to turbulence in Earth's atmosphere acting like a prism. A University of Virginia astronomy professor noted that a portable telescope slightly out of focus, combined with the stars' position and the observers' youth and inexperience, could easily explain the excitement and unusual descriptions. The professor also noted that a student later reported seeing similar colorful flashes near where Sirius would have been two nights after the original sighting.

The Air Force concluded the sighting was probably caused by the celestial bodies Sirius and Procyon.

The complete case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 18 scanned pages.