Hillsborough, CaliforniaAugust 1952

On the evening of August 24, 1952, a man and his wife in Tucson, Arizona saw an object they could not explain. At 5:40 p.m., a large, round, brilliant white light appeared in the sky due north of their home. The object began moving west in a wavering, dancing motion. The lower third of the sphere was surrounded by a misty, less-bright halo, and the bottom of the sphere stuck out below this halo. The whole thing appeared to be made of a metallic substance. After traveling westward for about two minutes, the object simply faded and disappeared at roughly 5:57 p.m.

The observer was a man employed by the federal government since 1920 and working as a Chief Electrician at a local air base. He had served two years in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Air Force investigators noted that his reliability was unquestioned by his associates. He compared the object's brightness and apparent size to a P-50 aircraft viewed from 10,500 feet, though he noted it moved slower than such a plane. There was no sound, no exhaust trail, and no visible propulsion system. His wife observed the object for about one minute through binoculars before it disappeared.

The weather that evening was clear with excellent visibility, scattered clouds at various altitudes, and winds from the west. The Air Force investigated the sighting and found no meteorological or astronomical explanation. The case file contains a diagram showing the sphere and its characteristic halo effect. The Air Force ultimately classified this sighting as unidentified, and the full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.