Lake Leelanau, MichiganMay 1956

Insufficient Data

Summary

On May 11, 1956, a civilian at Lake Leelanau, Michigan, reported one object that was watched for more than an hour. The witness was a car and live-bait dealer. The report was filed under Project 10073, the Air Force's official record for unidentified flying object reports.

The object appeared round and circular and sometimes changed to a funnel shape. It had yellow streaks, a green center, and red sides. It dimmed and brightened. The object was seen in the northwest, about 64 degrees above the horizon, and made irregular stops and starts. It faded over Lake Michigan after about one hour and five minutes. It was seen through binoculars. The sky was clear.

The Air Force concluded the object was the planet Venus. The record noted the object had been sighted many times over the past three months and that it was investigated in April and found to be Venus.

Reported location

Lake Leelanau, Michigan

Date of incident

May 1956

State / country

MI / US

Page count

4 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 25

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 4

View transcribed text

hl |
(he PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD i
| 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
i y 0 Was Balloon
11 May 1956 Lake Leelanau, Michigan O Probably Balloon
3, DATE-TIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION 0 Possibly Balloon
RVI 0 % 0 Was Aircraft
| Lot! ce eee round Visual Ground-Radar O Probably Aircraft
: CMT 12/ 03302 0 Air Visuol 0 Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS . SOURCE TX Was Astronomical Venus
i 0 Yes sR 0 Probably Astronomical
XENo Civilian O Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 5. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE ~|O, Other
5 NW in erratl a Iasi ant Dota for Evaluation
| 3 one hour, five minutes one movement ho
: Jo. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS :
One object appearing to be round, Concur with the opinion of the
; vunnel shaped, and sometimes circu- reporting officer that this
3 lar. Yellow steeaks with green cen- sighting was caused by the planet
g ter and red sides was the description venus.
3 of the colors. Seen through binoculars.
4
1 ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
; fe LEER . Ged

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28965603