MIAMI, FLORIDADecember 1952

On the night of December 25, 1952, a civilian man and woman in Miami, Florida observed a very bright light moving slowly across the western sky. The man, an experienced amateur astronomer and journalism student, watched the object for roughly thirty minutes as it traveled from the northwestern part of the sky toward the southwest, eventually disappearing below the horizon. The light was described as bluish-white with a hint of amber, approximately three times as bright as the planet Venus, and comparable to an aircraft landing light. At one point it dimmed, took on a reddish hue, then flared back to its previous brightness before vanishing. When it reappeared a few minutes later lower in the sky, it seemed dimmer and more yellow. The man photographed the object using a 35-millimeter camera with a fifty-millimeter lens. He heard no sound, detected no mechanical features, and observed only a slight side-to-side drift in the object's otherwise steady southward path.

A woman who also witnessed the event from a different location in Miami gave a similar account. She described the light as stationary with only slight oscillating movement, and noted that it remained in view for approximately five minutes, disappeared, then reappeared about twenty minutes later before vanishing for good. Her observation was briefer and less detailed, and the investigating officer noted that a party taking place at her location may have affected the reliability of her account.

Air Force investigators found no evidence of weather balloons, aircraft activity, or other conventional explanations for the sighting. Weather data from the evening showed clear skies with minimal cloud coverage. A check of local installations revealed no balloon releases near the time of the sighting. The file notes that the man's background in astronomy and his stated certainty that the object was not a known star or planet made his testimony credible. However, one Air Force analysis suggested the object might have been the planet Sirius, though the file does not definitively confirm this conclusion.

The full case file, including photographs, interview transcripts, and meteorological data, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 18 pages.