Mt Vernon, New York, Summer 1953Circa 1953

Insufficient Data

Summary

A resident of Mt. Vernon, New York reported seeing a bright, ringed object through a telescope during the summer of 1953 around 5 p.m. The witness observed the object for about three seconds but could not locate it again when he looked a second time.

The sighting went unreported to the Air Force until 1965, more than a decade later. When Air Force officials reviewed the case, they concluded the object was probably the planet Saturn. The file notes that Saturn was in approximately the correct position in the sky at that time of evening, and it would have been higher and farther west later in the night. The Air Force also observed that the witness had offered several reasons why the object could not have been Saturn, but the file states all of those reasons were incorrect.

Because the witness reported his sighting so many years after it occurred, and because exact dates and times were missing from his account, the Air Force could not perform a detailed analysis to confirm or rule out Saturn with certainty. The case was forwarded to Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the civilian scientific consultant to Project Blue Book, for further review.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 8 scanned pages.

Reported location

Mt Vernon, New York, Summer 1953

Date of incident

Circa 1953

State / country

? / XX

Page count

8 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 18

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 8

View transcribed text

\ : |
. \
Ee PROJECT 10073 RECORD | )
!. DATE . TIME GROUP 2. LOCATION .
Summer 1953 1700 Mt Vernon, New York 4
3. SOURCE 10. CONCLUSION i
Astro {SATURN ) ;
Civilian Probably Saturn. In the approximate position since SATURN was
1. NUMBER OF OBJECTS observed later in the evening further West and at a higher altityde.
: No exact computation can be made since the date is not available
One ard the times of both sightings were not included,
S. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION |11. BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS
3 Seconds " Object cbserved in 1953 through Telescope reported in 1965, sme
¢. TYPE OF OBSERVATION 12 yrs after the sighing. Object was observed for 3 seconds
bg through the telescope and could not be relocated. Time was djy-
Ground=-Visual (TX light about 5 PM. Satum like object with ring around it,
7. COURSE Witness tried to explain why object could NOT have been the
Planet SATURN and all four reasons he gave were incorre
Satationary f 52m —
E Pep = , 0 »
8. PHOTOS He 3 : . ™,
‘ 5a {(» 5h
0) Yes & - 3 a 0 8
x No AUN MP ba 8, 3 € Vs oy i
9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE SY 7-3 Sa RE alee
Nido oy BB Blin » OO
Pig CY hdd IL 1 fl TEE
FORM 5 a B "
FTD sep 63 0-329 (TDE) previous editions of this form may be used, pw -
RNS iki

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28954794