N.Y., March 1950March 1950

On March 20, 1950, photographers at Underhill Studio in New York took a night photograph of Manhattan from the Queensboro Bridge looking south and southwest. The image showed an unusual bright object in the sky. The photographers used an 8 by 10 view camera, though they were uncertain whether they had used an instantaneous shutter or a time exposure (which lets the camera collect light for several seconds or minutes). A photograph taken immediately before this one showed no such object.

The photographers did not notice any object in the air when they were taking the picture. They had intended to report it to the Air Force months earlier but forgot about it until they printed the negative in early December 1950. The Studio sent the photograph to the Air Force and asked what it was.

The Air Force analyzed the photographs with two photographic analysts and an astronomer. They concluded that the object was the moon, and that its unusual shape was caused by the camera's time exposure capturing the moon's movement across the sky over several minutes. The varying brightness along the image was likely caused by clouds dimming the moon during parts of the exposure. The analysts also noted that a new moon had occurred on March 18, 1950, and that on March 20 at the times the photograph was taken (between 1730 and 1800 hours, or 5:30 to 6 p.m.), only a sharply defined crescent portion of the moon would have been illuminated. This matched what appeared in the photograph. Additionally, the lower right corner of the photograph showed a streak of light typical of a moving ground vehicle captured on a time-exposed image.

The Air Force found no evidence of anything unknown and stated that no further action would be taken. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 18 scanned pages.