NEW YORK N Y, July 1952 - Incident Number: [ILLEGIBLE]July 1952

An amateur photographer in Elizabeth, New Jersey captured unidentified objects on film in July 1952, though he did not see them at the time he took the pictures.

The photographer, identified as a hotel employee, was attempting to photograph the moon during the week of July 12, 1952, around 10 p.m. He used a 35-millimeter camera mounted on a tripod, positioned on the roof of his home and pointed toward Staten Island, New York. He took four photographs with varying shutter speeds, ranging from 10 to 23 minutes. None of the pictures showed movement that he noticed during the actual shooting.

Only after the film was developed did the photographer discover that unusual spots appeared in all four images. These objects were not visible to the naked eye during his observation session. The spots appeared to have trailing lines in some of the photographs. A co-owner of a local photo business noticed the peculiar images and reported them to military authorities, believing they might be of intelligence interest.

An Army intelligence officer investigated the case. The officer noted that witnesses and photographers agreed the objects appeared as distinct spots or marks on the film but could not determine their nature, distance, size, or trajectory. No optical or electronic equipment was used to record the phenomenon. The photographs themselves represented the only physical evidence available.

The Air Force initially marked the case as "unknown" but noted the evaluation could not be conclusive given the limited information. No explanation was offered for what the objects might have been. No photographic enhancement techniques or additional analysis results appear in this section of the file.

The complete case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, 81 pages total, from microfilm T1206, Roll 11.