Project Blue Book Case File
Paulding, OhioOctober 1960
Summary
In October 1960, a resident of Paulding, Ohio reported seeing an unusual bright object in the sky. The witness wrote to the Air Force saying that he and his relatives had spotted what looked like a star in the eastern sky. Over the next few nights, the object appeared again, sometimes turning orange and red. It would suddenly vanish, as if moving away from the observer. On the final night of observations, the object was seen in the western-southwest sky before disappearing.
The Air Force asked the witness to fill out a detailed questionnaire so investigators could analyze the sightings more carefully. In the meantime, based on the limited information provided, Air Force officials suggested a likely explanation: the planet Jupiter. They noted that Jupiter was in the right part of the sky where the witness had seen the object on three of the four nights. The color changes, the Air Force said, were probably caused by atmospheric refraction, the bending of light as it passes through layers of air with different temperatures. Jupiter was particularly bright at the time of the sightings, with a magnitude of negative 1.7, meaning it was roughly four times brighter than any star except Sirius. The initial sighting in the eastern sky may have been Sirius itself, the Air Force concluded.
The file does not indicate whether the witness returned the completed questionnaire or whether the Air Force reached a final judgment on the case. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 7 pages.
Reported location
Paulding, Ohio
Date of incident
October 1960
State / country
OH / US
Page count
7 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 40