Pottsville, PennsylvaniaOctober 1956

Unidentified

Summary

On October 13, 1956, a civilian near Pottsville, Pennsylvania reported one pear-shaped, silver object about the size of a pea held at arm's length. The object appeared stationary with a slight drift and was estimated to be above 10,000 feet. It was watched with the eye and through binoculars for about three and a half hours.

The Air Force noted that a balloon would not stay in the area for that long given the winds in the report. The planet Mars was in the southeast, and there was an aircraft at about 6,000 feet. The Air Force concluded the sighting was astronomical, with Mars given as the likely cause.

Reported location

Pottsville, Pennsylvania

Date of incident

October 1956

State / country

PA / US

Page count

4 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 26

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 4

View transcribed text

d
‘ : PROJECT 1003 RECORD CARD . |
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS |
| DO Was Bolloon |
13 October 1956 Lottsville, lennsylvanial!!}@ Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP i. TYPE OF OBSERVATION 0 Possibly Belloon |
Looe — ooo 1X Ground- Vi sual O Ground-Radar 8 gon eg ABR
CMT__ 25 20007 O Air Visuel OQ Air-Intercopt Radar |D Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS . UR 7 012: Was Astronomical Mars
: OVYes 0 Probably Astronomical
+O No | Civilian 0) Possibly Astronomicol
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE REE ER :
0 Insufficient Dato for Evaluotion
" : 0 Unknown
three & half hours | one | stationary
10. BRIE® SUMMARY OF SIGHTING : 11. COMMENTS
One pear shaped silver object, size of] Balloon would not remain in area
a pea at arm's length, Object was seen| for 32 hours with winds indicated
stationary with a slight drift, Object] in report. Mars in SE. A/C at
was estimated above 10,000 ft, Object 6,000f£t, Mars is opinion for
was secon visually & through binoculars] conclusion as object was above
for 3; hours, a/c, Mars on horizon 2t 110 az
moving to 35dgr elevation, 150dyr
azimuth in 33 hrs,
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28967871