Presque Isle, MaineMarch 1951

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the evening of March 25, 1951, personnel at Presque Isle Air Force Base in Maine spotted a spherical light near the horizon. The observer, a weather officer at the base, first noticed it around 2017 (8:17 p.m.) Eastern Standard Time. The light sat roughly 290 degrees from the base, which means it was northwest of the installation, sitting low in the sky at about 15 degrees above the horizon.

What made the sighting unusual was the light's color. It changed from yellowish white to brilliant red about every six seconds as it slowly descended toward the horizon. The object remained visible for more than 10 minutes. A control tower operator at Presque Isle and a control tower operator at nearby Limestone Air Force Base also reported seeing the same phenomenon.

The Air Force's official evaluation noted that the planet Venus was positioned at the location and time of the sighting, nearly on the horizon. The file states that the phenomenon was likely caused by "refraction of this astronomical body" and atmospheric effects near the horizon, which could explain why the observer thought it was a star with unusual coloring. The observer had in fact considered this possibility, thinking the color changes might result from atmospheric conditions affecting how starlight appears when it is very close to the horizon.

The complete case file, 17 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Presque Isle, Maine

Date of incident

March 1951

State / country

ME / US

Page count

17 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 8

: i PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD Y. DATE ( 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS 25 March 1951 Presque Isle, Maine = See Bites 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION O Possibly Bellosn loool 2007 EST ho round- Visuel O Ground-Rader o lg SP aus BNERRTS 0 Air Visudl 0 Air-intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft . CW CSTE SEEe | Fes a BR TT | NV O Yes R Prebebly Aronian ONe Military DO Possibly Astronemicel 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE o Other eee 10 Po. ond Fal 5 etd ote for Eveluation 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS i Bre range light or object in sight in NW at elevati Venus at 2h 8' 11" on or slightly of 15 degrees alowly descending below horizon below horizon at the reported after observation of more than 10 minutes, time of observation, Sighting Light or object changes colors from yellowish attributed to refraction of this | white to brilliant red, Observed on other occagions Astronomical Body. | in same location, Thought by observer to be star | close to horizon with peculiar atmospheric conditions causing change in color. Object des¢ribed as spherical, Color change every six seconds, Object 290 deg azimuth, ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) Ed