Watertown, New YorkMarch 1956

On the evening of March 10, 1956, at around 11:25 p.m., three people in Watertown, New York saw a bright object in the western sky. A high school student first noticed the light while entering a dark room at his grandmother's house. He called his mother and other family members to look. All of them watched the object for between ten and thirty minutes, though they disagreed on exactly how long.

The observers described the object as extremely bright, with fuzzy edges when viewed by the naked eye. Through high-powered French binoculars, it appeared triangular with a red dot in the center. As the object moved, it seemed to turn and rotate, appearing sometimes small and sometimes large. The witnesses said the object looked like a bright cigar shape, or alternatively like a flattened circle with a bright yellowish-white color and a red section at one end. Nobody heard any sound from the object, and no one left the house to get a better look at it. The object was last seen in the western direction, roughly thirty to forty-five degrees above the horizon.

The Air Force investigated the sighting by interviewing the three witnesses and checking with the local radar squadron, airport control station, and weather office. The 655th Air Control and Warning Squadron reported that radar detected nothing unusual. The Watertown Airport's control officer said he had been using a ceiling light near the time of the sighting but did not believe its reflection could have created what the witnesses described. Weather conditions were clear with good visibility. However, when investigators consulted Dr. Fredrickson of Syracuse University Observatory, he noted that the planet Venus was visible in the western sky at that time of year, typically no higher than 45 degrees from the horizon, and that Venus appears reddish just before it sets. Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after the moon and sun.

The Air Force concluded that the sighting was most likely a misidentification of the planet Venus. The investigators noted that all observers saw the object in the west, that nobody left the house for a better view despite being impressed by its brightness, and that the witnesses gave conflicting descriptions of the object's size. The file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, with 18 pages.