NUFORC Sighting 07716

Occurred: 1950-07-15 21:30 Local - Approximate
Reported: 1999-05-14 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 5 min
No of observers: 3

Location: Newark, NJ, USA

Shape: Orb
Characteristics: Lights on object

As a student of astronomy, this writer witnessed ufo's performing astounding aerial maneuvers. Silent propulsion. Technical performance could NOT be duplicated by anything flying today. Also witnessed by two adult relatives. Clear, cloudless skies. No obstructions. No reflections. Not birds. Not insects. Glowing "metallic" discs or spheres.

While working with star maps in by own backyard, in the summer of 1950, when I was 9 years old, I noticed a glowing object approaching at moderate speed, high altitude, from the west. It got my attention because it was completely silent. As I watched, the object (a warm colored sphere or disc seen from the bottom) was about to cross my zenith when it came to a complete and abrupt stop. There was no time between when it was moving and when it stopped. As there was no sound, I knew I wasn't seeing high altitude helicopters. And there were no silent 'copters back then! I was exteremely mistified as to what I was seeing. I would estimate the altitude to be anywhere from 15 to 30,000 feet. As I watched, another object of the same exact size and colr approached the first, coming from the east, at exactly 180 degrees. When the second object reached my zenith, it too came to a complete and abrupt stop. Both objects hung there in complete silence for moments. I would estimate that the distance between them was approximately twenty diameters (twenty craft diameters). I have no way of estimating the craft dimensions as there was no reference whatsoever for comparison. I can only use my sixth sense. As I continued to watch, the two objects began traveling in a small, tight circle, orbiting one another. First slowly, but quickly accelerating. I was alarmed and called for my parents. My father and my grandmother came out. I pointed the objects out. They had no idea what they were seeing. By this time, the objects were moving so fast that they appeared as a hard-edged glowing ring in the sky! We watched with our jaws dropping. Moments later, the two objects slowed and came to a stop again, hovering in the same place they started. Moments later, one object moved off to the west, and the other to the east. They disappeared into the horizon. Neither made a sound. They flew in mechanically straight lines, not wavering or drifting, but with absolute perfection one could "feel." The incident lasted several minutes. We checked the news reports for days afterward but never saw anything. Many yaers later, in a publication similar to Project Blue Book, I came across a reference to a similar sighting by two brothers in Ohio. They described the spinning/orbitting objects as looking like "Two bright dots on the edge of a spinning record. But what I saw was spinning not at 33 or 45 or even 78 rpm - more like 400 rpm. These were not insects or birds. This was not a meteorological phenomenon. As a young student of astronomy I knew the difference between a celestial object and a manufactured object. I was aware of news reports of "flying saucers" in those days, but had never heard of Roswell, though this was a mere few years later. I consider myself to be a rational, scientifically-minded individual, perhaps even more so as a child.

Posted 1999-05-24

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