Date:
September 26, 1963
Location: Sunnyvale, California, United States
During
the early morning of September 26, 1963, a UFO was sighted
by people in scattered locations around the San Francisco
Bay area. Officer Galen Anderson of Sunnvale Police Dept.
observed the UFO for 45 seconds and submitted a particularly
detailed report. This object appeared larger than a full
moon, according to Officer Anderson, about basketball
size at about 8 feet away.
Illustration
of the sighting in Sunnvale, CA in 1963. (credit: NICAP/Hall)
Source:
NICAP / Richard Hall, 1964 (reported in San Jose Mercury
News and SF Chronicle)
Disc
On Edge Reported
During
the early morning of September 26, 1963, a UFO was sighted
by people in scattered locations around the San Francisco
Bay area. Paul Cerny, Chairman of the Bay Area NICAP Sub
committee, conducted an investigation and located nine
witnesses. (The sighting was reported September 26 in
the San Jose Mercury News, Los Altos Times and the San
Francisco Chronicle.) A particularly detailed report was
obtained from officer Galen Anderson of the Sunnyvale
Police Department, who observed the UFO for about 45 seconds.
About
4:20 a.m., Officer Anderson was patrolling the streets
in a squad car. A radio call from other officers alerted
him, and he stopped to watch the UFO. The object was traveling
from east to west at an elevation angle of about 45 degrees,
at about the speed of a propeller-driven aircraft. The
leading edge was brightly illuminated, the main body grayish
in color, with a small point of light visible on it. (See
sketches and description prepared by Bay Area Subcommittee).
The UFO then made a turn toward the northwest, was momentarily
visible edge-on, then quickly disappeared from view.
In
nearby Monta Vista about 4:15 a.m., George W. Scott was
on the job as a supervisor at the Permanente Cement Company.
One of the work crew called his attention to a strange
object in the sky, and he watched its flight for about
a minute. To him, it appeared that the UFO stopped briefly
each time the small body light pulsed, then moved 3 to
4 degrees between pulses. The UFO continued on a westerly
course, disappearing behind the coastal mountains.
This
object appeared larger than a full moon, according to
Officer Anderson, about basketball size at about 8 feet
away. It appeared as a disc on edge, with about 3/4 or
more of its outline showing. The trailing ¼ of
the circle, if it were there, appeared more or less invisible.
Police Officer Lt. Haag told Anderson that he saw what
appeared as heat waves in this quarter area and further
to the rear. The disc appeared grayish in color except
when the small spot of light ("A") lighted up
about every 3 to 4 seconds. The color then changed to
yellowish-white, some trace of orange, but predominately
along the front leading edge portion ("B").
This produced a pulsing effect every three or four seconds.
This, in turn. gave an eerie lighted haze or mist illumination
of the area just outside the disc circle itself as if
it were glowing or surrounded by a gas, or thin cloud,
halo, etc. At each 3-4 second pulse, the small inner bright
light would move around erratically to various new positions
within the disc area.
The
object was visible about 45 seconds to Officer Anderson
and traveled in a perfectly straight line over Sunnyvale
toward Los Altos, then suddenly made a turn and was momentarily
edgewise and vertical to Anderson's vision, then immediately
disappeared from sight. Officer Anderson and Lt. Haag
were only about a third of a mile apart at the time and
Officer Girard was perhaps a mile to their northeast.
Speed of the object was about that of a propeller-driven
military aircraft, elevation about 45 degrees from Officer
Anderson, estimated altitude 4000-6000 ft., visible about
45 seconds. Brighter than full moon.
Source:
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case645.htm