My very first UFO sighting was a sphere! It all began in 1964; I was 12 years old. It was a late, sunny August afternoon just outside of Savona. We were driving down a hill when my mother had my father pull off to the side of the country road. She then pointed out through the front windshield into the clear blue sky, there was a bright, silver sphere-like object that appeared stationary in the sky. I asked her what it was; she used the term “UFO.”
My father was fascinated and quietly watched it. My mother explained it could be a lot of things: some weather quirk, a weather balloon, perhaps something the Air Force was testing, or it could be people from outer space. That statement got a “wow” out of me. I watched the object for nearly 10 minutes until it suddenly vanished northward at great speed.
Sphere UFOs are not new; they’ve been reported for centuries. Spheres were reported to have been involved in a Star Wars-esque aerial battles in the skies of Nuremberg, Germany on April 14, 1561. They were seen again five years later in Basel, Switzerland.
Some spheres are said to be shiny, others as glowing or ringed with port holes. Spheres were reported to have flown circles around World War II bomber flights by both sides. Of course, each side thought the other side had some fantastic new aircraft. Only after the war did intelligence analysts figure out they weren’t from this world’s air forces. In the 1940s and 1950s, P-51 Mustangs and early jets chased the spheres to no avail.
National statistics in recent years with regards to spheres are rather remarkable. During a 2001-2015 sample period, using combined data from the National UFO Reporting Center and Mutual UFO Network, the United States logged 12,132 reports of UFO spheres, about 10 percent of the total national sightings reported.
Nationally, spheres are in the top 10 of reported UFO shapes in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. In fact, 48 states list the spheres in their top five. Only three states list them in the top ten.
In New York state, spheres rank No. 4 in UFO objects reported. During the sample period, New York state logged 457 spheres, or 8.9 percent, of the state’s total 5,141 UFO sightings.
Instead of our usual New York state UFO round up, why not take a look at the NUFORC web listing on Sphere UFOs from around the country. Click Here for Sphere Reports.
If you are interested in joining a monthly UFO discussion group in the Onondaga County area, drop Cheryl an email [email protected]. If you have a UFO sighting to report, you can use either one of the two national database services: nuforc.org or mufon.com. Both services respect confidentiality.