Case 21-017 is in the process of investigation, although we hope to have a report out in the next few weeks. Here are some photos that the witness took with an iPhone XS max, cropped and processed a bit by API. The cropped images have been scaled up without interpolation.
These were shot on 14 May 2021. The sky was overcast.
We’ve had quite a few sightings reported to us lately that have clearly been sightings of the SpaceX Starlink constellation. Chief of Investigations Marsha Barnhart has prepared two reports so far for these cases, and more are coming. Of course, once the redacted report is published, they will appear on the Investigations page.
The two new reports are:
This is just a first look – the investigation has just begun. This was shot in Western Iowa on 30 April 2021. If you’ve seen something similar, please give us your report.
We’ve had several new witness submitted videos since our last post. Many of these include annotation or enhancements by API. The audio is often muted to protect witness anonymity. Have a look, and let us know what you think.
If you have your own video you’d like us to look at, please use our sighting report form.
Update (28 October 2021) : we now consider this case solved. See our Report of Investigation.
On 19 January 2021, at about 18:09 EST, we were shooting an International Space Station pass and experimenting with Direct Manual Focus (DMF) on the Sony A7 III mirrorless camera. The lens was a Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 – a very good quality lens. The standard lens hood was attached, and video was captured at 4K resolution, 30 frames per second. We were looking to the East (you can see the constellation of Taurus in much of the clip). For a few seconds, a reddish, extended object “flew” through the frame, and was dismissed at the time as a lens flare. However, examination of the footage shows that is not a lens flare, so we’re baffled as to what it could be.
What do you think it could be?
Released: 11 November 2020
Duration: 60 minutes
Lots of cases to discuss!
The API team is joined by two new members, Molly and Dan.
Paul goes into detail on a dazzling Ohio sighting with terrific night vision camera footage, and talks about a recently reported 2014 close encounter experienced by a woman in San Francisco.
Released: 9 April 2016
Duration: 59 minutes, 16 seconds
Marsha Barnhart on a recent Oregon case, the Swamp Gas Conference, Ted Roe, and Antonio Paris.
Producer and Host: Marsha Barnhart
Postproduction: Paul Carr and Auphonic.com
Hosting: Libsyn.com
We’re over 900 followers @APIcasefiles. The spammers and apparent fake accounts have been blocked. we’d love to have you join us there, and will very likely follow you back.
If you want to know what API is up to day-to-day, Twitter is the place to check us out.
An Ohio couple witness an object maneuvering in the skies over Ohio in the wee hours of the morning. Read the redacted Report of Investigation.
For more case reports, please see our Investigations Page.
Is the video submitted for Case 20-030 an atmosphere-skimming fireball? If it is, we could reasonably expect to see a smoke trail. The great daylight fireball of 1972 left a smoke trail hundreds of miles long that lingered in the air for several minutes.
However, this video was shot on a moonless night, and it might be hard to see a smoke trail. This video explains how we went looking a sign of it. Nothing conclusive was found.
