According to the National UFO Reporting Center, Central Jersey residents have reported seeing objects in the sky that are mystifying and can not be explained. In short, they were seeing unidentified flying objects — UFOs.

And if you did see an UFO, you’re not crazy. They may not be flying saucers or aliens taking a sightseeing trip to Earth, but simply objects you literally can not identify. UFOologists say that about 90 percent of all sightings turn out to have plausible explanations, yet about 10 percent remain perplexing.

The National UFO Reporting Center, in Seattle, was founded in 1974 by UFO investigator Robert J. Gribble. The Center’s mission is to be a central and transparent clearinghouse of UFO sightings throughout the United States, including Central Jersey. The center’s website is updated daily.

Sightings

One of the UFO latest sightings in Central Jersey was in South Amboy where someone told the National UFO Reporting Center that at about 12:28 a.m. on Feb 1 “two circles in the sky changed colors several times from blue to orange.”

That was the second UFO sighting in South Amboy since Dec. 1. At about 6:51 p.m. on Dec. 10, someone reported “a bright light beamed in the sky and descended in a linear pattern, then quickly disappeared.”

Just three days before, there had been a detailed UFO sighting in Branchburg.

“On 12/07/2018 at 16:45 I was driving westbound on Burnt Mills Road in Branchburg, when I witnessed what first appeared to be a jet contrail, however instead of getting longer, it stayed the same size and began rotating in a clockwise direction. It was the shape of a line, or cylinder, and I could see that it was illuminated because the sun has already set and was behind the object, but it was fully illuminated bright white on its east side, opposite the sun.

“As I noticed it wasn’t growing and instead rotating, another, smaller object appeared slightly to the north of it. I drove through a forested section of the road and came to a clearing and pulled off to the shoulder to view them some more. 

“I then noticed 2 more similar shaped objects to the north of the first 2. They were moving very slowly in the sky, and as I tracked them, I could see movement relative to the other objects, and saw that they were traveling west towards the twilight. The first object I saw eventually disappeared to the west, followed by the 2nd, and finally the last 2 disappeared. 

“I am certain they were not planes, helicopters or hot air balloons. 

“I have never seen anything quite like these lights in the sky before. I have logged thousands of miles sailing offshore and many moonless nights at sea, and although I have seen some very strange things in the sky, nothing viewed has ever compelled me to write about before. 

“I would like to know if there were any other witnesses as it was rush hour and there were many cars driving around at that time. This is a fairly rural area, the objects were traveling over farmland and possibly parts of Route 78.”

Not all of the reports to the National UFO Reporting Center are as detailed.

On July 7, 2017 someone in Linden reported a “blinking light” in the sky at about 6:43 p.m. It was “first solid red…then blinking red…then blinking green six or seven times..then red twice.”

Occasionally Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center, adds a comment to the reports. In response to someone on the New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University at 7:38 p.m. Nov. 29, 2017 seeing an aircraft “releasing white air,” Davenport wrote, “Possibly contrails, we suspect.”

The National UFO Reporting Center receives many of its reports through a telephone hotline at 206-722-3000 which is staffed 24 hours a day. You can also report a sighting online at www.ufocenter.com/reportform.html. The site warns that it doesn’t tolerate nonsense: “If you are thinking of submitting a hoax or joke report, save yourself the time and trouble. It will be ignored and immediately discarded.”

The National UFO Reporting Center makes all the reports open to the public on the website. And those who report UFOs are guaranteed anonymity. Every month summaries of recent sightings are posted.

Even with contemporary high-tech gadgets, it’s difficult to gather evidence about sightings. A Stockton man going for a bike ride on the D&R Canal towpath with his kids at 3 p.m. Oct. 1, 2017 saw “a single, extremely bright, but small, white to pale yellowish light at very high altitude.” For the next hour the light moved slowly across the sky and never reached the horizon.

“I did attempt to take a few pictures with my iPhone because it is all I had, but nothing can be seen in the photos,” the person wrote.

In Piscataway at about 4:40 p.m. Aug. 1, 2017, someone was driving home from work when they saw a fast-moving disk-shaped object with a dome high in the sky. “It flew very smooth and faster than any plane I’ve seen.”

Unfortunately, those words are the only account we have. “I wanted to try to take a picture but could not safely pull to the side of the road. Incident happened quickly and not enough time to get phone and take photo.”

At about 5:10 p.m. June 17, 2017, someone saw a “black circular, ball-like object hovering in the sky over Old Bridge.”

But, by the time the observer grabbed a camera from inside the house and ran back outside, the object was gone. “I hope someone in the area photographed it.”

There were no other UFO reports around Old Bridge at that time. However, it should be noted that since Jan. 1, 2017, there have been more UFO sightings in Old Bridge — four — than any other Central Jersey town.

Sometimes the sightings come when you least expect it. Also in Old Bridge at about noon on Oct. 12, 2018, a person said “I took my usual walk on the usual route. I walked across the street and lifted my neck to stretch and there was an object above me. The best way to describe it. A jellyfish. It was moving quickly.”

The report adds interesting details to fill out the picture. “Only saw a couple of birds on my walk and no leaves high in the air. The leaves were bristling on the ground because it was windy.

The author then adds facts to heighten the report’s credibility: “My vision is excellent except I wear reading glasses. I’m in my 40s.”

Someone taking out the garbage in Califon at 8:43 p.m. Oct. 4, 2017 saw a “craft hovering with amber, orange lights, for a few minutes and then completely disappeared like it had been vacuumed up into thin air.”

Occasionally, a report will contain a personal, emotional response. A Somerville resident who was waiting for his Uber ride to work on the overnight shift reported seeing at about 10:33 p.m. Jan. 10, a triangular-shaped object “zoomed” about 1,000 to 1,500 feet above his house.

The sighting, the reporter wrote, was “not scary at all, but just mystifying.” After looking at the reports on the the National UFO Reporting Center ‘s website, the resident wrote it was “humbling to know that all the other people who reports such things are not crazy like I thought I was.”

“I am now a believer!”

Source: My Central Jersey