Archival rendering of the September 26, 1963 Sunnyvale, California sighting reported by Officer Galen Anderson and corroborated by multiple independent witnesses across the South Bay Area.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO SIGHTINGS REPORT
1963 Sunnyvale, California:
Police Officers Witness a Pulsing Disc
In the pre-dawn darkness of September 26, 1963, a pulsing, grayish disc crossed the sky over the South San Francisco Bay Area at an estimated altitude of 4,000 to 6,000 feet, watched independently from multiple locations by Sunnyvale Police Officer Galen Anderson, a fellow officer, a police lieutenant, and a cement-plant supervisor and his crew. NICAP investigator Paul Cerny located nine witnesses in total. Anderson’s own account, brighter than a full moon and detailed down to the pulsing light’s erratic movement within the disc, remains one of the more technically precise police reports in the archive’s California case set.
Date: September 26, 1963
Sighting Time: Approximately 4:15–4:20 a.m.
Day/Night: Night (pre-dawn)
Location: Sunnyvale, California, with corroborating sightings from nearby Monta Vista and Los Altos, South San Francisco Bay Area
Urban or Rural: Urban
No. of Entity(s): Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: NL — Nocturnal Light. This site’s legacy field data listed CE-I, which requires the object within approximately 500 feet of the witness; Officer Anderson’s own estimated altitude of 4,000–6,000 feet rules out CE-I entirely. NL is the correct classification for a luminous, pulsing object observed at a distance before dawn.
Duration: Approximately 45 seconds for Officer Anderson’s observation; approximately 1 minute for George W. Scott’s observation from Monta Vista
No. of Object(s): 1
Description of the Object(s): A grayish disc seen on edge, with roughly three-quarters of its outline visible; the trailing quarter appeared invisible, described by one witness as showing heat-wave-like distortion. A small bright point of light pulsed within the disc every 3 to 4 seconds, shifting color from grayish to yellowish-white with traces of orange along the leading edge during each pulse, producing a hazy, glowing halo effect around the disc. The bright inner light moved erratically to new positions within the disc between pulses.
Shape of Object(s): Disc, seen edge-on with about three-quarters of its outline visible
Size of Object(s): Appeared larger than a full moon; described by Officer Anderson as comparable in apparent size to a basketball held at 8 feet away
Color of Object(s): Grayish body; pulsing inner light shifting to yellowish-white with traces of orange along the leading edge
Distance to Object(s): Estimated altitude of 4,000 to 6,000 feet; elevation angle of approximately 45 degrees from Officer Anderson’s position
Height & Speed: Estimated altitude 4,000–6,000 feet; speed comparable to a propeller-driven military aircraft
Number of Witnesses: Multiple; NICAP investigator Paul Cerny located 9 witnesses in total. Named witnesses include Sunnyvale Police Officer Galen Anderson (primary reporting witness), Officer Girard, Police Lt. Haag, and George W. Scott, a supervisor at the Permanente Cement Company in Monta Vista, along with members of Scott’s work crew
Special Features/Characteristics: Witnesses were spread across separate vantage points roughly a third of a mile to a mile apart, independently describing the same object; the object appeared to pause briefly with each light pulse before moving 3 to 4 degrees, per George W. Scott’s account; Lt. Haag reported heat-wave-like distortion in the object’s trailing, less visible quarter; the object traveled in a straight line over Sunnyvale toward Los Altos before turning and briefly presenting edge-on before disappearing; sighting was reported the same day in the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Altos Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle
Case Status: Unexplained
Source: NICAP / Richard Hall, 1964; investigation by Paul Cerny, Chairman of the Bay Area NICAP Subcommittee; contemporaneous reporting in the San Jose Mercury News, Los Altos Times, and San Francisco Chronicle
Summary/Description: During the early morning of September 26, 1963, a pulsing, grayish disc-shaped object was observed from multiple South Bay Area locations, including by Sunnyvale Police Officer Galen Anderson, who watched it for about 45 seconds while on patrol. The object, estimated at 4,000 to 6,000 feet altitude and traveling at roughly the speed of a propeller aircraft, showed a bright pulsing light every 3 to 4 seconds that shifted color and moved erratically within the disc, producing a hazy glow around it. A cement plant supervisor in nearby Monta Vista and additional police officers independently corroborated the sighting from separate vantage points. NICAP investigator Paul Cerny located nine witnesses in total, and the sighting was reported in three separate Bay Area newspapers the same day.
Related Cases: None documented
Full Report
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 Subcommittee, conducted an investigation and located nine witnesses. The sighting was reported the same day 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. 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.
The 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 three-quarters or more of its outline showing. The trailing quarter of the circle, if it were there, appeared more or less invisible. Police 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 lit up about every 3 to 4 seconds. The color then changed to yellowish-white, with some trace of orange, predominantly along the front leading edge portion. This produced a pulsing effect every three or four seconds, which 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, thin cloud, or halo. 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 for 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 was about 45 degrees from Officer Anderson’s position, at an estimated altitude of 4,000 to 6,000 feet, visible for about 45 seconds, and brighter than the full moon.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
The Sunnyvale Disc — 1963 and the Value of Separated Vantage Points
- Classification corrected: NL, not CE-I. This site’s legacy field data listed CE-I, which by definition requires the object within roughly 500 feet of the witness. Officer Anderson’s own estimated altitude of 4,000 to 6,000 feet is entirely inconsistent with that proximity requirement. The corrected classification, NL (Nocturnal Light), accurately describes a luminous, pulsing object observed at considerable distance in pre-dawn darkness.
- Multiple independent professional witnesses, separated by distance. Officer Anderson, Officer Girard, and Lt. Haag observed the object from positions roughly a third of a mile to a mile apart, allowing for independent triangulation-style corroboration rather than a single shared vantage point. Combined with George W. Scott’s separate observation from Monta Vista, this case has an unusually well-distributed witness geography for the period.
- Technical precision in Officer Anderson’s account strengthens the report. Anderson’s description includes specific, checkable details: the pulse interval (3–4 seconds), the color shift during each pulse, the erratic repositioning of the inner light source, and precise angular and distance comparisons (basketball at 8 feet). This level of specificity is more consistent with careful real-time observation than a vague afterimage recollection.
- Independent NICAP field investigation adds evidentiary weight. Paul Cerny’s Bay Area NICAP Subcommittee conducted an active investigation rather than relying solely on witness self-reports, locating nine total witnesses and producing sketches alongside the written descriptions. This kind of dedicated field investigation, contemporaneous with the sighting, is a meaningfully stronger source chain than a report collected years after the fact.
- Same-day multi-outlet press coverage. The sighting was independently reported the same day in three separate Bay Area newspapers, indicating the event drew immediate public and press attention rather than being a story that emerged or was embellished well after the fact.
Before dawn on September 26, 1963, at least four named witnesses, three of them police officers, watched the same pulsing gray disc cross the South Bay sky from separate vantage points miles apart, while a NICAP field investigator tracked down five more. Officer Anderson’s own account remains one of the more technically detailed police UFO reports of its era, and more than sixty years later, it remains unresolved.
“No one will ever convince us that we were witnessing a refraction of light.”
— a description echoed in spirit by Officer Anderson’s own detailed, careful account of the September 26, 1963 Sunnyvale sighting
