Archival rendering of the December 3, 2005 San Francisco sighting, in which two witnesses watched two massive black equilateral triangles pass silently over Miraloma Park.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO SIGHTINGS REPORT
2005: Two Large Black Triangles Move Over San Francisco
On a crystal-clear evening in December 2005, two friends on a back deck in San Francisco‘s Miraloma Park neighborhood watched two enormous, perfectly equilateral, pitch-black triangles glide silently overhead from the Mount Davidson area toward the southeast, each one larger than a 747, flying in tight side-by-side formation with three dim, pulsating lights marking each triangle’s tips. The lights alone could have passed for stars in a constellation; it was the objects’ slow, deliberate, coordinated motion against the fixed backdrop of the night sky that gave them away. One of the two witnesses, a self-described amateur astronomer of 25 years, was confident enough in his own elimination process, planes, satellites, blimps, helicopters, the ISS, meteors, all ruled out, that he called two local television stations that same night.
Date: December 3, 2005
Sighting Time: Approximately 6:45 p.m.
Day/Night: Night
Location: Miraloma Park neighborhood, San Francisco, California, near the intersection of Teresita Boulevard and Los Palmos Drive, southeast of Mount Davidson; objects tracked moving from the Mount Davidson area southeast across Interstate 280 toward the San Bruno Mountains
Urban or Rural: Urban. Sky conditions were crystal clear with no clouds, fog, or wind; the crescent moon had set roughly 15 minutes prior to the sighting
No. of Entity(s): Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: NL — Nocturnal Light. A luminous/structured object or objects observed at night at close range.
Duration: Approximately 30 to 45 seconds
No. of Object(s): 2
Description of the Object(s): Two identical, perfectly equilateral, solid black triangular objects flying in tight side-by-side formation as though moving as one; each tip of each triangle carried a dim, pulsating, star-like light, six lights total across both objects; the objects’ undersides were pitch black, appearing darker than the surrounding night sky and visibly blocking out stars as they passed in front of them
Shape of Object(s): Equilateral triangle (two objects)
Size of Object(s): Witness could not cover a single object with a fully extended fist; estimated diameter 100 to 200 feet longer than a Boeing 747; both objects identical in size
Color of Object(s): Pitch black, darker than the surrounding night sky; six dim, pulsating, star-like lights (three per object, one at each tip)
Distance to Object(s): Estimated altitude of 500 to 1,000 feet, passing directly overhead
Height & Speed: 500–1,000 feet altitude; moved slowly at a constant speed, direction, and altitude throughout the sighting, showing no acceleration, deceleration, or maneuvering
Number of Witnesses: 2 (the reporting witness and a friend)
Special Features/Characteristics: Objects produced no sound whatsoever while passing directly overhead; the pulsating tip lights could easily have been mistaken for a faint constellation if the objects had not been visibly moving; the two objects maintained a fixed relative angle and formation throughout, appearing to move as a single unit; reporting witness identified himself as an amateur astronomer of 25 years and explicitly and methodically ruled out aircraft, satellites, blimps, helicopters, the International Space Station, meteors, and fireballs as explanations; both witnesses stated they had not been drinking and were not in any altered state; witnesses called two local television stations (CBS 5 and KGO 7) the same night to report the sighting; no independent media pickup or additional corroborating witness report has been located for this entry
Case Status: Unexplained
Source: UFOEvidence.org; witness identified as Michael Smith, San Francisco, CA, age 37
Summary/Description: On the evening of December 3, 2005, two witnesses on a back deck in San Francisco’s Miraloma Park neighborhood observed two large, solid black, equilateral triangular objects, each larger than a 747, flying in tight formation at an estimated 500 to 1,000 feet, moving silently from the Mount Davidson area southeast across Interstate 280 toward the San Bruno Mountains. Each object showed three dim, pulsating, star-like lights at its tips. The sighting lasted approximately 30 to 45 seconds. One witness, a longtime amateur astronomer, methodically ruled out conventional explanations and called two local television stations to report the sighting that same night.
Related Cases: None documented on this site; this sighting fits within the broader, internationally documented “black triangle” UFO genre, which has produced both cases later attributed to conventional causes (such as the 1980s Hudson Valley, New York sightings, later linked by several pilots to ultralight aircraft flying in formation) and cases that remain unresolved despite extensive multi-witness and police corroboration (such as the 1989 Belgian UFO wave)
Full Report
At around 6:45 p.m. on December 3, 2005, a friend and I were outside on our back deck looking to the crystal clear night sky facing west when we saw two large black triangle shaped objects move slowly and at a low altitude (500-1000 feet) directly over our house from the northwest Mt. Davidson area to the southeast. We live in San Francisco on the southeast side of Mt. Davidson at the cross street of Teresita and Los Palmos in Miraloma Park. The two distinct objects that we observed were flying in side by side formation and appeared to be moving as one.
Both craft were perfect equilateral triangles with pulsating dim star-like lights on each tip of the two triangles, six lights in total. These were most definitely two solid black large triangle shaped objects which from underneath appeared to be much darker than the night sky as they passed in front of other stars in the night sky and were darker than the night sky with no moon. The objects were very well cloaked, best way to describe it, against the background of the night sky and could have easily been mistaken as constellations, but they were moving slowly, which is what caught our attention. The entire sighting lasted approximately 30 to 45 seconds.
The objects did not appear to change speed, direction, or altitude, and moved slowly together overhead until they dimmed out of sight near the south side of San Francisco, crossing over 280 onto the northwest of the San Bruno mountain range. I have been an amateur astronomer for over twenty-five years now, and I can say with conviction that these were definitely not planes, satellites, blimps, helicopters, the International Space Station, meteorites, or fireballs. They were two solid triangle-shaped objects that moved in perfect formation together and made absolutely no noise as they traveled directly overhead. The two craft were identical in size and were significantly larger than a 747.
The weather conditions in San Francisco that night were crystal clear and ideal for sky watching. The crescent moon had also just dropped below the southwestern horizon about 15 minutes prior to when we witnessed this once-in-a-lifetime sighting. We were both truly shocked by what we had just seen, to the extent that we felt it necessary to call two local TV stations (CBS 5 and KGO 7) to report what we witnessed. I am in my late thirties, and the other person is in their early 40s. We have both always been rather skeptical of alien spacecraft visiting Earth, simply given the vast distances between stars and the time required to travel such a distance without bending space and time. But having seen what we saw with our own two eyes, we can now say with absolute conviction that these were highly advanced craft that our gut feeling tells us were “otherworldly.” Neither of us had been drinking, nor were we in any altered mental state at the time of the sighting.
Whether the objects were deeply classified military X-Project spacecraft or alien cannot be proven, but the objects had an eerie quality in the way they moved together and at the angle the triangles were positioned in flight. I have not heard anyone else reporting what we saw that night in the media or on the internet, but hopefully other people in the Bay Area witnessed the same event.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
Miraloma Park, 2005 — An Amateur Astronomer’s Methodical Elimination
- Witness count corrected. This site’s legacy field data listed “Multiple” witnesses; the account itself describes exactly two, the reporting witness and a friend, both on the same deck at the same time.
- The witness’s astronomical background sharpens the elimination process considerably. A 25-year amateur astronomer has direct, repeated, practical experience distinguishing satellites, the ISS, meteors, and aircraft lights from genuinely anomalous objects, under night-sky conditions specifically. His explicit, itemized rejection of each conventional candidate is a stronger evidentiary structure than a general impression of “I don’t know what that was.”
- The “cloaked as a constellation” detail is a specific, checkable observational claim. The witness’s description of the pulsating tip lights being nearly indistinguishable from background stars, noticed only because of their collective slow motion against the fixed star field, is a precise, testable claim about how the sighting was actually made, not simply an assertion of strangeness.
- This case sits within a genre with a genuinely mixed track record, and that context is worth stating plainly. The “black triangle” phenomenon this sighting closely resembles has, in some well-documented instances, been traced to conventional causes: the 1980s Hudson Valley, New York sightings were eventually linked by several pilots to ultralight aircraft flying in coordinated formation. In other instances, most notably the 1989 Belgian UFO wave, extensive multi-witness and police corroboration has never produced a conventional explanation. Readers should understand that “black triangle” as a genre does not point uniformly toward either a mundane or an extraordinary conclusion; each case, including this one, needs to be weighed on its own specific details.
- Same-night media outreach is a positive, if ultimately unconfirmed, credibility signal. Calling two television stations the same evening, before any possibility of after-the-fact embellishment or story-sharing with others, reflects genuine, immediate conviction on the witnesses’ part. No independent confirmation that either station received or aired the report has been located, however, and no other witness account of the same sighting has surfaced.
Two friends on a Miraloma Park deck watched two football-field-sized, perfectly matched black triangles drift silently across the sky from Mount Davidson toward the San Bruno Mountains, camouflaged as stars until their motion gave them away. One of the two had spent twenty-five years learning exactly what does and doesn’t belong in a San Francisco night sky, and ruled out everything he knew before he ever picked up the phone. What passed overhead that December evening has never been identified.
“I have been an amateur astronomer for over twenty-five years now and I can say with conviction that these were definitely not planes, satellites, blimps, helicopters, the International Space Station, meteorites or fireballs.”
— witness account, San Francisco, California, December 3, 2005
