How do I report a UFO sighting in New York?

Note the exact time, compass direction, height above the horizon and how the object moved. Check a flight tracker, a satellite pass predictor and a sky app first. Then file a report with the National UFO Reporting Center (nuforc.org) or MUFON (mufon.com), which accept reports from every US state including New York.

UFO sightings · New York

UFO sightings in New York

Upstate New York is the setting of Whitley Strieber's 1985 Communion, whose cover fixed the definitive image of the Grey. The Hudson Valley wave of the 1980s brought thousands of boomerang-of-lights reports across the region.

New York case files in the archive

1985StrieberA cabin in upstate New York, USAA horror novelist described being taken from his cabin by small beings and examined. His 1987 memoir Communion, with a Grey face on the cover, became a bestseller and put the image in every bookshop in the world.

Grey dossier

Saw something over New York?

Most strange lights have an ordinary cause. Run the identifier: seven questions and the three most likely explanations, from a Starlink train to Venus to a drone, each with how to confirm it.

Note the exact time, the compass direction, the height above the horizon, how long it lasted and how it moved. Check a flight tracker and a satellite app before deciding it is unexplained.

File it. The National UFO Reporting Center and MUFON take reports from every US state, New York included, and their databases are where the per-state counts actually live.

Other states with famous cases

The famous cases above follow the public record; XenoAtlas documents claims and their explanations and takes no position on whether any involved non-human contact. Per-state sighting counts are maintained by NUFORC and MUFON. For the big cases on a map, see the case files.