Incident #148 Sighting Report — Springfield, Ohio, 23 July 1948

This document collection pertains to the investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena under Project SIGN, specifically focusing on Incident #148, which occurred in Springfield, Ohio, on 23 July 1948. The primary report details a sighting by a female civilian who observed a round, intense yellow object that remained nearly stationary while hovering. The witness reported hearing sounds resembling plane maneuvers prior to the sighting. The duration of the observation was split into two segments, lasting five minutes and fifteen minutes respectively. An official evaluation of this incident, conducted by the Air Materiel Command, concluded that the object was the planet Venus. The investigator noted that Venus reached its greatest brilliancy in the morning sky during that period, with a magnitude of -4.2, making it significantly brighter than a first-magnitude star. The report suggests that intermittent cloud coverage accounted for the object's perceived appearance and disappearance, while the reported size was dismissed as a subjective estimate. The document also includes correspondence between the Air Materiel Command and the Air Weather Service regarding the systematic review of 172 incident reports from Project SIGN. The purpose of this review was to determine if any sightings could be attributed to routine weather balloon flights. Lists of incidents were provided for further study, and the Air Weather Service confirmed that they considered wind direction, speed, and the location of weather stations when evaluating these reports. Additionally, the document references Dr. Hynek's evaluations from the Project GRUDGE report, which categorized various incidents into astronomical, non-astronomical (balloons, rockets, flares), and unexplained categories.