Project 10073 Record Card — Presque Isle AFB, Maine, 10 October 1952

This document details a sighting of an unidentified aerial object on 10 October 1952, near Presque Isle Air Force Base and Limestone Air Force Base in Maine. Weather observers at Presque Isle reported a circular orange object with four green lights, which they tracked using a theodolite for approximately five hours. The observers at Presque Isle contacted Limestone AFB, where personnel also attempted to track the object with a theodolite. The initial data, when plotted, suggested a massive object hovering at an altitude of over 300,000 feet, moving at high speed. This led to significant interest from the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), which requested further data and initiated an investigation. The case was initially treated as a potential high-altitude research balloon, with inquiries sent to the Office of Naval Research and the University of Minnesota to determine if any of their balloons were in the area. However, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, the science consultant for ATIC, reviewed the data and concluded that the object was the planet Jupiter. He determined that the observers at Limestone AFB had made a critical error in aligning their theodolite with true north, which resulted in the erroneous triangulation. When the data was corrected to account for this error, the lines of sight from both stations were parallel, pointing directly to Jupiter. The document includes various internal communications, message forms, and technical worksheets documenting the investigation process, the initial confusion, and the eventual resolution of the case as an astronomical event.