UFO Sighting Report — Silver Spring, Maryland, September 1962

This document contains a U.S. Air Force sighting report regarding an incident on September 27, 1962, in Silver Spring, Maryland. The witness, a 12-year-old youth who identified himself as an amateur astronomer, reported observing two identical, stationary, white, cotton-like objects at a 30-degree elevation in the East while attempting to use a telescope to view Mars. The witness noted that the telescope was stuck and would not move during the observation. The sighting lasted approximately one minute and ended when the objects faded away. The Air Force investigation, led by Captain Hector Quintanilla, Jr., concluded that the observation was likely the result of after-image effects caused by the telescope. The file includes the official correspondence from the Aerial Phenomena Branch requesting further information, the completed questionnaire from the witness, and the witness's own narrative account of the event, which also mentions a second, separate sighting on March 14, 1964.