Project 10073 Record Card and Joint Messageform — Lorton, Virginia, April 1963

This document details a UFO sighting report from April 26, 1963, in Lorton, Virginia, involving a civilian witness at Springfield Farm. The witness reported observing a moon-shaped object, approximately 10 feet in diameter, which appeared to change colors—from blue to green to red—and exhibited vertical movement, descending and ascending repeatedly over the course of an hour. The initial report suggested the object was visible for three hours, but subsequent investigation by Dr. J. A. Hynek and Major William Coleman corrected this to one hour. The investigators interviewed the witness on June 13, 1963, and found her to be an unreliable witness, describing her as more emotional than observant. During the interview, the witness was asked to point to the object and the sun simultaneously, revealing an angular separation of 20 to 30 degrees. Based on this, the investigators concluded that the phenomenon was likely a sun dog. The file includes a Joint Messageform from the 1001st Air Base Wing at Andrews AFB and correspondence from Edward J. Linehan, who provided slides of sun reflections taken on his property to assist in the investigation, noting the presence of a pond and his own vision correction as potential sources of optical artifacts.