DOW-UAP-D178: A Purplish-White Light over Catalina Drifting Toward Los Angeles, Seen from San Pedro - and Explained as Jupiter, 1953

Source file: DOW-UAP-D178_Unresolved_UAP_Report_Catalina_Island-1953.pdf Originating agency: U.S. Air Force (USAF), Headquarters, 2347th Air Force Reserve Training Center (2347th AFRTC), Long Beach Municipal Airport Document type: UFOB-format teletype message and Project 10073 record card Date: Sighting 16 November 1953 (GMT); message 17 November 1953; card on a form edition of September 1963 Classification: UNCLASSIFIED (an earlier marking is blacked out; stamp "DOWNGRADED AT 3 YEAR INTERVALS; DECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS. DOD DIR 5200.10"); released in 2026 Page count: 5 VIRIN: 260508-D-D0360-1170 PURSUE Release: 7

Summary

DOW-UAP-D178 is the third of the four Catalina Island files in Release 7 (D181, D179, D178, D177), and the first in the series with a military witness and a substantive Air Force explanation. It is also the only one observed from the mainland: the witness stood in San Pedro, on the Los Angeles harbour side, and saw the object over the island across the channel.

The file has two parts. Pages 3 to 5 are a teletype message in the numbered UFOB format, sent on 17 November 1953 from Long Beach to Air Defense Command (ADC), to ATIC at Wright-Patterson, to the Director of Intelligence at Headquarters USAF and to Continental Air Command. Page 1 is a summary record card, and page 2 is the back of that card, showing only text bleeding through from the front.

The recorded explanation is astronomical: "Astronomical (JUPITER)". A close reading, however, shows that the message itself is more cautious: it gives the astronomers' view about "planets" in general and says only that their observation "may account" for the sighting.

Research Article

The witness and the place

Under item (6) of the message the witness is "T/SGT ROBERT J CURRIE", aged 39, his occupation given as "AIR FORCE CLERK". Item (5) gives the observation point: "TENTH (10TH) AND GAFFEY SAN PERDO CALIFORNIA" (sic, San Pedro). Item (12) assesses: "WITNESS APPEARED FAIRLY RELIABLE DUE TO ASSOCIATION WITH JET AIRCRAFT ACTIVITY WHILE STATIONED AT LONG BEACH AIR FORCE BASE". This is the only positive reliability assessment in the Catalina series, in contrast with D179, where the officer judged the Boy Scouts' experience "probably meager at best".

What was seen

Item (1) describes the object: "(A) ROUND SAUCER SHAPE", "(B) SIZE OF A PEA", and under (C): "COLOR OF OBJECT WAS PURPLISH WHITE ON FIRST SIGHTING AND FADED TO A WHITEST COLOR REMAINING SO UNTIL ITS DISAPPERANCE". One object; the items on formation, structure, propulsion, trail and sound are all answered "NEGATIVE". Item (I) summarises the motion: "OBJECT APPERED TO BE STATIONERY IN FIRST SIGHTING OVER CATALINA AND MOVED NORTH-WEST TOWARD LOS ANGELES WHERE IT DISAPPERED FROM VIEW".

Item (2) sets out the course of the observation: it began with a "CASUAL GLANCE AT SKY"; at first the object was at "45 DEGREES ANGLE OF ELEVATION,; 0DEGREES AZIMUTH", and at the end "45 DEGREE ANGLE OF ELEVATION AZIMUTH UNKNOWN"; the path was "STRAIGHT AND LEVEL"; it disappeared as the "LIGHT FADED FROM VIEW"; duration "TEN (10) MINUTES". The observation was ground-visual, with no optical aids and no aircraft involved (item 3).

When: two different times

Item (4)(A) gives the time as the group "160505-160515", that is, on the 16th between 0505 and 0515 GMT, consistent with the ten minutes. A handwritten note at the head of the message likewise reads "16/0505Z CATALINA CALIF". On West Coast time that is about nine in the evening on 15 November, and indeed the card's note on Jupiter refers to "Nov 15". Item (4)(B) adds: "NIGHT CLEAR".

The record card, by contrast, gives "16 November 53 16/1305Z", eight hours later. The file does not explain the discrepancy. It may be a copying error on the card, which was filled in years later (on a form edition marked "FTD SEP 63 0-329", like the D181 card), but that is only a conjecture. The archive's incident date of 16 November 1953 is therefore the GMT date.

Weather and winds

Item (7) records clear skies, visibility of "TEN (10) MILES" and the winds aloft: "NW AT 8K 250 AT 10K, 270 AT 14K, 280 AT 12K, 260 AT 28K, 260 AT 50K UNKNOWN", directions by altitude without speeds. Someone added a small pencil cross in the margin labelled 270 and 180, apparently a reader comparing bearings. On this basis the card states: "Movement of object does not coincide with winds aloft." Westerly winds do not fit north-westward motion, which effectively rules out a drifting balloon. That is the methodological difference between D178 and D179, which recorded "No reports on wind conditions".

The explanation: Jupiter

Item (8) of the message relays the consultation with astronomers: "ASTRONOMERS AT GRIFFIES PARK OBSERVATORY AVER AT OBJECTS SUCH AS THESE ARE POSSIBLY PLANETS WHICH APPEAR MORE CLEARLY AFTER RAIN FALL" ("Griffies" in the original, i.e. Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles). Item (12) closes: "ASTRONOMERS OBSERVATION MAY ACCOUNT FOR THE APPERANCE OF THE SUBJECT".

The card sharpens this to "Astronomical (JUPITER)" and adds "Nov 15, Jupiter 5 hrs, 38 min., 45 deg elevation in West" and "Angular velocity, unknown". The card does not explain how the Jupiter figures were derived, nor does it address the fact that the message describes an object moving for ten minutes from over Catalina toward Los Angeles, or that the "0 DEGREES AZIMUTH" at the start of the sighting appears inconsistent with "in West". As geographic context only: from San Pedro, Catalina lies to the south-west. The file presents the explanation but does not show the working behind it.

Significance

DOW-UAP-D178 is a typical example of a single light in the night sky explained as a celestial body. Its value is in the detail: a named military witness, a precise location, elevation angles, winds at several altitudes and a genuine consultation with an observatory. At the same time it exposes the weak points: two different sighting times, a conflicting azimuth, and a "possibly planets" opinion that became a definite Jupiter on the later card. The release's file title, "Unresolved UAP Report", thus does not match the card's own conclusion. Within the Catalina series it is the first file with an astronomical explanation, a pattern repeated in D177 of 1955, where a meteor was suggested.

Key People

Locations

Incidents

Notable Quotes

"COLOR OF OBJECT WAS PURPLISH WHITE ON FIRST SIGHTING AND FADED TO A WHITEST COLOR REMAINING SO UNTIL ITS DISAPPERANCE" -- page 3

"OBJECT APPERED TO BE STATIONERY IN FIRST SIGHTING OVER CATALINA AND MOVED NORTH-WEST TOWARD LOS ANGELES WHERE IT DISAPPERED FROM VIEW" -- page 4

"45 DEGREES ANGLE OF ELEVATION,; 0DEGREES AZIMUTH" -- page 4

"TENTH (10TH) AND GAFFEY SAN PERDO CALIFORNIA" -- page 4

"ASTRONOMERS AT GRIFFIES PARK OBSERVATORY AVER AT OBJECTS SUCH AS THESE ARE POSSIBLY PLANETS WHICH APPEAR MORE CLEARLY AFTER RAIN FALL" -- page 5

"WITNESS APPEARED FAIRLY RELIABLE DUE TO ASSOCIATION WITH JET AIRCRAFT ACTIVITY WHILE STATIONED AT LONG BEACH AIR FORCE BASE" -- page 5

"Movement of object does not coincide with winds aloft." -- page 1

"Astronomical (JUPITER)" -- page 1