At the time Petrozavodsk was the capital and a major industrial hub of the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, with a population of 203,000 in 1974. The earliest published report of the Petrozavodsk phenomenon was written by TASS correspondent Nikolai Milov, who described the unidentified object over Petrozavodsk as "a huge star", that "flared up in the dark sky" at about 4:00 a.m. local time, "impulsively sending shafts of light to the Earth". Milov's report was published in the mainstream Soviet press (Pravda, Izvestiya, Selskaya Zhizn, and Sotsialisticheskaya Industriya). A local newspaper, Leninskaya Pravda, also reported the Petrozavodsk object. The preliminary data analysis by the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1977 found the eyewitness' reports to be mutually consistent and complementary. Some eyewitness's accounts were attested by Yuri Gromov. According to Milov, "the star" was spreading out over Petrozavodsk in the form of a jellyfish, "showering the city with a multitude of very fine rays which created an image of pouring rain". Milov further reported that "after some time the luminescent rays ceased" and "the jellyfish turned into a bright semicircle", which resumed its movement towards Onega Lake.
The object, surrounded by a translucent coat, was initially spotted at about 4:00 a.m. in the northeastern part of the sky below Ursa Major at an azimuth of about 40°. The initial brightness of the object was "apparently comparable to that of Venus". The object moved ascendantly towards Ursa Major. The course angle as determined by former pilot and eyewitness V. Barkhatov was 240°. As the object ascended, it was expanding and pulsating, but a decrease in brightness was not noted. The object moved slowly for about three minutes. Shortly before the object stopped it dispersed a bright "cloud". The cloud was round or oval in shape. Its maximum angular size was larger than that of Ursa Major, about 30° in diameter. The altitude of the object during the formation of the "cloud" was estimated at 7.5±0.4 km (based on eyewitnesses' observations) or at 6.0±0.5 km, based on parallax.[a] The linear diameter of the object's core was estimated either at 119 or at about 60 m. The diameter of the object's jellyfish-like cupola was estimated by Felix Ziegel at about 105 m, based on the drawing of eyewitness Andrei Akimov. The object itself was red in color and emitted a bluish white glow. The lighting of the area was compared to that from a full moon. According to eyewitness V. Trubachev, "the ground was lightened like in the white night". The glowing "cloud" then developed a dark spot around the central core. The spot was quickly expanding while the glow was fading away. The object hovered over Petrozavodsk for five minutes and then moved away. Before hovering the object moved slowly, with the angular velocity of a passenger aircraft. After the hovering its speed had increased. One eyewitness noted that the object's underside resembled a Segner wheel. The entire phenomenon lasted 10–15 minutes. The Petrozavodsk object was also seen in adjacent places, such as Pryazha. In 1978, Tekhnika i Nauka published the colored reconstruction of various stages of the object.
In November, 1977, clinician psychologist Y. Andreyeva evaluated the mental condition of nine eyewitnesses of the Petrozavodsk phenomenon. She concluded that "one can be confident of complete mental sanity of the eyewitnesses and the veracity of their answers and testimonies". Nonetheless, several reports noted some impact of the phenomenon on humans and environment. According to A. Grakov, who observed a glowing yellow ball the size of a moon, the air above the lake in Petrozavodsk glowed with white light after the ball had disappeared. The glow was more intense than that from Petrozavodsk's lights. According to Yuri Linnik, after 20 September 1977 there was increased biological activity in the areas where the phenomenon was observed. Noting that that increase might not be related to the Petrozavodsk phenomenon, Linnik nonetheless reported the blooming of roses in his garden and the second bloom of "about 10 species of herbaceous plants". Linnik called it "extraordinary for Karelia's latitude" because "after the autumn equinox the vegetation of herbs almost ceases". He further emphasized the intense bloom of the water in Ukshozero, caused by Ankistrodesmus, shortly after 20 September. Some impact on technical devices was also noted when the engineers in the Petrozavodsk area had reportedly observed "huge failures" in computing devices, which then regained normal performance.
Most sightings occurred between 1:00 and 1:20 a.m. UTC, when at least 48 unidentified objects reportedly appeared in the atmosphere. Several sightings occurred before, at 1:00 a.m. local time over Medvezhyegorsk, at 2:30 a.m. over Loukhi and at 3:00 a.m. over Kovdor and Palanga (Lithuania). From approximately 3:00 to 3:25 a.m. an unidentified luminous object was observed by the supervising personnel of the Leningrad maritime trade port. At 3:30 a.m. a flying object, surrounded by a luminous coat, was reportedly seen by the crew of the Soviet fishing vessel Primorsk, which was departing from the Primorsk harbour. The object appeared to move noiselessly from the east, and near Primorsk it abruptly changed its direction to north.
In Helsinki, Finland, the sightings of a glowing ball were reported by newspapers Ilta-Sanomat on September 20 and Kansan Uutiset the next day. The ball was observed by many residents, including taxi drivers, police functionaries and Helsinki Airport personnel. An unidentified object was also observed near Turku by two men. At the distance of 300 m they spotted a spinning object similar to a lifebuoy, 10 m in diameter. This claim was contested by Pekka Teerikorpi from Tuorla Observatory. Arguing that the entire phenomenon was caused by Kosmos-955, Teerikorpi believed that the actual distance was "many hundreds of kilometres" and that "such reports probably are due to the well-known fact that it is difficult to estimate distances of unfamiliar phenomena". Ilta-Sanomat also reported a sighting of a glowing object in Denmark, over Copenhagen, by the pilots of a Finnish airline aircraft flying from Rome.
The glowing objects were also observed in various places of the Soviet Union, mostly in the northwest. The appearance of an unidentified object over Helsinki reportedly caused heavy radiotraffic on Soviet territory. In the European part of the Soviet Union "bright, luminous bodies surrounded by extended shells and emitting light rays or jets of quaint shapes" were reported. The "shells" reportedly "transformed and diffused within 10 to 15 minutes", while "a more longlived, stable glow was observed, mostly in the northeastern part of the sky". The eyewitnesses included paramedics, on-duty militsiya functionaries, seamen and the longshoremen at Petrozavodsk's port, military, local airport staff and an amateur astronomer. The phenomenon was also observed by the members of the IZMIRAN geophysical expedition near Lekhta. In Saint Petersburg, then Leningrad, the sighting of an unidentified object was reported by three nightshift employees of Pulkovo Airport, including air traffic controller B. Blagirev. According to Blagirev, he spotted a fireball-like object slightly larger than Venus at 3:55 a.m. in the north-north-east at an azimuth of 10°. The object was surrounded by a spacious, rhythmically glowing coat with intricate structure and "the observed phenomenon had nothing similar to aurora". The object moved ascendantly to the observer, to the south-south-west, then it changed the direction to north-north-west and eventually disappeared. All three airport employees failed to identify what they saw. Further reports in the Soviet Union came from Primorsk (two eyewitnesses), Petrodvorets (one eyewitness), Lomonosov (three eyewitnesses), Podporozhye (three eyewitnesses), Polovina (one eyewitness), Leppäsyrjä (one eyewitness), Kem (several eyewitnesses), Põltsamaa, Liiva, Priozersk, Kestenga, Valday and other places. Many reports were accompanied by drawings from eyewitnesses. By 30 December 1978, the Soviet researchers collected a total of 85 reports on the Petrozavodsk phenomenon.
In the settlement of Kurkijoki a luminous object was seen by engineer A. Novozhilov, who compared it to an airship. He reported the sighting to the candidate of technical sciences, Konstantin Polevitsky, who recorded it. Initially Novozhilov saw what he thought to be a meteor. After some time the object had stopped and then moved towards Novozhilov, quickly increasing in size and acquiring the well-outlined shape of an airship. The object was faceted and tipped with brightly shining spots on front and back. The edges were glowing with white light, which was slightly fainter than spots. The facets resembled windows lit from inside and were evenly glowing with a white light that was fainter than that of the edges. The object reportedly moved at an altitude of 300–500 m, being 100 m long and 12–15 m in diameter. Still approaching Novozhilov, the object, moving from west to east, had released a brightly shining ball from the rear, which flew north. The ball was flying horizontally and then descended behind a forest. The landing reportedly caused the appearance of a bright glow. At 4:15 a.m. Novozhilov took three unsuccessful photos of the sighting with a 0.1 sec exposure. The object was "much larger than moon" and moved with the speed of a helicopter. The observation lasted 10–15 minutes in complete silence.
Another detailed account on one unidentified object was given by Soviet writer and philosopher Yuri Linnik. He observed the object on his dacha near Namoyevo at about 3:00 a.m. through an amateur telescope with an 80× magnification. That lens-like object, surrounded by a dim, translucent ring, had a color of a "dark amethyst, intensively lightened from inside". The edges of the lens-like object had 16 spots (described by Linnik as "nozzles") which emitted pulsating red rays at an angle of 10°–15°. The angular size of the object was estimated at 20 arcminutes. The object passed near stars Gamma Geminorum, Eta Geminorum, Capella, 172 Camelopardalis, 50 Cassiopeiae, Gamma Cephei, Psi Draconis, 16 Draconis, Psi Herculis, Kappa Coronae Borealis and Delta Coronae Borealis. The object stopped near Gamma Cephei at an azimuth of 220°. Near Kappa Coronae Borealis, at an azimuth of 340°–350° the object changed its direction to 30°–35° west. It finally disappeared on the north at an azimuth of 340°. The duration of the flight was 15 minutes.
Apart from ground observations, there were also reports from several aircraft. The crew of a Tu-154 spotted a luminous spherical object at an altitude of 12 km. A bright, luminous object was also observed for a half an hour by Georgian writer Guram Pandzhikidze and other passengers of an aircraft returning from Singapore to Moscow at an altitude of 11 km, at about 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. Pandzhikidze reported the sighting on 2 October to the director of Karelian Hydrometeorological Observatory Yuri Gromov, who verified the report's copy.
Government officials from northern European countries sent letters to Anatoly Aleksandrov, president of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, expressing concern about whether the observed phenomenon was caused by Soviet weapons testing and whether it constituted a threat to the region's environment. Since 1977, the phenomenon has been often (though not universally) attributed to the launch of the Soviet satellite Kosmos-955. In the same year, a preliminary report for the Academy of Sciences of the USSR contained an immense body of visual observations, radiolocation reports, physical measurements, and accompanying meteorological data. It concluded that "based on the available data, it is unfeasible to satisfactorily understand the observed phenomenon". The Petrozavodsk phenomenon contributed to the creation of Setka AN, a Soviet research program for anomalous atmospheric phenomena.
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