Sightings, studies and photographs
Every documented Marfa Lights sighting, observing campaign and published photograph we could trace, each with its sources. For each one we note whether it holds enough detail (a date, a time, a direction) to test against the line-of-sight model, and, for photos we could obtain, what the photo shows when it is lined up with the land.
Standards: every entry cites where it comes from. A source marked secondary was read in a summary, not the original. A claim found only on a fan site or in a single uncited article is marked weak. Nothing here has been added from memory. Compiled 2 October 2026; corrections are welcome through the project's issues page.
What the record shows
Most accounts cannot be tested. Of the documented sightings, only a handful give a date, a time and a direction precise enough to compare with where cars, trains and towers can appear. The well-instrumented studies (the 2004 student study, the 2008 spectroscopy campaign, the FOTOCAT re-analysis of James Bunnell's photographs) mostly found headlights, on US-67 or on ranch roads such as Nopal Road. The best-documented exception is a single very bright light recorded by automated cameras on 3 June 2005 during a thunderstorm, about 28 km from the cameras.
That is why the most useful thing a visitor can do is write down the time and direction of a light, and why the photo checker and report form exist.
Documented sightings and studies
Published photographs
Photographs said to show the lights, with who took them, when, and under what licence. We downloaded the thirteen most promising (with the photographers' licences in mind) and ran them through the photo checker. The method and results are on the Science page. Only openly licensed photos are reproduced on this site; for the rest we publish measurements and a link.