People never really accuse Long Islanders of having their heads in the clouds. But it seems they do have their eyes on the sky.

Residents all over Long Island have reported UFO sightings to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) for decades. This year alone, there have been nearly two dozen sightings. It seems little green men like visiting Long Island beaches as much as everyone else. Reports have been sighted from West Hempstead to Hampton Bays. But that's just a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds that have been reported across New York state this year.

For the complete list of sightings reported to the NUFORC for New York, going all the way back to the 1960s and earlier, click here. Some highlights from the Long Island reports include:

West Hempstead: Group of five solid amber/orange lights, traveling in an open formation from northwest to southeast

St. James: Cone-shaped light with cluster of lights around it, orange lights

Ronkonkoma: Flickering lights in a "V" formation, with one trailing far behind, disappearing into the sky You can see where all the Long Island incidents this year have taken place on the map below. Click each icon for more info. HOW TO REPORT A UFO



The Seattle-based NUFORC has been operating since 1974 and gets many of its reports via a 24-hour hotline at (206) 722-3000, according to its website.

The group described what a good UFO report should include:

"Reports are most useful if they include an exact date, time, and location of the sighting. Other valuable information includes a description of the object(s) seen, what they were witnessed to do, how many of them were observed, what shape and color they were, how long they were observed, and any other facts the witness(es) believe were significant. The number of observers and a brief, one-sentence long description of their backgrounds are useful as well." As far as photographs and video, here's what the NUFORC recommends: