◆ PARALLAX

I saw something last night that I can't explain and honestly I'm scared to report it because I don't want to end up the town joke. I'm not one of those people who jumps to UFO every time I see a light in the sky. But this was different -- clear as anything, shaped wrong, moved in a way that didn't track with anything I know. The problem is I don't know where to even start with reporting this without sounding like I lost my mind. How do you make people take you seriously when you're reporting something that sounds crazy on the face of it?

Okay Ron, here's the thing -- you've already won half the battle just by asking HOW instead of running straight to the papers. Credibility lives in the details, not the conclusions. Write it down right now, tonight if you can. Get these on paper: what time exactly, which direction were you facing, how big did it look (hold your thumb at arm's length -- that's about half a degree, your fist -- about ten degrees), how long did you watch it, what was the weather doing, were there other people with you.

Then ask yourself what you can RULE OUT. Was there an airport nearby? What does the moon look like right now? When you sit down to write your report, stick to what you OBSERVED. Don't explain it. Don't theorize. Just the facts. That's what gets taken seriously, I promise you.

Gail's got it right. One thing I'd add -- if there were any aircraft in the area that night, note it. Actual flight traffic, commercial stuff you could hear or see. Also any radio towers, military installations, anything like that within maybe fifty miles. I know that sounds like padding the report but it's the opposite -- when you can say "yes, there was a helicopter two miles south but this was NOT that," suddenly people listen. The mundane details are what make the extraordinary ones believable. You're showing your work.

This is important so I'll say it plain: describe what you saw, not what you think it was. "I don't know what it was" will get you more credibility than any guess. The moment you say "it was definitely a craft" you've handed them the excuse to dismiss you. But if you say "I watched a stationary light for six minutes, it changed from white to orange, it made no sound, then it accelerated vertically at a speed I couldn't estimate" -- that's a REPORT. That's something people have to take seriously. The not-knowing is actually your strength here.

Do yourself a favor before you write anything down -- check where Venus and Jupiter were last night, and check the flight paths for your area. I don't say that to discourage you. I say it because if you can rule those out, you can SAY you did, and that makes everything else matter. It's like doing your homework before class. You walk in knowing what it WASN'T, which is half of understanding what you saw.

Also -- were you alone? Any chance someone else out there saw the same thing? Get to them before too much time passes. People's memories get fuzzy fast, and a second independent account is worth more than anything else you can bring.

Ron, I filed one three years ago. I was terrified. Thought people would think I was off my rocker. What saved me was that I wrote down everything Gail just said -- the time, the size, what I could rule out -- and I ended my report with "I don't know what I saw" instead of guessing. And you know what? They took it seriously. They asked good questions. Nobody laughed. The people who review these reports have heard it all, and they know the difference between someone who's paying attention and someone who's making things up. Just stick to what you know for certain, and let the rest be what it is.