Its a fact that approx 70% of the worlds population doesn't believe in UFOs. And its an educated guess that of that 70%, approx 50% have seen a UFO and just don't realize it. How is that possible you ask, surely if someone sees a UFO, then they would know it. Yet that's not always true, just as many people who claim to have seen a UFO actually didn't. Unless a UFO lands right in front of, you can never take what you see at first glance. That's because your eyes play tricks on you, or more specifically your brain processes what you see in a way that you will understand it.
A good example of this 'mental processing' is ghost images on 35mm film. More than once have I taken a photo with my old 35mm camera, and when the film was developed, I would find a 'ghostly image' in one of the photos. This is especially common when taking photos indoors with or without a flash. Most of the time the 'ghostly image' was from a back flash when the flash bounced off a unseen shiny surface and shot back at the camera or from an unseen light source sometimes as small as someone lighting a cigarette. My point is, when I show those photos to someone who believes in ghosts, 6 out of 10 times, they see a ghost. The same is true of UFO's, if you believe in UFO's, you're bound to see a UFO... even if its not really there. And if you don't believe in UFO's, one could fly right in front of you and your brain would ignore it or re-classify it as a cloud, plane, or trick of light.
If you want to see a UFO, whether you're a believer or not, this method will work. You don't have to go out into the wilderness or some remote location. You'll most definitely see something, its up to you whether you want to believe its from another world.
1) Equipment needed: There's a few things you'll need, basically the same stuff as if you were bird watching. Binoculars, notebook, pencil, camera or camcorder.
2) Location & what to look for: Its NOT all about location, UFO reports come from all over the world, big cities and rural areas. Keep notes of time, sightings and location you view. Go to UFO sightings sites and compare noted, you may see something from a great distance, that another sky watcher saw more close up. In the end, that's when UFOs become interesting, when you can say, "Hey this guy across town saw the same thing I did at the same exact time"
A) City: In a place with city lights, do your sky watching during the day or just before dusk. City lights can cause your eyes to get blurry or see 'halos' when you try to look in the dark areas of the night sky. This causes many false UFO reports. What you want to look for during the day is not the UFO, but rather what it leaves behind. We all see vapor trails from airliners and fighter jets that roar high above, those trails stay in the sky for a good amount of time. What your looking for is when something crosses the trail and 'breaks' it, as if a thin pencil wiped across the trail. The same is true of cloud formations & smoke. If you see a vapor trail, smoke, or cloud formation 'break', then keep your eyes in that area, if you have a camera or camcorder then snap a few shots. The likely hood of seeing something right that moment are slim, most UFOs move extremely fast, but if you're lucky you may catch a blur on you camera or camcorder. Another thing to look for is what I call tin cans. These are flickers of light in day sky, caused by the reflection of the sun. 9 ot of 10 times, what your looking at is a plane or helicopter, but keep your eyes on it... how does it move? Is it too high to be a helicopter, yet it moves like one. Is it too fast or too slow to be a plane? Again take pictures so you can study them later.
B) Rural: If you live in a place where there are no ambient lights around, do your sky searching at night. set up a lounge chair and a camera or camcorder on a tripod. With the invention of the digital camera with a preview screen, you have no reason to pick up the camera.. just aim at the UFO using the preview screen, this greatly reduces camera jiggle. At night you are looking for stars that don't fit in the night sky. It greatly helps if you are familiar with constellations. Study the sky carefully, and if you see something that doesn't fit, aim your camera at it. Take occasion pictures of that area of sky. Somethings you might notice, a star where one isn't supposed to be, a single star jiggling slightly (careful though this can also be cause by eye fatigue from staring at the same point of sky for more than a few minutes without a break), a falling star that suddenly changes course (most commonly at a 45 degree angle, though this can also be ice crystals or small meteorites bouncing off the atmosphere, not everything has the speed, size and trajectory to make it through our atmosphere, many things bounce off and appear like a UFO coming in then shooting off into a 45 degree angle), and stars that suddenly shoot off into space.
Close Encounters are extremely rare, as they need to be within 700 feet and be visibly highly detailed. What you're going to be seeing are UFO 'sightings', which are visual encounters over 700 feet away and most often nondescript shapes & sizes. So good luck to you and I hope this helps you spot that elusive object your searching for
