Vera Halliday
Editor-in-chief, Field Investigations
Vera runs editorial and field investigations for Sighted. Her background is investigative journalism — pre-Sighted she covered defence, aviation incidents, and the long, unglamorous work of cross-checking witness statements. She's a skeptic by trade and a writer by choice. Most of what she publishes is about how to be wrong less often, not about what's out there.
- Published
- 6 dispatches
- Latest
- Jun 2026
Dispatches by Vera Halliday
Page 1 of 1
Methodology5 min readHow the validation score is computed
The number on every sighting page isn't a probability of anything exotic. It's a measure of how well-evidenced the report is — here's exactly how we get there.
Investigations7 min readAnatomy of a triangle cluster
Triangular formations are the second-most-reported category we see. What separates a strong report from a confused one — and why "silent" is doing a lot of work in those descriptions.
Methodology4 min readReading the heatmap: hotspots aren't always sightings
The bright cells on the live map are showing you density, not intensity. Here is what each layer actually represents and which one you want.
Field Notes4 min readWitness etiquette: filing a report that survives review
Most reports that get pulled or downvoted don't fail because the sighting was wrong. They fail because the report was sloppy. Here's the checklist we wish every first-time reporter had.
Investigations6 min readWhy orb clusters keep showing up in the Sonoran corridor
The Phoenix–Tucson corridor produces more orb-category reports per capita than almost any other region in our dataset. Some of that is real. Some of it is geography. Pulling them apart.
Methodology4 min readThe Sighted method: why we don't accept anonymous submissions
A pseudonymous handle is fine. A black-box submission with no traceable chain of custody isn't — and the reasons aren't what most people guess.
