The Sighted journal

Dispatches from the field.

Investigations, deep dives, and short reads from the Sighted team and verified investigators.

A glowing translucent data panel floating in a dark navy void, cyan validation gauge at the edge.
Featured dispatch

How 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.

June 2, 2026by Vera Halliday5 min readMethodology
More from the journal12 dispatches · page 1 of 1
A dark triangular craft silhouette holding altitude over a moonlit Pacific coastline at night.

Anatomy 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.

May 29, 2026by Vera Halliday7 min readInvestigations
A war-room situation table rendering a coastline as a glowing cyan heatmap, with brighter intensity blooms scattered across the surface.

Reading 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.

May 26, 2026by Vera Halliday4 min readMethodology
Silhouetted hands holding a phone aimed at a deep blue night sky, a single bright unidentified light visible above the treeline.

Witness 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.

May 22, 2026by Vera Halliday4 min readField Notes
Investigator workspace at night with a dark monitor showing a sighting hotspot map

Building a Hotspot Map: How Cluster Density Helps Investigators

A single sighting is a story. A hundred in the same square mile is a pattern. Here's how Sighted's map is built and what investigators do with the density.

May 22, 2026by Sighted3 min readCommunity Pulse
Aerial dusk view across a Southwest desert corridor with town lights and mountains

What 50 Sightings Tell Us About Spring 2026

The community has logged fifty reports since the spring equinox. Three patterns have separated from the noise — what we're watching and why.

May 22, 2026by Sighted3 min readCommunity Pulse
Milky Way arching over a dark countryside with a satellite streak crossing the sky

Reading the Night Sky: Stars, Satellites, and Things That Aren't Either

Nine of every ten "UAPs" filed at Sighted resolve to something with a name. Learn what's normal in the sky so the genuine anomalies stand out.

May 22, 2026by Sighted3 min readField Guides
Hands holding a smartphone open to a notes app outdoors at night

How to Document a Sighting: A 5-Minute Field Checklist

Most useful UAP reports happen in the first five minutes. Here's what to capture before the moment is gone — and the easy mistakes that make a report unusable.

May 22, 2026by Sighted3 min readField Guides
F/A-18 cockpit view over the Pacific Ocean with a distant white oblong object

Why the Nimitz Tic-Tac Encounter Still Matters

In November 2004, F/A-18 pilots intercepted an object off Baja that didn’t follow any rule of aerodynamics. Two decades on, that case is still the cleanest data the field has.

May 22, 2026by Sighted3 min readInvestigations
Sonoran desert at twilight with a faint V-formation of distant amber lights on the horizon

The Phoenix Lights, 25 Years Later: What the Witness Map Still Tells Us

A look back at the 1997 Phoenix incident through the lens of modern community-driven sighting maps — and what the geometry of thousands of witness reports still tells us.

May 22, 2026by Sighted2 min readInvestigations
Saguaro cactus silhouettes against a dusty-rose Sonoran twilight sky, three amber orbs hovering in loose formation low on the horizon.

Why 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.

May 18, 2026by Vera Halliday6 min readInvestigations
A manila evidence folder under a single warm overhead lamp on a dark wooden desk, redacted documents partially visible.

The 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.

May 14, 2026by Vera Halliday4 min readMethodology