Yeah, that happens, Bill. You do often get a wide variety of different stories from eyewitnesses of an incident, in which case you have to look for what commonalities you can find and go from there. I think it's partly because people don't usually observe things in what could be called a "trained" manner. Their focus for the details isn't good.

What set Sherlock Holmes apart from most people in Conan Doyle's stories, for example, was that he had trained himself superbly in observing and remembering every single detail, something most people don't do at all.

I wasn't amongst a crowd, though, I was just observing the craft on my own through a set of binoculars. My mother was there, although she'd make a terrible witness to anything at all...her story about something changes every time she tells it and she exaggerate as well! ;-) I don't know if she even remembers the UFO sighting at this point. I also phoned a friend of mine, and he saw it from his place, but I haven't spoken to that guy in about 40 years.

Even film of an event is only helpful to a certain extent. It may not be very good quality film, and it is, by necessity, only from one particular angle...perhaps not the most useful angle. Look at all the different conclusions that people have come to regarding the short film shot during the John Kennedy assassination. Most of them insist that it supports their favorite explanation of what happened. ;-) And they're happy to tell you why. Again, they are seeing what they want to see, based on some mental position they have adopted.