How to sight a flying saucer

A sky-watch in Bonnybridge in Scotland is your best bet, says the MoD's Nick Pope; You're on to something if you hear a low humming sound and see a flying triangle moving faster and manoeuvring more sharply than the RAF can Illustrati on by Joe Magee

UFOs can be seen all over the world, throughout the year. There is a perception that they happen on country roads at night, but commuters reported a sighting from Waterloo Bridge one evening, and I saw a photo of a UFO taken one August day in 1990. There are many sightings around nuclear power stations and military bases. One of the most famous involved a landing in 1980 in Rendlesham Forest, which adjoins RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters. A guard patrol saw a metallic craft moving through the forest. Subsequently, they found three heavy indentations in a clearing, and the radiation readings were 10 times what they should have been. There are a number of areas which are said to be ufocal - such as Bonnybridge in Scotland. If you want to do a sky-watch with your Thermos, binos and camera, Bonnybridge is as good a place as any. Nine out of 10 UFOs have conventional explanations. Aircraft lights, weather balloons, satellites, meteorites, fireballs, space junk, lasers and searchlights reflecting off low cloud all generate UFO reports. You're on to something if you hear a low humming sound and see a flying triangle moving faster and manoeuvring more sharply than the RAF can. Frustratingly, I've seen zero UFOs. It seems to happen to people with no previous interest in them - so maybe it's too late for me!

Nick Pope is a higher executive officer at the Ministry of Defence who investigated UFO sightings for the Government from 1991 to 1994. His first book, `Open Skies, Closed Minds', is published by Simon and Schuster, price pounds 14.99. His second, `The Uninvited', is published later this year