FOR FIRST-TIME WITNESSES
If you saw something in the sky and aren't sure what to do next, this page is for you.
People see things they can't explain all the time. Reporting what you saw is a normal, useful thing to do, and Hermes is built to treat your observation with the same rigor we'd apply to any other kind of evidence.
What happened to you
You looked at the sky and saw something you couldn't explain. Maybe it moved oddly. Maybe it was a light that didn't behave like a plane. Maybe it was silent when it should have made noise. Maybe you just have a feeling that whatever it was, it wasn't ordinary.
That feeling is information. So is the time. So is the direction you were facing. So is the weather. Your job right now isn't to figure out what it was. Your job is to capture what you saw, as accurately as you can remember, before the memory starts to fade.
What to do in the next hour
- Write down everything you remember, right now. Open a note on your phone. Don't worry about format. Time, direction, how long it lasted, how it moved, what color it was, whether it made sound, how you felt. Memory decays fast; five minutes of notes now beats an hour of reconstruction tomorrow.
- If you have photos or video, save them twice. Send the originals to yourself by email so they're backed up. Don't edit them. Don't apply filters. The original file contains metadata (location, camera, exposure) that is valuable evidence.
- Note who else was there. Independent witnesses are some of the highest-value evidence in any report. Names or just "the person I was walking with" is enough.
- Look at the sky again, in the same direction, a few minutes later. Is anything there that could explain what you saw? A bright planet, a star, a plane holding a pattern, a distant tower light? Note what you see.
What Hermes will do with your report
When you file a report through the submission form, Hermes runs your observation through an automated analysis pipeline. In under a minute, it checks:
- The weather at your exact location at that exact time, from historical weather records
- What satellites were overhead, including known reflective objects like Starlink trains and the ISS
- What aircraft were in the area (when flight-tracking data is available for your location)
- The position of the Moon and bright planets Venus, Jupiter, and Mars are the most commonly misidentified objects in the sky
- The geometry of your sighting where you were looking, how high, how far away the object probably was
You'll get back a structured analysis that lists what conventional explanations Hermes was able to rule out, what it couldn't rule out, and a confidence grade based on those results. You'll also get a permanent shareable URL for your case.
What Hermes will not do
- Tell you that you saw a spacecraft. Hermes doesn't do that. No responsible tool does.
- Tell you that you're imagining things. Your observation is data. It gets treated that way.
- Share your personal information. Reports can be submitted without an account.
- Auto-submit your report to MUFON, NUFORC, or other networks. Hermes generates a properly formatted filing for each of those networks and hands it to you. You choose where to send it.
What to expect from the result
Most reports come back with a confidence grade of LOW or MEDIUM. That is not a judgment about you. It means the information available wasn't enough to either rule in or rule out conventional explanations. If you provide more detail bearing, elevation angle, a description of movement the confidence often goes up.
A MEDIUM-HIGH grade means Hermes found specific characteristics that don't match any common conventional explanation it checked. This is interesting, but it is never a claim that what you saw was extraordinary. It is a claim that, based on the data you provided and what Hermes can verify, the observation remains unexplained after automated screening.
That is a common and normal response. Talking about it with someone you trust helps. If you're struggling, please reach out to a mental health professional. Hermes is a technical tool; it is not a substitute for human support.
Ready to file?
The form takes about 5-10 minutes to fill out. You don't need to answer every question. Fields you leave blank just won't be included in the analysis.