On 23 August 1974, John Lennon claimed to witness a silent, illuminated UFO hovering over Manhattan. His partner May Pang said she saw it too.

The pair attempted to photograph the object, but when photographer Bob Gruen developed the film, the results were blank.

In this solo episode of Aliens Explored, Stu investigates the encounter through Lennon's own 1974 account, Pang's later recollections and Gruen's firsthand account of the photographic failure.

Lennon even documented the sighting on his album Walls and Bridges. But how much weight should we give eyewitness testimony when the supporting photographic evidence is missing?

We examine the reported object's appearance and behaviour, possible additional witnesses, the problems surrounding the film and the conventional explanations that might account for the encounter.

An intriguing historical UFO case that raises a bigger question about how we investigate extraordinary experiences.

The video edition, featuring historical photographs and archival documents, is available at: https://youtu.be/KUscl_nCouc

Contact: AliensExplored@gmail.com

Six years after his extraordinary claims about extraterrestrial contact and a Galactic Federation, former Israeli space-security chief Haim Eshed has resurfaced — and he is still standing by them.

Stu and Neil revisit the claims that made international headlines in 2020 and examine Eshed’s new account of unidentified men visiting his apartment and questioning him about scientific subjects.

But the central question is bigger than the latest claim: how much evidential weight should we give the extraordinary credentials of the person making it?

Eshed’s background makes him unusually difficult to dismiss out of hand. The lack of independently verifiable evidence creates a very different problem.

Stu and Neil do not entirely agree on where that leaves the story.

Contact: AliensExplored@gmail.com

The Pentagon wants access to a vast privately held collection of historical UFO records. What could decades of civilian investigations add to the government’s own files?

In this solo September 2026 news roundup, Stu covers AARO’s proposed archive access, the sixth PURSUE release, new Galileo Project research into measuring UFO distance and movement, more than 1,000 pages of Navy UAP correspondence, the NSA’s response concerning Immaculate Constellation, whistleblower developments and several other significant stories from the month.

The central theme running through many of them is access to information — and the difference between simply having more UFO material and having evidence scientists can actually test.

Contact: AliensExplored@gmail.com