Bit outside my usual territory this one - I'm more of a psychic phenomena man myself - but I've been sitting on something similar for a few weeks now and your post finally prompted me to ask.
Back in late October I was out in the Shropshire hills doing some field work (dowsing related, nothing to do with UAP) and spotted something triangular moving dead slow across the sky, completely silent. Three lights arranged in a triangle, very steady, no blinking. Gone in maybe 40 seconds.
What I want to know is whether anyone has a reliable method for distinguishing genuine unknowns from the more mundane TR-3B type explanations people always reach for. I've logged unusual aerial phenomena before but I'm genuinely uncertain how to classify something like this rigorously. Is there a standard checklist the serious UAP researchers here use, or is it mostly down to triangulating witness accounts and ruling things out systematically? Feels like the field lacks consensus on methodology and I'd rather not file a report somewhere if I'm just going to be dismissed because I can't provide instrument readings.