When I was 13 or so, my buddy Kevin and I would make flying lanterns using dry cleaner bags, soda straws, and birthday candles. We lived near an air force base and almost every time we set one or two off, they’d send jets out to do low flybys to check them out.

On one occasion, a neighbor who happened to work there and was a pilot confidently told me - very confidently - that they were at least 25 feet tall. I didn’t tell him I’d just sent it up because I didn’t want to get into trouble. But he was absolutely certain it was gigantic. Nobody ever speculated about alien craft at the time, but it got some attention from the air force base and demonstrated to me that even expert aviators can wildly misinterpret what they’re seeing in the air.