Gainsborough, Lincolnshire landing encounter — February 1, 1978

At about 10:20 p.m. on February 1, 1978, an unnamed observer in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, reportedly watched a large silver, disc-shaped object pass overhead. It then appeared to come down behind nearby trees. The surviving account next places two figures beside the object, giving the report its occupant classification rather than merely recording a light in the sky. The figures were estimated at approximately six feet tall. Fuller catalogue versions describe them as humanlike and wearing silver suits. No reliable facial details, helmet design, spoken words or gestures are preserved. The object subsequently left at very high speed. The report does not establish whether the observer saw the figures enter it or whether their departure was inferred from the craft's departure. Later catalogues trace the story to Nigel Watson in issue 10 of Strange magazine, but the accessible summary offers little about the original witness, viewing distance, duration or investigation. These gaps limit reconstruction of the sequence and prevent a confident explanation. The plate shows an illustrative observer looking through a break in the trees toward a silver disc and two human-proportioned, silver-clad figures. Their precise appearance, the observer's identity and the local landscape are reconstructed; no detailed alien anatomy or unsupported interaction is added.