The brain doesn't know what it doesn't know
Basic research on hallucinations will tell you that the brain tries to fill in the gaps created by the unknown by substituting the known.
Regardless of what they saw, it would be no surprise that someone in the 1600's would see an aerial sailing ship or falling star where someone in the early 1900's might see some form of airplane or airship and someone in the 1960's a rocket or spaceship. An SLBM in San Diego last year had people describe seeing a worm hole. Has anybody but Morgan Freeman seen any of those lately?
“The article simply states that observers see what their culture knows then describes the sighting in those terms”
I would not believe that 4 or 5 men see something in the sky and they all describe it exactly the same way. This is collective consciousness gone coocoo. All people can see stars at night. All people can actually see the planet Jupiter or the moon as a round ball or disc when it is close to earth. Gimme a break - When 4 or 5 Continental Army soldiers in 1776 describe a bright light moving on the horizon and then describe the very same thing flying over their heads, they do not call it a bright cannonball. Gimmme a break= I was majored in psychology at the university and I never heard of such BS. Recipio recipientur in modo recipientes. [bad latin] Various Native American cultures describe the same phenomena in the same ways in the myths and legends, not according to their individual tribal cultures which are thousands of miles apart.- Who can prove such ridiculous claims as stated above that- “observers see what their culture knows then describes the sighting in those terms? Plase show evidence to support this claim- otherwise it is pure hogwash.