It sounds as if what I've seen is similar (or the same) as the things described by spiff & annier. This happened about 15 years ago and it sounds extremely dodgy & far fetched but I'm absolutely convinced of what I saw. One night I woke up very suddenly, terrified (I don't know why) and straight away sat up & poked my head through the curtains, to look out of the window. I saw a HUGE 'craft' hovering above the houses. The craft looked quite dark but had a ring of lights around the lower part. The thing that left me completely pertified was that as soon as it dawned on me what I was looking at (understandably it took me a couple of seconds to get my head around it!) it shot off across the sky at a great speed - it was as if it knew that I knew. I know this could very easily be explained away as a dream, but as soon as the thing had disappeared I jumped off my bed & ran to my Mum & Dad's room so I really don't think I was asleep. I've though about it a lot over the years & am now pretty much certain that it was a UFO. I'd just like to add that I had absolutely no conscious interest at all in UFOs as a kid - it would've been much more likely for me to dream/hallucinate a giant hamster or some fairies, if anything!