Cryptic crossword No 2,182

Thanks Lutra and welcome to MyC. I found this very enjoyable with my top picks being 8a, 11a, 1d, 2d, and 5d; the 'UFO' was the icing on the cake. Detailed addendum follows.

Welcome to MyC Lutra. Congratulations on assembling a debut puzzle. I did not find this easy - quite a bit of guess and check and not helped by the unfriendly grid (only two links between left and right with both linking solutions being pretty unusual. Gennaro has given some good advice - and, being US himself, he may be more au fait with some of the terminology. A couple of observations in reply. Keep at it. PM