Letting out a sigh having captured the first visual confirmation (8)
I believe the answer is:
sighting
'letting out' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'a sigh having captured the first visual confirmation' is the wordplay.
'having captured' indicates putting letters inside.
'the first' becomes 'i' (I in Roman numerals eg Elizabeth I).
'visual confirmation' becomes 'tng' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'i' put within 'tng' is 'ting'.
'sigh'+'ting'='SIGHTING'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sighting that I've seen before include "Managing to observe briefly" , "Aiming (gun)" , "Catching glimpse of" , "observation" , "view" .)