Whether you believe in UFO’s or not, to hold a sky watch is always fun. This article will help you to plan for such a night with safety and preparation.
A sky watch can be held at any location ranging from your back yard to a camp site on a dark mountain. Just make sure that you don’t trespass and use common sense when camping out at night. Don’t go anywhere that might include dangers such as muggers or wildlife. When picking a spot, choose a location with as little as possible artificial light around. Street lights, neighbors’ kitchen lights or city lights will actually obscure the night sky.
Next, you must dress for the occasion. Unless it’s a balmy evening, dress warmly and put on a good pair of shoes. You won’t enjoy this hobby if you get chattering teeth and discomfort from the cold and not much else.
Pack munchies. This is often the best part of the entire expedition. Pack your favorite things, such as a flask of tea or hot chocolate, sandwiches, sweets but always include something hot and nourishing.
You will also need a flashlight, a notebook, a wristwatch or some other way to tell the time (a cell phone is ideal), a thermometer, a camera, binoculars, a couple of pencils or pens and a log book. The log book is a book in which you record everything that you see and experience during a sky watch. Record everything. For example, when you see a car on a far-off mountain pass, record the time and the fact that there was a car on the mountain pass. Not only does it keep you alert but it also helps you to identify IFO’s (Identified Flying Objects), such as cars on roads higher than your camp, satellites, planes, comets, fireworks, searchlights and more. Such an ability to objectively identify what you see will make you a valuable UFO hunter and researcher.
Design your own log book the way you like it, but always include the date, the times you notice things and a description of all that you see.
It is very exciting to see something unusual that might possibly be a UFO. In time you must learn to mentally record every aspect that you see. How long did the sighting last? How bright was the object, how large, what shape, color and movement did it show? Was there any noise, any strange visual effects such as distortion or rippling? How far above the ground, at what angle into the sky, and so forth. Take pictures, record a video. Don’t forget the conditions of the night. Studies have shown that UFO sightings occur more when there are certain natural elements present. Even when nothing happens, record the weather every half an hour. Write into your log book the time, temperature, wind strength (just note no wind, mild, strong wind, not actual knots), cloud cover (no clouds, some clouds, full cloud cover), mist, rain, moon phase, and so on. This could add to the value of a sighting you may have later in the evening.
If you are planning to become a late-night watcher, then your chances of spotting something increases. For some reason, studies have determined that more UFO’s are at around 3AM than at any other time. Also, the later it gets, the more your neighbors are inclined to switch off their houselights.
A sky watch can get boring, so take a friend along, a radio, any entertainment that won’t completely distract you from watching the sky. Also, invest in a comfortable chair one can fold up and transport. Your sky watch chair should be so designed to support your neck as you look up at the cosmos for hours on end.
Finally, say you do see something that behaves unlike any mortal device (to sound dramatic), and you feel it is a genuine case of a UFO sighting; the most daunting part can be to report it. Choose very careful the person or group you tell your story to, because unfortunately people still ridicule the phenomena. Stay away from newspapers or radio stations. Such institutions may provide immediate exposure of your sighting but they won’t investigate the data involved and your case might not be taken seriously. Rather search the internet for known groups like BUFORA and report it via their channels. Always keep a copy of your log book sighting for your own records and don’t hand over your film negatives to any person unless you are a hundred percent certain that you will get them back. Much valuable photographic evidence has been hampered because the negatives were somehow misplaced.
Happy hunting!
