Stargazing

Stargazing is a simple hobby, but hard to know how to get started on. But once you're in the habit it can be relaxing to go outside for a few moments in the night and identify constellations. If you want to start stargazing, the first thing to do is to find out what hemisphere of the sky you live under- if you live above the equator you live in the northern hemisphere, and if you live below you live in the southern hemisphere.

Northern Hemisphere

Ursa Major and Minor: The most recognizable constellations in the northern hemisphere are the big and little dipper, also know as Ursa Major and Minor. These constellations are found in the north, with the star in the end of the handle of the little big dipper being Polaris-the star that marks true north.

Southern Hemisphere

Hydra: The largest constellation in the sky, located south of the constellation Cancer and by extension the entire zodiac belt. Its main star is the orange star Alpharad

UFOS!

The subject of extraterrestrial life has been the subject for speculation for generations. If it exists, if aliens have visited the earth, if the government is covering them up. But while the terms 'aliens' and 'ufos' may be interchangable in popular culture, they refer to two different phenomena. A UFO [Unidentified Flying Object] is just that: an undentified object in the sky. It may turn out to be aliens, but it could be anything; a weather balloon, a strange bird, a spy drone. And the possibility of it being a spy drone is what has caused endless conspiracies and headaches for the government.

Alien Espionage

Put simply, in the cold war the government became concerned about soviet spy drones and other espionage technology. Asa result, when a UFO was reported, the investigation was heavily classified. The high level of secrecy surrounding the UFOs made people think that the government was covering something up, which they were, but their minds jumped to aliens and strange creatures from outer space instead of the current political climate. This feedback loop is deeply covered in "The UFO Files" by Dr David Clarke, which he wrote using the files released by the United Kingdom's National Archives in 2013. You can almost imagine the frustration of the Ministry of Defense UFO desk as they try to explain to panicked civilians that the strange lights they saw in the sky were not aliens while also not giving away that they were military tests.