There are many things in the night sky that could fall under the bracket 'UFO', in the literal sense of the word, at least, says Iain Todd.
What are UFOs
A fireball meteor, an artificial satellite, the International Space Station, the bright planet Venus, even a Chinese lantern: all these things are bright to the naked eye and might, if you weren’t sure what you were looking at, appear oddly conspicuous.
And in the case of something like a Chinese lantern or other small, low-flying object, theymight even appear to move in a strange way, even seemingly against the laws of physics.
In the absence of any confirmation of what these bright celestial objects are, you might conceivably term them 'unidentified'.
But of course, when we talk about a 'UFO' in the sky, we don't mean it in the literal sense.
The term ‘UFO’ is commonly used to refer to an alleged alien craft from a technologically advanced extra-terrestrial species visiting us from a planet beyond our Solar System.
'UFO' makes us think of Roswell, the X-Files and alien abduction cases like the Barney and Betty Hill story.
UAP: new term for a new era
Perhaps that's why, when attempting to approach the subject in an empirical, objective, scientific manner, many voices opt these days to use the term 'UAP', instead.
UAP is a recent term and was initially intended to stand for 'unidentified aerial phenomena', but has since been readapted to mean 'unidentified anomalous phenomena'.
The change in what the acronym stands for was made in 2022 by the US Pentagon, in order to include phenomena not simply limited to things seen high in the sky, but also ‘trans-medium objects’ and things seen under water.
NASA has also adopted the term, and the fact that both the Pentagon and NASA are among those voices adding to contemporary 'ufology' discourse shows you just how far that discourse has come.
Actions speak louder than words. In 2022, NASA announced it would begin officially looking into UAP reports with the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study.
Then in 2023, three former military officials testified at a US Congress hearing on UAPs. And in 2024, the Pentagon released a report on the US government's collation of data on reported UAP sightings.
Nowadays, even top brass are at least addressing the subject.
Could some UFOs be alien craft?
Does this mean high-ranking scientists believe aliens have visited Earth? Does it mean some UFOs are alien craft?
Probably not.
What it does tell us, though, is that the reporting of strange things in the sky is commonplace.
It tells us it’s considered to fall within the public interest.
It tells us also that there has been an enormous amount of data collected on reports of inexplicable things seen in the sky.
How to search for UFOs
Let's suspend our disbelief for a moment and imagine that we did want to search for strange objects in the sky. Where and how could we look for UFOs?
The wealth of reports of people seeing strange things is something governments have taken seriously over the years, and the UK's Military of Defence even once had its own UFO chapter, which collected records of reported sightings.
UFO reports in the UK are available to access and peruse for free, and provide dates, locations and descriptions of what was seen.
The UK MOD UFO reports are full of phrases like "strange burning objects in the sky" and "a peculiar bright light" as well as common descriptions of lights of different colours:sometimes multiple lights appearing to fly in formation.
Have a read of the reports and see how common sightings are in your area, or surrounding regions.
In the USA, the National UFO Reporting Center Online Database) claims to be an objective collector of reports by the public of strange things in the sky, so if you’re based in the US, check to see what sorts of things other people have reported near you.
Again, let’s assume UFOs are there to be found, and we want to head out and see if we can observe something unexplained.
There are a few simple principles of stargazing and practical astronomy that we can probably employ.
These techniques are useful for spotting most things in the night sky, including transient, fast-moving objects like meteors and satellites, which we may presume would be those that would behave most similarly to UFOs.
Get away from light pollution
If you’re looking up at the night sky, artificial light is your enemy. Glare from streetlamps, houses and car headlights restricts what you can see, so avoid built-up areas. If you can, get to one of the many dark-sky sites dotted around the world. Check Dark Sky International (https://darksky.org/) to find your closest approved and protected dark site. In the UK, you can also look for Dark Sky Discovery sites. Then consult local records to see whether there have been many reports in the area over the years. If so, this might be a good place to start.
- Stargazing guide: UK's dark sky sites, best places to stargaze, plus how to get started
- How to find planets in the sky
- How the Moon affects wildlife
Keep your eyes dark-adapted
Getting away from light pollution is key. But there’s no point in avoiding artificial light, only to produce your own by looking at your phone screen or shining a torch and ruining your night vision. Let your eyes adapt to darkness and you’ll see more stars – and other objects –in the sky.
Spend even 30 minutes away from bright lights, and your eyes will be reasonably dark-adapted. Just remember not to undo all that good work by checking your phone, even for a second. If you do need the assistance of light, use a red-light torch or turn your phone’s screen red, as red light better preserves your dark-adapted vision.
Leave binoculars and telescope at home
Yes, binoculars and telescopes get you closer to the action, but they narrow your field of view. If we take meteor showers as an example, a meteor could appear anywhere in the sky at any time, and only for a fleeting moment. So you want a wide field of view so that you maximise your chances of seeing something transient. One key principle when observing meteor showers is that naked-eye is best, so perhaps this should also apply to UFO-spotting.
Record what you see (or don’t)
If you’re interested in observing the night sky and keeping – or even submitting – a report, the more detail you can provide, the better.
Let’s use meteor showers again as an example. It’s much more scientifically beneficial to actually write down how many meteors you saw along with the date, time and location. This then becomes a piece of scientific data.
Similarly, it’s beneficial to record what you don’t see. If you’re observing a meteor shower during peak activity but don’t actually see that many meteors in the sky, that’s valuable data. It might mean the shower was relatively inactive that year.
The same could be said to be true for UFO spotting. Not seeing something is in itself ascientific record and could even be valuable ammo for sceptics looking to debunk UFO hoaxers.
If you do see something strange in the sky, make sure you rule out all possible alternatives before leaping to the fantastical!
Where is the best place to see UFOs?
The night sky, largely speaking, behaves in a predictable, clockwork manner.
And that’s because astronomers have spent millennia observing the stars, planets and constellations, and working out what those strange spots in the night sky really are, and how they behave.
That’s why we know when a solar eclipse will occur down to the second, and why we can be sure the Orion constellation will return to the Northern Hemisphere sky every winter, or when the planet Jupiter will appear biggest and brightest.
The same is not true for UFO sightings.
Assuming we believe reports of alien craft flying in the sky or even landing on Earth, it could happen anywhere, any place, and even during daylight.
So while we may be able to at least attempt to apply the astronomical techniques for observing night-sky phenomena, the truth is it’s incredibly unlikely searching for UFOs will bear any fruit.
But observing the night sky is a reward in itself, especially if you’ve taken the effort to visit your local dark-sky site with friends and look upwards.
We live in a relatively new era in the history of humankind, and that’s one in which we take the night sky for granted, comparative to even 100 years ago.
Many of us who live in towns or cities rarely see a wonderfully starry night sky, and if ‘UFO-hunting’ is what gets you looking up, that makes it a worthwhile exercise.
There are plenty of amazing things to see up there, and plenty of genuine, scientific mystery waiting to be observed, once you know where to look!
Discover 6 things you can see with the naked eye from any dark-sky site. Use a star chart or a smartphone app to help you find them (remember to turn your phone’s screen red).