are . So , can this hobby say anything useful about alien visitors ? A simple calculation may help with the answer . We first ask how many amateurs exist worldwide who haul their ‘ scopes outdoors on clear nights . No one seems to have an accurate count , but estimates vary from hundreds of thousands to a million or more . Let ’ s assume 500,000 , and that half of them spend one hour per week with their telescope . One hour per week ! Now no matter what their observational interest , most of that time is spent with the ‘ scope tracking the sky – either with a motorized system or by hand . The typical telescope-and-eyepiece combination produces a field of view of approximately one square degree , so roughly speaking each amateur looks at about ten square degrees per week . Conservatively . It doesn ’ t really matter that , in an extreme case , they might all be looking at Jupiter or the Andromeda Galaxy . The amateurs are spread around the planet , so each of them is peering through a different part of Earth ’ s airspace . That ’ s important , because the UFOs won ’ t have fixed
equatorial coordinates . If you do the math , you ’ ll realize that amateurs are collectively peering through an area equivalent to the entire celestial canopy ten times a day ! Since the first modern UFO sightings in the 1940s , all those hobbyists have done this more than 200,000 times . Sure , they ’ re not looking at the skies over the oceans or the poles . Amateurs are in places inhabited by people . But those are the same locales from which those 30 daily sightings are made . Bottom line : If strange craft fly the night skies of Earth , they should be seen , not just by the populace wielding their cell phones , but many times a week by amateurs . Apparently , they ’ re not . You may believe that the government won ’ t come clean about saucer-sailing aliens . But I think you can trust the amateurs behind the eyepieces . o o o Dr . Seth Shostak is the senior astronomer and director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute .
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Sky ’ s Up 9