Mobile Star Charts

With stars, planets and other celestial bodies being the types of objects most often mistakenly reported as a UFO, an app on your smartphone for identifying these objects will be absolutely indispensable. They are also fun learning these often stunning illuminated bodies in the night sky.

FlightRadar24

Air traffic is commonly mistaken as a UFO. If you find yourself watching something going across the sky there is a good chance it is a plane or a satellite. Using the app FightRadar24, you can likely determine if what you are seeing is a plane or not. FlightRadar24 uses multiple data sources for tracking aircraft. Information can be found at the flightradar24.com website. In addition to real-time tracking, the app and website both enable researching historical air traffic 7 days back. With a paid subscription you can search 6 months of historical data.

Orbitron

Satellites are probably the next most common object in the sky mistakenly reported as a UFO. Orbitron is a program that utilizes satellite data provided by U.S. Air Force NORAD to provide a graphical representation of satellite positions. It is important to remember that a large portion (perhaps upto 50%) are classified and unable to be identified.

 American Meteor Society (AMS)

Fireballs or meteors account for a medium percentage of reported UFOs. Learning to identify meteors and fireballs will help you to eliminate these often amazing and dazzling natural phenomena. If you watch the sky often enough you are bound to be rewarded by one of these celestial objects putting on a show of fiery and exploding gases and rock.

Compass

When investigating a report submitted of a UFO, directions make all of the difference. The direction the witness is facing and the directions where they saw the object first and last are all vital.

Learning to use a compass and to also be able to read maps combined are both vital during an investigation. The ability to use a compass is also very useful during extra curricular activities outdoors. It can also be very handy during unexpected emergency conditions.

Roof pitch gauge

As important as it is to know the direction of an object, knowing the the angle of altitude is equally important. These can be found at your local hardware store on the cheap.

With the combined information of direction and angle of altitude, you are armed with the information to identify potential stars, planets and other celestial bodies as well as airplanes and unclassified satellites.

Audio recorder

For a Field Investigator a decent audio recorder is one of the most useful tools in the “Go Bag”. When speaking with a witness or giving a verbal account of a sighting in progress, the ability to replay the account is indispensable.

Digital Camera

With a majority of the population having a cell phone, many would be surprised to learn the price did not include a quality camera. Camera phones are great for taking pictures of the family and depending on the conditions, pictures of the outdoors.

When trying to zoom in on the picture taken of the distant object, you will be glad for the quality you get from even a decent digital camera. Even the mid-range cameras come with features you may come to appreciate.

Analog (film) camera

If you are lucky enough to have that close encounter experience may find yourself very thankful you included this in your Go bag. Many witnesses have experienced electronics failure including digital cameras and phones. There is also just something nostalgic about taking pictures with one of these classics.