LOCAL58 - Skywatching

**Skywatching** is the third uploaded entry in Local 58's second season and the eighth uploaded overall in the series. The episode takes the form of a late night broadcast that is hijacked by someone's own broadcast.

## Synopsis

The episode begins with Local 58's late night schedule, displaying that the next program will be a show called SKYWATCHING in blue with big words. The show then begins, but then quickly gets hijacked by a program claiming to be the previous show but this time its with someones home feed and less colorful it says SKYWATCHING in red with smaller words.

During the hijacked broadcast, the camera pans to the asterism named Orion's Belt located in the constellation of Orion and The Pleiades inside the constellation of Taurus in the sky and displays their names accordingly. Then the cameraman points the camera to the moon reading the text "HIS THRONE." The camera operator then removes the lens on the camera and switches to another lens to show a close-up view of the moon.

Then, after that the camera zooms out of the moon and zooms back in with the brightness on high now. The surface of the moon looks kind of disgusting and looks like air is coming in to it. The lens is switched out again to give the viewers an even closer view of the moon, and once again to reveal that the lunar dust is being sucked into a crater. The lens is switched out once more to display an even closer view of the Moon, revealing a strange pattern in the middle of a crater, and an arrow pointing downward.

    The crater fades out, and the camera zooms out to reveal that all the moon appears to be gone. The lens is switched on more time, and as soon it is, the moon suddenly reappears with a strange noise, this time much bigger and brighter in the sky with strange formations, while an off screen tornado siren sound, The camera operator visibly turns down the brightness on his camera to better display the Moon before pointing his finger at the moon and walking out in front of the camera and holding his hands up toward the Moon. The camera man somehow is disappearing until the screen pauses and the only one word is displayed: "REJOICE." After that the show the video feed cuts back to the original show with now only the credits roiling now until the SKYWATCHING video ends.

## Trivia

* Local 58 was going to play a recording of a city council meeting from 1991 despite this episode taking place at least by 1994.
* The actual Skywatching show is likely a parody of *Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler* (later *Star Gazer*)
* The ending of the actual Skywatching show uses a photograph called *Earthrise*. The image of the moon’s view of Earth was taken by astronaut William Anders of the Apollo 8 mission.
	+ This is the second time a Local 58 episode utilized a photograph from the Apollo missions. The “HAVE A GREAT NIGHT” screen in Contingency uses a photo of astronaut James Irwin of the Apollo 15 mission saluting the American flag on the moon.
	+ The end word "REJOICE", was also used in the first episode of The Mandela Catalogue named Overthrone, and it says: "Rejoice, Jesus is born".

## Theories

There appears to be a skeletal structure on the dark side of the moon. Here are a few theories of what this could be/mean:

* The Moon was an “egg” and was hatching a skeletal being.
* The Moon could manipulate its surface and created a shape that resembles a human being kneeling or praying (demanding to be worshiped).
* The Moon had been taken over by aliens and was being used as a way to communicate/terrorize humanity.
* The Moon is an organic being (the lunar dust being sucked into the crater).
* The hijackers are aliens.

## Gallery

Clearer render of the final shot of the Moon as seen on Kris Straub's Twitter account