Not a bad idea. I'd often thought of a close examination of the IRAS database, I'm glad to see someone is actually doing it. I also keep a close watch on the "news" pages of Sky and Telescope* for weird phenomena now turning up as observational technologies improve. Any which cannot be readily explained or which do not suggest natural processes are good examples of possible artifacts. For a while I thought gamma ray bursters and other flashers were very promising, but it appears now that conventional astrophysical processes account for these. And everyone knows how the first pulsar observations were first explained as LGMs (Little Green Men).

We've had years of experience in the optical spectrum without turning up anything, (do you remember the high proper motion nebula I thought I'd discovered and reported in SetiQuest VII,No4?), but we have many more new sensors available now. Unfortunately, the astronomical community is pretty good at identifying and (at least, partially) explaining new observations and nothing promising has really turned up yet. Still, when it comes, it will probably be just like that...when and where we least expect it.

*BTW, I once wrote an essay for S&T (Feb, '98) suggesting a forum where amateurs could report anomalous and irreproducible observations
without being accused of being UFO weenies. To their credit, the magazine published it but it got very little response from the community.

Hank