Skywatching (show)

For the Local 58 episode of the same name, go here.

Skywatching with Hank Heidemann (or simply just Skywatching) is a space documentary show that aired on Local 58 in the 1990s. Based on its title card, the show seems to be a parody of the real public access show Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler, in which the titular host taught viewers about astronomical history, especially in relation to upcoming astronomical events. One airing of a 1994 episode of Skywatching on Local 58 was hijacked by an amateur videographer's camcorder footage aiming to pass itself off as the real show and proceeding to show very unnatural images of the Moon.

References to Skywatching have since cropped up elsewhere in the Local 58 series. On the 1999 page of the local58.tv website is a distorted and hard-to-read photocopy of an article regarding a television component called a vestigial lowband filter. The image itself seems to come from the appendix of some publication issued by the Civil Broadcasting Authority, the agency that coproduces Skywatching as seen in the show's credits. The episode CLOSE shows a photograph taken of the comet Eidolon in 2020 by the host of Skywatching, Hank Heidemann.