Our pics: July 4, 2009

This is from a sighting that included 11 adults on the 4th of July, 2009. Perfect arc, perfect sphere that was lit from within and not blown by wind or erratic in movement. At the closest, I am guessing it was between 1/3 and 1/2 a miles from us, but it could have been much larger and much farther away.

The pics show an elongated shape because the person taking the pictures moved the camera - no tri-pod. It was round the entire time and described an arc that went from the South to the West in a gliding arc. Beautiful and very moving to see for us all ~*~

@Jackie

I increased the gamma on pics 1 and 4, and it seems to show the tree branches/tops below, and also a halo around the object...





C

How interesting, Copernicus...Have you noticed a halo like that before? It certainly wasn't anything we noticed as it happened.

I'm not sure what to think about it, Jackie. The halo may just be a lens artifact, but I kind of doubt it. It's almost like a prism/rainbow effect, but the colors in the halo are in the wrong order.

Here's 1 and 4 with increased gamma and magnified by 3x, and then 4 magnified 5x with no change to gamma.



You'll note that the halo colors seem to disappear on the top, in pic 1. pic 4 is showing some detail at 5x, though I suspect that the pic is out of focus, but I'm not sure.

C

Thanks for taking the time to look deeper. The friend that took the photos was quite upset beacuse she has a very old digital camera and she was afraid that it would just look like a blur. She will be delighted to know that at least there was something interesting about them. I will check again to see if anyone else that was here managed to get pics of that night.

Thanks Jackie, it would be great if there were other images. It's not often that images are available from the original taker, that you know have not been modified.

Video link (provided by Jackie) of the same or similar UFO on the same night taken by someone in a different location:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN883k26QBc

I thought I'd compare an image from the video with Jackie's images, so this is from the video:



The first 2 pics are with the gamma turned way up, and the 3rd image is just magnified without gamma adjustment.

They certainly look like the same object to me, and, given the difference in gamma adjustment for the same effect, I'd say Jackie's camera is more light-sensitive than the video camera is... of course, that's assuming that the video hasn't had a lot of ajustments applied to it...

C

Copernicus - You rock, my friend!

Here is one of the ones I took (Yes, it is terrible, but that cheap camera is all I had) :



There are a couple of others, but they look as if they only show blackness. If you think they would be worth checking, I will gladly post them.

Hi Jackie. Ummm... I'd like you to realize that I'm not "processing" these images in any special way (such as Sander's methods). I'm doing this for you, since I know you don't have a decent graphics program.

Here's your last image at 500%:



To me, this appears out of focus with the image filling the halo... The red color is also 'washed out' compared to the other images, but that could just be a color calibration issue.

I managed to get some Kodak color patches in hard copy and in pdf format this week (for free), but I haven't had a chance to really do anything with them yet.

C

Here's another video clip from the same night in Chester, WV.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5nZ4aQW3K4

The bright green light in example cap is fireworks...

C

Last night (July 4, 2011), we were in the midst of our yearly party and as the sky grew dark and the fireworks started, a series of red lights made appearances. I took a picture of one, got some semi-viewable video, and gave up when several people insisted they were just chinese lanterns.

I spoke to my husband later, and he (a cast-iron skeptic) said there was one part about the orange 'fireballs' that bothered him; There had been a group of six that came in from the East that maintained their line of travel, speed, and apparent height for far too long to be just a group of suspended balloons. I asked him what he believed they were and he said that it would be far easier for him to say what he believed they were not.

Corpernicus, if you've got a few moments, could you use your gift at photo editing? I cannot seem to get my edits as clear as yours, but I will keep reading the tutorials.



Here's the video, and I do apologize for the lack of detail, but I do not have a very good camera yet. Someday, maybe...

https://s1100.photobucket.com/albums/g413/signalinthenoise/?action=view&current=4thJuly2020.mp4

Hmmm...Once again, it wasn't only our area:

2011-07-05 2011-07-04 Two large orange orbs joined together MO, US
2011-07-05 2011-07-04 10 Orange Orbs Fly to Same Location from Different Directions MO, US
2011-07-05 2011-07-04 Round with bright orange glow IN, US
2011-07-05 2011-07-04 Three fire orange glowing oblects CA, US
2011-07-05 2011-07-04 Second time I have seen these two "stars" MT, US
2011-07-05 2011-07-04 Flame like orange ufo seen before and after fireworks hovering and then left moving east and faded NY, US
2011-07-05 2011-07-04 firey object in the night sky, looks to a UFO MI, US
2011-07-05 2011-07-04 Videoed 12 plus over the course of 2 hours Orange in colour FL, US
2011-07-05 2011-07-04 two fireball shaped objects appeared before the fireworks event started and disappeared. Then one fireball appeared after the fireworks and disappeared. MO, US
2011-07-05 2011-07-04 two flickering orange objects track se to nw a few minutes apart
2011-07-05 2011-07-04 reddish orange glowin ufo right above roof top. hovered turned traveled & hid in clouds still moving. PA, US

From:

http://mufoncms.com/cgi-bin/manage_sighting_reports.pl?mode=latest_reports

Please note - This is a constantly changing list - They post new sightings as they are added. The above sightings will no longer show up after a short time.

Hi Jackie,

Here you go

I tried to pick instances when the object appeared to be in focus for at least a few frames. The first montage is a simple 3x enlargement, while in the 2nd one, I applied some gamma to the first montage, but not too much. They seem very similar to your first sighting.







So… I wonder what the odds are of this happening a 2nd time to you???? Anyway, do they pick this date/time to fly because they might blend in? Or because they might be seen?

C

Nice work C!!

I'll bet there's more orb's in the sky that don't get seen....

Wonder what those sightings look like, charted on a map........

Sorry, no time this evening....

Cheers, Rick :-)

Copernicus, I know this must be a breeze for you, but to this old lady, it's still magic. I am learning, bless you, but it will be a while before I can come close to what you do with photos.

I should clarify a couple of things about last night; There were at least a dozen of these little orange critters that went overhead though not all at once, and we had 15 people that were watching them. I think we can rule out the 'chinese lantern' idea. I can also say that they did not wobble or flicker, but glowed and moved smoothly, staying at about the same height and speed. There was no breeze at ground level, and no clouds, so it is impossible to say how much wind was blowing at the height they may have been at. I did watch one head to the West and it crossed paths with an airplane headed for Seatac (North). The plane intersected far above the single globe, at least double the height from what I could tell. I watched it glide over the tops of the alder and evergreens, and it was several hundred feet above them, and some of them are at least 100 feet in height.

Another odd point is that they appeared out of nothingness - At one point, we were watching the neighbors shoot off a display, and suddenly two of these lights just appeared and continued on their way, both winked out for about four or five seconds, and then glowed again until they vanished into the distance.

I know it is odd, but we have only seen these on the 4th, and only in 2009 and again this year. We are all avid sky watchers and some of our group are aviation fanatics. When my husband - King of the Skeptics - Says he thinks something is unknown, I don't argue *laughs*.

I can't speak for anywhere but our little area of the highly caffeinated Pacific Northwest, but fireworks tend to start around the 2nd of July and continue here and there through the following weekend (I can hear bottle rockets going off as I type this). We have yet to see one of these objects on any other night in July. That doesn't help pinpoint what they are, so I am trying to come up with an experiment. I am going to see about these 'chinese lanterns', and I am going to try and get/make one with a line attached so that we can pull it back to us and safely put it out. I will use the same camera to take a picture and some video at the same time in the evening. This may take a little bit to get together, but maybe that will help figure out what we are seeing, or what we aren't.

I imagine that it would be a beautiful sight to see, if one could choose a place and time to observe this planet. Humans creating art with fire and chemicals in the darkness of the night...

Rick, you raise an interesting point. I will help you get some of the info, if you like. ~*~ Talk to you soon!

Jackie,

Have you ever investigated what "local" circumstances may affect your area?

Something that might be of interest to someone, from somewhere else?

Things like ancient artifacts, ley lines, current or recent human efforts (military, nuclear, biological) come to mind and I'm sure there is more.........

Perhaps that would give some indication to what my be happening!

More later!@

Hey Rick! Well, there is a lake behind us and a lake in front of us, though a little farther off. Hmmm...We have a power grid that runs east and west about 1/2 a mile from where I'm sitting...I will ask around, but I don't think there would be much of ET interest. Whatever this stuff is, it seems to go on all over the US.

Hello Jackie!

Yes, I'm sure your area has many similarities that would be relatively indistinguishable to other places.....

Let me give you an example of what I mean.
Middletown, CT, Pratt&Whitney facility. From the mid-1950's until 1966, it was CANEL (Connecticut Aeronautical Nuclear Engine Lab)...You probably guessed what it was for!

It seemed to attract a fair amount of attention and it was supposed to be highly secret..... Attention from......guess what?

Even today, few people really know what happened there....on several points. Point is, this unique facility didn't escape "unusual" attention....more than 45 years ago...and today, still....

See if your "sleuthing" skills might ferret out some interesting aspect of where you live.....:-)

It just keeps getting weirder...


Wind conditions in our area Just before, during, and after our sightings on the 4th of July, 2011:

8:53 PM 66.9°F 37.9°F NW 5.8 mph - Clear
9:53 PM 62.6°F 42.8°F North 8.1 mph - Clear
10:53 PM 64.0°F 41.0°F NNE 11.5 mph - Clear
11:53 PM 62.6°F 44.6°F NNE 13.8 mph - Clear

(Taken from the Tacoma News Tribune - we are closer to Tacoma than Seattle)

Looking at the way the winds were blowing, it does not help explain the movements of the objects we witnessed. It was pointed out to me after I sent in my report that the first object and the only one I took a picture of came from the South and was headed North, the rest were coming from several points in the East and went straight West. Since the prevailing light breezes were headed to the North and NorthEast, the objects were going against the wind, very smoothly. At ground level, there was very little wind at all, and many of us noted how long it was taking for the smoke to clear after the fireworks would go off.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

@ Rick: Will do, Rick - I have a few sleuths helping, too - Maybe I will have an update for you in the next couple of days!

I'll look forward to it! :-)

Here's a few more videos of these orange spheres:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxucy3jAwW8



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPkhr_GLBwE



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH2WHnbmMzk

The third one is the most interesting (watch close!)

C

Thank you for trying to help solve this mystery!

It would be so nice to say that they were just lanterns because I could forget about them. Some of the videos I have seen in fact look very much like a balloon or a lantern, bobbing in the breeze and moving in fits and starts.

However, having seen these twice, I am 99.9 % certain that many were not. I will say that they perhaps are not ufos in the typical sense, but based on the smooth movement, the perfect sphere shape, the lack of shakines, wobbling or other random effect due to wind gusts, the fact that the objects we observed went against the prevailing wind in such a smooth fashion, the fading out and returning of the lights themselves, the close observation we had back in 2009 that allowed us to see the pulsing light as well as the strange play of color on the glass-like surface - I can only state that they appeared to be solid objects and under purposeful control. Ours, theirs - I cannot say.

There is another aspect that has me curious; In many of the videos, there are 5 or 6 of these lights as there was on our most recent sighting, a shape was made that would be similar to the Big Dipper. Anyone have thoughts about that?

Yes, I noticed the Big Dipper-like pattern, too. I'm also wondering if these are staged events hinting at something to come... either from the gov or someone else!

C