Clearest Photo EVER Of An Unexplained Aerial Object Caught On Video In 2014?

a reply to: Arbitrageur

The confirmation bias is strong with this one.

If you rotate the raw close up (B&W) so that the top of the balloon and the bottom nipple form a L/R horizontal presentaton, then there does appear to be a tether image (n apparent line going off the right) , albeit very slight.

Our eyes tend to have better pattern resolution in the horizontal. Also, media tends to have much more horizontal than vertical resolution but the original aspect of the picture would negate that. Just an observation.

a reply to: Phage
Not only that, I think some people don't understand how advertising works if they are ruling out advertising.

Searchlights don't show any legible message in the sky (usually), they are just light beams reflecting off the smog that attract attention and people follow the light beams to see where they are coming from.



Guess what? Balloons can be used the same way. Star Advertising does have some balloons with writing but the first balloons they suggest for advertising have no writing on them, they are just attention grabbers like the searchlights, that people are supposed to see from a distance and follow to see where they are tethered at. This is one of the advertising balloons they recommend:


That's supposed to grab your attention so you follow it to see where it's tethered at.

If you ask me the "UFO" balloon might be an even better attention grabber since it looks more unusual, so while I don't know if it's an advertising balloon or not, I don't think people should be ruling out that possibility. One of the youtube comments speculated that if you followed that to where it was tethered you might end up at a car dealership which are some of the common customers for these searchlight and balloon advertising services. I've seen no reason to rule out such a possibility.

originally posted by: Arbitrageur

originally posted by: peacefulpete
It's heading in the direction of acknowledging that it's a very anomalous unidentified flying object.

It's not a blimp or balloon, at least not in an obvious way, and it certainly does not have a sign or logo for selling anything... which would be the normal reasoning for flying a blimp or balloon...

I don't follow your logic at all.

When the photographer says: ""May be a balloon of some sort...appears to have a tether going down ..." , your logic tells you to rule out a balloon and to say it's an anomalous object? Really?

I have to go mostly by the visual impression of the very clear video.

This is about as clear as anyone is going to get, by an average guy pointing his iPhone (or whatever device) into the sky at a distant object.

I see no rope at any point.

I know the guy mentions it but I believe he was getting that idea more from the motion of the antennae pointing downward, so he thought it might be pulling down from a string or rope.

Or maybe he saw something that's not appearing in the video or photo.

The movement doesn't seem consistent with a balloon: It floats without moving, then slowly drifts away later a steady pace. Not balloon-like at all.

originally posted by: Arbitrageur
a reply to: Phage
Not only that, I think some people don't understand how advertising works if they are ruling out advertising.

Searchlights don't show any legible message in the sky (usually), they are just light beams reflecting off the smog that attract attention and people follow the light beams to see where they are coming from.

Guess what? Balloons can be used the same way. Star Advertising does have some balloons with writing but the first balloons they suggest for advertising have no writing on them, they are just attention grabbers like the searchlights, that people are supposed to see from a distance and follow to see where they are tethered at. This is one of the advertising balloons they recommend:

That's supposed to grab your attention so you follow it to see where it's tethered at.

If you ask me the "UFO" balloon might be an even better attention grabber since it looks more unusual, so while I don't know if it's an advertising balloon or not, I don't think people should be ruling out that possibility. One of the youtube comments speculated that if you followed that to where it was tethered you might end up at a car dealership which are some of the common customers for these searchlight and balloon advertising services. I've seen no reason to rule out such a possibility.

Ahh yes, the classic car sales technique of floating a motionless, metallic, alien-looking orb, by residential backyards.

The photo you posted of the red balloon with tail, makes much more sense because it's obviously an attention-grabbing red balloon, with the trail of flags leading down to the car dealership or whatever.

Those car sales spotlights also work because you can find the source, usually, if you want to, by following their movements.

The video that this thread is about, serves none of those purposes.

originally posted by: peacefulpete
Or maybe he saw something that's not appearing in the video or photo.

Given the low resolution of the video, I'd say it's highly likely that the resolution of his eyes was far superior to the video. I also wonder if he made the video in a higher resolution but didn't know how to maintain that higher resolution when uploading to youtube.

The movement doesn't seem consistent with a balloon: It floats without moving, then slowly drifts away later a steady pace. Not balloon-like at all.

That's exactly what balloons do, if they are tethered and the wind direction is constant and then later changes. It didn't "drift away", that's your embellishment to fit your confirmation bias, it simply moved which a tethered balloon can certainly do.

originally posted by: peacefulpete
The video that this thread is about, serves none of those purposes.

So you would be interested enough in a red balloon to see where it was tethered at, but not interested enough in a balloon that looks like a UFO to do the same?

THe other obvious question would be, could this thing be made easily?. The antennae are easy, but the windows might be tough. They would have to be applied after the balloon was inflated, unless there was a skill that applied them with concave edges , when the balloon was flat. I think it would be tough to paint them on when when inflated as well, and have them come out looking like real windows. Maybee they are applied black panels.

a reply to: charlyv
They don't look like real windows. The whole thing looks like shoddy construction if it's constructed, or more likely the type of shoddy paint job you'd get decorating a balloon.

originally posted by: Arbitrageur

originally posted by: peacefulpete
Or maybe he saw something that's not appearing in the video or photo.

Given the low resolution of the video, I'd say it's highly likely that the resolution of his eyes was far superior to the video. I also wonder if he made the video in a higher resolution but didn't know how to maintain that higher resolution when uploading to youtube.

The movement doesn't seem consistent with a balloon: It floats without moving, then slowly drifts away later a steady pace. Not balloon-like at all.

That's exactly what balloons do, if they are tethered and the wind direction is constant and then later changes. It didn't "drift away", that's your embellishment to fit your confirmation bias, it simply moved which a tethered balloon can certainly do.

originally posted by: peacefulpete
The video that this thread is about, serves none of those purposes.

So you would be interested enough in a red balloon to see where it was tethered at, but not interested enough in a balloon that looks like a UFO to do the same?

The stillness of the object, and then the steadiness of its slow movement away, is not similar to a balloon.

Re: your last question: The video shows that no, a person would probably be more likely to be confused and just stand there and watch it / film it.

It's not functional as an advertisement.

originally posted by: Arbitrageur
a reply to: charlyv
They don't look like real windows. The whole thing looks like shoddy construction if it's constructed, or more likely the type of shoddy paint job you'd get decorating a balloon.

Agree but evenly spaced rectangles on a sphere would take some time. Just wonder how they applied them.

originally posted by: charlyv
THe other obvious question would be, could this thing be made easily?. The antennae are easy, but the windows might be tough. They would have to be applied after the balloon was inflated, unless there was a skill that applied them with concave edges , when the balloon was flat. I think it would be tough to paint them on when when inflated as well, and have them come out looking like real windows. Maybee they are applied black panels.

Yeah, this could easily be human made. There's nothing to indicate it's built using some type of intelligent technology. It actually appears to be cobbled together and poorly made which would also point to humans. The windows look to be 2-dimensional with no depth. I don't think measuring off the size of the windows and painting them on would be difficult or black tape and a straight edge. No ingenuity going on here. The "antennas" aren't even consistent.

No one has given an effective argument that this is anything but a helium balloon.

originally posted by: charlyv

originally posted by: Arbitrageur
a reply to: charlyv
They don't look like real windows. The whole thing looks like shoddy construction if it's constructed, or more likely the type of shoddy paint job you'd get decorating a balloon.

Agree but evenly spaced rectangles on a sphere would take some time. Just wonder how they applied them.

It would be easy, just use the "paper dolls" idea to cut out a bunch of rectangles on a strip of paper to make a mask, and wrap that strip of paper with the rectangles cut out around the balloon, spray paint or use a marker and there you have your shoddy looking 2-dimensional "windows" that don't look anything at all like real windows to me. I added the sketch on the right to show some idea of how to draw the rectangle before cutting it out of the paper "string". There are other methods too but there's nothing hard about this.



That's how I would do it but I think the windows would turn out looking more uniform using that method. Look at the black rectangles closely, they aren't even as regular as you'd get using this method.

originally posted by: peacefulpete
Re: your last question: The video shows that no, a person would probably be more likely to be confused and just stand there and watch it / film it.

We have a disagreement over who is confused. The photographer sees what he thinks is a tether and says it may be a balloon which is exactly what it looks like so I don't think he's confused. You on the other hand dismissing his possible identification of the object are the one who seems confused to me. Even if you aren't sure it's a balloon, you should have no reason to rule out that possibility and when you keep saying a tethered balloon can't hover and then move when the wind changes direction, that makes no sense. That is exactly what tethered balloons do.

In this case the photographer was running out of daylight so even if he wanted to follow the balloon it would get dark before he got very far.

But if what you say is true that people wouldn't follow this out of curiosity, it's no wonder that so many "UFOs" remain unidentified. If you show no interest in identifying the object of course it's going to be harder to identify. If advertisers thought this would be a more interesting and attention grabbing balloon than the red one, I can understand why they might think that, whether people reacted the way they expected or not. It doesn't have to be an advertising balloon though, I'm only saying I wouldn't rule out the possibility. Plenty of people have played pranks just to get UFO enthusiasts excited, which could be another possibility.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Well we can all see the original video and it's more true to say that it's not conclusive. The guy filming obviously did not think he knew what it was.

The part he mentions the possibility of balloon is because he was running through all different possibilities in his mind. So of course balloon is one unlikely possibility.

I can't see a tether so I think he was referring to the downward movement of the antennae. I don't think he actually saw the tether.

Nor is the movement consistent with a balloon. A drone maybe, but it's not showing the chaotic bouncing and movement of a balloon.

Finally it comes down to interpretation bias, I'd rather call it a mystery, and you'd rather argue that some little kids are cutting out square pieces of paper for a hoax balloon, for example. It's still more true that it's a mystery.

One problem is that it's ultimately very pointless for people to go to such lengths just to confuse people (with an anomalous sighting) and then not even do anything more.

Like maybe if the orb kept reappearing every weekend, then ok it would be more likely to be a hoax, but a one-time sighting in someone's backyard doesn't even make much sense for a hoax. Once the object was made by hoaxers then they might as well keep using it more than once.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

I have to admit, my first thought was sewing needles or pins stuck through a ping pong ball spray painted silver.

The black “windows are raised up with a “lip” so that implies an appliqué of some other material - a strip of cutouts wrapped and stuck on. A strip of black could be underneath the cutouts. Not hard to use something that already has the cutouts? Or a specialty hole puncher?

?

I don’t know what it is or isn’t, but first impressions are worth noting.