UFO? Shape shifting worm like tube with strange light...

Hi Vic,

After speaking to JRitzmann yetserday, I am pretty sure the "common structure" theory is out the door on this one. I won't steal his thunder but when he explains just how BIG this thing is I think we will ALL be a little more amazed.

Springer...

That's awesome! Can't wait to hear what he has to say.

well i dont need ritzman to tell me if this is legit or not because i have already made up my mind but it would be very very interesting to see what an "image expert" has to say

this is one of the most ... convincing? videos i have seen, i forgot all about it too

Originally posted by biotic
well i dont need ritzman to tell me if this is legit or not because i have already made up my mind but it would be very very interesting to see what an "image expert" has to say

this is one of the most ... convincing? videos i have seen, i forgot all about it too

biotic -- We members here at ATS, if you probably haven't already noticed, are nothing but strickt grammaritarians -- affeciaonados of puncktuation and what have you. We mull over each and every word and sentence, honing, buffing and polishing them until they reach syntactical excellence that's beyond par! In fact, here's three variations of our latest sentence. Which do you think is the most grammactically effective for this topic at hand:
JRitzmann is the tops.
JRitzmann is the tops?
JRitzmann is the tops!!!!!!
THE WAIT IS ALMOST OVER -- ONE DAY TO GO!

man,I am soooo... hyped about this.I have a very good feeling that J.R.'s post and analysis will be worth the wait.Thanks for the heads up Springer.AWESOME!Just flipping AWESOME!

[edit on 7-6-2007 by crowpruitt]

Hi People. Just thought i would throw this in. There is a company that speacialises in Lighted Ballons and they have Offices in Los Angeles.

Ballon Lighting Specialists

It looks like it could be a long helium filled balloon, which is being controlled with a laser. I noticed that when you see the reflections it then starts to change shape, bend, etc.

It looks to me like a robotic balloon controlled with a laser.

Gah whats the ETA on the much awaited jritzman post?

Hope its gonna be today.

I'll have more to post tonight when I get home, I just got alot goin' on right this minute but I thought I'd give a condensed version to ease those waiting.

In short:
This is of course not a hoax by the shooter.
The object is, by all that I've spoken with, not a weather apparatus, nor advertising prop gone awry. It's distance from the camera, I cannot even surmise...it's beyond what can be calculated for me. Which in turn means it's friggin huge.

Whatever it is, it's definitely in the thermal winds. You can read about them here:
en.wikipedia.org...

I say it's in thermal winds due to it's movement. It's truckin along pretty well, and does not seem to be in control of itself, it's blowing, twisting and bending like a large tube would. Thermal winds can carry fast and long.

The item is defintely tubular, and most likely is hollow. It is not a line of baloons, as there is a surface that appears smooth and consistent.

The flash of a reflective end remains on it's end throughout the film. This lends me to believe there's a reflector or coupling on the end...that possibly it's something thats broken away from it's tether.

So, in short...what it is? I have no idea, and every avenue I've looked at has been a dead one. The only possibility to me that I havent been able to get an answer on is a plane ad pull thats been lost. I cant get anyone to call me back on this aspect, so I cant rule it out....but it would be a huge ad banner...huge. And I doubt thats what it is.

I do not believe it's anything akin to the tube shaped stuff out of Mexico. While it's wierd and to me unexplainable at this point, I dont think it's anything "alien", but could possibly be some sort of art prank or maybe even a military project we dont or cant know about. The art prank idea has not proven itself out as I've not found anyone taking credit for it. As far as the military I dont expect any answer, although I'll be around some Air Force members today and I'll ask about it.

So, I have the unenviable position of saying I dont know what the hell it is. All I can say at this juncture is I'm out of ideas, and I've followed alot of avenues I thought might pan out. The video is good, but it's a considerable distance away and that makes for a hard view as far as extreme detail i.e. seams, etc.

So the short of it, nothing I've asked about has panned out, nor do I have any hard and fast answers about what it could be.

Originally posted by at_risk
Hi People. Just thought i would throw this in. There is a company that speacialises in Lighted Ballons and they have Offices in Los Angeles.

Ballon Lighting Specialists

I'll call em monday and see what they have to say. I kinda doubt it but no stone should be unturned at this point.

Hi, jritzmann, you finally made it, thanks for your time.

So, do you think this could be one of those Solar balloons?

Originally posted by ArMaP
Hi, jritzmann, you finally made it, thanks for your time.

So, do you think this could be one of those Solar balloons?

It *could* be. But I have to ask for what purpose? Art? Just one to see if it'd work?

I mean if anyone has any ideas to look into I'm open.

Does it have to have some advanced purpose?

How about recreation?

Like many of those links way back on the first few pages of this thread explain. Regular people that love building solar balloons and yes some are absolutely huge.

Mainly a French pastime it is also very popular here in the US. They are often built by kids as science class projects as well.

Originally posted by jritzmann
In short:
This is of course not a hoax by the shooter.
The object is, by all that I've spoken with, not a weather apparatus, nor advertising prop gone awry. It's distance from the camera, I cannot even surmise...it's beyond what can be calculated for me. Which in turn means it's friggin huge.

Whatever it is, it's definitely in the thermal winds. You can read about them here:
en.wikipedia.org...

I say it's in thermal winds due to it's movement. It's truckin along pretty well, and does not seem to be in control of itself, it's blowing, twisting and bending like a large tube would. Thermal winds can carry fast and long.

The item is defintely tubular, and most likely is hollow. It is not a line of baloons, as there is a surface that appears smooth and consistent.

I do not believe it's anything akin to the tube shaped stuff out of Mexico. While it's wierd and to me unexplainable at this point, I dont think it's anything "alien", but could possibly be some sort of art prank or maybe even a military project we dont or cant know about.

As far as the military I dont expect any answer, although I'll be around some Air Force members today and I'll ask about it.

You might want to ask your Air Force contact(s) about any recent "Far Air" projects. My sources tell me that the term "Near Space" has been prohibited for use by any governmental agancy; instead, the terms "High Altitude" or "Far Air" are to be substituted.

Is it just me, or do both of those "acceptable" terms seem just too vague to be of any real value?

I mean come on, "High Altitude" could be anything more than a thousand feet to the layman.

And the term "Far Air" is positively inscrutable!

Speaking of "inscrutable" terms; how huge is "friggin' huge"?

Are we talking tens of feet, hundreds of feet, thousands? Miles long, maybe?

I ask because our early airship work was based on vehicles which we considered "babies" at 180 feet long (stretched end-to-end). Later prototypes (which may have been retained by the USAF) strecthed up to 350 feet.

We had plans for even larger craft on the drawing board when the project "terminated".

And yes, those thermal winds can be fierce. We once tracked one of our experimental flights into the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas until the craft was caught by an east bound freight train of a wind and we wound up losing the telemetry, 5-6 hours later, somewhere 400 miles out over the Pacific Ocean!

thanks for the analysis and for clearing up some questions. can you give any scale to the object at all, like its at least this big or not bigger than..?

If I had to take a guess at size, and thats all it'd be, if it's say 1-2 miles away, I'd hazard it's possibly between 80-140 yards long. Huge.

And no there doesnt have to be any real reason for any kind of solar balloon, but you'd think somewhere it'd have been written about, or....well something.

The closest estimate, and I DO MEAN estimate (it's too dam far away to accurately measure but that lends to the incredible size of this thing) is 1,000 feet long(!).

Going on the very logical possibility that this a solar bag created by someone for science, military or recreational purposes, is that (huge size) realistic or even feasible?

Jeff will hopefully elaborate, later tonight, on the size issue seeing as how he's the one who told me this.

Springer...

When you have time, I would like to hear that how did you estimate the size of the thing. Is it possible to guess the distance and the size proportion from the camera? I have no idea. What is the evidence of such an estimation?
Another question; what do you mean with recreational purpose? (sorry language problem).
[edit on 9-6-2007 by manastin]

[edit on 9-6-2007 by manastin]

Wow! This is really exciting; even moreso than I thought before!
Can't wait to hear more on this and thanks JR for putting so much time and effort into this
-- we all appreciate it!

Originally posted by manastin
When you have time, I would like to hear that how did you estimate the size of the thing.

I believe the pixel size is correlated to the zoom factor and measured against known items that may appear in the video. But I wanted to ask the same, ALSO what about the altitude of the 'thing' I think the length was est. to be around 1000 ft, the distance est. to be 1-2 miles, havent seen the altitude being looked at...

Also, LA is a busy area, have others seen this thing? What about air traffic eyewitnesses, I think that after the due diligence that was performed by all here on this board, and all aspects have been investigated without a clear answer, that perhaps this video needs some major media exposure to pursue the case further.