IMHO the object looks like balloons that have been made into a parabolic shape. You can see this at the beginning of the video when it is "vertical." This accounts for the appearance of snake like movements when the object becomes "horizontal" because it is being blown by high altitude winds while trying to keep its original shape. The shining could be anything metallic as it does not appear to be a light, although it could be. I will be very interested in hearing what the experts have to say.

Regardless of what the turns out to be, we do need more people like Jagman who film things like this and get them posted in a timely manner.

After doing allot of searching and reading I have concluded that this is a solar balloon with a reflector, light or reflective spot attached.

It fits the description perfectly regarding look and activity.

If you want to look it up yourself just google "solar balloon". There are too many to list here. You will find all sorts of shapes and sizes including large trianglular.

JMO!

The light never switches ends, the object just swivels round so that the ends are facing in different directions.

I'm still a bit skeptical about it being a bunch of balloons. Balloons would be blowing up, down, sideways, all over the place, not just staying stable and perfectly and slowly changing formation like this thing does.

Originally posted by jbondo
After doing allot of searching and reading I have concluded that this is a solar balloon with a reflector, light or reflective spot attached.

It fits the description perfectly regarding look and activity.

Again, surely it would be blowing around in the wind like crazy, not just staying in the same place for ages?

[edit on 12/3/2007 by malganis]

Originally posted by braddman
Once again people ignore the obvious facts and continue to post. Gotta love ATS where people think a flying worm UFO wouldn't be noticed in a city with over 5 airports, 12 million people, 20 Television stations, (10 of which have news helicopters), Police Helicopters, and the unbelievable amount of aircraft in the air constantly here.

No way, no how that wouldn't be recognized instantly. That is some sort of promotional balloon or kite.

I want to believe there are UFO's out there, but this isn't one of them. Maybe in some rural town, but not here in L.A. would a stationary object not be picked up on radar and IMMEDIATELY shot down if it didn't respond.

[edit on 12-3-2007 by braddman]

Well I watched a silver disc over LA yesterday for about 20 minutes I even pointed it out to others who didn't care. Its like they didn't want to see it. Strange I know but true. Some people don't want to hear this or find out. I'm still in shock.

Great Vid Jagman!

I used to work for a balloon company, the type of arrangement people are speculating that the object in the video is we called an "arch". They were sold by length and I believe the largest ones we made were 100ft, single balloons about a foot in height tied to monofilament and sort of spiraled around tightly - usually two colors were used to create the swirl appearance. Say they were about 2 ft in diameter..100 ft long...I'm sorry but that object you filmed looked to be much larger based on the distance. I personally don't think it was an arch. However, one easy way to make sure is to contact several companies in your area that make balloon arches and show them the video.

Another reason I doubt the arch theory is that when one is released, or any balloons for that matter, they normally float slowly out of sight with the prevailing wind.

I hope we find out what this thing was though-my first reaction was "holy crap".

Not to get off topic too much but nice Supra.. I've always liked those cars especially considering the fact that there are some pounding the streets with 1000+ wheel horsepower, kind'a nice being able to leave two long black stripes at 80 mph.

That aside.. I'm starting to lean towards the balloon theory.
The reflected light seems awefully bright though and at a point the light looks like it iwas 'spit' away from the object.. sort of like an arc. Normal diffusion maybe?

Does someone have any closer up pics of one of those solar balloons?

The item in question was definitely stationary longer then a balloon would have been expected to be stationary.

This I am sure has all been discussed - I can't wait to hear what the findings are on this video - interesting and recorded in HD

Another thing about arches...the balloons are tightly crammed together and do not have the suppleness to move in the way the object in the video was moving, for example, they wouldn't bend and twist like that, if a balloon arch were floating away, it would remain fairly straight, float continuously upward and out of view - again I would suggest finding out if any arches were made and released in the area, to put this to rest finally.

Originally posted by METACOMET

Im intrigued by the picture posted by Bhadhidar, that seems to me like a much better expanation than balloons on a tether. Can anyone comment more on what that thing in the hanger is and what it would be doing above L.A?

Google "Near Space Maneuvering Vehicle".

It was a prototype developed for the USAF Space BattleLab. It's propsed functions included high-altitude, long duration recon/surveillence, targeting, and communications support.

It was designed to fly mostly unobserved at high altitude over a battlefield, or area of interest. It was also constructed of low-RF signature materials: Nylon, Mylar, carbon fiber, paper/urathane foam composite.

The original was destroyed in a wind-storm years ago; but as I said in a prior post, the AF retained the wreckage.

The vehicle was designed with an external carbon fiber "keel-truss" along each "leg", and a tranverse truss of the same material connected the two legs like a giant "A".

If the tranverse truss failed, the legs would be relatively free to undulate; especially if, due to stresses beyond design tolerance, the keel structures supporting the legs realized multiple point fractures.

Think of an arm, severed from the shoulder, being cleanly broken at several points in both the fore-arm and upper arm. The limb would be much more flexible than normal, while the intact portions of bone would continue to provide some sectional rigidity.

Yeah it does seem like the same thing, I just wish we knew how far the ogject in the film was from the camera, then apply a little math and figure out the size of the object, it seemed a lot bigger than that science balloon. This is the closest I agree with you.

Have any of you people who keep yelling balloons even watched the whole video?

What kind of balloon is impervious to the atmosphere? This thing pretty much does its dance in the same airspace for several minutes, I lived in L.A. for 7 years, there is always wind up there from the ocean that reflects off the mountains and moves balloons up and out toot sweet.

If you watch the whole video you'll see this thing defies the flight characteristics of a balloon. It can't be tied to a string because of the end over end movement it does several times. A string would preclude that movement.

How does anyone know it wasn't picked up on radar? Not that it really matters, we have jets as big as a house that can evade most radar.

The reality of this situation is we don't know what it is. There may very well be a mundane explanation for it but I haven't seen one yet that agrees with the data on the video. After I get the 600 megs of raw data from Jagman and our experts have had a chance to break the video down and analyze it in many different channels we may get a better idea of what it is.

To those who would accuse Jag of hoaxing this I would say the odds are astronomically against that possibility. Hoaxers NEVER (not yet at least) hand over their raw data to get it analyzed. Just because he had to zoom in on it with the CAMERA doesn't mean he could see it with his EYES.
Ever looked through a zoom lens that wasn't zoomed before?

Anyway, all the speculation is interesting, the discussion, for the most part is fascinating but let's not make proclamations of fact when we have no more clue than anyone else does, it just isn't logical.

Springer...

I just finished watching it for the 10th time and think I have figured out what it is. If you watch the object over and over you will see a pattern develop within the object. By that I mean the way it moves is consistent with get this a plane pulling a banner. Yup watch it over and over you too will be able to see it once you know what you are looking for

That explains why you only see the lights from one end because the pulling plane is always on the end.

So then where is the plane?

At such altitude it's imposibly for any kind of balloon to remain static so don't pay attention to those who claim what they can't prove.
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EXACTLY what altitude are we talking about here? I never read where the exact altitude was scientifically established, but maybe I missed that?

I live in Mesa, Arizona and I see a large variety of normal objects become airborne in the hot thermal updrafts here. I regularly see balloon strings, shopping bags, and children's wading pools, among other objects hundreds of feet in the air. Most of the time they behave exactly like the object in the video posted at the beginning of this thread. What some people are calling a light looks exactly like a piece of silver mylar winking in the sunlight.

Originally posted by malganis
I'm still a bit skeptical about it being a bunch of balloons. Balloons would be blowing up, down, sideways, all over the place, not just staying stable and perfectly and slowly changing formation like this thing does.

Keep in mind that the further away something is, the slower it appears to move. If this is a massive solar balloon that is twisting and turning in on itself, it might appear to be moving more slowly than it really is, simply because of the distance between the balloon and the witness.

I personally believe this is some type of balloon, not a string of balloons tied together, but a tubular balloon or a solar balloon of some kind, with a reflective type of material on the end.

I can't tell how far away it is, or how high in the air it is, but it seems to be pretty distant. This would lead me to believe it would have to be much larger than anything a car dealership would have on hand as a promotion or something. So, it would have to be government-related if it were a balloon of some kind?

Again, surely it would be blowing around in the wind like crazy, not just staying in the same place for ages?
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Who provided the weather data that nailed down the windspeed, altitude, and direction? I must have missed that.