Looks like a B2 bomber, a kite, or a bird.

When was the photo taken?

There are several AFB's in MA. The closest one to this location would be OTIS AFB, which is located at the north end of the Cape, just below the canal. I don't think they have anything to do with B2's though. . .

Could engine exhaust cause "heat devils" that would distort the image?

My first impression is that its just a hoax.

But I will play along here and say what it might be.
A bird.


its just to far off in the background to know for sure.

Let me explain why I think its a hoax to get either points or attention.
This OP took only 1 photo.
If I was lucky enough to have my camera with me when I see something like that, Im giong to get off as many shots as possible!!
and I mean that, Im going to be clickin that button like a madman!
Having just one photo tells me you only had time to do this once, or by the time you went to take your second shot, the bird flew into a tree.

Good chance its a plane too. And if it was a plane, Im sure it didnt move that fast that you couldnt have gotten atleast 2 pictures.. ya know what I mean..

OP, you said you took photos with the cellphone but they looked suckly, didn't you? mind posting them anyway?

Originally posted by Lost_Mind
I dont know how this will play into this in the end but "ExcitableBoy", the OP uses the ID of "Zabilgy" at photobucket where the photo resides and "Zabilgy" is a previously banned member (from 2005) here.

Great catch and on page two no less that alone makes me suspect of it perhaps being photochopped.

Goes to show you how observant members of ATS are

Originally posted by zysin5

This OP took only 1 photo.
If I was lucky enough to have my camera with me when I see something like that, Im giong to get off as many shots as possible!!
and I mean that, Im going to be clickin that button like a madman!

He supposedly used a Canon A530, I have an A520, and I can tell you that depending on how his "sister" had it setup, pushing the button like a madman won't do you any good. Some settings will make it take a while before it's ready to go again.

I'm not saying that this is what it is, only what it looks like. Black, of course.
Might explain its ability to "hover."

P.S. - This is a "Mistral" model kite from Worlds Apart, which is a popular U.K. brand.

[edit on 23-7-2007 by SuicideVirus]

What's with the Internet today, my slow connection or what?

Sorry, but it looks like a conventional aircraft and after playing around with it (and I still do not like digital cameras) it looks like a:

Harrier Aircraft.

The angle of the sun being somewhat low and off to the left makes it appear darker than what it is and also puts the exhaust at the back of the plane with plyons seeming to be underneath the wings at the angle at what the aircraft is.

Simply put, it to me is a Harrier.

And probably a few seconds occured to seem like it disappear from the field of view of being on the ground as it is not all that high up and further away than being closer to the house. Shadows play a part with the Sun beaming in on the left side of the picture. Is there is there a front (or not front but back) door to the house and going out the opposite way may have provided a better less-shadowed picture?

Just my thoughts that it appears to be a regular aircraft like a Harrier.

Originally posted by SimonGray
When the aircraft banks, the trailing edge does not create a visual appearance as seen in that photo. It is far too uneven and distorted, lending weight to a kite, or "other" object.

I have seen the bomber a few times myself and the times I have seen it the lighting conditions were such (combined with the shape of the aircraft) that it did appear distorted for brief periods of the bank and subsquent climb.

The electorstatic properties 9rumors or not) might also account for such a distortion. However, if a system exists, short of a malfunction, I don't see the USAF allowing it to be engaged over populated areas of the CONUC.

The kite /RC possibilites are very interesting, however, the scale seems way too off to be a kite unless it was HUGE!!!

This is all that is there. I could alter the contrast / levels as others have tried and make the artifacts from the .jpg compression visible but that would not reveal anything other than the level of compression.

Also, when you re-size the image what you are getting depends on the method used. When you do that the algorithm is either matching a pixel next to it or averaging between adjacent pixels or pixels surrounding it.

Looks exactly like a kite I've seen often above a park east of my home might look in a low resolution .jpg photo. I'm guessing kite or hang-glider.

Everything else you can do to this photo alters it and is of no help in identification. In fact it could cause you to believe something is there that is not. Filters and algorithm's work by altering the photo's to get a desired effect. A lot of less than credible folks often use these techniques to trick people into seeing things that are not there. They take advantage of peoples lack of knowledge about digital photo manipulation.

If the camera has a Raw or .tif format available you should use that in the future. Compression removes detail. You can not compress a file without loosing something. A 5 mega-pixel camera will shoot a larger image than that. It must have been set on a medium resolution setting.

Originally posted by Lamâshtu
OP, you said you took photos with the cellphone but they looked suckly, didn't you? mind posting them anyway?

I second that. Or tell us why you won't so we quit asking.

Blaine91555

I had not considered a hanglider but I don't think so IMHO. There is no cage apparent under the image (Unless its been PS away) and most have a mainspar that traies out a bit behind the wing.

Originally posted by FredT

The kite /RC possibilites are very interesting, however, the scale seems way too off to be a kite unless it was HUGE!!!

You would have to have more information than we have to make that assumption. I just looked out my front window and a Raven flying over my neighbors back yard looked about that size. Some of the kites I see at the kite store in the mall are 6 feet or larger in size. I watched a fellow at the park last Saturday who was pulled a few inches of the ground by his kite. It looked to be more like 8 feet across. These kites are so popular a kite store in the mall here in Anchorage has survived for a few years. We have a short season here so they must be very, very popular.

Of course anything is possible

It looks to me like hooey and flim flam mixed with a cock-and-bull story. Either way, definitely a hoax.

Hello everyone. Back from work. I will clear up a few things if I may:

1. When I said the craft was "above" the house, I meant in the picture. It is obviously in the distance beyond the house. It is quite obviously not literally above the house. A picture is 2 dimensional and therefore, in the picture, the craft is above the house......but yes, it is, again, in the distance beyond the house.
2. I already explained why I took one picture and one picture only. The resolution is what it is based on whatever the camera was set at. It was my sister's camera and she got it to me just in time to take one picture. I wanted to get the house in the picture so that it had a point of reference. If I just took a picture of the craft in the sky by itself, it wouldn't have had any point of reference to compare it to and would have been simply an image alone in the sky.
3. I did take a couple of tries at taking pics with my cellphone but it is a VGA camera and they were beyond bad and I erased them the same day. They were useless. That's when my sister went in the house to look for her camera.

I have sent a U2U to one of the owners of this site who inquired earlier about supplying the original copy of the photograph if asked. I told him in the U2U that I would be happy to. I would be happy to do that for either owners that have been involved in this thread. Just tell me where to send them and how.

The picture is real. The object is real. It is not a kite or a radio controlled toy. If it was one of these things, it couldn't have just disappeared like it did. And, it certainly wasn't the result of a friend of mine tossing stuff up in the air from the other side of the house (although I find that to be the most humorous idea any of you have come up with).

I would just like someone or several people that know what they are doing to analyze this photo and tell me what they find. If it is worth something let me know and if so, what do I need to do with it. I think it is a great picture and truly hope it is the real thing as it sure seemed so the day I took the picture. I understand it could quite possibly be a craft of our own making. If so, that's pretty interesting too since it hovered at length and then disappeared. Didn't know we had such technology.

Thanks for any help the owners of this site can provide.

Originally posted by hbdale309
It looks to me like hooey and flim flam mixed with a cock-and-bull story. Either way, definitely a hoax.

People aren't always trying to make up a stories and sometimes they see something but they are not sure exactly what it is. That is why it is called UFO and why we all work together on ATS to find out what the pictures are.

Your new to the site so respect what others bring to the table and try not to label threads as a hoax unless you have proof it is.



[edit on 23-7-2007 by Realtruth]