John Lenard Walson: Biggest discovery ever?, page 10

Originally posted by ngchunter
There is no device.

That's correct. There is no optical device made by Mr Walson or anyone else that can do what he claims. It's all flim-flam.

There used to be some videos on youtube called S.L.O.W. where someone else with a similar telescope recreated the videos perfectly by using some mirrors and illuminated tinfoil twisted into various shapes.

That was me.
I pulled them from YouTube because I'd used some commercial backing music. I got too wary of the copyright implications so took them down.
As a matter of interest, the 'S.L.O.W.' name I used was to contrast the 'F.A.S.T.' label used by Gridkeeper, who fronts Mr Walson's videos. The letters actually stand for 'Shedding Light On Walson', but I didn't state that in the vids.

I'm not inclined to get into further discussions on these vids or my explanation of them. Suffice it to say if you know anything about telescopes and how they work, the hoax clues are obvious in all the FAST 'space machine' videos. It's all been documented on the earlier thread/threads and can be found with an appropriate search.

I may try to upload my SLOW videos somewhere less public than YouTube so members here can watch them and judge for themselves. If I do that, I'll update this thread.

Jose also apparently released some stills that he claims came from JLW - they're complete fakes made by shaking the camera during a long exposure to turn pinpoint stars into funny looking shapes. I was able to recreate the latter myself.

Yes, bright stars and shaky optics are favourite methods for creating 'extratarrestrial lights'. I also produced a video explaining how the 'Stephenville Lights' were created using a video camera set to slow shutter speed. Again that's available for comparrison by going HERE

Remember, in that video you see Sirius at around 300x magnification, so the focussed light spot is pretty big, but you can see the effect of scintillation on the images. I had to thump my weighty Meade scope to make it vibrate in an attempt to duplicate the handheld effect. A cameraman's heartbeat also affects it.

Mr Escamilla and Mr Walson parted on bad terms after a public wrangle over money. Both parties vented their spleens on ATS and were eventually given a suspension/ban I understand.

The first warning flag went up when he posted images and videos that he claims show the international space station, when I know for a fact his stuff looks nothing like the real ISS as seen through a telescope. People on youtube have collective ooohs and ahhhhs to those videos not knowing any better. I have less enthusiastic responses to my own videos which really do show ISS (including one that, ironically enough, accused me of faking my footage). To be fair, many people do enjoy seeing the real thing, but truth isn't always as exciting as fiction.

All true. Mr Walson's 'ISS' was nothing like. All his 'space platforms' and 'black ops' are tinfoil and rubber bands. He tried to gain credibility by conning a well known astronomer (Dr John Mason) that his videos showed the ISS. Dr Mason later published a rebuttal on YouTube. The tricks are endless, but griddy does a marvelous editing job I'll give him that.

It's true also that most 'believers' much prefer to let their imaginations run riot than accept the mundane reality of stuff like this. Thankfully, there are a few scientists on ATS who are prepared to get their hands dirty and test the output of people like Mr Walson. There are enough strange things going on out there without the CGI cons and people trying to make money by hoaxing.

WG3

[edit on 22-1-2009 by waveguide3]