Unidentifed object video

Okay, so I took this video with my digital camera (sony cyber-shot 8.1 mega pixels). I frequently look up in to the sky to see any abnormalities and I noticed this bright "star" moving. There was also a plane flying at the same time. I went in and got my camera. I was able to zoom in and was flabbergasted by what I saw. I was not able to keep my hands steady enough for a still shot so I recorded what I saw. I have uploaded this to google video, however the quality that the video is on my home computer is not portrayed in the video. It is an .mpg file. I will include the link but I am willing to email this file to anyone who maybe able to post it and tell me what I saw.

Google Video Link

reply to post by goopity


Using auto focus on a video camera while shooting a point source of light produces strange effects. Add digital zoom to the mix and it gets even weirder.

This is Venus. This is Venus using auto focus and digital zoom:

Looks like you filmed one of the brighter planets or stars. Certainly that video showed me nothing that would leave me anything close to flabbergasted.

My point was that the quality of the video on Google video sucks. When I play it on my computer it is easy to see what I am talking about. Hence, I would email it if necessary

reply to post by goopity


If you are referring to the pulsating effect, it is a result of using auto focus. The camera is attempting to focus on an indistinct point of light, as a result it slides in and out of focus. If you use manual focus set to infinity the pulsations do not occur.

reply to post by Phage


thanks, I am still working the kinks out on the camera.

reply to post by Phage


I was about to say the same.

reply to post by goopity


It's quite tricky to film the night sky with digital cameras, and most cameras in general, unless there's manual controls of aperture, exposure and focus. The autofocus methods employed by most cameras are thrown by exposures of things at a distance in the sky. Try to keep the camera relatively unzoomed, because as the focal length increases so does the potential for camera shake. If you can manually or semi-manually focus the camera, set focus to infinity, to its smallest F-number (the widest aperture), set it to the highest ISO setting without major noise problems, and put the camera in burst mode.

In burst mode most of the shots will be blurred but some will be sharp. If things like aperture can't be set by the camera use video mode with the focus set to infinity. But burst mode is worth experimenting with. If the camera attempts to overexpose the sky try setting exposure compensation to -2 or -3.

Some digital compact cameras have "shutter priority mode" which allows you to specify a shutter speed and the camera sets everything else accordingly. In that case I'd recommend setting a shutter speed of 1/25th or 1/50th of a second, focus at infinity, and burst mode.

It's quite good fun to experiment by trying to photograph aeroplanes at night and not get too bogged down in technical detail, so don't let my jargon put you off .

If everyone practised photographing aeroplanes at night I have no doubt the internet would be flooded with reasonable quality UFO photos.

Know thy camera and all that . Good luck with your next pictures/video!

[edit on 13-1-2009 by jackphotohobby]

[edit on 13-1-2009 by jackphotohobby]

Electron light is very bright.

And very bright lights show up in cameras like in this video.

No ordinary electrons, these have been pushed out into the air.

I doubt mere mortals can do such a thing.

I was told that when video is uploaded to youtube or other sites, they use "flash" compression which makes the clarity out of the film, especially with small objects. I sent it in to another website, which doesn't use "flash" compression and they were able to view it clearly. I will link it up when it gets posted.

I wouldn't have posted the video or offered to email if I didn't think that it was something credible. I have seen how most videos and pics get slammed here and I am willing to take the risk.

Thanks for your input. And all the technical jargon -it totally went over my head, but I do get the gist.

Well if you see it again and I hope you do try to capture something in the foreground so we can see how fast it's traveling and in which direction because I applaud you for brining this forward some will simply say it's Venus and I can’t blame them.

Good job and again get something in the foreground.

Okay, so I am going to post the link to see the video. Considering I can't play it b/c I can't figure out how to see it (its a windows player and i have a mac), I am going to assume it is better than the google video. Hopefully someone will be able to tell what it is! If it is a planet, great, I have never seen one before, but if not, then....

UFO Casebook

[edit on 13-1-2009 by goopity]