whats this please advise?

worked okay for me

Cool.. I'd had problems last time finding a codec that worked.. Cheers.

I've been looking a bit closer at the light beam in the sky.

I don't think it's been added later, since it sits in very well with the other noise in the picture. It also looks like the cam has been moved specially so the "ground" end can be seen.

It's also at a slight angle so it isn't a CCD error.

It's also a constant width and brightness all the way up, which seems to indicate it's more laser-like and not just a regular beam of light..

I'm mystified..

Good find,i also have not got any ideas on what that line/beam may be.

Sure looks like a time lapse over several days/months and the time code was played with. The bright light appears to change phases (like the moon) and the lights in the building at front turn on during the process.

Hi Wudman,

I put together the timelapse movie from the actual image files (still available on the webcam server), so you can check their authenticity.

To find the original image, just substitute the date/time you want into this url format. (the filename contains the date)

www.aad.gov.au...

The filenames are 7 hours previous to the time shown at the bottom of the image. so in the case of the url above, it shows the image from 25/6/04 at 7:14 am.

You check a few of the images yourself against the movie to confirm this.

they do re-position the webcam occasionally, which adds to the confusion a little. There are also other strange lighting inconsistencies though, as you point out. I'm guessing it's an exposure issue but I couldn't be sure.


[edit on 26-6-2004 by muppet]

well as for what the bright light is, i have no idea. according to my starry night software it's neither sun nor moon. quite confusing indeed...

as for the line? i'm guessing it's a camera error. lines like that appear every so often my own webcam too.

I'd assume the line is some camera glitch. It doesn't look like the highest quality camera (picture wise). Also the glowing round thing could have been the moon. If you have a long enough exposure of it, even if it's a quarter moon, it's going to look all big and bright and glowing.

I agree the line is more than likely a cam glitch.but the moon should not even be visable at that time in the evening from that area.thats whats confusing me,as on first seeing it i to thought it was the moon or sun.

If that light was a cam glitch, wouldn't it be perpendicular to the horizontal?

That's what I'd have thought as well. I'm no expert on CCD's (I'm mainly a film guy), but personally I've only ever seen strong vertical errors when a strong light source is in the picture.

Also it doesn't explain the glowing "igloo" shape at the bottom.

In a way it looks really fake, almost like a line drawn the images, but then again the way the "noise" changes on each frame, and generally looks "right" suggests it's real. It takes certain specialized knowledge and particular software to be able to re-create grain like that realistically.

And of course the images are really there for all to see on the Davis server... If they're faked, then it would have to be some bored photoshop expert down in antarctica playing games with us, and it just doesn't seem likely..