UFO over 49'er stadium before blackout?, page 9

Originally posted by bluestreak53
They most certainly are ordinary streetlights, etc. But the lights are most certainly not beyond the stadium but are lights in front of the stadium reflected in the glass or canopy of the helicopter or blimp where the camera is located. You can tell the lights are not beyond the stadium because they are:
1) Too big implying they are close to the camera
2) Too high - way above the horizon
3) Moving too fast to be lights beyond the stadium

Maybe. However, I would not discount that they are behind the stadium.

Here is a representation of the angle of from Google Earth similar to what we see in the video (at least it seems similar). As you can see, a camera angle taken from above will be able to see the flat ground beyond the stadium -- i.e., the horizon line is raised because of the camera angle. Add to that the fact that in this particular case, there is a hillside beyond the stadium.

You also mentioned that the objects beyond seemed to be moving too fast. However, that could just as easily be a trick of perspective, just like this "finger held out in front of you" example I mentioned in an earlier post:

Hold up a finger at arm's length in front of you and look at your finger. Now -- keeping your eyes fixed on your finger, move your head from side-to-side. Your finger will appear to stay in the same place relative to your field of view, but the background objects behind you finger will appear to move quite a bit.

The same thing is happening here. Your moving head is like the camera -- which was in a moving blimp, and was panning/pivoting to keep the stadium centered as the blimp moved. The stadium is analogous to your finger, always staying centered in the camera's field of view. The objects behind the stadium, just like the objects behind you finger, will appear to move relative to the "still" stadium due to the camera's changing perspective.

This is a trick of perspective. Movie directors and cinematographers use this trick often for effect. Here is an example of this perspective from a helicopter shot of the statue above Rio de Janeiro in Brazil (starting around the :20 mark).

The background actually appears to move faster than the foreground

YouTube Link

I do agree that the lights did seem a bit bright (and I'm not talking about the two big glares on either side of the stadium light -- I'm talking about the lights closer to the top of the frame)...

...BUT they were not too high above the horizon, nor were they "moving" too fast (apparent motion, that is) considering the camera needed to pivot to keep the stadium centered in the frame while the camera itself (in the blimp or helicopter) was moving. The pivoting of the camera attempting to stay centered on the stadium causes the background to move like that, such as in the youtube video from Rio.

edit on 12/23/2011 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)