Incredible UFO Filmed By Commercial Pilot above Costa Rica skies on 23 January 2013

Originally posted by homeslice
It does show up exactly when the lens is facing the sun...

Looks like a solar reflection off the aircraft itself. Ever seen a solar windshield reflection on a highway sign?

The title is very misleading then, I've no words to say how ridiculous it is to call this a UFO

I just have a simple question, those who are saying and are EXPERTS at lens flares. Does a lens flare reflect light from the sun as it passes through the field of view? If you can't see that in the clip then watch it again and again!

Originally posted by TheEnlightenedOne
I just have a simple question, those who are saying and are EXPERTS at lens flares. Does a lens flare reflect light from the sun as it passes through the field of view? If you can't see that in the clip then watch it again and again!

You might need to rephrase that to make it make sense. But are you meaning how the 'object' quickly (less than a second to begin with) grows in brightness as it moves along then fades out over about 1 second at the end?...

That's simply because as more of the sun comes into frame the suns reflection (which is technically what the 'object' is) becomes brighter and as the sun moves out of frame less light from it gets to the lens and so the suns reflection dims and then vanishes.

If your saying that the objects brightness is because its reflecting the light from the sun, I believe that object IS the sun, ie a reflection of the sun itself in id assume the first lens or the last? (or even the windshield of the plane).

Or are you talking about the half circle lens flare component that surrounds it at the mid point? Since that lens flare shape is part of the suns series of lens flare and isnt coming off the 'object', given the object is part of that series of shapes itself.

And if your talking about the way the object shimmers, well the light passing through the imperfect windshield and camera lens along with the angle its coming through in would account for that in most cases. You can see the actual Suns rays and corona shimmer as it passes over the windshields glass and this would be copied by the sun reflection in the flare.

Im not a optics 'EXPERT', (why use capitals?) but that's my opinion using years of everyday observations and common sense understanding about such things... or am i rare in being someone who likes to watch and think about the properties of light im seeing around me interacting with the world from time to time?

reply to post by Arken


It's a decent UFO video, but incredible? No way. It's not even close to incredible (sighs).

If only "some" here in this thread alone knew how wrong they are.......I will let it go at that.

Keep watching the skies I predict activity will pick up amazingly in the next few months.

I'm amazed this thread is still being openly discussed. Isn't it obvious that this is an optical anomoly? To the people who still think this is a UFO - or even anything physically there at all - please go back through this thread and look at all the evidence and analysis to the contrary.

Good evidence and analysis used to be enough to convince people. I really don't know what's happened to ATS.
PEACE

reply to post by Thundersmurf


What he said. Gosh guys Im first in line when it comes to wanting to see proof or evidence, but this is not it! And the fact that this thread has gone for 12 pages shows how eager everyone is as well but we have to use common sense. I often think videos like these are a very clever ploy in the disinformation campaign because it makes believers look ridiculous.

Originally posted by nataylor
It's lens flare. Here's a video I created. I duplicated the clip, rotated it 180 degrees, and made it partially transparent. I then placed it over the same clip and inverted the colors. So now you can see a black spot in the upper right and a black sun in the lower left. You'll notice how the spot exactly follows the sun. Click through to watch it in HD.

Yes! This is the clearest explanation I've seen showing that it is just a reflection of the Sun.


Great job in making this video explanation. The rotated version positively shows the object (dark spot on the upper right of the "upper" original sun) moves perfectly in unison with the Sun.

Definitely a reflection. A star for you for taking the time to make this video explanation.

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People

Originally posted by ZetaRediculian

Originally posted by nataylor
It's lens flare. Here's a video I created. I duplicated the clip, rotated it 180 degrees, and made it partially transparent. I then placed it over the same clip and inverted the colors. So now you can see a black spot in the upper right and a black sun in the lower left. You'll notice how the spot exactly follows the sun. Click through to watch it in HD.

Oh please! you expect me to buy this? Answer me this. If its a lens flare, why does it do that thing when....it. It's not a lens flare. Its just not.

Perfect illustration to my post earlier. Wish I'da thunk of this.




I don't know what "thing that it does" you are talking about, but here are a few thinks it DOES do:

1. It appears in the video frame the exact same moment the Sun appears.
2. It disappear from the video frame at the exact same moment the Sun disappears.
3. It moves with the same apparent speed that the Sun moves across the video frame as the camera pans.
4. It follows a course EXACTLY opposite (like a mirror) the apparent course of the Sun across the video frame as the camera pans.

Considering all of these things, it seems very plausible that this could be an internal camera reflection.


'nataylors' video clearly shows my point number 4 above. He flipped the image and overlaid it, The "object" followed the EXACT path of the of the Sun on that flipped and overlaid video.

edit on 2/1/2013 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)

It seems to flare

Originally posted by Grimpachi
The problem is when there are cases like this one where I feel it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is a lens flare/reflection of the sun but then you ignore that and claim otherwise then it hurts the entire UFO community. It makes those that believe in UFOs look like desperate kooks. Sometimes believers are their own worst enemy and this is one of those cases. It is on par to being caught in a lie.I appreciate those who scrutinize these things they keep me from looking like a fool. UFO is an extraordinary claim that needs extraordinary proof but this video has an ordinary explanation.

As I have said before I would love to see footage of a real UFO and there have been some videos where I think it is definitely a possibility however this is not one of those times. You need to be critical of each case or you will only hurt your own credibility. I certainly looked at this video a couple times and was open to the possibility but then some people here debunked it scientifically and even made visual graphics that demonstrated perfectly how it is the sun playing tricks. If you ignore the science then you are going on something more akin to faith.

It's nothing to do with UFO/ not UFO, It's the GIVEN video that has the ambiguity built in. As Soylent pointed out, there is a semblance of a lens flare from the 'object itself' just as I pointed out that the 'object' itself is reflecting light in an earlier post. There is also a brightening from the sunbeam as the 'object' 'passes' through it/by it/under it/or above it. why does the sunbeam then brighten? more camera artifacts? Why can you make your cursor, (if you position it in the right place) pan the 'object' quite dramatically for up to eleven seconds, but not all the time, in the slowmows, and just about almost Zilch in the straightforward playback at the start.

It mostly points to exactly what the two guys that looked at the pilot's video said in the first place, that it's either a very fast external object, or a reflection. Presumably meaning the latter from something inside the cabin, or between the camera and the cabin window, but not in itself a lens flare.

it doesn't look like a lens flare but a white dot isn't that exciting either. moving fast...strange this or that...how many white dot videos does it take to kill the interest?

I noticed a UFO shoot video so it #ty quality. And how something so minor is just super.

It's quite obviously lens flare and more than sufficient evidence has been posted whereas no evidence to support the UFO theory has been posted at all.

The mundane, prosaic, unexceptional explanation is the right one 9 times out of 10. Even if UFOs exist I guarantee you there's a billion lens flares for every 1 UFO in this world. If you want to claim something exceptional then the burden of proof should be on you.

Another thread full of people who find the truth too BORING.

The "UFO" pops up in the same, exact moment the sun pops up in the video, and it also disappears in the SAME EXACT moment the sun shifts out of the footage. It's a reflection.

reply to post by flexy123


I'mnot sure people are willing to accept that, for some reason. It's nice to see so many people that want this to be a UFO - I guess it shows how many people are taking the UFO phenomenon seriously, but I wish there wasn't so much blind faith surrounding videos like this.

The "it's defo a UFO" posts seem to have stopped for now though so maybe we're finally getting throughto them.

PEACE

Originally posted by flexy123
The "UFO" pops up in the same, exact moment the sun pops up in the video, and it also disappears in the SAME EXACT moment the sun shifts out of the footage. It's a reflection.

edit on 3-2-2013 by flexy123 because: (no reason given)

As someone pointed out to me, the Sun does disappear from the frame a few seconds before the object, but that doesn't mean anything -- the sun does not need to be in frame to create an internal camera reflection.

However, the object moves on a path exactly opposite the Sun, at the same speed as the Sun...

This post by nataylor shows this matching Sun-object movement definitively. He rotated the original video then overlaid the rotated version on top on the original version. In his vidoe, you can clearly see that the so-called object moves exactly with the Sun (the "rotated" object is the dark spot at about the 2 o'clock position on the "original" sun):

Originally posted by nataylor
It's lens flare. Here's a video I created. I duplicated the clip, rotated it 180 degrees, and made it partially transparent. I then placed it over the same clip and inverted the colors. So now you can see a black spot in the upper right and a black sun in the lower left. You'll notice how the spot exactly follows the sun. Click through to watch it in HD.

Originally posted by smurfy

Originally posted by chr0naut
reply to post by Arken

 

Plainly and clearly a lens flare/reflection of the sun.

The "shadow" is a video compression artefact and (as has previously been pointed out) sometimes appears above the image.

Again, it is another blurry dot. A blurry dot is not sufficient for any of us to draw conclusions from. It could be a real UFO or it could be a lens flare/reflection of the sun. There is insufficient information to determine unequivocaly exactly what it is.

The title for the OP is correct. This is not credible.

edit on 1/2/2013 by chr0naut because: (no reason given)

Do you mean there is not enough information given? I don't mean to be rude, but your first statement, is pretty clear, but is instantly dissolved by the third.

I was bemoaning another fuzzy dot being described as an "Incredible UFO".

Logically, I can draw the conclusion that it is a lens flare, as the most likely explanation. In truth I cannot say either way as there is insufficient detail from which to draw unequivocal conclusions.