Orb dancing around sun

My niece took this video this morning. You can see a circular orb dancing about the top right of the sun. What do you guys think it is? A sun dog? I'm not sure I've seen a sun dog that looked like this before. It seems to have it own aura surrounding it as to moves.




ETA: Here is a snap shot she took.



ETA: She is standing on the beach.

a reply to: ByteChanger

It moves as the video source moves. This video was taken from a boat.

Looks like lens flare.

ETA: Here is a snap shot she took.

Yep, looking at that picture, definitely lens flare.

Looks like an insect to me.

a reply to: Cyprex
She says she was standing on the beach.

a reply to: Sharted

I thought insect too for a minute, but the orb has its own aura around it.

Yep, lensflare. Each time the camera shift a little upwards, the flare does as well. The jittering is probably the vibration of the boat.

Click the youtube icon above to get a better/clearer/bigger view ( opens another tab ). it is a good take whatever it may be.. Thanks for posting..

Even if she was standing on the beach, the slight jiggle of her hands could contribute to the movement.

Tell her to make a video when the Sun is in Zenith.
She'll get a bunch of dancing orbs.

we all see what we want to see at times but this video does not look like it has another bright orb in picture sorry just not seeing it

originally posted by: ByteChanger
What do you guys think it is? A sun dog?
ETA: Here is a snap shot she took.

Not a sun dog which is something else, it's lens flare. If you draw 2 diagonal lines from corner to corner, they intersect at the center of the image:

Notice how the orb and the sun are equal distances from the center of the image?
This is characteristic of the most common type of lens flare, so the orb is a reflection of the sun created inside the camera.
It "dances" because the camera is moving, as others have pointed out, so there's really no doubt about what it is.

originally posted by: zilebeliveunknown
Tell her to make a video when the Sun is in Zenith.
She'll get a bunch of dancing orbs.

Better check the camera owners manual first. Some may advise against doing this, because they might claim extended exposure to direct sunlight could damage the image sensor. All the videos I've seen making this claim show insects. Yes, we have billions of flying insects, and yes, when you photograph in the condition you describe it's difficult to tell what they are, so you can call them "UFOs" if that strikes your fancy. Seems kind of silly to me though.

a reply to: blacktie

No need to apologize. If you don't see it, you don't see it.

It is a more prominent in the 3,264px × 2,448px pic I added. Just right of the 12:00 position if viewing a clock.

Other people said it was Lens Flare, and I'm happy with that explanation.

a reply to: ByteChanger

Lens Glint

a reply to: Arbitrageur

That was a awesome explanation, I didn't know that detail about equal distances from the center... Good to know. Thanks.

I forgot about lens flare, sun dogs were the only thing that came to mind at the moment and it looked so cool I wanted to post it.

a reply to: Staroth

Link didn't work, but I get the idea. Thanks.

a reply to: skywatcher44

Thanks skywatcher44. Glad you liked it.

And thanks for the extra viewing details! Worked great.

originally posted by: Staroth
a reply to: ByteChanger

Lens Glint

It's not called lens glint. It's talking about Sony Vegas and the FX Glint tool which creates fake lens flare. Not really the best idea to link to CGI when there are plenty of real examples. I'll re-post some below.

originally posted by: ByteChanger
a reply to: Arbitrageur

That was a awesome explanation, I didn't know that detail about equal distances from the center... Good to know. Thanks.

You're welcome, also I forgot to mention, opposite directions from the center too. Here are more examples. This kind of analysis only works on the original image of course. If someone has cropped the image, you don't know where the center of the original image was:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: elevenaugust

originally posted by: CIAGypsy
But until I see detailed explanation to explain HOW it happened, then it's just a hypothesis...no matter who offers it up. At least that's how I roll....

Here you go:

Extracted from "analysis methodology" here

If we apply this to your photo, it's evident that this is a lens flare with picture’s optical center matches its geometrical center:

That last lens flare image has sort of a mushroom shape which while common is only one possible shape, a simple orb is another. People are less apt to buy the lens flare explanation when the lens flare has the mushroom shape, but it's still lens flare.

Here is another example of the strange shaped lens flare.