Drone ... or something else?

Ok guys. First, please accept my apologies for the quality of this video. When I noticed this object, I was driving up my road in a typical neighborhood. The object was low in the sky and not noticeably moving. But as I approached my driveway, the object appeared to be moving up and down, in a 3 steps up, one step down type pattern. So I realized it wasn't a cell phone tower I hadn't notice before. Still, I didn't really think it was anything unusual. I actually thought it was a hobby (?) drone, but for some reason I decided to record it, I usually wouldn't have done so, as I rarely take videos of anything. So I pulled out my iPhone 6 and began to record. The quality never occurred to me, I was simply trying to record a light in the sky and wasn't expecting to even capture video at first because I tried to take a pic of the bloodmoon eclipse the other night and could only get an image of the moon without the effects of the eclipse. So the quality of this video is lacking.

Anyway, I still believe it was a drone because of the size of it, which isn't available in the video because it's dark and there's nothing to compare it to. The only way I can describe its size is to say that I thought it was lights from a cell tower at first. The only doubt I have about it being a drone is that it didn't return and as it flew away it wasn't descending. That's not the behavior I'd expect from a drone. I'd expect it to be flown back to its owner, not hover over a random house or street.

Anyway, please be kind. As I mentioned in the description, this is prolly the first and last video I'll ever upload. It's just that I'm a member here, so I figured I owed it to myself to show you guys what I captured.




Also, the only reason I even posted the video to YouTube was so I could post it here.

a reply to: CheckPointCharlie

Fixing embed, hope you don't mind.

I would say Drone,

it would be easy to fix some LED's onto and get this effect, my golden rule of UFO's:

If its easy to duplicate, its a hoax

they are out there, just not not here

It probably is a kid's drone. No point in saying anything else much.

a reply to: CheckPointCharlie

so I figured I owed it to myself to show you guys what I captured.

Nice job, thanks. I hope you post more. I too watched a craft shooting across the night sky and the darn thing looked like it was going one step at a time. So bizarre. I don't think it was a consumer drone. They cant possibly move that fast.

a reply to: Phatdamage

Yeah I don't remember what I thought while watching it live, but I've considered LED's since.

It's funny though, I've always said 'why the shaky video?' And here I am doing a shaky video, lol. Also, I know better than to think lights I the night sky are something otherworldly, but dammit I finally saw something and captured video to boot, I wanna be special!

a reply to: donktheclown

Thanks. I doubt I'll post anymore videos but I'll definitely post thoughts and such.

I'm leaning towards it being a drone, but the way it behaved gives me a slight pause. I can see if somebody on the next street over was just playing with their drone over their house or on their street, but this thing flew away without descending, like you might expect if it came from two or three streets over, to never come back.

Still, I'm extremely skeptical of these things, particularly at night, so I have to lean towards a drone, but ....

Don't drones make any noise?

Because I couldn't hear anything except crickets and traffic, and I always thought that if a drone was close enough to see, you would be able to hear something - especially if it was a kid's drone being flown from a few streets over or something...

a reply to: lostgirl

Don't drones make any noise?

Some but not much.

a reply to: Phatdamage

I can see that. Probably with slow working led.

originally posted by: CheckPointCharlie
I know better than to think lights I the night sky are something otherworldly, but dammit I finally saw something and captured video to boot, I wanna be special!

Well, at least you were enough on the ball to actually get footage of it. That's better than 90 percent (or more) of people who see something odd and never think to get an image of it, even with a high-resolution camera in their pocket. So that makes you kind of special.

a reply to: lostgirl

I fly a DJI Phantom (red and green lights, stock) and can tell you that in suburbia once the aircraft is about 300 ft away it's sound will be drowned out by ambient city noise unless you really know what to listen for. In the dark, my aging eyes can see the lights from over 1,000ft out - well beyond the ability to hear it.

And I fly mine in the dark all the time and have yet to see a UFO story about it in the local news. I keep hoping. Heh.

Since you people figured that one out, perhaps you could help me in identifying this light i saw on monday night. To the naked eye it was a white light, but on camera it appeared as a blue light. That made me think that this thing was affecting the electromagnetic spectrum. Also, the fact that it could disappear and reappear made me think this was not a drone or helicopter. Even though i personally look at this as only having one possibility, i would like other peoples opinions on it. There are three videos for this, only because it would vanish and i would think it was gone for good, but then it would reappear, so i apologize. Also, the noise in the background is a highway which is near my apartment. Thanks in advance for the help. Sorry for the link, but i'm new and don't know how to embed on this site.

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: ShamanLove

Looks like a consumer RC aircraft to me. The one flash per second is consistent with the nav beacon on my quad copter which is only visible from the front of the aircraft. If this one was circling (likely over the pilots neighborhood - as I like to do at night) it would explain the light going in and out.

a reply to: Tripnman

What about the fact that to the naked eye the light was white? It was only blue on camera. Also, can you remotely turn off the lights? It did disappear for minutes at a time before reappearing. Finally, it never seemed to land. It just vanished and that was the end of it. Any rationalizations on those?

a reply to: ShamanLove

I don't profess to be an expert in any of this, so anything I posted is just opinion based on my experience flying RC toys.

As stated, if the aircraft had a navigational light that is oriented so that you can only see it from the front or the rear, it would look to be appearing and disappearing to a distant observer as the air frame rotates the light out of view during maneuvers. If this was a 'copter of some sort, then it could have landed (battery change - they only last a few minutes per charge) while it was facing away from you and you wouldn't see the light until it was back in the air and circling and turning the light back towards you.

As for the color change when video recording - I've never filmed my 'copters in the dark but my first guess would be chromatic aberrations in the camera. A lack of low light sensitivity in a low-end chip will definitely cause color shifts filming a bright spot in a dark sky.