Travel Channel's Expedition Unknown Easter Island UFO

I was watching Expedition Unknown on the Travel Channel last Wednesday night.

It was the Travel Channel's Expedition Unknown: Hunt for Extraterrestrials: Roswell Revealed: After the Hunt episode. In that episode they revealed a video they took on the Island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) while they were filming there. The video crew had put a camera on a tripod and aimed it at one of the Moai statues with the intention of getting some good time lapse footage.

Apparently the main cameraman didn't look at the footage until much later. At some point during the recording a bright object appeared in the sky behind the statue at the top left of the screen. It proceeded to move linearly toward the lower right corner, when it suddenly changes directions and flies away from the camera.

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I've seen it explained as "rods" and insects. Someone mentioned that the object cast a shadow on the Maoi, meaning it was in front of the camera.

Without seeing this video segment in context, I can't say whether it was a shadow cast by some near-field object, or whether the Moai was illuminated by the object, then the illumination faded as the object moved behind the statue.

The low res video I linked doesn't do it justice. So, we'll probably have to wait until the episode is available on-line for a higher resolution version.

Now, I have no idea whether what I'm seeing is something misidentified, or a video artifact, or whatever. But, I thought this community might appreciate it.

I looked around on the web for a while, and this is about all I can find. I also did a search on ATS, and I didn't see anything. So here it is. Enjoy

-dex

One of my favorite shows , although I do like Josh's "Destination Truth" better

looks like a bug close to the camera, catching the light.

i do not see a shadow cast.

Somebody call Jose Escamillia.

His Rods are on the loose again.

originally posted by: Gothmog
One of my favorite shows , although I do like Josh's "Destination Truth" better

He's got a weird sense-of-humor.


I haven't seen every ep in this series, but the last two of the Hunt for Extraterrestrials series came on back to back.

One thing on the Roswell Revealed episode covered the Ramey Memo image. I remember we had an image analysis project of that letter going on here a couple years ago. Of course they didn't cover any of our work.

The UFOs Over England episode saw them going on one of Dr. Milton Wainwright's stratospheric balloon experiments. Dr. Wainwright is exactly the mad scientist kind of person I would expect to be running a project like this.


-dex

a reply to: DexterRiley

How long of a time lapse is it? Seems the video of the object is about 2-3 seconds, how much actual time elapses in those 2-3 seconds would help identify possibilities.

originally posted by: fiverx313
looks like a bug close to the camera, catching the light.

i do not see a shadow cast.

In the low res video, if you step through it you'll see the illumination of the Moai changes slightly as the object moves down the screen.

originally posted by: abe froman
Somebody call Jose Escamillia.

His Rods are on the loose again.

Aren't rods and insects related? Just wondering whether that's two categories or one category of "debunk theory."


-dex

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: DexterRiley

How long of a time lapse is it? Seems the video of the object is about 2-3 seconds, how much actual time elapses in those 2-3 seconds would help identify possibilities.

I don't think they have provided any more information. It's interesting they didn't play this up a bit more. Maybe they're trying to generate some more interest.

I think what we're seeing is in realtime. Probably a standard Hi-Def camera. Whatever those specs are. But this image is very low res.

You might be able to get some scale based on the height of the Moai.

-dex

originally posted by: DexterRiley
In the low res video, if you step through it you'll see the illumination of the Moai changes slightly as the object moves down the screen.

i did see it this time.

i'm curious about the type of camera used and the settings, because it looks like the entire moai changes color/darkness as it goes by. i kind of wonder if could be related to the incredible amount of glare coming off the object. if it's close enough to the camera (as i suspect), it could possibly be throwing off some kind of automatic aperture setting, possibly?

a reply to: DexterRiley

Really doubt it's real time, the cloud movement and shadowing of the Moai statue indicate more than 2-3 seconds passed.

a reply to: Vector99

The video isn't timelapse.

They stated they set the camera up to capture timelapse footage, which is really just recording for extended periods of time. In editing, they noticed the object, and subsequently posted the 7 second clip of the real time recording which contains the object.

a reply to: jephers0n

It's not a 7 second clip of real time footage, you should watch it.

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: DexterRiley

Really doubt it's real time, the cloud movement and shadowing of the Moai statue indicate more than 2-3 seconds passed.

It's strange. I noticed that the clouds jumped a bit about halfway through the video segment, like there was some kind of discontinuity.

But it was my understanding that this video is in realtime. So, I don't know what to make of it.

-dex

I enjoy the Josh Gates shows....they allow me to see other places I will never be able to visit myself.

I really like the parts where they interact with the local cultures rather than expecting them to find something ground breaking.

originally posted by: fiverx313

originally posted by: DexterRiley
In the low res video, if you step through it you'll see the illumination of the Moai changes slightly as the object moves down the screen.

i did see it this time.

i'm curious about the type of camera used and the settings, because it looks like the entire moai changes color/darkness as it goes by. i kind of wonder if could be related to the incredible amount of glare coming off the object. if it's close enough to the camera (as i suspect), it could possibly be throwing off some kind of automatic aperture setting, possibly?

From the look of the clouds, the sun is low in the sky. Seems to me that the sun at that angle would illuminate small objects close to the ground. Because the apparent size of the object gets smaller as the segment progresses, it's likely that it was moving away from the camera, toward the moai.

So, your theory may be valid if those observations are correct and the camera's automatic aperture responds as you believe.

-dex

It's got to be some punk from the future that saw this episode and thought - I am so gonna mess everybody up and fly my drone past this camera!!

originally posted by: DexterRiley

originally posted by: fiverx313

originally posted by: DexterRiley
In the low res video, if you step through it you'll see the illumination of the Moai changes slightly as the object moves down the screen.

i did see it this time.

i'm curious about the type of camera used and the settings, because it looks like the entire moai changes color/darkness as it goes by. i kind of wonder if could be related to the incredible amount of glare coming off the object. if it's close enough to the camera (as i suspect), it could possibly be throwing off some kind of automatic aperture setting, possibly?

From the look of the clouds, the sun is low in the sky. Seems to me that the sun at that angle would illuminate small objects close to the ground. Because the apparent size of the object gets smaller as the segment progresses, it's likely that it was moving away from the camera, toward the moai.

So, your theory may be valid if those observations are correct and the camera's automatic aperture responds as you believe.

-dex

I think your sun is the Moon and as it's timpase each exposure will be a few seconds. It's an aircart like you see on this

Play this biggest screen possible and sound up a few examples on this good one at 1:04

originally posted by: wmd_2008

originally posted by: DexterRiley

originally posted by: fiverx313

originally posted by: DexterRiley
In the low res video, if you step through it you'll see the illumination of the Moai changes slightly as the object moves down the screen.

i did see it this time.

i'm curious about the type of camera used and the settings, because it looks like the entire moai changes color/darkness as it goes by. i kind of wonder if could be related to the incredible amount of glare coming off the object. if it's close enough to the camera (as i suspect), it could possibly be throwing off some kind of automatic aperture setting, possibly?

From the look of the clouds, the sun is low in the sky. Seems to me that the sun at that angle would illuminate small objects close to the ground. Because the apparent size of the object gets smaller as the segment progresses, it's likely that it was moving away from the camera, toward the moai.

So, your theory may be valid if those observations are correct and the camera's automatic aperture responds as you believe.

-dex

I think your sun is the Moon and as it's timpase each exposure will be a few seconds. It's an aircart like you see on this

Play this biggest screen possible and sound up a few examples on this good one at 1:04

Thanks for the information. I'll take your word for the sun-v-moon argument. That makes more sense, especially in light of the long exposure times generally used in this type of photography.

The cameraman did say that he was getting some timelapse footage. At first I thought that he was just recording video and was going to post-process it into something that looks like timelapse. But after doing a little more research, and reviewing the "UFO" video a few times, I can see where an actual long-exposure timelapse could yield a video like the one in the OP.

I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed in the Expedition Unknown team. I was left with the impression that this was all realtime and they had captured something truly anomalous. The Roswell Revealed episode will be on again tonight. I think there was a brief showing of this clip in that episode. I'm going to tune-in and see if I can get a better look at it.

Thank you for the Purely Pacific Northwest video! It was breathtaking. I'm seldom emotionally moved when I watch an artistic video; but I was transfixed by the beauty in this piece. I felt like I was watching the world from some omnipotent position and the passage of time was irrelevant.

-dex

a reply to: DexterRiley

Timeslapse like Purely Pacific can take months to shoot with tens of thousands of images exposures on average 20-30 seconds and ending up with terabytes of data. On some you will see meteors and even geostationary satellites which look like a star st a fixed position of the frame while other stars move past.

Purely Pacific took John Eklund 1 year 260,000 images and was 6.3 TB's of data.

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: DexterRiley

Really doubt it's real time, the cloud movement and shadowing of the Moai statue indicate more than 2-3 seconds passed.

On the recap show afterward, they claim it’s real time.