UFO Detection and Videoing Equipment. Any ideas?

I've grown tired of all the poor quality UFO footage and have decided to do something about it. I'm surprised this hasn't been done before!

To this end I intend to construct a surveillance system comprising of a number of wide angle cameras to scan the whole sky to pick targets.

After selecting a target I will use two cameras spaced a metre or so apart mounted on a servo driven azimuth / elevation mount to accurately track the target and gauge distance. I also have a phased array radar I can mount on this unit although I will have to modify the firmware as it currently expects targets to be within 400m.

I then intend to have a controlled telescope with camera on the mount that can take some quality footage.

I have the following questions:

1. What would be a good telescope and camera combination to take the footage?
2. Where in the UK (ideally midlands) would be a good point to site the unit?
3. Any ideas on what else would improve the system?
4. Would any engineers on here like to become part of the project?
5. Any good ideas for the name of the project

UFOs can be very shy when cameras are about, even tripods can scare them away. I have seen some of my best UFO sightings when I have had no camera, or when fully charged batteries have died only to work again later.

It is easier to get footage in the Winter as there less leaves on the trees and the skies can be clearer. If I was going UFO hunting in the midlands I would choose Cannock chase in the evenings.
Try do to some day time filming first so you can compare the two.

As for other equipment, I would recommend a compass and an OS map in a map holder. Plenty of warm clothes and get some other people to join you.

Originally posted by lightchild
UFOs can be very shy when cameras are about, even tripods can scare them away. I have seen some of my best UFO sightings when I have had no camera, or when fully charged batteries have died only to work again later.

Thanks I didn't think of that. It's a good reason why most of the footage is poor.

Maybe some electromagnetic shielding would be in order. I can also cover the cameras that work in the infra-red with infra-red transmission black plastic.

No more excuses for shoddy out of focus and jittery-shaky cameras obscuring any and all detail.

1. What would be a good telescope and camera combination to take the footage?
2. Where in the UK (ideally midlands) would be a good point to site the unit?

1) I don't know a thing about telescopes, but it's not hard to find a good video camera if you follow a few simple rules. For filming in conditions with very little light, your video camera will need to have a large CCD image sensor.
Most consumer video cameras come equipped with small 1/6" CCDs - near useless for filming the night sky. Even a larger 1/4" CCD would produce a poor image without additional light.

Generally, video cameras with large sensors are larger than video cameras with small sensors, so I hope you don't mind some bulk.

Both the Canon XL1 and XL2 would perform well in low light but are very expensive. Also see the Sony DSR-PD150. Old and bulky? Maybe, but these kind of cameras were designed for professionals to be used in a wide range of shooting conditions.

Smaller and more affordable HD models can be very good, but you have to choose carefully. I have heard that the Canon HF10 and HF11 perform well in low light. Check out Sony's HDR-SR12 and Samsung's SC-HMX20 - both have large CCDs and come from reputable manufacturers.

Even if you were not planning on filming at night, the video cameras I have mentioned above will capture some great footage in daylight too.

Generally, a video camera with a large CCD will also have a pin-sharp lens, a decent battery life, and all the other important features. Buy a video camera with a large CCD and you will not go wrong!

2) Somewhere high. Find a hill in an area with low light pollution and set up there

If I was going UFO hunting in the midlands I would choose Cannock chase in the evenings.

Good suggestion. It seems the Cannock Chase area experienced a 'UFO flap' a few years ago.

[edit on 5/10/09 by JH80]

Can't offer much in the way of camera stats, but my husband and I invested in a 10 million candlepower portable spot light for out trip to Albuquerque next year. I have heard it mentioned on this site that it is good for signaling as well as making out the structures between the bright lights that are oten seen,We are also looking for a decent telescope and monitoring system. The skies are so clear there and we have heard about intense activity.

Good luck on your search. Make sure to share whatever you stumble upon.

if someone had the money, an enhanced tripod setup with a regular CCD camera, an IR camera, and an ultraviolet camera, all able to follow some type of motion detection signal device, coupled with the equipment to collect large amounts of data, would do the trick. this should be able to provide evidence in a contructive way. a team of three would be needed for an extended time in the field, with 3 shifts of 8 hours, with one actually handling the direct operation of the cameras, one sleeping, and the other monitoring computer function, data backup, and team-living chores.

[edit on 5-10-2009 by jimmyx]

Ahh, this is a project I've had in mind for a while given enough funding. You could market something like this for "watching" planes around airports to record accidents, but trapping UFO's is more fun. I have an extensive background in machine vision for automation, so here are some thoughts as applied to this project:

The optics will need to be designed around the level of detail you want..that will drive the lensing and image chip size. So if you want to see the letters "USAF" on a high-flying classified air vehicle at 100,000 ft, you can calculate the size of this and about 2.5 pixels to resolve a feature edge. But if you just want to see the outline of a craft, it requires much less resolution. The math will need to be done, but it's not difficult.

I'd recommend using something like Roborealm to monitor the video feed. This program will not only detect user-defined motion, but will figure out center of mass and feed coordinates to your servo actuators. In fact, there are built-in modules now that are for tracking so that saves a lot of programming. Just make sure you have a fast computer and compatible cameras.

Depending upon your intended target altitude for detection, you will need atmospheric correction software. This applies corrections to the actual image for changes in air density. You won't be able to see much detail at higher flight levels without it. You might be able to get something off-the-shelf from astronomy-related sources.

Given certain "patterns" in classified air vehicle sightings, it's likely that they're using optical tricks to prevent people from seeing details during operation. This can include optical projection to hide the object, or flooding the object in light so it just appears as a fuzzy bright object moving very fast. You would need an optical system in other light spectrums to get past these techniques, and it's possible that they've even got something to confuse that avenue. There are probably many vehicles in operation that don't use these techniques due to size and flight requirements, so you'll still get something without going IR or wide spectrum.

Lastly, be prepared to face government action if you can get this thing to work. They know the capabilities of cell phone cameras and what common people have available, and are sure to operate normally outside of that range. I remember a news piece a few years ago when certain US government officials expressed disgust with "skyfishing" for reasons of national security. If you get some high-resolution sky trap operational and start posting photos on the internet, expect a knock at the door and to have equipment confiscated. They've put a lot of work into their "family jewels" and are authorized to do nasty things to protect them. If you look at the list of restricted items that the US government doesn't allow shipment to certain nations, they include things like high-resolution IR cameras. The Chinese were trying to get their hands on these about 5 years ago...probably trying to augment their optical tracking systems just like the one you describe (radar is no longer a reliable means of tracking for most of these vehicles).

I'd volunteer to help, but have other projects right now. Good luck, and be careful.

Thanks for the help guys.

The system I envisage would be fully automated. I design imaging and control systems such as this for a living. Without spending ages writing software trying to identify planes I though I would just track everything I could with priority placed on the brightest objects.

I will approach the Lord that owns Cannock Chase and see if he will let me place it somewhere high and safe. I know someone that knows him I think.

After thinking a little I might make the whole system, apart from the quality video camera out of cheap common parts so I can make the design "open" so others can make one too.

I think I was thinking to much when I decided to use a telescope. Using a large CCD video cam with a good quality lens would be the best bet as described above. I can hack the buttons so I can zoom when the system has a target in its sights.

Originally posted by LightFantastic
After thinking a little I might make the whole system, apart from the quality video camera out of cheap common parts so I can make the design "open" so others can make one too.

Open source UFO trap? Brilliant!

Originally posted by LightFantastic
I think I was thinking to much when I decided to use a telescope. Using a large CCD video cam with a good quality lens would be the best bet as described above.

For night-time viewing, a large "light bucket" telescope still has merit. While a good chip can get resolution, gathering more light will help turn a pattern of three lights into something with an outline. You will also find that certain times of day will require different techniques. Just after sunset, the sun illuminates stuff flying up in the sky for a few hours, giving an excellent opportunity to see something that does not have its own illumination. Another technique if you have a clear sky is to look for " moving holes" in the starfield. This can be done automatically with software. I saw a large V-shaped pattern that was only visible by seeing the absence of stars back in the late 1980's. This only really works for near-earth objects that are large with a clear sky...it won't get the small sport-models flying above 100K ft.







[edit on 5-10-2009 by qwerty123]

Repeat:

Although this topic or something similar shows up periodically on ATS, I never tire of it and it's always intriguing to read about the types of "methods" folks use.

I only mention that because you may want to do a quick ATS search on "contacting aliens" or similar and see all the neat things that come up. Perhaps you might want to post the better results or post links here for cross-reference. See e.g., ATS: Homemade UFO Detection and Recording Gizmos

In the meantime, one response that I've made previously involves the purchase, borrowing, or use of a Cinetheodolite, a missile/aircraft tracking telescope that automatically locks on to, zooms in on, and films objects in the sky. You can bet that the black ops guys have 'em and they're not just using them to track missiles.



Some guy shows up on the internet now and then and tries selling used ones on e.g., eBay, often listing it as a "UFO Catcher". if you have a couple hundred thousand dollars burning a hole in your pocket. No? Maybe we can take up a collection? I'll kick in the first Benjamin. Just search for Cinetheodolite on eBay - once or twice a year one pops up. ~$350K.

Anyway - if I can get enough serious folks together, I'd pitch in on buying one of these things and setting it up in, say south-central Nevada, hooking some remote telemetry equipment to it and, well, see how much luck we have fishing for UFOs!

In any event - good luck with this everyone. Every time this topic pops up I learn something new. Myself I'm still using my trusty Meade Ex125 with some electronic imaging piped to my laptop - but it's rough going and time-consuming to set up and maintain. What I'd really like is some automation and tracking built-in - though I suspect my clock-drive would need major modification to track at just normal aircraft speeds, if at all. *sigh*.

Anyway - Keep us posted on your progress, folks - and keep looking up!

reply to post by IconoclasticTalamasca


I tried something similar.
Within 10 mins a police helicopter turned up and I spent an hour hiding in a bush!

reply to post by Outrageo


Now that Cinetheodolite is a nice piece of kit. Thanks for the link as well, I love that guys dob with the cameras.

I want similar but I don't have the time to operate it hence making it fully automated.