Do you recognize these "UFOs"?

Thank you to all of you that played the game!

Here are the good answers with the explanations, at least for the "UFOs" that were found.

1- Austin, TX - USA, 2011



It was very likely a towed advertisment. The full analysis can be read here.

The same kind of towed advertising banner was seen and photographed over New York the same year (2011) and I was lucky enough to find the exact banner, using the same methodology as the report above. See here for the full 21 pages report.

to intrptr and AboveBoard, while I'm not sure if AB meant a towed banner as well.

2- France, 2012



Nobody found the answer. Anyone?

3- France, 2010



to 3n19m470 !
It was indeed a streetlamp bulb photographed, with the camera moving down during the very last part of the 2s exposure, causing the dotted streak. The flash fired, then impress the whole landscape scene on the CCD, but the OP did not wait for the 2s. exposure to end and took its camera down, producing this dotted streak, typical of a 50Hz streetlamp frequency.

4- Portugal, 2010



and...

5- France, 2012



... were indeed light fixture reflections; both pictures were taken through glass. Congratulations to AB again for finding the explanation.

N°4 was taken, inside one of the multiple rooms of the Portuguese Sintra National Palace, through a window, and were there are some light fixtures on the ceiling:





N°5 was taken inside the Chenonceaux Castle in France:





6- France, 2009



Here, almost everyone agrees that this is a parachute, (a smaller one, see below) but there's a 'plus'.
Indeed, at the time this photo was taken, I didn't knew that it was also faked. It was the only time I met a case were the hoaxer dare to fake the photo metadata to hide manipulations (in fact he said in a latter communication that it was PSed to hide the parachute strings).



7- Romania, 2013



Here again, most of you were right about this one to be an airplane with landing lights on and with shaking camera during the 1.6s exposure time causing the swirls.

The red light is a beacon light (there are normally 2 of them, one under the fuselage, which we see here, the other one over the fuselage). This red light reflects, on both sides, on the turbine engines, thus the 3 visible red spots on the picture.

According to regulations, these beacon lights are supposed to deliver between 40 and 100 flashes per minute, which well explains that we only see them once during the 1.6 seconds exposure time.



And what about n°2??

a reply to: elevenaugust

You. Are. Such. A. Tease.



I waited and waited and waited!!

Oh. Number one I intended to be either a towed advert OR a loose banner caught in the wind. I did not see a plane or wires, so I thought it could go either way.

#2 a toy model of an aircraft hung in a dark room. Or not. I still have no idea!

This has been fun!

AB

I'm a little disappointed with myself, that i didn't look more closely on the pictures, especially the ones taken through glass, i usually spot those.

It has been interesting, and is still trying to figure out # 2. Just noticed there is actually something reflecting the object to the left of it, and again down towards the bottom right.

Thanks for replying and showing the answers. I was 2 for 7… poor showing, my excuse is I was rushed to be somewhere.

Number two still not pinned? How about a piece of space debris ? Not that I know what it is, just guessing. Or a night time hang glider…

Problem I had with seven being an aircraft is the red light is not "jittery" like the others. Same with the contrails. If someone could explain how that red light is a point while the others are "shaky cam"…

ETA: By the way, no fair not using any blurds…, lol.

a reply to: intrptr

About the red beacon light (that flashes 40 to 100 times per minute), well it was likely instantly spotted once during the 1.6s exposure time, at a short moment when the photographer did not moved its camera yet, either at the beginning or at the end of the whole exposure.

It's (almost) the same phenomenon in the photo below (taken on the Westminster Bridge, London) were the strobe lights can be seen as points when they flash at a 1Hz frequency, while the other light (possibly landing light) is permanent. It can be also noted that this sinusoid effect is due to unwanted vibrations applied to the camera because of the intense traffic passing on the bridge during the 2.5 s exposure time.

I said "almost" the same phenomenon, because in my example below, it's the airplane that moved during the exposure time, while in my #7, it was the photographer.


Photo credits CNES/GEIPAN/Cedricleroutard42

About the #2, a clue for you, already noticed by Mianeye, is that the "object" can be seen in the exact same shape in multiple positions. It can better be seen by downloading it page 1 and enhance it, with PS for example.

a reply to: elevenaugust

Downloaded and enhanced, but even though it shows a lot more detail and reflections, i have no clue to what i'm looking at.

I think it's time to reveal the truth

#2 could be the ISS maybe?
To me #1 looks like a spec of something on the lense but a towed ad seems plausible as well

a reply to: elevenaugust

Ahhh, exposure time on #7 accounts for the dot vs. streamer beacon, got it. Thanks. Good one to know.

If # two remains fixed regardless of angle then it too must be a reflection?

Neat game… good for practice.

a reply to: elevenaugust

#2. Wild Guess

Reflection of something in a window, like from a TV or movie. OR something actually projected onto a glass window and the pic was taken from that.

Now this doesn't totally make sense to me, but its the only thing left I can think of that might possibly fit. I look forward to your eventual "reveal." (Again. You Tease!!!)

peace,
AB

originally posted by: Mianeye
a reply to: elevenaugust

Downloaded and enhanced, but even though it shows a lot more detail and reflections, i have no clue to what i'm looking at.

I think it's time to reveal the truth

Okay, well I know that the answer will be hard to believe, but this is .... a star, and more specifically ι Her (= iota Herculis) or HIP 86414.

The "Star Trek effect" is due to an undesired effect, very likely some camera shake since the photographer is novice in astrophotography (the photo was done with a reflex Sony Alpha 77 mounted with a t2 adapter in a Bresser telescope N 203/1000 Messier LXD75 GoTo and an engine to compensate the terrestrial rotation) and do not use a distant shutter release.

Now how the hell this object can be a star and how I found it?

Firstly, the photographer took another photo (let's call it #1) of the same sky part 5-6 seconds later:



A contrast/luminosity enhancement of the #2 shows more "objects", like I said yesterday:



Or...



A superimposition of both pictures in an animated GIF clearly shows that all the "object" in #2 match with all the stars in #1:



So, okay, now that we have demonstrated that the object is a star, let's see how to find exactly what star it is.

I will not detailed the whole process, as I plan to open a new thread that will step by step explain how it works for those interested, but the nova.astrometry.net site allows everyone with any unknown sky photo to precisely find the celestial location where it was shoot.

So, here's the concerned part of the sky, with all the most visible stars identified:



And the same stars captions in one of the enhanced version of #2:



You can even in nova.astrometry export the file in .kmz format:



However, I still have some doubts on how the strange "Star Trek" aspect was created. I tend to think that this is likely by happenstance that the camera shake created it; I also thought of a possible optic defect (either on the telescope or on the camera system lens), but since this happened only once, I haven't retained this hypothesis.

The full analysis report can be read here.

Now, let's do another thread on how to use this incredible tool that is Nova.astrometry!

...And thanks again to all of you that liked this game, what about another one?

a reply to: elevenaugust

Wow. Color me educated. It would have helped to know that it was astrophtography...lol!

Thanks for an exciting game!

I'm up for another...if anyone else still wants to play!

- AB

a reply to: elevenaugust

Wow...You went all out there, beautifull

Well, got a lot to learn i guess...Or at least next time look more carefully......

originally posted by: Mianeye
a reply to: Staroth

Wait what ???

Did you miss OP said IFO's, non extraterrestrial....I'm confused....why on earth did you pick me, when i'm pretty much posting the same as others ?

This is pretty strange, I was looking at my inbox and seen I had a comment removed, but I have no idea what this is about. I do not recall even seeing this post. Anyway, my apologies all the same to you.

Hmm...May I try?

Okay. 1-7...not alien ships.

Got any that are?