Does this look familiar

ufostalker.com...

Sighting from May 10, 2020, Portland, Oregon. I thought it might be a balloon, but if it is it's certainly odd shaped. Of course it might be a drone because it's the 21st Century. The photos in the link above show it either small or very high up. Anyway, interesting. Pretty clear photos.

Looks like other UFO’s I’ve seen.

In pictures of course

originally posted by: Aallanon
Looks like other UFO’s I’ve seen.
In pictures of course

I know what you mean. Kind of indistinct, even though the images aren't too bad. *shrug*

Gimbal

2020 and that's considered clear?

I ran that through an AI upscale algorithm as well as I could and this is all it could come up with.



Traced some things that could be edges.

The green traces resemble a jet or something plane-like.



The red traces are maybe some hard lines, maybe displacement, idk.


maybe that far right red trace should be green. Idk

It looks like this:

a reply to: Blue Shift
Definitely three dimensional. ODD and interesting.

Something about it reminds me of the Dragon Pod viewed from bottom in 2nd pic.......

a reply to: Blue Shift

Looks like a mylar party balloon shape.

originally posted by: Blue Shift
ufostalker.com...

Sighting from May 10, 2020, Portland, Oregon. I thought it might be a balloon, but if it is it's certainly odd shaped.

Pretty clear photos.

Not really that clear in my opinion. Mylar party balloons come in all kinds of shapes, and even simple balloons when in a "bunch" can appear to have odd shapes. The thread asks "Does it look familiar?" and yes it reminds me of the secret UFO misinformation training slides for UK/US intelligence agents that Snowden leaked. Apparently intelligence agents get paid to post pictures like this, so if you're doing it for free, why? You could at least ask the CIA if they'll send you a check for posting this. Apparently Nigel Watson seems to think the reason they post images like these is to muddy the UFO waters with garbage and get people to ignore the topic so nobody pays attention when something really interesting is flying around that they don't want people to know about.

Slides in Snowden's latest leak are fake UFO images used to deliberately spread misinformation

The presentation is called The Art Of Deception and includes three slides showing what appear to be UFOs
Leading UFO expert Nigel Watson has said that skeptics have already dismissed the images as fake
He believes spies are given the images along with guidelines on how to spread misinformation via the internet

Such deception can be used to help coverup more mundane terrestrial activities like testing secret aircraft or military exercises, he said...

‘The first is a black and white picture of a UFO over Redbud, Illinois, taken on 23 April 1950, the second a screenshot of a UFO video by Arturo Robles Gil filmed in Mexico and the third was taken on 01 August 2011 by a holidaymaker at Black Head, Trenarren near St. Austell, Cornwall.

'They have been explained respectively by skeptics as a hub cap thrown in the air, a deflated Mylar balloon and an out-of-focus seagull taking a poo.’

In fact Watson believes the document is really proof of government attempts at mind control and the slides are part of guidelines for spies on how to spread misinformation via the internet.

‘The main evidence for the cover-up of UFO reports and manipulation of UFO beliefs, as revealed by the documents released by Edward Snowden, is contained in a Powerpoint presentation called, The Art Of Deception: Training For A New Generation Of Online Covert Operations.

This is from the title page:


Here's the slide it reminded me of from page 35 of the leaked slides:


Chris Mellon shows us how to claim a mylar party balloon is a UFO that defies the laws of physics

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Well damn. That's pretty close to what it looks like.

originally posted by: tommyjo
a reply to: Blue Shift

Looks like a mylar party balloon shape.

I thought that might be an option but I couldn't find a good example of it.

originally posted by: AutomateThis1
2020 and that's considered clear?

Unfortunately yes. The guy apparently didn't have his Brownie Hawkeye with him loaded with Kodachrome 127 film in it.

originally posted by: HiddenI
It looks like this:

The diamond shape likely is due to the diamond shape of the camera shutter. That's a common shape seen by video cameras trying to focus on a bright star or Venus.

I'm not saying this object in the video you posted is a star or Venus -- I'm just giving a very plausible (likely?) reason for the diamond shape.

originally posted by: tommyjo
a reply to: Blue Shift

Looks like a mylar party balloon shape.

Looks like a balloon to me

originally posted by: tommyjo
a reply to: Blue Shift

Looks like a mylar party balloon shape.

What is it these days when people can't even get a clear image of a Mylar balloon??!?

originally posted by: fromtheskydown
What is it these days when people can't even get a clear image of a Mylar balloon??!?

All I can do is repeat my standard answer. Try it. Keep an eye peeled for a balloon floating around. Try to get your camera out and adjusted fast enough to get an image before it floats away. See what you come up with. I tried it the other day and this is what I got.

See it?

That's why I thought this guy did a fairly good job. The original images just show a speck.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Yes and I hope you realise my post was a sarcastic take on the shaky UFO clips, pointing out the difficulty of filming or photographing anything in the sky with a hand-held device. I tried it myself a few days ago when a glider appeared overhead, which I thought was a huge risk in case of disaster, given the need for emergency services that could be required elsewhere.

Needless to say, I failed miserably to get anything that was of use.

At BlueShift's request, I'll give my thoughts on the images. New here to the forums, just a guy who has elite level photoshop skills (not related to forensics so take it with a grain of salt) and happens to be a ufo nerd.

I've saved the images provided in the report ufostalker.com...

EXIF metadata
Witness imported files with Apple Photos 4.0, this is in metadata as creation application.

109280_submitter_file1__May102020636PMPSTDuaneUFOSighting.jpg
Date created: 2020-05-10 18:36:47
Title: Duane_UFO_Sighting1
Cam: Nikon Coolpix S6800
Size: 4608x2592
Focal length: 30.70mm (in 35mm: 171mm)
Exposure: 1/500 sec; f/5.5; ISO 125; Normal Program; Pattern Metering

Object approx. 19px(w) x 17px(h)

109280_submitter_file2__May102020637PMPSTDuaneUFOSighting.jpg
Date created: 2020-05-10 18:37:27
Title: Duane_UFO_Sighting2
Cam: Nikon Coolpix S6800
Size: 4608x2592
Focal length: 54mm (in 35mm: 300mm)
Exposure: 1/400 sec; f/6.3; ISO 125; Normal Program; Pattern Metering

Object approx. 33px(w) x 17px(h)

Sensor size: 1/2.3" diagonal (6.17 x 4.55 mm)
Max image resolution: 4608 x 3456

Initial analysis of the files and I see no conclusive evidence for either a) degradation of quality from the camera original or b) any obvious signs of post processing or tampering, where we might see "Adobe Photoshop" or other suspect metadata. Images look to be taken roughly back to back and in the same lighting conditions, metadata matches what I'm seeing.

With camera info, anyone who thinks it's worth it could run the calculations and approximate object size but the report doesn't come with a strong estimate of distance or altitude so that might be a fool's errand. With shooting conditions as they are, and the far distance to the object, I see no conclusive evidence for motion blur which might indicate speed or direction.

Examining the photos themselves... Initial thoughts after a naked eye and solarization curve, I see no "less than obvious" evidence of photo manipulation. A solarization curve increases contrast enough where you could potentially see smears or irregularities of the photos inherent noise. JPEG compression will always suffer from some haloing of high contrast edges. At this point, I'm satisfied the photo of whatever we're seeing is legitimate.

High pass filtering on the first image, IMO, reveals no clearer information about the shape than what can be inferred from the normal color image. Fine tuning contrast provided slightly more interesting results but I can only conclude it's three dimensional, there is a lit, specular side and a shadow side; I can't say definitively it's the same or a different shape, or a different side of the object between the first and second photo.

The second photo has enough resolution to be more straightforward. I can confidently say we're seeing two very distinct, triangular sides. The lighter blue dome above the object I can't definitively say if it's part of the object or if it's a chromatic aberration of the lens from the specular highlight.



If the time of the report and metadata are correct (May 10, 7:46pm) then the sun should be coming a few degrees northwest of magnetic west, gross estimation that the witness was facing to the Northeast with the sun slightly behind them. I lean towards this not being a lens flare or other optical defect.

Taken alone, it's not a spectacular sighting but Portland is interesting because of the Portland Air National Guard (PANG) base. Recent reports from highly questionable source thirdphaseofthemoon aside, there was a UFO sighting on Oct 25th 2017 that caused the base to scramble their F-15s

Primary source of report www.thedrive.com...

FAA recordings www.thedrive.com...

Corroborating pilot report www.reddit.com...

a reply to: Blue Shift

I see a possible 4 objects!

The main speck, then two more making an extended chevron shape (possibly ghost images of the original) then a fourth object a bit forward and above the third object of the main “spec”.

They are faint, blue-ish, indistinct except for the possible relationship to the math n “spec”.

It could always be lens flare! Hum!??

Is lens flare linear from the main image??

Thanks, again, for asking interesting questions!!