The Cedar Fire UFOs

Well, no sooner had I recently and proudly proclaimed my ability to step back behind the looking glass (and never look back) when I felt compelled to post once again. For this, I must thank and acknowledge Need Help. And for those here who have become so conceited in their etsbalished views and beliefs that they must call into question the motives of everyone who comes here with an extraordinary story, I pity you, as your ability to review out-of-the-normal occurrences with a truly open mind has been severely compromised. Along those lines, not everyone posting here with a story is "looking for attention," and for those so dense you honestly believe the disclosure of one's first name compromises their anonymity, please I ask you not bother even responding to this thread. Yes... this thread... the reason I chose to post again in the first place was it not?

When I first posted here last year, I came forward much for the same reason Need Help did... I was looking for answers. And just as then, I don't give a dman about "attention" this time either. I am not posting this to convince anyone of anything. I welcome input, but may choose to once again pack up and bounce just like I did before...

The Cedar Fire UFOs of October 26, 2003

Modern science increasingly embraces and accepts the thory of extraterrestrial visitation (click on link for article: Science.com -- "ET Visitors: Scientists See High Likelihood "). There is an abundance of data to support this assertion (Gazrok presents a wonderful synopsis of the amount of government related documentation here, or read firsthand some of the 25,000+ reports in the NUFORC database). It has even been theorized within Ufology circles that some of these visitors have been recording notable events. My wife and I believe we have photographic evidence in support of this assertion.

On October 26, 2003, San Diego County was hit by the most destructive widlfire in California State history. The Cedar Fire was considered to be a 500 year fire, and was responsible for the destruction of over 2,200 homes and the loss of 14 of the 16 lives lost that day to wildfires. While this disaster pales in scope to the tragedy that has been unleashed upon New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the same could be said when comparing this current tragedy to the tsunami of last December. Truth is, a disaster is a disaster, and anyone living within sight of the firelines of any of the three monster firestorms raging through San Diego in late 2003 has at least some idea of what hell must look like.

Yes, I live in San Diego, or rather in the greater San Diego Metropolitan Region. So do 3,000,000 other people. I was hesitant to disclose this before. Anyone familiar with my earlier posts will remember why... However, the activity my wife and I (as well as other family members and a couple friends) were privy to last year has since subsided.

In short, I had a sighting that morning. That in itself is not extraordinary. What is rather extraordinary is the number of photographs we captured that day that contain anomalous images. I have included some of my favorites below...

The Sighting

A glance out the kitchen window revealed a second fire to our northeast, another killer ironically to be named the Paradise Fire was in the midst of burning over 40,000 acres. I had already turned on the news, and was now in the process of taking pictures, both for insurance purposes and to document what was obviously a historic event. I had gone out in front of our house, camera in hand, when I noticed something over the roof as I looked to the north... I watched as what appeared to be two off-white somewhat spherical balloons travelled left to right above our roof. Again, it is key to understand that I was looking NORTH, as can be verified by the lighting conditions on the south edifice of our house in the midmorning October sun.

As I watched these two "balloons," something struck me as rather odd -- one was moving at a greater rate of speed than the other, though they appeared to only be separated by a couple hundred feet... But that wasn't all... at the time, something else seemed odd... and while I couldn't put my finger on it at the time, I did consciously make sure I captured these objects in two of the three photographs I would shoot over a nine second span.

It was not until I was reviewing these photos one year later that it struck me: these objects were moving directly against and into a 30 mph Santa Ana wind. This is clearly apparent in the photographs, which clearly show the objects traveling left-to-right... in otherwards, traveling EAST into a strong Santa Ana wind blowing WEST. Now, as a degreed mathematician, I feel somewhat confident in making the assertion that balloons do not usually do that.

The Photographs


Against the Wind

This photograph, labeled 100_1383, was time-stamped 8:58:53 A.M. Close inspection revealed four, not two objects, though I only saw two at the time the photo was taken.
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Nine seconds later, 100_1385 was taken (time-stamped 8:59:02), which clearly demonstrates a) the objects are moving left-to-right (choose two common reference points, such as the chimney and the lamp on the garage edifice to verify common perspective) and b) that one is moving at a greater rate than the other.


A close up of one of the spheres reveals what appear to be yellow and red poles.



Classic Domed Saucer at classic 45-degree tilt

This photo was taken at 10:41:25 A.M. Enlargements revealed the presence of both a classic dome as well as a skirt underneath. This object is absent in both the photo preceding it by 26 seconds and following it (by 16 seconds). It is important to note that there was a MANDATORY EVACUATION ORDER under way at the time. The leading edge of the fire line was moving at a good 20-30 mph and people were FRANTICALLY attempting to leave. I left the immediate area after the first collision took place.
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Close-ups of the object:

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Perhaps the Strangest Sequence of All

The following photos are all from three which were shot in sequence. Each are accompanied by enlargements to better show the one object in question. While each photo contains anomolous images, it is the sequence of these three which present the greatest mystery, as you will see...

First Photo: There are two objects visible in this photo. What struck me as rather interesting is the... beam?... which is being emitted by the top object.
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A close-up:
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This photograph is unique among the 120+ photos taken that day and was taken nine seconds after the previous photo.
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The only logical explanation we can think of to explain these blue "orbs" is light reflecting off ash particles. HOWEVER... I shot over 120 photos that day, including a cluster of 46 taken over the span of 40 minutes from the same vantage point before those of us gathered in this location had to evacuate. This is the ONLY photo to contain these anomolies.

Furthermore, not only is the foremost orb translucent (the subject matter in the photo behind the orb is only discolored, not distorted) , but there appear to be multiple orbs in the photograph ranging from the foreground to the background. I have thus come to believe that given the above facts, combined with the fact this photo was shot immediately between the photos above and below, that whatever these orbs may be, they are not simply the reflection of light off of airborne particles.

The last photo in the sequence, shot a scant eight seconds after the previous photo, again shows multiple objects again emitting what appear to be "beams" of some sort, as close examination supports the presence of one or more spherical objects connected by this "beam." I should mention that measuring the lighting under similar conditions results in a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second.
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A close-up:
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So there you have it -- an anonymous couple's small contribution to the gathering storm of evidence. I have also posted this HERE for reference. Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a Looking Glass I must step back behind...

(mod edit to resize large images , links to full size pictures added below each one changed)

[edit on 3-9-2005 by pantha]

Every Hear of a peice of string on you camera..... or maybe a star.

also look slike a simple photoshop fake... just a couple of circles overlayed on each other...

Originally posted by aBeilever16
also look slike a simple photoshop fake... just a couple of circles overlayed on each other...

I took these photos, and I have no reason to produce fake photographs... I am a well-respected professional who has done quite well, thank you, and would stand to lose much more by coming forward with this publicly. Hence the anonymous post, you twit.

Since it seems as if your Ridlin perscription has expired, thus rendering you seeingly incapable of actually reading the post in its entirety and thus informing yourself, I ask only that you find a free on-line dictionary to educate yourself on the meaning of the word "motive."

It is people such as yourself who drive honest persons like me (who take the time to even bother posting firsthand information such as this here in the first place) away from ATS.

[edit on 3-9-2005 by sdrumrunner]

Excellent pictures. May I ask what kind of camera you're using?

Originally posted by F117Stealth
Excellent pictures. May I ask what kind of camera you're using?

Thank you F117. The camera used was a Kodak Easy Share DX4330 (3.1 Megapixel, 3x optical zoom).

Interesting post. Good pictures, what resolution were they taken at? Have you been able to ascertain the approx. distances on these objects? Looks like about 1 km or a bit better to me. The images with the blue orbs, you are probably right about the ash specks/flakes, IMHO, even if it is the only photo with them on it. Logic would tell me that either way (specks or not) more of your photographs should/would have them on them no matter what the orbs are. But the others are worth looking into, I'd say. Do you know if the forest service/firefighters release any kind of wind direction tracking type of balloons during an event like this? Maybe to on-the-fly track wind speed/currents as a tool to fight the fire? BTW, leap over the idjits. Don't let them annoy you to the point of depriving us more discussion on this.

[edit on 4-9-2005 by Defragger]

Originally posted by Defragger
Interesting post. Good pictures, what resolution were they taken at? Have you been able to ascertain the approx. distances on these objects? Looks like about 1 km or a bit better to me. The images with the blue orbs, you are probably right about the ash specks/flakes, IMHO, even if it is the only photo with them on it. Logic would tell me that either way (specks or not) more of your photographs should/would have them on them no matter what the orbs are. But the others are worth looking into, I'd say. Do you know if the forest service/firefighters release any kind of wind direction tracking type of balloons during an event like this? Maybe to on-the-fly track wind speed/currents as a tool to fight the fire? BTW, leap over the idjits. Don't let them annoy you to the point of depriving us more discussion on this.

[edit on 4-9-2005 by Defragger]

Good points & follow-up questions, Defragger

It is my understanding the CDF received/receives its wind data from the NOAA, which has their regional office here in N. San Diego. Their local launching facility is located at Mirimar MCAS, located at the west-northwest corner of the fire's burn area (and west of our locality). While they routinely launch weather balloons every twelve hours (at 04:00 and 16:00 local time), I would not be surprised to learn if there were additional luanches during the period of Oct. 26-29 for this very purpose. However, it is important to note that one can simply observe the wind direction and roughly guage the speed by simple observation (direction and movement of the smoke), though I agree that real-time data on whifting wind currents would be a valuable asset in such circumstances (and I would not at all be surprised if they did in fact employ some method for this very purpose).

It is also worth noting that NOAA wind data confirmed/confirms the Santa Ana wind conditions (these conditions on this date are easily verifiable) which were blowing out of the east-northeast. The objects I observed over my house were traveling in a northeasterly direction... against the wind.

I am also inclined to speculate that firefighting personnel were more concerned with the speed of the advancement of the fire line (yes, while in part a function of wind speed, it is also very much a function of topography, which is very diverse in SD County) and how to allocate what limited resources they had available that day -- as most of our available CDF resources (as well as a substantial amount of our County firefighting resources) had been up in the San Gabriel & San Bernardino Mts. fighting wildfires that had broken out a couple days earlier. In fact, over the entire day, we saw one tanker plane and (until the evening) maybe three firetrucks...

When at dusk I saw roughly a dozen firetrucks heading in procession up the road to fight the fire at the very ridgeline my wife and I had identified as our evacuation "trigger," it was as if the Calvary had rode in to save the day...

Regarding the blue "orbs" in the second photo in the latter sequence, I'm plain stumped. The lighting conditions were such that the camera did not use its flash. Furthermore, as an avid ametuer photographer, I know better than to try to use a fill flash from a point-and-shoot camera on an object so far in the distance...

Also worth mentionting is that at the time the photo was taken, the sun was (approx.) at my 4 o'clock, at (approx.) 30 degrees inclination. In fact, below is the photo immediately preceding these three -- taken only 13 seconds before the first in the sequence of three (thus only 22 seconds before the "orb" photo), looking directly into the sun. Given the absence of anything resembling the anomalies present in the photo in question (when shot directly into the sun), I am, as aforementioned, completely stumped.

Photo taken 22 seconds before the "orb" photo, looking directly into the sun:


UPDATE: I have been in touch with the local MUFON chapter contact, who has expressed an interest at turning these photos over to MUFON's in-house photogrammetric expert. It will be interesting to see what a professional can pull from the images (as opposed to my layman's ability to enlarge and enhance)... In addition to the professional enhancement capabilities, I am hoping this individual can chime in as to whether or not (given the angle of the sun when the photo was taken) the lighting conditions were conducive to producing "reflections" off ash as both Defragger and I have speculated they might be...

Edit: I realized I negelcted to thank you for the compliments... thx... Also, in response to your query as to the resolution of the photographs, I just checked, and the camera produces raw images at 2160x1440 pixels at 72ppi (a 30"x20" image).

[edit on 4-9-2005 by sdrumrunner]

What is that speck at the 10 o-clock position from the Sun in that last pic?

I would agree that the "Blue Orb" photo is likely nothing.

But it would seem that your other photos are pics of real objects.

Thanks for sharing!

Originally posted by lost_shaman
What is that speck at the 10 o-clock position from the Sun in that last pic?

I would agree that the "Blue Orb" photo is likely nothing.

But it would seem that your other photos are pics of real objects.

Thanks for sharing!

No, lost_shaman, thank YOU for your support of Need Help in another thread... It was through passive observation of that thread that I decided to step out from behind the Looking Glass and post again for the first time since Jan.-Feb.. After watching what I believed (and still believe) to be someone with no motive other than pure curiosity (I have and still do identify with this) get unnecessarily grilled over the actions of past, unscrupulous posters, I felt compelled to post again. Seeing individuals such as yourself stand up for another gave me faith that when or if I do decide to step back behind the Looking Glass, there will be others who retain their objectivity and who will continue to speak up in the face of jaded subjectivity.

Regarding the blue orbs, when I look at the numbers (as a degreed mathematician, I tend to look at the numbers when mining the data), it seems at least unlikely (i.e., the probability of this occurring in just a single photo, given the similarity of lighting conditions in many others is small, though again, I would look to the expert opinion of photorgammetric experts in this matter for any degree of certainty one way or the other) that this effect would appear in just this one photo. Anyway, I will be repsonding to MUFON today, and sending copies of the raw images to their in-house expert.

Lastly, I opened the image in question in iPhoto -- and am seeing that "speck" for the first time... Good find. Unfortunately, as it is silhouetted by the sun, I cannot make out any detail (though I guess I will send this onward to MUFON's photogrammetric expert as well)... However, I will mention that the photos included in the original post are not the only photos to contain anomalous objects... There are actually quite a few others, though these are my favorites.

I used to wonder why Stan Friedman always repeats the " 4 Basic rules of debunkery". It is because people keep using them!

• 1. What the public doesn't know, we are not going to tell them.
  
  
• 2. Don't bother us with the facts, our minds are made up.
  
  
• 3. If we can't attack the data, we will attack the people; it is much easier.
  
  
• 4. Do ones research by proclamation, rather than investigation. It is much easier and most people won't know the difference.
  

I was surprised to see rules 2, especially 3, and 4, employed heavily by certain people and staff against need help.

Anecdotal comparisons to Hoaxers just don't cut it in my book.

Hoaxers try to mimic those who honestly report strange things , so anecdotal comparisons to hoaxers can be drawn to all people honestly reporting strange things , can they not?

The need for character assassination , I don't understand.

Especially in the wake of the object having been handed over to competent Professionals for testing!

Anyway thank you for your kind words.

And let us know what Mufon has to say about these pics.