what the hell..... (pics)

Last night, 19 June 2007, between about 18:30 and 19:30 I decided to have a look see at the planets as Venus was pretty close and very bright. Unfortunately I do not have a telescope - after this I am sure going to get one - but I do have a Sony digital video camera with 20X optical zoom and 990X digital which could also take photos, not so great (not so clear for normal use) so I decided to see if I could get some pics or video of the Moon, Saturn and Venus. Well I wasn't expecting too much as the camera is obviously not designed for stargazing or no one would use a telescope. To get to the point, and I support the denial of ignorance, I thought I had to share this and perhaps someone may have seen something resembling this!!

Based on what I was observing, I would estimate the Moon between (compass) WNW and NW and Saturn and Venus closer to NW. Moon was about 28°, Saturn at around 24° and Venus at around 15°.

I set up on a tripod and started to focus at the moon, Saturn and Venus moving between the three. I spent more time on Venus as this was the reason for getting out before she dropped below the horizon which would have happened around 9pm.

In trying to focus the v/camera on Venus (not the right tool as mentioned) I picked up a closer “object” due to the zoom factor it was VERY twitchy. I took the stills with the v/camera and also video of Venus far off and then zooming in you can see as this thing “materialises”. I did it a few times, moved the camera and did it again. I was on open ground so nothing close by was in frame. (I live on huge grounds). Here are some of the pics. I will get some video and try and post tomorrow.

Object


Object


Venus


Any ideas?



Mod edit: cap title



[edit on 6/20/2007 by kinglizard]

[edit on 20/6/2007 by shearder]

I don't know exactly what to say as I don't really know exactly what I am looking at. I think that I will reserve comments until you post more video or pics. I look forward to seeing more.

Question: does anyone know what i can use to reduce the size of the video, about 15 minutes worth. I need to edit out the panning etc but will NOT edit the zooming in and out where the object became visible - in a very strange way i might add. But i started and stopped recording to move to another area. I would like to retain as much of the quality as possible. I currently use Pinnacle Studio 9.

I'd search Sourceforge.net for something they have alot of free open source programs like our beloved GIMP image editor.

heres a LINK!

[edit on 20-6-2007 by Tranceopticalinclined]

wow, crazy man..maybe they have some space weed!

anyway..if its a disc, you know the blueprints for gravity discs are practicly out there for everyone nowdays on the web. And plenty of richies who im sure would love a good laugh now and then tricking everyone..or its just a prank, if not it may also be a government ship,
tr-3b maybe? If not human, then ??... .. ...? what.

Before you start editing the video, please make sure you make some backups of the original and keep the original in its true form. Edit a copy.

Originally posted by infinite8
Before you start editing the video, please make sure you make some backups of the original and keep the original in its true form. Edit a copy.

Absolutely! When using Pinnacle Studio the original is saved to hard drive in high/original quality and the editing is saved as a new file. I will keep the original in that state.

Originally posted by Tranceopticalinclined
I'd search Sourceforge.net for something they have alot of free open source programs like our beloved GIMP image editor.

Great! Will check it out.

Originally posted by benevolent tyrant
I don't know exactly what to say as I don't really know exactly what I am looking at. I think that I will reserve comments until you post more video or pics. I look forward to seeing more.

I will capture some of the frames from the video and post as pics tomorrow (at the very least). Basically a progression of zooming in to where the object "appears".

[edit on 20/6/2007 by shearder]

While I'm no expert on matters such as this, it occurs to me that possibly this is an artifact of the "digital zoom", or perhaps the digital zoom is magnifying imperfections in the lens??

Originally posted by Mechanic 32
While I'm no expert on matters such as this, it occurs to me that possibly this is an artifact of the "digital zoom", or perhaps the digital zoom is magnifying imperfections in the lens??

Absolutely possible, and a much used theory and reality which I do not knock or discredit, however, it would have done the same pointing at the moon, possibly more noticeably, and zooming in on Saturn but it didn't, only pointing at Venus did it do that. I have used this camera and converter for the last +/- 2 years and there has been nothing like this at all. I keep the lenses clean and if i thought i could have achieved the same zoom ratio as the v/cam, though mostly digital, with my digital cam i would have tried it but i didn't bother. It would have rendered a better resolution but not the detail. I will try something tonight with the digital cam but I will not expect anything better or the same or anything at all.

Not sure if this is the same thing because you have to consider lighting, distance, gasses and fumes but check this out I rember hearing that you can see the space station and shuttle from earth in the night sky the last few days.
www.space.com...
also Venus is not a bright as the last couple of months because I believe it wanes and has cycles, sort of like how the moon would appear from earth during it's phases.

Busted dude, using the same lens as our mate with the "Space craft off orion" thread." All his posts are gone from space.com. Nice trick with the black cardboard with small holes for stars with a prism in the middle. Wanna give us a break dude? This aint the ISS. Its a scoobydooy "ROAX!!!!!"

Originally posted by DuncanIdahoGholem
Busted dude, using the same lens as our mate with the "Space craft off orion" thread." All his posts are gone from space.com. Nice trick with the black cardboard with small holes for stars with a prism in the middle. Wanna give us a break dude? This aint the ISS. Its a scoobydooy "ROAX!!!!!"

I won't even entertain your ignorance.

For everyone else's benefit, I didn't say it was a space craft, i wasn't forcing an opinion of what it is on anyone. I was asking if anyone has seen anything similar and perhaps knew what it was. If it is a space station cool, then we have weird looking space stations and I will know what it is. I believe if you view any of my other posts I am not an "alien ship/gray/lizard man poster, nor do I support or debunk what people have reportedly seen because it is not my field of interest/speciality. I believe this site is a place where I (and others) would be able to show what I have seen for possible dissection and positive outcome. This is not here to be debunked in the sense of the word because i did not make any suggestion as to what it IS.

I didn't for one minute say i saw it flying around my back yard, mowing my lawn, landing on the moon, flying figure 8's around Saturn and Venus and scaring my dogs.

If the requirement is that nothing be brought to anyone's attention and the aim is ensure that nothing weird is posted because it is all BS then perhaps the site Mods and owners would rather create aboveneedlework_com BUT i believe this is the reason the site exists! I left this open for comments on what it may be but again, what it is, I do not have an opinion myself as to what it is but what i DO know is it is not lens flare, dust particles etc and certainly not a piece of black cardboard with holes for stars - in fact i don't see any stars in the pic really. I am not looking for fame nor do i intend to publish this in any book or news print. This is the ONLY place/site it is on and that's that. I live in South Africa and Venus was as bright as the pic shows.

[edit on 20/6/2007 by shearder]

I was being very sarcastic. For all you told us it could be a snowflake on a window. Wake up.
I ain't ignorant.


[edit on 20-6-2007 by DuncanIdahoGholem]

[edit on 20-6-2007 by DuncanIdahoGholem]

Originally posted by DuncanIdahoGholem
I was being very sarcastic. For all you told us it could be a snowflake on a window. Wake up.
I ain't ignorant.

I retract my comment dude and i apologies for that remark.

Sorry got me, I grate easily. I said the words "aint ignorant" because it is ignorant. I have a sick sense of humour.

I take it you live in the Southern hemisphere? It's still broad daylight at those times (assuming they're local times) here in North America.

Can you give the rough lat/lon of your location?

Originally posted by DuncanIdahoGholem
Busted dude, using the same lens as our mate with the "Space craft off orion" thread." All his posts are gone from space.com. Nice trick with the black cardboard with small holes for stars with a prism in the middle. Wanna give us a break dude? This aint the ISS. Its a scoobydooy "ROAX!!!!!"

What a dope....

Duncan, how do you figure he's using the same capture device? Nowhere were any model numbers given, in either this thread or the "Space craft off Orion" thread (which btw you're misquoting as it never had anyhing to do with Orion LOL!!!) Also space.com never dropped those pics, a totally different site was responsible for that.

You should at least make sure your insults are accurate before spamming someones thread with nonsense.

Absolutely possible, and a much used theory and reality which I do not knock or discredit, however, it would have done the same pointing at the moon, possibly more noticeably, and zooming in on Saturn but it didn't, only pointing at Venus did it do that. I have used this camera and converter for the last +/- 2 years and there has been nothing like this at all.

I recommend running some tests with known objects with similar geometry and the same zoom ratios. I've observed digital zoom do some strange things before.