My Pseudo Experiment: Ufo or not

I was thinking about how many claims of ufo sightings we get here on ATS. Lets face it. We get alot. While we are almost always able to weed out the real from the fake. The genuine from the hoax. I figure it cant hurt to keep our skills nice and sharp. Its supposed to be fun too.

My idea is to post two Pictures of an object. The same object. I know what the object is. I wont say what it is though. Not yet anyway.It is up to you though to determine what the object is.

In other words, Is it a ufo or not? Truth be told I suspect it will either be really easy for everyone to figure out or really hard.

Ok so lets pretend I am some one else. I make a thread claiming to have two pictures of a ufo. "I took them about one month ago, using a $30.00 Digital concepts brand digital camera."

Ok so thats the story. Now its up to you. ufo or not? If you think it is a ufo please explain why. If you think its not Please explain why and what you think it is.

I will post what the object is in two weeks. So November 30th. If the thread takes off I will post more pictures after the 30th so we can keep our fake vs real skills sharp.

So with out further ado, Here are the two pictures in question. So what do you think?

(please no smart elic remarks about how a ufo can be any flying object that you cant identify. I know that, and you know what I mean)


SO what do you think?Ufo or not? Why or why not? What is it if not?









[edit on 17-11-2008 by gimme_some_truth]

Uh oh, technical difficulties.

I will get the pics up shortly

Ok I had to just go with links instead of embedding the pictures into the thread. For whatever reason they became all stretched out and did not show the object.

So just click on the link to see the two images.

Yes. It is a UFO.

Anyone claiming otherwise is being foolish.

(And since you decided to edit your post..

It's nothing. It's a light.. what do you want people to say? It's a hoax? This isn't a hoax, because you aren't claiming it to be anything but a UFO. This is a picture of a single light in the sky. It could be anything from a light fixture to the moon.

So, I am going to resubmit and say..

Yes. It is a UFO.)

[edit on 16-11-2008 by HankMcCoy]

Looks more like someone fooling around with a flashlight in a dark room to me. There is no other detail in the photo so no comparisons can be made to determine things like depth of field and distances.

May 7, 2008.
Not a UFO, a UL. Unidentifiable Light.

Also let me varify what I mean by UFO. When I say ufo I am reffering to any space craft flown by beings from another planet.

I know that ufo can and does refer to any flying craft that is unidentified.

I just mean, as I said, ufo, in the sense that it is a space craft flown by beings from another planet.

Also if anyone is curious, the object at the bottom left of the second photo, is a section of the gutter on my house. It is approx. 10 feet off the ground.

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
Also let me varify what I mean by UFO. When I say ufo I am reffering to any space craft flown by beings from another planet.

I know that ufo can and does refer to any flying craft that is unidentified.

I just mean, as I said, ufo, in the sense that it is a space craft flown by beings from another planet.

That is not the definition of UFO

Originally posted by Phage

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
Also let me varify what I mean by UFO. When I say ufo I am reffering to any space craft flown by beings from another planet.

I know that ufo can and does refer to any flying craft that is unidentified.

I just mean, as I said, ufo, in the sense that it is a space craft flown by beings from another planet.

That is not the definition of UFO

I understand that. I never said that it was. I said let me explain what I meant by it.I wasnt trying to give an exact definition. I thought that was obvious. Besides I never said that the way I described it was the one and only definition.

Either way, how I described it is close enough for most people to understand

To remove any further confusion, Here is the official definition As told by
dictionary.reference.com...

UFO's, UFOs.

any unexplained moving object observed in the sky, esp. one assumed by some observers to be of extraterrestrial origin.

Now, Back on topic everybody.

Ufo ( object assumed to be of extra terrestrial origin) Or not? WHy or why not?

[edit on 16-11-2008 by gimme_some_truth]

Looks to me like an out of focus light source, which I agree with the replies so far..it does not mean that these two pictures contain a UFO.

Cheers!!!!

Um..., Not? Not sure whats the point here, there's no way to tell, it's just a light... Maybe if you're trying to test people, you should use day time pics, or maybe video. A pic of a light in the sky could be anything anybody imagines it to be.

Originally posted by HankMcCoy
Yes. It is a UFO.

Anyone claiming otherwise is being foolish.

(And since you decided to edit your post..

It's nothing. It's a light.. what do you want people to say? It's a hoax? This isn't a hoax, because you aren't claiming it to be anything but a UFO. This is a picture of a single light in the sky. It could be anything from a light fixture to the moon.

So, I am going to resubmit and say..

Yes. It is a UFO.)

[edit on 16-11-2008 by HankMcCoy]

Yeah sorry about that. I realized I left a few things out. Thanks for cooperating.

No I dont want people to say if it is a hoax or not. because I never claimed it was anything at all. Because there is nothing in this thread to hoax.

All I had in mind is to see what people mae of the photos? What does everyone think the light in the photo is.

It was meant as a way to help us learn to identify things in pictures when some one actually decides to hoax and claim that it is something it is not.

If people dont want to participate that is fine. its no skin off my back.

If they do, great

The idea is that I hope this thread helps people to be able to come up with possible explanations for what coould be the cause of anomaly in the photo.

In other words not be so quick to just say it is this or that. I guess I just want to show that while I believe in aliens and ufos not every light in the sky is a ufo and alot of them do have logical explanations.

I hope that helps

Originally posted by caterpillage
Um..., Not?

Not sure whats the point here, there's no way to tell, it's just a light... Maybe if you're trying to test people, you should use day time pics, or maybe video. A pic of a light in the sky could be anything anybody imagines it to be.

Well in a way that is my point. A light in the sky could be anything anybody imagines. I guess the idea is to show that just because you cant tell for sure what it is does not mean it is a craft flown by aliens.

I was just curious to see what people thought it might be. I know what exactly the object is, I guess I just wanted to see if my fellow ats members would examine and consider or just what in general they say.

I apologise for not being more clear in the OP everyone, I really do. Usually my threads and posts are MUCH better. Infact I am a bit embarrased that I was unable to make the OP clear enough.


That said, You are right. I will find some pics taken in the day time where you can all judge much better what it is or isnt and post those after these pics have had their go.


[edit on 17-11-2008 by gimme_some_truth]

It's the moon - and you have a somewhat wide angle lens or have a zoom lens at a wide angle setting, which is why the moon appears so small. It is not a full moon, which is why it is not perfectly round.

??? --- The images just changed -- ???

[edit on 17-11-2008 by OuttaHere]

I haven't read any other posts except the op's. I'm guessing that's a photo of the moon.

Now I'm going to scroll up and see what others thought.

reply to post by OuttaHere


The EXIF data reads May 7, 2008 for the image. That could be wrong of course but the moon was very new on that date.

reply to post by Phage


Yeah, I just looked at the photo I didn't download it to see the file data. Like you said, the date could be wrong. Guess we'll have to find out later.


[edit on 17-11-2008 by OuttaHere]

Well, normally I would shrug off both of these pictures as being too inconclusive. They have almost zero visual data to make any kind of reasonable conclusion. But if I were to hazard a guess, I might say:

1) Could easily be an underexposed shot of a streetlight, flashlight, reflection, or any kind of man-made light source in a dark environment, or even a zoomed-in picture of a star. I see absolutely no reason to say it's a UFO.

2) If I had to pick one to be a UFO, it would be this one, largely thanks to the gutter that provides reference within the frame. But I wouldn't be surprised if it were the moon, slightly misshapen either by clouds or by movement of the camera combined with slight overexposure (as most cameras tend to do at night).

P.S. I like your idea. If you decide to put any more up I'll gladly take a shot at them. I am a digital artist, well-versed in Photoshop, and with a fair amount of experience in video and photography. I would like to think of myself as a competent judge of these things, but this kind of test could help to support or deny my self-image. Keep 'em comin!

[edit on 17-11-2008 by Magnus47]

For added excitment ( If you can call it that) I thought I would throw in a couple of other picture. Keep in mind these two new pictures were not taken by myself and I dont know if they are real or fake.

I found them on mufon.

I wont be able to tell you if they are real or not and what it is, but I figured it couldnt hurt to add an image or two that is actually reported to be a ufo.

They were taken in Texas ( my home state).

The story behind the photos is as quoted:

"On November 11, 2008 about 9:30 pm went to remove some items from car and saw this object streaking across sky, grapped camera from glove box and clicked as fast I could for it was crossing sky so fast. It was moving east to west direction. As the object went across sky there was absolutely no sound what so ever. Only got five pictures but you can clearly see this object going east to west but it was extremely fast, I heard after the object was out of sight about three to four minutes, the sound of couple helicopters approach from easterly direction headed westward. Could not make out what kind they were other than they were large and black looking."








Since I dont know about these photos I would like to play along as far as they are concerned. I wont say anything about the first two untill the 30th though.