My first UFO pic! Very weird!

I never thought I would actually come to own a picture of a UFO and have the chance to show it to you guys on ATS but wasn't I wrong. It isn't actually my photo but was taken by the boyfriend of my mum (Australian spelling). My mum knows how I'm into this Alien business and she told me about the photo that her boyfriend took which contained a weird object. I took a look and I figured I had seen a lot worse on ATS so here it is. It was taken in Queanbeyan, Australia which is very close Canberra. It was taken on the 26th of January, 2009 at 7:59 PM. Mum says he was up on a balcony about 15 feet high and he didn't notice anything at the time. The dimensions of the photo are 4224x3168 so it's fairly good quality although the UFO takes up a fairly small area of the picture. This is the raw photo straight off the camera and is in the original format, unedited in any way. I think it was to big to upload onto ATS so I had to use another uploading service, sorry. It's high up in the sky and I think we can rule out a light house...a flare since he would have noticed something like that...and a plane...there are photo's taken a few days later which show the moon...it's really dull, small and almost all of it is shadowed out by the Earth. I find the size and luminosity of this UFO make it impossible we are seeing the moon photographed with some wobbly hands...but I did find ONE similar pattern down on the mountain side which seems to be a light...I know there is no reason to believe me…but please trust me when I say this photo has not been edited in any way and I truly cannot work out what it is. I can promise you that any tests performed by any expert will show that this photo has not been tampered with. What you see is what you get and the only thing left to do is figure out what it is. Have fun

Here is the original photo:

Here is the UFO cropped but still in it's original size:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/040cee10fc79.jpg[/atsimg]
Here it is cropped and enlarged:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b7b939b48132.jpg[/atsimg]
Here is the similar light/UFO cropped but still in its original size:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a70ce531d55e.jpg[/atsimg]

EDIT: lol...doesn't it look as though it has got dodgy wings?

EDIT:Here we have the set of photo's. Please note that he was on a balcony and had a maximum of 180 degrees to rotate and take shots. I really can't figure out what's going on but some things stick out which I have added to the descriptions of the photo's to maybe help you make some sense of what was going on...it seems to me like there were two sets of fireworks or something...I will have to ask him when I next see him...any how...I can't see a planet in any of these shots...fireworks seem to be visible in every shot and we can see how they are on the horizon and from our perspective they don't seem to climb very high at all...the UFO is not a firework as it is obviously way to high.

8:03 PM - Notice there is a 4 minute gap between this photo and the UFO photo. Also notice that a building comes into view on the right, blocking out the far right lights.

8:03 PM - It's easy to tell the camera hasn't moved much because the building is still in the same spot.

8:03 PM - Still, nothing much has changed.

8:04 PM - It is dramatically darker within a minute. The building is no longer visible and lights on the far right can now be seen.

8:04 PM - The camera hasn't moved much because light formations in the last photo remain in pretty much the same spot.

8:04 PM - This one's a bit blurry but if you look closely at the light formations you will see that the camera is still focusing on the same place.

8:07 PM - 3 minutes later but the sky is now brighter. The building reappears and again the far right lights get hidden from view.

8:07 PM - The camera hasn't moved much because the building is still in the same spot. The sky is still just as bright.

[edit on 19/4/09 by CHA0S]

Thanks for sharing! A lot of the other lights in the picture are similar in shape. I would love this to be a UFO but the rational side of me is saying that it's a human made light source. Could it be the moon? Could be the reflection of the sun set on a metal object. I have seen planes before that have shone similar to this at sun set, because the aircraft is still up high, it's still catching the last of the suns rays.

[edit on 19/4/2009 by just_julie]

reply to post by just_julie

I could only see that one that was slightly similar...and even then it's still very different...all the rest of the lights seem to only have the "V" shape...so I don't know...and as I said...I highly doubt that is the moon although your plane theory could be valid...but it doesn't have a very plane like shape in my opinion...but on a second look it does look like a jet...sort of...the wings have a real weird shape...


[edit on 19/4/09 by CHA0S]

It would seem more the result of a combination of slow shutter speed and camera movement than anything else. The exif info for the photo shows an exposure times of 1/8 of a second, add to that a slight shaking of the camera and you'll get what we see here.

Notice how the rest of the light sources in the image have nearly the exact same "triangle effect".

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/0b133fb29f46.jpg[/atsimg]
click to see what's cut off on the right

Also what were you taking a photo of at the time, as the image was shot on the 26th of January and here we are nearly three months later. ???

[edit on 19-4-2009 by Annie Mossity]

Well I'd certainly call it a UFO on the basis of it being something I can't identify. Camera shake is one thing, but it looks like the sun is setting behind the object, so the reflection wouldn't be to the front, so it could be emitting its own light source. If the camera is shaking then maybe it could well be a disk-ish shape. Who knows?

I agree with you on the slight camera shaking. If it was the sun reflecting off a plane, a slight camera shake could have given it the dodgy wing look . By the way, do anyone but Australians know what dodgy means?

Yep, that's a light distorted by the long shutter speed. Probably a plane light, but its impossible to tell. It could be the moon for all we know.

@just_julie
Yeah I know what dodgy means, we use it a lot here in England
To those who don't use it: it's like something's off or not quite right. At least thats the British interpretation! Who kknows, it may be something really different in Australia, you have some amazing idioms!

I was just about to edit my post because I realised where the sun was setting when I saw your post! Great minds think alike hey?

What was your mums boyfriend actually taking a photo of? Was the photo to purposely capture the 'ufo'? Did he say it looks in the photo just how it did in real life? These are some questions that could get to the bottom of this pretty quickly.

reply to post by just_julie

Read the OP...he didn't notice anything at the time...and I didn't want to add this...but he was taking photo's of fireworks...there are several other photo's and the fireworks are far in the distance right on the horizon...they hardly even get off the ground from our perspective...even those big ones...it's impossible that a firework got that high...that object is at least 8 times higher than any firework in any of the photo's...and this is why I didn't mention it..because I knew the skeptics would instantly dismiss it as that...I can supply these other photo's and you will see how it can't possibly be a firework and they also show that there was no moon or any other object in that air space...the next photo was 4 minutes later but didn't contain any UFO's...

EDIT: It seems he was getting ready for the fireworks to start and he just took a photo of the scenery because it the first photo in the set and and the next was 4 minutes later which contained fireworks...and there were like 5 more in the following 2 minutes which also contained fireworks... and now that I look at it the object is a lot more than 8 times higher...I don't know...I will try to get those other photo's up soon...

[edit on 19/4/09 by CHA0S]

Ive just been taking a look at the sky-chart on Heavens-Above for the date and time in question and as my initial thoughts confirmed, its the Planet Venus thats just been captured on camera and with camera shake and shutter speed accidentally appeared to look like a UFO on this image.

reply to post by ROBL240

Do you know what direction and section of the sky he was looking at? If it would be visible from Canberra at the time and date I specified? As I said...I have photo's taken shortly after that show nothing in the sky...

EDIT: The main problem I have it how bright it is...not many things appear that bright in the sky...btw...in the next 4 minutes it gets a lot darker...

[edit on 19/4/09 by CHA0S]

Originally posted by ROBL240
Ive just been taking a look at the sky-chart on Heavens-Above for the date and time in question and as my initial thoughts confirmed, its the Planet Venus thats just been captured on camera and with camera shake and shutter speed accidentally appeared to look like a UFO on this image.

The planet Venus would be no where near as bright as that. Nor in our athmosphere What ever it is, looks like it has 3 points of light. As all the other light sources in the picture are blurred into the triangle shape, we can hazard a guess that that it's 1 light source, with a possible 2 light sources at the side. My guess is a plane maybe. Coming head on, he may not have noticed it when he took the snap.

reply to post by Acidtastic


A plane wouldn't be any where near that bright either...and I think all planes have colored lights...and usually multiple colors...

Originally posted by Acidtastic
The planet Venus would be nowhere near as bright as that.

On 26 January 2009, the planet Venus was the brightest it ever gets. In fact from the Canberra region it was significantly brighter than Magnitude -4, which would make it shine like a beacon in the West for a while after sunset.

In my opinion, the photo is likely to show Venus, since the horizon suggests a Westerly direction after sunset. However, there's at least two other light sources around it. The image suggests three lights, blurred into an inverted V-shape by camera shake. They could be bright stars, but Stellarium doesn't suggest that. Although the planet Uranus was very close to Venus visually at that time, it was far too dim to be captured by an ordinary camera. The lack of any other stars suggests the exposure was too short to show them anyway. The presence of three close sources is a mystery, but certainly not inexplicable.

WG3

reply to post by waveguide3


It could be Venus but I'm just not convinced...never have I looked up into the sky and seen anything out of our atmosphere appear that bright...except maybe for the moon on some rare occasions but even then that object literally seems to be glowing...and the other two lights still remain unexplained in any case...I think if it was Venus...and it was that bright...that would have been the reason he took the photo...but when mum pointed the object out to him he claims he has no idea what it is and he didn't notice anything if it was there...

[edit on 19/4/09 by CHA0S]

Originally posted by CHA0S
I think if it was Venus...and it was that bright...that would have been the reason he took the photo...but when mum pointed the object out to him he claims he has no idea what it is and he didn't notice anything if it was there...

I can only give you the facts about the Western sky just after sunset on the day in question at that location. I find it difficult to understand why anyone looking into the Western horizon on such a clear evening would not have seen Venus. It was brighter than anything else in the sky by a very long way. As I noted, the photo suggests three light sources close together. However, I agree that this particular shot may not have included Venus, which could have been out of frame.

WG3

reply to post by waveguide3


Yeah...I don't think it is Venus...maybe when I upload these other photos we might make some discoveries...

I have uploaded the rest of the photo's and put the links in the OP. I added some descriptions about the photo's...just some things I noticed...

EDIT: I'll be back in 10 hours to see what progress has been made.

[edit on 19/4/09 by CHA0S]

Hey, I'm just happy to see that you actually posted a photo! Most people would just tell a tall tale about what they saw & promise to "post the pics later", which of course, they almost never do! So, thanks for sharing and I appreciate your including images with your original post. It probably is just Venus but I'm sure there will be people who disagree with me so don't lose heart.