A Skeptics Tools: Validating and Confirming UFO's

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, as some of you know I am a skeptic of aliens, however, I am not a skeptic of UFO's. These are some of the tools that I use to confirm or debunk UFO cases. Hopefully, you find them helpful, believers and skeptics alike. Below are what UFO's could be and most of time are.

Lets get started.

SPRITES

Sprites are a natural phenomena that can make many appearances and appear as very complex crafts.

The appearance of a "sprite" (about 30 miles high by 30 miles wide), flashing above a distant thunderstorm. The "sprite" is about 175-250 miles away from the camera. Credit: ILAN Science Team

Here is a definition:

The dancing lights have appeared above most thunderstorms throughout history, but researchers did not start studying them until one accidentally recorded a sighting on camera in 1989.

"Lightning from the thunderstorm excites the electric field above, producing a flash of light called a sprite," said Colin Price, a geophysicist at Tel Aviv University in Israel. "We now understand that only a specific type of lightning is the trigger that initiates sprites aloft."

Researchers have detected the flashes between 35 and 80 miles (56-129 km) from the ground, far above the 7 to 10 miles (11-16 km) where usual lightning occurs. Sprites can take the form of fast-paced balls of electricity, although previous footage has suggested streaks or tendrils.

LIVE science. Sprites

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5c66f021a465.jpg[/atsimg]

Here are some videos.



and here's an amzing vid, demonstrating mnay varities.

SUN DOGS

The familiar 22° halo around the Sun or Moon occurs because of refraction in tiny hexagonal ice crystals in the air.

Parhelions and Sun Dogs

A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, for "beside the sun") is a common bright circular spot on a solar halo. It is an atmospheric optical phenomenon primarily associated with the reflection or refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals making up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Often, two sun dogs can be seen (one on each side of the sun) simultaneously.

Wiki- Sun Dogs



Sometimes these give the illusion of a large circular craft usually at night when the moon does this and sometimes during the day as seen here.

CHINESE SKY LANTERNS

Flying Lanterns, also known as Sky Lanterns, will add an exciting new element to your party. Their sparkle can be seen flying up in the air for up to 20 minutes and will travel several miles in distance, after which the flame will blow out and they will gently float back down for a safe landing. Sky Lanterns will fly to more than 1,000 meters in altitude, providing an enjoyable yet amazingly simple show for all ages.

Chinese Sky!

They can also be tied together and they can be made to come in funny shapes and sizes.

WEATHER BALLOONS/BALLOONS

Twice a day, every day of the year, weather balloons are released simultaneously from almost 900 locations worldwide! This includes 92 released by the National Weather Service in the US and its territories. The balloon flights last for around 2 hours, can drift as far as 125 miles away, and rise up to over 100,000 ft. (about 20 miles) in the atmosphere!

National Weather



And regular Balloons:

A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a type of gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were sometimes made of dried animal bladders.

WKI

PLANETS/STARS/METEORS/COMETS

AIRPLANE/HELICOPTER/TOY AIRPLANE

HIGH GRADE MILITARY LASERS

GLOW STICKS

They would commonly be attached to balloons at night to either reveal location, keep track of the balloon and other things.

OTHER

Someother things can include:

*Fireworks
*Fabrications, much like Billy Meier who used odd objects and attached string to them to hold them up
*Military air crafts
*Flares
*Sparklers
*Unkown Space Phenomena much like what Sprites were
*Birds
*CGI
*other Hoax

and of course

*A Genuine UFO

Hopefully, this thread can be used as a marker and check list. For believers and skeptics alike. Thank you for your time and I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you find it useful.

reply to post by TheMythLives

This is a good idea for a thread - S & F!

I think you should add something about the "UFO's" that are caused by out-of-focus imaging using digital cameras. That still seems to catch people out.

If you are really brave, you can tackle the "bokeh" effect, but if you do that you might cop a bit of a beating!

reply to post by Sam60


Thank you for the kind words and I will be sure to look into the camera and the camera's filters and other errors. But the bokeh..lol.. do.do.do

Such trickery you would have us believe!

Anyone can see that all these photographs are clearly UFO's.

Sprites, and sun dogs, Indeed!

Great idea, and good thread. Your presentations are always enormously interesting.

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


yes, clearly I must be a disinfo agent and what I posted is swamp gas..lol.. That was an awesome joke. Its good to have a sense a humor especially on this board. Things get serious and sometimes to serious. I appreciate your kind words and your support!

reply to post by TheMythLives


Good explanations of likely causes for a large amount of UFO sightings. Although there are many, many cases that none of these skeptical 'alternate explanations' can account for in any meaningful probability. For example, what is your take on the Belgium UFO? A Top Secret military craft? Maybe so, but what about the many abductees that reported being taken on craft that look very similar to this and many other configurations?

The Belgian UFO

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4f585ad9c2d3.jpg[/atsimg]
Courtesy:z.about.com...

Well put together thread though Myth!

reply to post by jkrog08


Thats my favorite UFO picture..lol.. that is very odd that you would post that ONE photo that is my favorite. Anyway, I have my own theories for abductions and other theories for other alien related ideas. I appreciate the kind words as always. And yes their are cases that are just UFO's and no matter how many alternative tools or theories their are, sometimes its just a UFO.

reply to post by TheMythLives


LOL, it is my favorite too. IMO it is the best picture taken yet of a UFO, and a confirmed non-hoax. Interesting case the Belgium Wave is.

reply to post by Sam60

Here's my demo of the effect. This is the planet Venus. All of these sequences were made on the same evening. The problem starts with auto-focus, it doesn't work on a point source of light (planet, star, distant streetlight). Instead of being brought into focus it ends up getting more out of focus. When this happens the out of focus image takes on the shape of the iris within the camera. When combined with the effects of using digital zoom (worthless, stay away from it) things get really weird. If manual focus is used, these effects do not appear. My camera has a 2 blade iris which produces this diamond shape. Other types of irises produce other shapes.


[edit on 7/11/2009 by Phage]

reply to post by Phage


What is your opinion of the Belgian Triangle?

reply to post by jkrog08

OT, but I have a strong feeling that the photo is faked but it seems pretty certain that there was some activity of some sort going on in Belgium


[edit on 7/11/2009 by Phage]

I think another good tool is some type of knowledge in psychology so one can be better able to determine if the witness(s) is lying or believing they saw something but really didn't.

[edit on 7/12/2009 by jkrog08]

reply to post by TheMythLives

Another useful addition would be a list of hoaxers & sources that have proved problematic in the past.

You could include people such as Billy Meier, Johnathon Reed/Rutter, John Walston, Jamie Maussen (well, not so much a hoaxer as someone who's very careless), John Lear, Richard Hoagland, World Weekly News, etc...


[edit on 12-7-2009 by Sam60]

[edit on 12-7-2009 by Sam60]

fantastic thread. People need to eliminate all possibilites before screaming UFO. Thanks to the likes of Phage and others who provide the alternatives with evidence to back up their theories....

Phage, why are you not a subject matter expert yet..???

My tool is pretty simple, nearly everything likely has a realistic explanation, if it moves slow and doesn't change directions im not interested, if it's fast and pulls off some quick manoeuvres we may have something interesting, even then there's sill cgi and advanced tech we just can't be sure about.

To me the only good videos are a few of those nasa ones and even they have their issues.

very cool thread. the vids are a very nice touch.
now, i need to get to spotting some ufo activity lol.

S+F

A good post, thank you. I agree with what you are saying. However, in my case, I actually saw a "flying saucer", something you never ever forget. It was not any of the phenomenon you have posted here. There are actual UFO's like the one I saw. I don't want to give people the wrong impression, while the phenomenon you posted are real, there are also REAL Flying Saucers out there. I know, cause I saw one, flying 1000 feet in front of me. A silver round saucer with little portals. Where was the saucer from I saw? I have no idea, it could have come from another planet or solar system or perhaps it was the US government.

Why didn't you put that new "shooting spheres" video in your thread? Too hard to debunk?

reply to post by TheMythLives


wow nice thread , i give you a flag! nice nice! but i still think that ufo are there looking at us!

We probably have craft that mimic UFO's this I do not doubt

BUT


for myself and many here at ATS and millions throughout this Planet who have had "contact" up close and personnel with these ships and there occupants:

UFO's and Aliens of many differences """are real."""

They are here, they are in our Solar System and they are all over this vast Universe in mass.


[edit on 12-7-2009 by observe50]