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by sdiupIGPWEfh 780 days ago
I keep hearing folks say this in a way that grossly overestimates the capabilities of most modern camera phones. I have to ask, just how clearly does your phone take images of airliners, drones, high-altitude balloons, and satellites? Don't get me wrong, I'm not into claims of extraterrestrial visitations, but I am annoyed by the habits of lazy armchair skeptics, whose snark does more to distance true believers from rationalism than they may realize.
2 comments

More clearly than not taking a video of it. It'll show a bright dot, but a video will at least show a bright dot zooming unnaturally along the sky.
There are lots of such videos. But the strength of that data is not that strong. Haha! :)

If you have something like, right-angle change of direction, or high-res details it gets better.

Can you link some of these videos?
I think the USS Omaha video is one of the most anomalous videos.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/13in2...

https://thedebrief.org/pentagon-confirms-leaked-video-showin...

https://www.foxnews.com/us/underwater-ufos-display-capabilit...

As an aside note look into Timothy Gallaudet mentioned in the last link.

Here is one of his most comprehensive interviews, watch the first 10 mins (and then the whole thing) quite mind-blowing.

https://www.youtube.com/live/wGHAs10vMso?si=1z-f85-I0fSrpjOZ

Some of the crap ones or some of the good ones?? :) Seriously asking :)
The “lights in the sky” stuff has always had better explanations. I watched a C-5 fly over low at night in the Adirondacks and it was very odd; very UFO-y until just before it passed over us.

It’s the “the spaceship landed next to me in my farm field and aliens came out” claims that have faded away.

> The “lights in the sky” stuff has always had better explanations. I watched a C-5 fly over low at night in the Adirondacks and it was very odd; very UFO-y until just before it passed over us.

I've witnessed quite a few odd lights in the night sky, myself! And an equal or greater number of military aircraft flying overhead, between bases, by day. None of which I've ever managed to get a good photo of, even when it's a bomber passing over low and slow, much to my disappointment.

> It’s the “the spaceship landed next to me in my farm field and aliens came out” claims that have faded away.

I recall quite of lot those stories also included electronics behaving weirdly, which would make for quite a convenient excuse. Though I suppose a phone might preserve some evidence of that. But surely enough of those prone to making more outlandish claims aren't thinking of that?

> It’s the “the spaceship landed next to me in my farm field and aliens came out” claims that have faded away.

I've had one of those experiences.

I was very young - maybe 12 or so - and my memory of those events makes little logical sense. I had a friend with me who saw the same things, so I'm sure it's not a completely false memory... but I was also suffering from sleep paralysis at the time.

I don't even recount the story any more. It's counterproductive - why bother analyzing an old memory like that when I know my experiences at the time weren't reliable and none of it makes sense from a scientific perspective? There's nothing to be gained.

I saw a white and red orb slowly rotating high in the sky above me in broad daylight. I was convinced I was looking at a UFO, right up until I faintly made out the "Virgin" logo on what was likely a hot air balloon seen at a 180 degree angle
Why was a C-5 ufo-y? What made it look like that?
Dark, landing lights, engines on idle at low altitude. (Presumably landing at Fort Drum soon.) Could only see the big light seemingly hanging there silently in the sky for much longer than seemed plausible.

It was only when it flew directly over the lake we were staying at that we saw it was a cargo plane.