UFO or stars in the evening?

[JMA]

In a french forum about the paranormal and ufology, I found this video.

http://www.neufgiga.com/partage_neuf.php?share=1c5ff736fd2a3f7d

The witness said it's 2 ufos and strongly believe they are alien spacecrafts. I just want to know what do you think of it. My bet would be some bright stars in the evening, just after sunset (he saw this ufos at 20h30 the 24 june 2002 in France).

The only thing is the strange shape of the "yellow lights", that does'nt look like stars, but I would think that sometimes stars can have this strange appareances... If someone have other pictures of stars who look like this sometimes...

[gfunkusarelius]

hmmm, i dont even feel that is compelling enough to form any sort of opinion on. it could be stars. but man, there isnt much to work with. being that close to the horizon you could get distortions on normal lights, possible a distant radio tower where the exposure is blowing any indication othe tower itself out.
seems like UFO videos are getting less impressive with time rather than more.

[wipeout]

Looking west at 20:30 on 24th June 2002 at Paris -- since we don't know the location in France -- you find Venus, Jupiter and Mars are all setting together just after the Sun in the western sky:

http://starmap.causeway.co.uk/starmap.sky?place=Paris&lat=48+0+North&long=2+20+East&date=2002%2F6%2F24&time=8+30+pm&dst=1&step=0&unit=Dys&img=VML&action=Calculate+...&show=S&show=P

As a first guess, I'd say it's Venus and Jupiter. :)

I'd also guess it was filmed somewhere in the southeast of France from the Sun already being set at this time in the movie since the Sun is not set in the sky chart I linked to at this time at Paris.

[Astrophotographer]

In a french forum about the paranormal and ufology, I found this video.

http://www.neufgiga.com/partage_neuf.php?share=1c5ff736fd2a3f7d

The witness said it's 2 ufos and strongly believe they are alien spacecrafts. I just want to know what do you think of it. My bet would be some bright stars in the evening, just after sunset (he saw this ufos at 20h30 the 24 june 2002 in France).

The only thing is the strange shape of the "yellow lights", that does'nt look like stars, but I would think that sometimes stars can have this strange appareances... If someone have other pictures of stars who look like this sometimes...

I don't think these are stars. They look a lot like short airplane contrails. I see them quite often after sunset. Depending on atmospheric conditions and the distance to the aircraft, they can appear very short.
Of course, the quality of the video clip makes it difficult to ascertain what they might be.

[blutoski]

I don't think these are stars. They look a lot like short airplane contrails. I see them quite often after sunset. Depending on atmospheric conditions and the distance to the aircraft, they can appear very short.
Of course, the quality of the video clip makes it difficult to ascertain what they might be.

We also have to remember that for a few hours after sunset, objects in the sky, especially to the west, are still in the sunshine, and will reflect yellow or red.

Even satellites directly overhead can reflect sunlight in the middle of the night. They're very common culprits for UFO sightings.

[Miss Whiplash]

I don't think these are stars. They look a lot like short airplane contrails. I see them quite often after sunset. Depending on atmospheric conditions and the distance to the aircraft, they can appear very short.
Of course, the quality of the video clip makes it difficult to ascertain what they might be.


I agree. It looks exactly like a contrail of a distant plane at sunset.

[atari24]

Why, when seeing lights in the sky that they don't understand, do people jump to the alien conclusion? Why not flaming flying giraffes or something?

[El Greco]

Flaming flying giraffes was my guess as well.

[Miss Whiplash]

During the solar storm of October, 2003, the Aurora Borealis was seen in North Carolina. Auroral displays are rarely seen this far South. While the majority were grabbing cameras to document this rare occurrence, there was that percentage who called in UFO reports.

[JMA]

I agree. It looks exactly like a contrail of a distant plane at sunset.

Thanks a lot for your help guys. I agree with the contrail hypothesis :p

[wipeout]

I still think it's Venus and Jupiter. :)

I do have this terrible temptation to suggest it's an atmospheric optical mirage created by distant flares from oil-platforms being refracted over the horizon by the atmosphere. :deadp

This got me thinking about atmospheric optical mirages being the explanation for those floating lights seen in Scandinavia. Must look them up.

[JMA]

I still think it's Venus and Jupiter. :)

It seems one of the "object" is moving:

http://idata.over-blog.com/0/08/21/34/quembon-ufo-24-06--2002.jpg

On the first screenshot it's not that close to the cable and after, on the third screenshot, it is close to the cable... I don't know if this mouvement is compatible with the idea of Venus or Jupiter... I'm not an astronomer (not even a Bad Astronomer :p), but I would guess it's too fast for being an angular mouvement of the planets...

[Astrophotographer]

I would guess it's too fast for being an angular mouvement of the planets...

It is hard to say. There appears to be a break in the clip. However, the motion seems too great for a celestial object. Still, we don't have a lot of details to make an accurate determination. We do not know what degree of zoom was used and how much time actually elapsed between the segments you grabbed. That would rule out a celestial object if the data was available. I still think it looks A LOT like a contrail at sunset.

[JMA]

Still, we don't have a lot of details to make an accurate determination. We do not know what degree of zoom was used and how much time actually elapsed between the segments you grabbed.

For the localisation, I now know it was in yvignac-la-tour (town), Bretagne (area), France (country).

For how much time actually elapsed between the segments, the witness says in his testimony: a few seconds, just the time to go back to the first objet.

In the movie, you can see that there is an "object" on the right and another on the left. At one time, the camera goes from the "object" on the right to the object on the left. When there is a break in the film, the witness says that he just went back from the "object" on the left to the object on the right. In order to not shout the trees again, he cut the camera off for a few seconds.

For the zoom issue, he uses:

"samsung video camera 8 vp-a30 pal;zoom 16x fonction lock+ fonction stand bye."

[SezMe]

Flaming flying giraffes was my guess as well.
That you reject the FSM hypothesis says a lot. Heretic.

[EHocking]

For the localisation, I now know it was in yvignac-la-tour (town), Bretagne (area), France (country).Here's a snapshot of the area from www.multimap.com (http://www.multimap.com)
http://uk.geocities.com/ehocking@btinternet.com/jref/france.jpg

The town is just to the left of Dinan, directly below the Golfe de St-Malo.

Considering the distance and direction to the airports at Jersey, Guernsey, Caen or Cherbourg (or southern England), I'd say the contrail theory is pretty valid.

[wipeout]

Thanks to JMA for the additional information. Yeah, I looked more carefully and not only are they too fast for planets, I checked and the angle of movement is wrong.

I now agree they're simply two distant aircraft.

Look at how fast the left object moves relative to the trees in the few seconds we can see it. It's impossible to say if that's a very short contrail or a reflection of the sun off the underside of the aircraft or even a combination of those. As was mentioned by blutoski above, even if the sun is set from the video's perspective but that doesn't mean it's set from the aircraft's perspective.

Personally, I'd go with reflections of the sun off the underside of two distant large passenger aircraft at high altitude.