Starship Asterisk*

I still think there are some subtle details that come out when the image is processed. But if you process it more than the data can support, you're not proving anything. I still maintain that your analysis applied to some other part of the image, completely unrelated to the event, will turn up simi...

I searched the discussion but didn't see anyone point the following out although some have mentioned a possible bird... A bug is good enough explanation for me, but it sure looks like the last image (misnamed "strangebefore_pryde_big.jpg") captures the bug (or bird) in the act. Around pix...

(I'll continue to answer emails, though). There's no email link provided in your profile, so I hope you read here one last time at least. It looks to my eye that the curve is at least sometimes following cloud margins and other such features. I'd like to see a comparison of the following: Use your ...

1)For the streak to actually be the trail of something in the far distance the shear size of whatever was falling if anything was falling at all would have to be enormous. That would be compatible with the contrail theory. Contrails are, indeed, enormous. 2)Item is most likely closer too the camera...

Thank you for that very quick update, Guest, you seem to have much more time to search the net than I do. Bumblebees at 30 mph, carrying transponders yet? The program was advertised for quite some time on the Animal Planet station. It was more a matter of scheduling than having copious time. Here's...

Can't use my Bad Buoy wrote: hence he is in level flight. So we are looking at one side.

Someone from the area noted that the bees actually live in nests on the cliff just beyond the camera's position, so the bee would possibly be veering downward to get there.

DC only god knows what you're up to with those images. Good question. I'm trying to find a way to bring out any hidden details in the event image that might help explain what it is. It is clear to me that whatever caused the most visible details also created a few more subtle details. This is not c...

I decided to try to do some enhancements of the path including using Neatimage to remove as much noise as possible. I was particularly interested in trying to enhance any periodic elements in the path. One thing I notice right away is that the overall picture has a pattern that's roughly the same fr...

You did very well to find an actual photo with the right ambient/flash lighting. I looked on pbase.com, which has mostly very good pictures by professional and serious amateur photographers. I happened to know there are some excellent insect pictures there, and it was just a matter of choosing a go...

PS. Victor, when you were talking about thorax , did you perhaps mean abdomen ? The bottom end? No. The wings and legs are attached to the thorax. It is the thorax I was referring to. Also the abdomen has a longer aspect ratio than the thorax. Here I've composited two pictures to show a possible al...

Look at this picture of a bee in flight. The picture was taken with ambient light and flash. The flash was short enough to freeze the wings when they were near the highest position. However, look at the wings over the rest of the flapping cycle that's captured. You can see the near wing all the way ...

Victor, I just can't see it as the thorax. Inside that arc seems to be about the same brightness and colour as the rest of the water in the immediate area. To me that would make the thorax not only transparent but also totally non-reflective of the flash, which seems highly improbable That doesn't ...

What causes me trouble is the arc semi-circling the yellow blob to the right, from say 2 o'clock to 6 o'clock. This to me at least looks "real"; ie, doesn't look like a jpeg artifact. It certainly is on the various processed images. I have great difficulty in seeing this arc as belonging ...

Interesting that I seem to be the topic of recent conversation. I hope this isn't permanent. I assume that your "when required" grants that my tripod statement was not out of line. It seemed to me that a moment's reflection made it clear that a tripod was used. But to answer your post... V...

This leads me to have a shot at the shape of the wings - or at least, the shape of the reflections of the flash off the wings. The reflections look quite complex, and I thought that that might give some clues. A few thoughts have occurred here, always a scary experience. The easiest thing to say is...

I've made that fake image for two reasons: I think I missed your fake. Can you post another link to it or give the page number that it's on? Most people were not considering it and I do not agree with that because it's so easy doing it. I think most people are not considering a fake because they've...

I'm a little concerned that a couple of people have set up websites where we can vote on what we think this is. Even if a consensus was reached by this method, what would it prove? Is not the task that APoD editors given us more along the scientific method, of weighing evidence, performing experime...

Yeah, I guess it's not a Winter solstice for everyone after all. You can also argue about the rovers on Mars (they're experiencing the end of winter, if I'm not mistaken). They're not going through a winter solstice either, so I Take it back. Guess you can't be all inclusive this time of year. I wa...

Now that Christmas is almost upon us, or for those of you past the dateling, now that Christmas IS upon you, Have a great Christmas, everyone, even you arguementative types, hehe. Or, to be all inclusive, have a Merry Winter Solstice instead. We're discussing something that occurred in Australia, y...

http://images.somethingawful.com/mjolnir/images/cg12022003/Piney.jpg Aside from EXIF data... which was intentionally removed, and the obvious sponsor - what happened here? Good grief! The motion blur is not even in the right direction. That's a very poorly done fake. What was the point of posting t...

I'm wondering if we can assume that the central part of the flashed insect image, the part that looks yellow, really is yellow. Even though someone hundreds of pages back showed that the flashed insect image is not saturated, can we assume that the response of the CCD or CMOS (whatever) chip is lin...

Can't use my Bad Buoy wrote:{Sorry, about duplication and cheating you of another pic in sequence}

Well.....

..I don't think there's much room left in Roundstone Harbor.



A holiday diversion, but it does go to the topic raised.

You mean because the last picture is a fake?

Doc Bluto, Many of us have been using as a problem statement something along these lines: Assuming the picture is not fake, what is it that is represented in the picture? This being the case, there's absolutely no point in trying to discern whether the picture is a fake. It makes not difference to t...

For those who'd like to see what termites look like in flight, I happen to have a picture. http://www.pbase.com/victorengel/image/33895564/original.jpg This is a composite of 4 pictures taken with the lens focused at 4 different distances. I combined 4 pictures to simulate what I actually saw. A fal...

This is not correct, The defined loop- it is not in the before or after pictures. It is just as clearly in the before and after pictures as in the middle picture. Allow me to demonstrate. To create this images, I took a Pryde picture, duplicated it, applied a gaussian blur of radius 25 and then per...