"Flying Jellyfish" footage

Ok, looking again, I see that the object in the screen moves relative to the crosshairs, and does move within the frame though it's not very convincing, and I still think it's something held in front of the camera. The perspective is odd, and the way it moves is as well. It's immediately apparent that there's a difference in the second video of an actual object traveling through three dimensional space.

In any case, whatever it is, if it's not made of some kind of rigid material, why does it fly absolutely without changing angle including the angle of view when it does move in the frame, and why does it not flap, bend, wobble, steer, or show any irregularity of shape or motion at all? The only thing that changes is the shading, which appears to do so without any pattern or cause, as there is no change in the light of the background, and no visible rotation or sign of shadowing.
 
Its orientation does seem to change gradually between the beginning and the end of the video. It's just that the difference is slight... like that scene in "X-Men: First Class" when Eric moved the giant radar dish so slightly that some viewers didn't think he had succeeded in moving it at all until he & Charles reacted as if he had. The lack of quicker, more obvious shape changes could be either because it's rigid or because it's just not getting buffeted by sudden changes in air movement. A group of balloons on strings tied together will hold still relative to each other when either there's no wind or the wind is mild & steady; the shape they take on will just be the most stable shape for the given consistent conditions.

The color changes seemed to me at first to be happening just when it crossed from one background to another, in which case they would be just a result of the camera auto-adjusting. If there are any changes that don't fit that rule, they could be because it drifts into & out from shadows of clouds, or pockets of warmer & cooler air. Balloons are probably quicker to change temperature than the ground they're floating over. Some of the variability could also be a result of the colors or shininess of the balloons to IR radiation.

* * *

A non-balloon explanation like a bird turd would also still fit if the IR camera was behind a transparent surface or inside a transparent enclosure and had some mobility relative to that surface/enclosure.
 
bruto said:
In any case, whatever it is, if it's not made of some kind of rigid material, why does it fly absolutely without changing angle including the angle of view when it does move in the frame, and why does it not flap, bend, wobble, steer, or show any irregularity of shape or motion at all?
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Because there is little to no differential wind to perturb it, it's just drifting along slowly and the apparent speed is more to do with it being observed from an aircraft that is itself moving fast. It doesn't seem to change its angle very much because it's being viewed at zoom from extremely far away, so the aircraft's relative position to the object doesn't change much between the beginning and end of the video, speed notwithstanding.
 
It's my fault I didn't save the image, but a Muslim posted a photo of the exact EID Mubarak ballon set on Twitter under one of Mick West's posts. The Islamic crescent moon is clearly visible on the top (the part that looks like horns), and the star is in position next to it.

It's mylar, I don't know mylar registers on FLIR, and if the dye in the mylar effects the image's heat signature. You can tell it's around 100 feet off the ground, moving with the wind (Mick West notes light objects on the ground fluttering in the same direction). And this is shot with a smart phone from a base computer monitor, so it's a copy of a copy, of a copy.

I'm a little frustrated as to how anyone would think this was anything else than a party balloon. Maybe it's because I worked at a toy store and we used to sell ghost and alien balloons which had weighted legs allowing them to float around at a fixed height, giving the illusion they were walking around the house. Now I work in a hotel and I see these damned things a few times a month for bachelorette parties, weddings, and bridal showers. Every once in a while one of these clusters gets loose, and flies off. It looks exactly the same as this balloon set.

And you can see military personnel on the ground. There is no urgency because everyone who saw it saw balloons. There's no UH-60 intercept. They just let it blow out across the lake into the desert. I can't believe the media is taking the bait on this crap.
 
Delvo said:
Its orientation does seem to change gradually between the beginning and the end of the video. It's just that the difference is slight... like that scene in "X-Men: First Class" when Eric moved the giant radar dish so slightly that some viewers didn't think he had succeeded in moving it at all until he & Charles reacted as if he had. The lack of quicker, more obvious shape changes could be either because it's rigid or because it's just not getting buffeted by sudden changes in air movement. A group of balloons on strings tied together will hold still relative to each other when either there's no wind or the wind is mild & steady; the shape they take on will just be the most stable shape for the given consistent conditions.

The color changes seemed to me at first to be happening just when it crossed from one background to another, in which case they would be just a result of the camera auto-adjusting. If there are any changes that don't fit that rule, they could be because it drifts into & out from shadows of clouds, or pockets of warmer & cooler air. Balloons are probably quicker to change temperature than the ground they're floating over. Some of the variability could also be a result of the colors or shininess of the balloons to IR radiation.

* * *

A non-balloon explanation like a bird turd would also still fit if the IR camera was behind a transparent surface or inside a transparent enclosure and had some mobility relative to that surface/enclosure.
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Somewhere on Metabunk (I can't be bothered to go back and look for now) the actual model of the camera is identified. It is indeed in an enclosure with a transparent window in front. ISTR the camera is on a gimbal behind the window.
 
Gord_in_Toronto said:
Somewhere on Metabunk (I can't be bothered to go back and look for now) the actual model of the camera is identified. It is indeed in an enclosure with a transparent window in front. ISTR the camera is on a gimbal behind the window.
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I still think this the most likely explanation. For the object to be traveling that fast with no apparent wind and not even one tiny alteration of angle or attitude, and no apparent movement seems pretty odd. I understand that a batch of balloons might not show much perturbation as they glide by, but none at all?
 
bruto said:
I still think this the most likely explanation. For the object to be traveling that fast with no apparent wind and not even one tiny alteration of angle or attitude, and no apparent movement seems pretty odd. I understand that a batch of balloons might not show much perturbation as they glide by, but none at all?
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It's not moving that fast. It's altitude seems to be around 200 feet or so. The balloon filming the object is in a fixed position, and the ground crew would keep the optics dirt free, and because the platform doesn't move we can rule out a bug-strike smudge.

As a former UFO nut, I can say I've never been more certain about an object being a balloon. I wish I'd saved the photo. Google is worthless these days, but the individual balloon shapes are all there. I'm more worried that no responsible news outlet is calling BS on this. It's Iraq, not Mars. Just because the intel team at the base couldn't identify the object, and we have no direct information from the unit involved with this platform, just a US Marine who'd seen the video after the fact; doesn't make it other worldly. It would be nice to get copies of the logs for the camp on the day of the incident.

And there is a second angle (allegedly) that clearly shows a party balloon set.
 
Axxman300 said:
It's not moving that fast. It's altitude seems to be around 200 feet or so. The balloon filming the object is in a fixed position, and the ground crew would keep the optics dirt free, and because the platform doesn't move we can rule out a bug-strike smudge.

As a former UFO nut, I can say I've never been more certain about an object being a balloon. I wish I'd saved the photo. Google is worthless these days, but the individual balloon shapes are all there. I'm more worried that no responsible news outlet is calling BS on this. It's Iraq, not Mars. Just because the intel team at the base couldn't identify the object, and we have no direct information from the unit involved with this platform, just a US Marine who'd seen the video after the fact; doesn't make it other worldly. It would be nice to get copies of the logs for the camp on the day of the incident.


And there is a second angle (allegedly) that clearly shows a party balloon set.
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OK, I keep looking again and trying to fit other people's ideas into what I see, which makes suggestibility an issue, but on the umpteenth viewing, I'm beginning to ease over to the balloon possibility. It's still hard to be sure owing to the poor quality of the video, but I can see the possibility at least, although I still find the movement odd, especially compared to the later video of what is pretty certainly a single balloon.

But OK, I'll tentatively concede. Absent further evidence, and insofar as whatever it is it's certainly not a flying jellyfish from outer space, let's call it a bunch of balloons.
 
On the subject of changes in shape or orientation (or lack of such changes):
 

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bruto said:
OK, I keep looking again and trying to fit other people's ideas into what I see, which makes suggestibility an issue, but on the umpteenth viewing, I'm beginning to ease over to the balloon possibility. It's still hard to be sure owing to the poor quality of the video, but I can see the possibility at least, although I still find the movement odd, especially compared to the later video of what is pretty certainly a single balloon.

But OK, I'll tentatively concede. Absent further evidence, and insofar as whatever it is it's certainly not a flying jellyfish from outer space, let's call it a bunch of balloons.
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It's the simplest explanation. Muslim country, mostly western infrastructure & culture, they celebrate birthdays and holidays just like everyone else, and their party balloons get loose sometimes. Since it is a specific holiday set featuring the crescent moon and star at the top it looks on the crummy footage like a floating samurai squid thing. But eight to ten balloons filled with helium will float away on you if not properly tied down, or if a party-goer unties them. And most people have experience with helium balloons, they are not an exotic technology. Most of us watched our precious floating toy loose buoyancy, and slowly lose altitude, no longer pressing against the ceiling to floating midair, like this balloon package.

I am much more upset that this video has had the legs it does on the mainstream media and social media (outside of the skeptics pages). How did the UFO idiots gain so much traction? It's funny until you realize the same political party cutting school lunch programs, and aid to Ukraine sighting money are willing to waste millions of dollars on what should be obvious BS.
 
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It's not a balloon.

Balloon moving through air reacts to the air. This thing doesn't, so unless it's stationary and there's a weird parallax effect going on, then it's a smudge.
 
Yeah, Mick's analysis is about as convincing as you can get, short of actually uncovering a video of them recovering the balloons. Stunning that this received so much press, well maybe not so stunning given the intended audience. :boggled:
 
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