- (Note: the photos shown here have been downsized from
their high resolution originals to fit the webpage. They have been enhanced
using the auto-curves setting in Photoshop to basically render night
for day. The originals are considerably darker, though the object is distinct
in almost every shot. If opportunity arises, we will make parts of the
quicktime video available. Stay tuned. Thanks to Brian Vike for sharing
this material with us!)
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- Portland Oregon
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- Date: July 8, 2004
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- Hi Brian,
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- On July 8, 2004 I was puttering around the backyard when
I looked up and saw something blue-black in color, no apparent lights,
moving to the south somewhat slowly, not as fast as the typical single
engine airplane. It appeared almost overhead, but shifted say 60 to 70
degrees above the western horizon, low enough to be easily seen. As an
object it seemed a bit large, or a bit close, say 1000 to 3000 feet altitude,
and made no noise. This was a real photo snapshot opportunity, excepting
the poor lighting conditions.
-
- It took me 30 seconds to run and get the camera. The
first picture Pict5702, is zoomed in 40x (10x optical, 4x digital) and
is overexposed and out of focus. On subsequent photos I then switched camera
modes for manual exposure so I could underexpose the pictures, as this
seems to capture more detail. In the midst of taking pictures I did get
one QuickTime movie, about 21 seconds long, Pict 5706. The last photo is
Pict5710.
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- Photo Listing:
- 5702: 40x zoom, 1/10 sec exp, time stamp 21:08:00, looking
WSW
- 5703: 10x zoom, 1/125 sec exp, time stamp 21:08:30, looking
WSW
- 5704: 10x zoom, 1/60 sec exp, time stamp 21:08:44, looking
WSW
- 5705: 40x zoom, 1/60 sec exp, time stamp 21:09:06, looking
WSW
- 5706: 10x zoom, 21 sec QT movie, time stamp 21:09:22, looking
SW
- 5707: 10x zoom, 1/60 sec exp, time stamp 21:10:08, looking
SW
- 5708: 40x zoom, 1/60 sec exp, time stamp 21:10:40, looking
SSW
- 5709: 3x zoom, 1/60 sec exp, time stamp 21:11:20, looking
south
- 5710: 3x zoom, 1/60 sec exp, time stamp 21:12:12, looking
south
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-
For the image above, brightness/contrast controls were set
manually to
bring out the clearest possible image of the craft
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-
-
-
- For the image above, brightness/contrast controls
were set manually to
bring out the clearest possible image of the craft
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-
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-
-
- All photos are straight out of the camera. Some pictures
are blurred due to the seeing conditions at 9:08 pm pdt local time being
nearly dusk. The camera, a 3.2mp Konica-Minolta Z1, would not lock focus
on the object due to the low light conditions. I had to focus lock on the
farthest away tall tree (about 500 feet) then find the object again for
the photograph. Oh, what a manual focus ring would do for this camera!
-
- I am going to take some measurements, etc of where the
photos were taken, and the time stamp is in each picture's exif data file,
so with this information I should be able to get some average speeds of
this object, if I can make some refined accurate estimates of the object's
probable altitude. It did not seem to change its altitude very much or
very drastically. A little sketch diagramming and calculation will be necessary
and that will take some time.
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- The video (20mb file size) shows the object making some
mildly erratic changes in direction during its slow flight progress, this
can best be seen 14 to 18 seconds into the movie, as there is a roofline
showing there. Regarding weather conditions, it was not windy to speak
of, only the very mild evening breeze which usually comes in from the north,
and mostly blue sky was showing. If there was any breeze it was barely
noticeable to me. What I'm getting at is I don't believe what I saw was
a balloon carried in a breeze.
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- Some of the photos show an aura, or atmospheric distortion
waves, around the object, particularly the one that is overexposed.
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- The object did not seem to rotate much about its own
axis as some other UFO objects that I have witnessed have done (I haven't
told you about those... yet.). Visually, it had a squarish, or four lobed
appearance. This was evident when it was at its closest, when I first glanced
up and saw it.
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- Will get back to you with more data soon. All pictures
less the movie, (8) files total, are sent to you in two emails. I will
regular mail the full movie as I have no way to cut it down by edit right
now, except in still frames.
-
- Thanks for looking,
-
- Brian Vike, Director
- HBCC UFO Research
-
- Home - Phone 250 845 2189
- email: hbccufo@telus.net
- Website: http://www.hbccufo.com
- Redirect: http://www.canadianufo.com
- HBCC UFO RESEARCH Newsletter At:
- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HBCC_UFO_Newsletter/
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