How the moon shines on the sea and feels like a flying saucer

"That's a moth, captured on camera, that's the effect." Mr. Zhu, a reader in Hangzhou, said it was the lens at work.

As early as 1994, an American photographed the phenomenon. From the looks of it, it was a cylindrical object that was flying very fast. Because the flying object was shaped like a stick, some people called it a "flying stick". However, these "flying sticks" are captured by the parties with video or camera, in the real space, no one has witnessed.

According to a September 2005 report in the Beijing Science and Technology Daily, a pharmaceutical company in Northeast China claimed to have photographed a "flying stick". CCTV also rushed over to the interview to unravel the mystery. It turned out that the "flying stick" was a kind of nocturnal moth. Due to the camera infrared attraction, coupled with the moth's rapid flight, and then the camera 1/16 second shutter, and ultimately created the "flying stick".

Mystery 2: The shadow

More readers believe that this is the shadow caused by the camera lens. Hangzhou reader Mr. Bai is a photography enthusiast, he said, this is the strong light into the lens, between the lenses reflecting each other to form, play photography people know that this phenomenon is very common in backlit photos. The lens model is different, the resulting shadow form also varies.

Ningbo Xiangshan Dingtang town of Mr. Xu also holds the same view. Yesterday night at 9:00 pm, he also made a special experiment, in their own balcony with a cell phone to the moon, and indeed, in the photos taken, the left side of the moon, there is an oval saucer object, and Zhoushan reader Min Lingyong photographed out of the very similar, and the purple aperture.

Mr. Xu took several photos in different directions, and the location of the UFO varied from photo to photo, and several photos together made it look as if the UFO was circling the moon.

Hangzhou's Ms. Li has also done this experiment, she used her cell phone to shoot at the sun, the photo of the sun next to the extra dots, with the shooting angle is different, the location of the dots are also changing.

This is an "optical UFO."

Shanghai UFO Exploration and Research Center, deputy director of the investigation department, UFO Exploration magazine column host Zhang Yunhua:

From the picture itself, if there is such a large UFO or glow-in-the-dark kite appearing in the sky, captured in the camera, Min couldn't have failed to see it when he was taking the picture; after all, he wasn't taking the picture at random.

Sometimes the camera can be deceiving. Based on Mr. Min's description of the shooting process and the scene, and with reference to what the photo reflects, it is very likely that this is a vignette formed by the reflection of the streetlight in the lens. Because there are several strong reflected light sources (streetlights) in the photo, this also meets the basic conditions of lens reflection imaging.

This phenomenon, called "optical UFOs", is not a technical term, but an explanation. When we "scan" the light source in the lens, and did not see any flying objects beforehand, but found a UFO in the video or photo, then it can be concluded that this is not a UFO at all, just "optical UFO".

With the popularity of digital devices, suspected UFOs are increasingly being captured on camera, but there are more and more "optical UFOs," and Mr. Min's "Zhoushan incident" is just one of many similar incidents that have occurred in recent years.

For example, on September 23, 1987, a celestial spectacle -- an annular solar eclipse -- occurred over Shanghai and other places. Many people were using medium-focus and zoom lenses to take pictures of the eclipse, and later realized that the sun had come out more in the photos or videos, or that other luminous objects had appeared. For a while, strange rumors about "aliens observing a total solar eclipse" circulated and made a lot of noise. It was determined that this was due to the reflection of sunlight from the lens of a video camera or camcorder.

There were similar incidents abroad, and in 1973 there was a sensational photo of a "flying saucer group" over the White House in the United States at night: eleven "flying saucers" hovering in mid-air - in fact, it was a neighborhood street. -In fact, it was the result of the refraction of streetlights in the neighborhood.

Real UFOs

What should we do

Seeing a UFO is something you can't do, so let's try to do the following:

1. Don't panic, and don't think about whether you've been hijacked by aliens.

2. This is the time to test your observation ability, look at the following aspects: the UFO appeared when the star position, shape, size, color, brightness, speed, the process of change, other characteristics, as well as the impact on the ground (power outages, television and radio signals interference) and so on.

3. Record your observations in a timely manner, take pictures with a camera, camcorder, etc. If there are other eyewitnesses next to you, ask them to record them as well; circumstantial evidence is also important.

4. Report it quickly to the news media and the observatory.

If you really hit the jackpot and see aliens, remember to ask the aliens to "tell" you. Always remember to ask the aliens for a "souvenir".

Extended reading

Typical UFOs in China

Luminous UFOs

Since the first case of luminous UFOs appeared on June 18, 1982, these strange phenomena have been appearing in the skies of northern China. There is still no final word on the phenomenon, which has been analyzed as an alien "demonstration", an aurora borealis, and so on, but experts tend to believe that it is an epiphenomenon resulting from experiments with space vehicles.

This picture was taken on August 27, 1988, of a UFO in the sky above Heilongjiang, China.

Wacky car in the sky

On November 30, 1994, a suspected UFO "attack" occurred in Guiyang, later dubbed a "weird car in the sky" by the media. UFO enthusiasts believe the "strange car in the sky" was caused by a flying saucer, while meteorologists, including those investigated by CCTV's "Into Science" program, believe it was caused by a tornado and a downburst storm.

V-shaped tail UFO

In late 1999, a kind of UFO with a V-shaped tail was spotted in the sky, starting from Shanghai and going all over the country and even abroad. Some researchers thought it was a special craft, others said it was an alien flying saucer, and more thought it was a phenomenon produced by an airplane being reflected by sunlight.

This image, taken in Shanghai on Dec. 9, 1999, shows a typical V-shaped contrail.

Spiral UFO

This is one of the UFO phenomena with Chinese characteristics. The typical event occurred on July 24, 1981, when a strange spiral-shaped flying object was visible in the northwestern sky across half of China.

There have been many subsequent occurrences, the most peculiar being the appearance of spiral UFOs in the northwestern skies in 1986, over eastern China in 1987, and over northeastern China in 1988, all occurring a year apart, and all occurring on August 27th.

Some believe it was a space experiment conducted by a country on Earth; others say it was a meteoroid; and, of course, some speculate that it was a craft of intelligent alien life. So far, there is no final conclusion.

(The above information was provided by Zhang Yunhua)

Open Sina News

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Data as of 21:00 on December 4

National outbreak data

Jiangxi outbreak data

Overseas outbreaks

Existing local confirmed

39571

+923

Existing confirmed

8720263

+14818

Existing asymptomatic

391042

-4874

Existing suspected