Italian Astronomers Image UFO On Moon

ariefm71 · Post by **ariefm71** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:16 am

recently using his C8 and a webcam: http://81.72.14.47/Astro/UFO-April-29-2007/
(download the entire avi before playing it)

I don't actually believe in UFO, but this is quite interesting :-)

kayheem · Post by **kayheem** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:05 am

Arief, you are right. It is an interesting clip. It wouldn't be so interesting if the moving shadow did not change direction.

Clifford60 · Post by **Clifford60** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 11:33 am

2 questions

- the black dot is very very big relative to the size of the moon
- the speed of it moving across the moon will be very very fast, yet the dot is still round.

Decide yourselves if the video is real.

Post by **weixing** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 12:05 pm

Hi,
IMHO, the object is not on the Moon... not even near the Moon. Moon reflect sunlight, so if the object is just above or very close to the Moon, we'll not see the object silhouette, but the object itself and it'll be a very large object. Since we only saw the object's silhouette, IMHO, the object must be very near Earth.

IMHO, may be it's a balloon just happen to be in the line of sight if the video is real.

Have a nice day.

kayheem · Post by **kayheem** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 12:37 pm

I was thinking that the moving round dot is not an object near the surface of the moon, but the shadow of something flying between the sun and moon; more of an eclipse shadow. The further the object is from the moon, the faster the shadow will move on the moon.

If what weixing said is correct i.e. near earth, I would think that the dot will not be in focus with the features on the moon.

I re-looked at the video. At about 1:08 to about 1:15 into the video, the black dot crosses the crater marked 'Grove'. I don't know if it was my imagination, but I thought there was a slight distortion of the object as it 'climbed' out of the crater.

This would give some weight to my guess that it is a shadow being cast on the moon. If it were merely a silhouette, there should not be any distortion as it crosses the crater.

But what object caused this silhoette or shadow? If it moves in a straight line, it can be dismissed as a satellite. However, note the acute angle of turn.

Clifford: I do not understand your statement "..the speed of it moving across the moon will be very very fast, yet the dot is still round..." Why can't a round object move at high speed?

David Lian · Post by **David Lian** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 12:57 pm

Look like a BUG (maybe ladybird) crawling on the len of scope.
It must be looking for its mate :oops:
DL

aquillae · Post by **aquillae** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 3:58 pm

i second DL's theory =)

ariefm71 · Post by **ariefm71** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 7:55 pm

Yes, what we're seeing is the shadow of the object cast onto the moon surface

I re-looked at the video. At about 1:08 to about 1:15 into the video, the black dot crosses the crater marked 'Grove'. I don't know if it was my imagination, but I thought there was a slight distortion of the object as it 'climbed' out of the crater.

Yes, the distortion as it climbed out of the crater surface suggested it was a shadow on the moon surface

Since the shadow was apparently affected by seeing condition (notice the boiling image), it can't be a bug crawling on the corrector lens.

Btw, I should've changed the thread title to "Unidentified Object" as we astronomers don't believe in UFO.

jermng · Post by **jermng** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:00 pm

Btw, I should've changed the thread title to "Unidentified Object" as we astronomers don't believe in UFO.

Isn't it the same thing? UFO=Unidentified Flying object?

Clifford60 · Post by **Clifford60** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:28 pm

kayheem wrote: Clifford: I do not understand your statement "..the speed of it moving across the moon will be very very fast, yet the dot is still round..." Why can't a round object move at high speed?

A round object sure can move at high speed, the question is whether the cam can show it as a round dot or a elongated dot or line.

If the object is between the sun and moon, how can it be a concentrated black dot and not shade of grey? If it is a concentrated black dot, the object must be very near the moon, then it can't be just a shadow. Also, it has to be very big in size, tens or even hundreds of km across, so why can't see the object, oh it is a black object, we are seeing it.

I like DL's idea. What is the effect of the moon light on a lady bug on the glass showed up in the CCD/CMOS sensor?