What and Where [In Arizona] is this Object Filmed by a Drone?

[Kyle Ferriter]

Which exact hills and other features are visible in this video?

Bonus: what are plausible ground coordinates and height (and viewing angle) for the drone filming?


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/s/ffN63rounM

 

[jarlrmai]

I saw this thread and it has classic content creator using UFOs to drive traffic vibes, the description includes this "Moments later, a high-altitude fighter jet appears to pursue it. "

There is no evidence of this "high altitude jet fighter"

OP is happy to mention a 4k version on their YT channel which they link numerous times

The only real clue in the video is the section were a road appears to intersect with a dirt track.

If we knew the time you could work out sun direction but we don't even have that.

 

[Trailblazer]

The only real clue in the video is the section were a road appears to intersect with a dirt track.

I think the road junction at 0:37 is here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/cufA4M5JTX3sMCAY6

This sandy wash is behind...

Top centre here:

 

[jarlrmai]

omg that's way further out than I was looking...

 

[Trailblazer]

So the mountain peak would be this one I guess... https://maps.app.goo.gl/KBxWHZBM6RsgzXNq5.

The next location challenge is to find the supermarket that the floating plastic bag came from

 

[Mick West]

The next location challenge is to find the supermarket that the floating plastic bag came from

This is a very small object. Objects behind it establishes a maximum size. Comparing it to the Saguaros cacti, I'd say it's probablyin the rang 3-6 inches across - and quite possibly smaller.

It appears to impact the ground or teleport away at 1:47, and it looks larger earlier in the video, so I'd put some money on it being windblown seeds or spider silk just sinking out of the sky after being blown up earlier.

[edit] Actually, looking at the 4K I see it does not vanish at that point, but changes apparent direction, up and to the right.

I see they posted a screen recording the telemetry, and @jarlrmai is encouraging them to post the actual data, which would be great.

 

[jarlrmai]

Based on this thread I created a sitrec showing the start of the video


Source: https://old.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1opgpg9/followup_drone_telemetry_and_flight_path_data/


https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...3/Reddit drone hot springs/20251106_225442.js

It might be possible to create a path that demonstrates the path of the object but size and height would have to be assumed

It seems to move towards the drone position from south to north eventually passing by the drone

 

[jdog]

Just for context, Saguaro National Park in Arizona said this about airborne trash blowing into the park, which is about 200 miles southeast of this presumed location:

A study to determine how many desert tortoises live in Saguaro National Park inadvertently provided the best information for how many balloons and bags there may be in protected areas like Saguaro. Erin Zylstra, a PhD student at University of Arizona, used a technique called distance sampling to survey for tortoises along randomly placed transects. While looking for tortoises, Erin and her crew also recorded rattlesnakes, plastic bags, and balloons they encountered on the transects.

Based on these surveys, Erin was surprised to find that there were more balloons per acre than either tortoises or rattlesnakes. She estimated that there were nearly 63 balloons per square kilometer in the Rincon Mountains, which can be extrapolated to approximately 16,987 balloons in the entire park district of 271 square kilometers (about 105 square miles).

The cited study from 2013 is at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0140196312002625.

 

[Mick West]

I identified a few points on the ground by matching features in GE . I need to figure out a better way of converting data like this into a plausible flight / windblown path.

KMZ attached.

 

[Ann K]

I watched it a couple of times, but I wasn't able to determine if it left a shadow. My best bet is (1) a balloon, or possibly (2) a fake, as it always looks round. A balloon might be expected to travel like that as the hilly terrain creates shifting breezes and updrafts, but the same could be said of an errant plastic bag.

 

[MapperGuy]

Someone was doing an amazingly good job of tracking that very small object and keeping it mid-screen.
People who have drones, how hard would that be to do? What kind of rig would be required to even see it? Let alone have even noticed it in the first place. Seems somewhat implausible they noticed it just by accident.
Mick's size estimate is good, sagauros are not more than 12 to 18 inches in diameter, the object must be well under a foot across.

 

[Trailblazer]

I watched it a couple of times, but I wasn't able to determine if it left a shadow. My best bet is (1) a balloon, or possibly (2) a fake, as it always looks round. A balloon might be expected to travel like that as the hilly terrain creates shifting breezes and updrafts, but the same could be said of an errant plastic bag.

Watching the full resolution version it doesn't "always look round" to me. Especially near the start it seems to be billowing and/or rotating, looking exactly like a plastic bag blowing in the wind.

The shape-shifting/rotation is especially clear from about 0:06 to 0:10 as it passes in front of the dark vegetation.

 

[jarlrmai]

Side note does anyone have any examples of parallax resulting in a speed illusion from a fixed by rotating (tracking) camera

 

[jarlrmai]

it must be absolutely tiny matching the FOV from the reported drone altitude and position as it crosses the road

a 20cm object at ground level is slightly too big, suggesting a <10cm object

 

[Mick West]

Side note does anyone have any examples of parallax resulting in a speed illusion from a fixed by rotating (tracking) camera

Parallax only comes from things changing location, not from rotating. When a camera rotates it will not change the apparent position of an object relative to the background.

 

[MyMatesBrainwashed]

Why not just fly closer to it?

 

[FatPhil]

Someone was doing an amazingly good job of tracking that very small object and keeping it mid-screen.
People who have drones, how hard would that be to do? What kind of rig would be required to even see it? Let alone have even noticed it in the first place. Seems somewhat implausible they noticed it just by accident.
Mick's size estimate is good, sagauros are not more than 12 to 18 inches in diameter, the object must be well under a foot across.

Maybe the tourists only take photos next to the largest ones, so my sample is biased. However:

Saguaros grow from 3–16 m (10–52 ft) tall, and up to 75 cm (30 in) in diameter.

-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saguaro

In response to the "orb" aspect, it does appear to turn side-on several times, and appears quite flat - e.g. ~40 seconds in, just after it's crossed the road, where it appears to tumble a couple of times. That segment makes me lower the credence of a "its a bird" as well as "balloon", as to me it seems more bag-like, however I'm often late to the party when it comes to visual identification of objects.

 

[JMartJr]

Why not just fly closer to it?

Who knows? But if anybody does, we'll never see those videos (or that section of a video) because people will post "MYSTERIOUS UFO SIGHTED FROM DRONE" and we are likely to eventually see it, whereas "Plastic bag filmed from drone" is less likely to get posted, and if it does it is less likely to be brought here for an attempt to debunk it!

 

[R2robot]

Watching the full resolution version it doesn't "always look round" to me. Especially near the start it seems to be billowing and/or rotating, looking exactly like a plastic bag blowing in the wind.

The shape-shifting/rotation is especially clear from about 0:06 to 0:10 as it passes in front of the dark vegetation.

And at ~37s when it zooms in:
Source: https://imgur.com/VHZ5oum

edit: the preview is a blurry mess, but it's a 10s clip that clearly shows it swaying/tumbling like a bag.

 

[MapperGuy]

So the mountain peak would be this one I guess... https://maps.app.goo.gl/KBxWHZBM6RsgzXNq5.

The next location challenge is to find the supermarket that the floating plastic bag came from

Based on color and locale it's a Safeway bag.

edit: I lived in Tucson for many years once upon a time.

 

[Scaramanga]

The video is full of many faint, and often separated by a distance, flashes that appear both in front of and behind the 'orb', always in its direction of travel. Numerous times. I'd imagine this is frame overlap, and I'd argue this means we cannot really even establish the 'shape' of the object accurately as we really don't know when these overlaps join up with the main orb image and distort its shape.