Cigar Shaped UFO over Malibu Woolsey Fire - [Ship]

[jarlrmai]

UPDATE

UPDATE: Recreating the scene in Google Earth, the "UFO" is a cargo ship, about 1000 feet long, and about 15 miles off the coast.

Original Post Follows

Another Reddit UFO find that presents a fun challenge.

This youtube video of a fire in California near Westlake shows several firefighting aircraft tackling a blaze on a mountain ridge

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx3mQ6Drh-8


At 7 seconds a long oblong shape emerges from the clouds travelling right to left. The original claim is that this is a UFO but some people on the Reddit forum are claiming it's just a boat, the location is ocean side and the camera is high and looking down and towards the ocean. However the object seems to be moving quite fast, but the claims are that this is due to parallax and other effects.

So is it a boat on the ocean or something else?

 

[deirdre]

Edit add: its the Woolsey fire flare up near Lake Sherwood November 13, 2018. lots of footage online of it, but that isn't helping me orient the mountains in the OP footage

Another Reddit UFO find that presents a fun challenge.

well if it's a Reddit thread then surely someone pinpointed the location already. care to share? since you didn't link the thread?

heres the 'object'


all these mountain bumps look the same to me.


the date would probably be helpful too

 

[deirdre]

this guy says its in this area ( I had the wrong lake). at 3:51


Source: https://youtu.be/k8Jnisqw6Ow?t=231

 

[Mendel]

Youtube commenter Keith Gabbard suggests that it's San Nicolas island.

 

[deirdre]

I think this is the scene. One fire vid mentioned boney mountain, which is the red tag way in the back you might not be able to see. anyway, I cant line it up exactly because I suck at Google Earth movement.

trying to figure out how much ocean we can see etc.


I stuck a pin in that pointy part (although how close it is to the actual part I don't know so you may have to play around a bit with moving)
says lat 34° 7'35.46"N
long 118°54'59.66"W

 

[deirdre]

Youtube commenter Keith Gabbard suggests that it's San Nicolas island.

I can sort of see it in my bad view there. its the linear blob on the horizon. maybe someone can line it all up a bit better than I did.

 

[deirdre]

i see no way it could be the island. the craggy peak I point to above doesn't move in angle at all. the YouTube guy says the station who filmed say it is a cargo boat, but he claims the boat is moving too fast.

anyway here is the original video (2 hours) our scene is at 5 min mark. unfortunately right after the smoke takes over so you cant see anything out there after that.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/ktla5/videos/2223699561246692

 

[Mendel]

the craggy peak I point to above doesn't move in angle at all.

Your excellent identification in post #5 shows that the camera is even further away than your Google Earth viewpoint is, because the peak in the background appears larger in the video: this perspective change indicates a greater distance with more lens magnification.
The great distance means that "sideways" movement of the observer wouldn't change the angle of the scenery much, but you'd still get a parallax effect, and that is very much evident in the footage as the two ridge lines shift position with respect to each other:


As you can see, the island is approximately in line with my left guide line.

 

[deirdre]

As you can see, the island is approximately in line with my left guide line.

yea but in the middle of the blob movement, it seems the helicopter is stationary (the two ridges stay the same) but the blob ufo keeps moving. I have wicked spatial cognition issues, but I have to move my helicopter to the left to get my island to move. in the clip it seems the helicopter is moving to the right. ??

unfortunately if it is a parallax of the island, someone ( like @Mick West ) who knows how to work Google Earth better than i do, would have to make a little video or something for people like me (or UFO believers) to understand the concept.

ps. in the Facebook long version he says they are at about 6000 feet altitude. so i do have to move back in Google Earth very far...and then i cant see my ridges good enough

 

[Loralye]

If you look at the 6:30 mark, I think you briefly see it again, right up at the top of the video

 

[jarlrmai]

I looked up Micks excellent Beachy Head video to see how he does his google earth views.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoGcMwIar14




Was able to quickly come up with this which approximates the camera from the helicopters view, it's hard to get it accurate without knowing the helicopters location, altitude and camera fov.

 

[Mick West]

Was able to quickly come up with this which approximates the camera from the helicopters view, it's hard to get it accurate without knowing the helicopters location, altitude and camera fov.

Yeah, I looked into it a bit yesterday. I have FlightRadar24 access on that date, plus I used to live in Westlake Village, so I thought it would be relatively straightforward.

Unfortunately the KTLA5 Chopper does not seem to show up.

Also, this matching curve here:


Is a bit an illusion as it's the division between 3D and 2.5D mapped regions. To remove that, turn off the 3D Buildings.

 

[Mick West]

One things I did was download the MODIS satellite image of the smoke for that day (you can just download a .KMZ)


Then made a rough transparent volume for where the smoke was:


And turned off the overlay

 

[jarlrmai]

Yeah I noticed is the terrain looks different if you remove the 3d buildings layer in Google Earth, the smoke line is different to the terrain line and it can be a bit misleading.

I found this establishing shot in the full feed.



and I added markers on some roads and features that show up on Google Earth to help line it up in Google Earth Pro but its almost impossible work backwards for a chopper position because you can't easily adjust the camera position while messing with the FOV etc to make it line up. Unless you know some tricks Mick? Then we could place some markers to work out what the exact peaks etc were for the more zoomed shot where the object appears.

 

[Mick West]

However, that may well be wrong, as it's not really close to Westlake Village. It's possible that there's misreporting, like that's the Helicopter location, not fire location. But there WAS fire around Westlake village. Just not in the MODIS image.

... and based on this:


The chopper is over Moorpark.

 

[Mick West]

As the UFO pokes its head out:



See attached .KMZ

 

[Mick West]

That fake curve is interesting, as when you turn on the 3D buildings, the right side becomes better, but the left side is smooth:



The actual ridge is more like:

 

[deirdre]

If you look at the 6:30 mark, I think you briefly see it again, right up at the top of the video

Nice! I snagged it


still cant wrap my head around the parallax, but this proves (to me at least) the object didn't fly off the screen fast in the OP video. Thanks!

 

[Mick West]

This matches a 1,000 foot long cargo ship

 

[Mick West]

And here's the parallax effect. This was a little fiddle, but you can rotate around a point in GE by shift-clicking and dragging. I used "Mouse Keys" to restrict it to just X, which is why this is a bit choppy.

My Full GE folder is attached, with the ship and the 5:05 view.

 

[Mick West]

Here's a rough match of my animation to a stabilized version of the video


Pay attention to the relative positions of the near peak, and the dip that starts out above it:

 

[Mick West]

The second time you see it appears to be a different cargo ship. The helicopter has continued left a significant amount, and so the first ship has long gone, and another comes into view. All from parallax.




That position (about 15 miles off the coast) is exactly where you'd expect to see several ships going in both directions. This is from today, but shows three large cargo ships going along that route. Two North, one South.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:5651989/zoom:10

 

[Mick West]

Yeah I noticed is the terrain looks different if you remove the 3d buildings layer in Google Earth, the smoke line is different to the terrain line and it can be a bit misleading.

I found this establishing shot in the full feed.



and I added markers on some roads and features that show up on Google Earth to help line it up in Google Earth Pro but its almost impossible work backwards for a chopper position because you can't easily adjust the camera position while messing with the FOV etc to make it line up. Unless you know some tricks Mick? Then we could place some markers to work out what the exact peaks etc were for the more zoomed shot where the object appears.

I use the "transparent Photo overlay" trick to zoom in. The earlier wider show had established the camera was over Moorpark, giving a rough distance. The yellow valley at the base of the mountains gave a great point fo reference.

FOV is not TOO important, as changing FOV does not change the relative positions of anything.

I added a transparent polygon behind the first ridge which allows you to see the outline easier, like with the smoke.

Then it's just a case of moving the camera position until the peaks line up as they do in the picture. In the "Get Info - > photo" mode for the transparent photo view, I shift clicked on the ridge and dragged around to get a rough layout. A little fine-tuning with adjusting the altitude.

 

[jarlrmai]

Yeah that's where I place it.

I use the "transparent Photo overlay" trick to zoom in. The earlier wider show had established the camera was over Moorpark, giving a rough distance. The yellow valley at the base of the mountains gave a great point fo reference.

FOV is not TOO important, as changing FOV does not change the relative positions of anything.

I added a transparent polygon behind the first ridge which allows you to see the outline easier, like with the smoke.

Then it's just a case of moving the camera position until the peaks line up as they do in the picture. In the "Get Info - > photo" mode for the transparent photo view, I shift clicked on the ridge and dragged around to get a rough layout. A little fine-tuning with adjusting the altitude.

Right thanks for the tips, this kind of technique seems to be really useful for a lot of investigations