Geolocation Exercises

[NorCal Dave]

I think I know where you're at.

The C gates seem to handle big planes, while the plane in the photo appears to be a 737 with the flattened cowling on the bottom. All white with dark blue tail, likely Alaska Airlines? They fly there a lot, assuming I got the location correct. So, I'm guessing

Spoiler

E6

Possibly? No AI used.

 

[flarkey]

This is a really good match. Including the larger door on the left being slightly bigger and farther away from the other 5 (assuming it is viewed from slightly to the left, not to the right, as the front building will obscure the one behind it as you move the perspective to the right). And the 3 doors on the building to the left of those 6 doors. And there is a cell tower behind and to the left of those buildings if you're viewing them head on from across the river. Best Google Street View I could get is here. On Google Earth I couldn't get both the buildings and the cell tower to render at the same time.

Google Earth:
View attachment 80142

Street view from the bridge overlaid with the beginning frame of the video:

View attachment 80145

This spacing especially with the cell tower suggests the camera is very close to directly across from these buildings, so that the angle does not deviate too far especially not to the right. So it may be narrowed down to here:
View attachment 80146

Here is the best Google Street View I could get in that circled region with a view over the water, with a much closer satellite view above it. Unfortunately it's really washed out and low resolution. But I think that large black building and the two large white buildings to its right are discernible at least. The field this google street view is next to is honestly a pretty good candidate location I think (36.989900, -76.543798). Street view shows there being a bench there looking out over the water.

View attachment 80147

I manged to chat with the witness on the "Langley Orbs" on reddit. He was very surprised to see that we'd worked our (roughly) where he videoed the 'orbs' from. He agreed to share the metadata of one of the videos and that allowed me to check ADSB exchange at the time he recorded it. The perspective of a passing plane showed that the location was slightly more north than we expected. I'll post my findings about that aircraft in the other 'event' thread. But thanks again to @Kyle Ferriter & @MonkeeSage for the help in nailing this one.

 

[Calter]

It's cool that a random redditor seems to have guessed it spot on, guess nothing beats knowing the area yourself.

I think it implies basically here, opposite side being land mass. He said it moved from Virginia Beach north and west?

I'm guessing OP is somewhere in this vicinity as they wanted to see the meteor shower, and that would favor a darker area, and would match the perception of seeing it from right to left FOV?

Here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/37%C2%B000'47.3%22N+76%C2%B035'22.4%22W/@37.0075232,-76.6204856,12.42z/data=!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d37.0131443!4d-76.5895495?entry=ttu

Or vaguely so.

General area:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Vir...!2m2!1d-76.5775744!2d37.1525136!3e2?entry=ttu

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1bk9xta/comment/kvxyyv0/

 

[Mick West]

Honestly, ChatGPT's ability to identify the airport kind of surprised me.

I think that's gate

Spoiler: Guess

E10 (or maybe E8)

View attachment 80166

View attachment 80167
View attachment 80168

Spoiler

the gate with the plane is E9, E10 is on the left, Diamond Head in the bg

 

[NorCal Dave]

Spoiler

the gate with the plane is E9, E10 is on the left, Diamond Head in the bg

Spoiler

So, if this is the terminal:

And this is the terminal on Google maps with E10 at the end:

I screwed up by looking at the up facing terminal map when it's upside down compared to the standard North up map. Wrong gate, Diamondhead wouldn't be visible from E6.

 

[Calter]

Spoiler

the gate with the plane is E9, E10 is on the left, Diamond Head in the bg

I'm confused, is the airport's map wrong?

Spoiler

The plane is parked where E10's marked, and the one on the left leads to where E8 is marked

 

[NorCal Dave]

'm confused, is the airport's map wrong?

See my spoiler above, I think it's spun. But now you have me scratching my head:

Spoiler

The actual gates face roughly south and Diamondhead would be roughly east. I'm thinking the big blue colored 747 in the lower left is at C5 or C4.

So, with the maps, you don't flip it top to bottom, you spin it counterclockwise to match the Google maps:

This also makes sense, as in a bigger shot of the airport on Google maps, the A gates, which are on the right on the map appear in the upper left:

Thus, gate E9 is on the right of the central terminal in the above photo, and Diamondhead would be to the right as well.

I made the same mistake.

 

[Calter]

It's not spun

Spoiler

E9 is the one on the right (not looking at Diamond Head) and E8 is the one one the left (looking at diamond head)

E6 is looking in the right direction, but I don't think it matches the view

 

[Mendel]

I'm confused, is the airport's map wrong?


The plane is parked where E10's marked, and the one on the left leads to where E8 is marked
View attachment 80224
View attachment 80225

This is correct because we can see the corner in the middle of the picture, and the mark that leads to stand 8. Hence, the aircraft in Mick's photo must be at stand 10. It looks like its name is painted on the bow on both sides, and that may be confirmable.

The direction from the observer position between gates 8 and 10 across the starting point of the stand 8 ground trace aligns with the Diamond Head on the map.

Dave's airport diagram has South up, and it would need to be rotated to have South down to align with a conventional map view.

 

[NorCal Dave]

Now I'm confused, but I think I figured it out.

Spoiler

I originally thought it was maybe E6

The A gates and E9.

But maybe after lining it all up, one can just see Diamondhead from between 9 and 10.

 

[Mendel]

Now I'm confused.

On the satellite picture, you can see that the terminal E sits on a light-colored rectangle of tarmac. You can use the southeast corner of that rectangle to orient yourself, because it is smack dab in the middle of Mick's photo, albeit hidden behind some white airport vehicles.

 

[NorCal Dave]

On the satellite picture, you can see that the terminal E sits on a light-colored rectangle of tarmac. You can use the southeast corner of that rectangle to orient yourself, because it is smack dab in the middle of Mick's photo, albeit hidden behind some white airport vehicles.

Spoiler

I just had to zoom out a bit more and see that Diamondhead is probably viewable from between gate E9-E10, not just E8-E6.

While @Calter is correct, E9 faces away from Diamondhead, the mountain is further south than I was thinking, so it is still visible from that area of the terminal. I'll fix my post.

 

[Trailblazer]

So I'm currently looking at this thread on Reddit that apparently shows the 'drone incursions' over Langley AFB in December 2023- can anyone work out where the video was shot from?


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1bk9xta/langley_afb_event_video/?share_id=-gc4bKnswT761lmTp9YTw&utm_content=2&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1


I've stitched and brightened a few frames of the video together if it helps...
View attachment 80117

Edit: Additional info: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/...es-experience-on-60-minutes-article-119092963

I missed this post. I am pretty sure I found the exact cabin a few months ago, based on the aerial photos shown in the 60 Minutes segment.

(These are just screenshots, so don't try to play the video... )

I won't post the address here but anyone can find it pretty quickly from the publicly aired images.

Here's a shot of Buttner looking out to the water from the cabin.

Compare to the Google Maps image.

 

[flarkey]

Here's a slightly different challenge - What is the reg of this private jet that UFO personality Chris Bledsoe took to get home after the Contact in the Desert UFO-convention last weekend? What route did it take?


Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKaoJpqS9YR/?igsh=MTJ2em42cTRlYnBvdw==


I haven't been able to find it yet.

 

[Calter]

The image was uploaded on the 2nd of June at 22:49:44 UTC if Instagram isn't lying to me.

And the location is the Palm Springs Airport (Contact in the Desert happened in Palm Springs)

With that in mind, I checked what private planes took off from said airport on the 2nd, keeping an eye out for private planes and a cut out of 22:30UTC (the picture couldn't be uploaded much earlier than take off) and the closest match is a flight that took off at 19:40 UTC (12:40 PDT, which makes sense given the shadows)

It was a 2003 CESSNA 525A Citation CJ2, registration number N745JS
Checking images of the plane, it has all the correct details

The flight landed in Medford, Oregon at around 21:38 UTC

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=aa05f6&lat=38.523&lon=-118.370&zoom=6.2&showTrace=2025-06-02

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?replay=2025-06-02-19:42&lat=34.663&lon=-116.533&zoom=8.1

I suspect he uploaded the picture an hour or so after landing.

I don't know enough about Bledsoe to know if it makes sense for him to go to Oregon, but I didn't really see any other plane that matches the tail and he windows.

 

[flarkey]

Nice. how did you check "what private planes took off from said airport on the 2nd" - just by manually & visually monitoring ADSBx ?

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

It was a 2003 CESSNA 525A Citation CJ2, registration number N745JS

It also looks like a lot like a Cessna Citation CJ3. Before I saw your post I was going down that route. Checking the air traffic control tower to narrow it down between the two works though.

Source: https://www.flyexclusive.com/newsroom-posts/what-is-the-best-private-jet-in-flyexclusives-fleet

One departed the Jacqueline Cochrane regional airport (near where the Contact in the Desert conference was held), at ~16:50UTC (11:50am PDT) on June 2, and flew to Eugene, Oregon where it landed at 19:05UTC. Registration N535DT. An hour later it left Eugene and flew to Grand Rapids, Iowa. No other Cessna Citation CJ3 departed any of the 3 airports in that area (Coachella/Palm Springs) on June 2. This one also appears to be registered to a charter flight company.

 

[Calter]

Nice. how did you check "what private planes took off from said airport on the 2nd"

Yeah, I figured since it's not a large airport I can just speed up the playback and check one by one, I won't claim with 100% certainty that I didn't accidentally skip something, since I wasn't that methodical and skipped back and forth in the playback so might have accidentally skipped an hour

 

[Calter]

One departed the Jacqueline Cochrane regional airport (near where the Contact in the Desert conference was held)

That airport doesn't have the tower though

Unless there's an identical tower where they landed, but the picture has the vibes of a before takeoff picture, not an after landing.

While other Cessnas were similar, I only found one that had this bit on the tail

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

Yeah, I figured since it's not a large airport I can just speed up the playback and check one by one, I won't claim with 100% certainty that I didn't accidentally skip something, since I wasn't that methodical and skipped back and forth in the playback so might have accidentally skipped an hour

This is also what I did.

That airport doesn't have the tower though

Yeah identifying the specific airport first was a good idea. I was trying to identify the plane model first and landed on the CJ3, and that took me down the path of looking for CJ3 at all 3 of those airports and I wasn't even looking for CJ2.

 

[flarkey]

Well done @Calter and @Kyle Ferriter . I got as far as the instagram time too, but couldnt find the flight on the registered departures on FlightRadar24 or FlightAware beacuse the registration (like on many private jets) is blocked. Sometimes the brute force approach of watching all the planes take off on ADSBx is the only way to check.

 

[jarlrmai]

Next step is who paid for Chris Bledsoes private jet?

 

[Giddierone]

Next step is who paid for Chris Bledsoes private jet?

 

[flarkey]

Source: https://x.com/chrisbledsoeufo/status/1931494446295843022

 

[Calter]

That engine is right in the spot to cover the tail number

 

[Calter]

I'm curious how long it takes for this location to be found

 

[MonkeeSage]

I'm curious how long it takes for this location to be found

View attachment 81489

Approximately 1782-1700 G St, San Diego, CA 92101

The "Green Shredding" building at the bottom made it easy to find.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZLcgb73YxhkkjbRB8

 

[Calter]

Seems like "around 7 minutes" was the answer

 

[Mick West]

I'm curious how long it takes for this location to be found

View attachment 81489

Took me about 5 minutes. I used ChatGPT, which gave the city, but the wrong gas station.

 

[flarkey]

With Google lens it took me less than a minute. It took me a little longer to work out why you were looking for this location.


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1lcbiyp/san_diego_unknown_object/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

 

[jdog]

With Google lens it took me less than a minute. It took me a little longer to work out why you were looking for this location.


Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1lcbiyp/san_diego_unknown_object/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Something about that screamed San Diego to me, the low hills in the background and the buildings on the mesa, though I couldn't immediately place the major streets.

We get planes flying banners along along the beaches every weekend during the summer. We usually only get the blimps for golf tournaments at Torrey Pines and bowl games at Snapdragon Stadium. (Funny thing is part of the city gets purple skies at night due to the grow lights at the stadium and it's a recurring mystery to people:
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/sandiego/comments/1jzm21v/purple_sky_1230am_north_park/
.)

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

Where was this photo taken from? As a starting point, ChatGPT o4-mini-high identifies the tallest building in the photo as the Prudential Tower in Boston, but then it gets confused.

 

[MonkeeSage]

Spoiler: Location

Based on the Hynes convention center being in front of the Prudential building, and the Nordstrom Rack building being on the right, I think this must be a telephoto image shot from the South looking NW across the Neponset River, which would make the road in the foreground Morrissey Blvd.

I'm thinking maybe shot from the Hamilton Bay apartments: https://maps.app.goo.gl/4FApru5kdsM1Wq4G9

Something like this: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.2845782,-71.0294426,37a,35y,321.56h,79.28t/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDYxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw==

 

[jarlrmai]

Can anyone locate this shop apparently in Buenos Aires

https://www.metabunk.org/threads/recently-viral-buga-colombia-alien-metal-balls.14154/post-347072

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

Something like this

The direction is close. The real location is a little farther away though.

This building is the 200 Berkeley Building.

This one is the Campus Center building on the UMass Boston campus. I think Google Earth/Maps has pretty flawed 3D imagery for this building as it appears to be missing an entire floor, perhaps having merged the ground floor into the ground, removing it from the 3D model. The missing ground floor is visible in Google street view.

Camera location and line of sight in spoiler:

Spoiler

Location is this little wooden platform in Quincy: (42°16'30.2"N 71°00'12.8"W) https://maps.app.goo.gl/XjHFdjX9ZjJp5ZLt6
Approximate field of view: