Moving Lights in the Sky

[NorCal Dave]

https://viralhog.com/v?t=d4jm5atb92&&page=10


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


So, just saw this on my local news feed. The claim is that it was filmed here in my own backyard of Paradise CA. It seems to come from a website called KamerOne where people can upload videos of various things so that others can download it for their own use, maybe? From the site:

Download high-quality videos from our platform, featuring contextual search, detailed scripts, keywords, and other valuable metadata.
We aggregate, curate, and localise videos from a wide range of content producers. We empower editors to be more efficient and responsive to their audiences by eliminating the need to filter through thousands of irrelevant videos.

https://www.kameraone.com/how-it-works/

This particular one was listed under the heading "Light" which is described as:

From wandering bears to crazy accidents! If you are looking for heartwarming stories, clips that have made the viral pantheon or just feel-good videos then you need look no further.

It seems to be a very difficult site to navigate with no info that I can find about the post or who posted it, however, the tag at the bottom of the video shows it was originally uploaded to another buy/sell video site, ViralHog by a Lisa Vargas. Here is her description of what happened on September 2, 2023:

Info from Licensor: "My husband and I were outside in front of our house in Paradise, California, when we observed an object with erratic behavior moving across the sky. The object was later followed by a second moving object at which time I pulled out my phone to record it. I caught it right after the first object disappeared in the clouds but we observed the second object's erratic movement. The second object also disappeared in the clouds."

While heavy cloud cover on Labor Day weekend is a bit unusual around here, this was the remnants of the system that caused all the mud and news coverage at the Burningman evet a few hundred miles north east. It certainly looks like parts of Paradise with the trees and more importantly the cut off power pole that appears in the latter part of the video. This would be where the electric company, PG&E, has put the power lines underground and then cut off the top of the pole leaving the Comcast and AT&t cables. But beyond that I'm not sure where in town this is located.

My first thought is some sort of light shining up on the bottom of the clouds, something we've seen before. I'm not sure about the ghosting or after-image the main light leaves as it moves around. Camera artifacts? At the beginning of the video another observer has her phone out and the light on it appears to leave a bit of ghost or trace, but it's not moving nearly as much.

Obviously there isn't any Xmas light displays going on this time of year and the town isn't much for malls or car dealerships that might have big lights going. If they are on the west side of town, they could be looking towards the bigger city of Chico which could have some sort of big light shinning up. Map below.

Someone at the end of the video speculates that it's " little airplane" but it seems to be moving awfully fast for that if it's moving in and out of the clouds. A military jet maybe?

I'll head out today and see if I can find where it was filmed, there are a few clues in the video.

Any thoughts?

Map of general location:

I'll provide the link here where I first saw it.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/animals/california-locals-spot-glowing-ufo-darting-around-in-the-sky/vi-AA1h0BPn?ocid=socialshare&cvid=8242bd44720140778124df47f1e6f957&ei=101

 

[JMartJr]

At first viewing it seemed to be going in and out of the clouds. Viewed again and counting intervals, I think it is just slowly flashing rather than going into clouds, the interval seems pretty consistent. I suspect this may have given them the idea that it was close to and interacting with the clouds, so that when it disappears at the end it is assumed it disappears into the clouds. But if it is NOT dipping in and out of cloud cover, it may be well below cloud level -- I suspect it is a drone. I have found discussion of a 1-2 second flasher on a drone, which is about what this seems to be.

latest FW version says: "Enabled 1-2 second strobe function for bottom LED lights (latest version app is required) ".

https://autelpilots.com/threads/how-do-you-control-bottom-led-lights.6015/

 

[Ravi]

At first viewing it seemed to be going in and out of the clouds. Viewed again and counting intervals, I think it is just slowly flashing rather than going into clouds, the interval seems pretty consistent. I suspect this may have given them the idea that it was close to and interacting with the clouds, so that when it disappears at the end it is assumed it disappears into the clouds. But if it is NOT dipping in and out of cloud cover, it may be well below cloud level -- I suspect it is a drone. I have found discussion of a 1-2 second flasher on a drone, which is about what this seems to be.

latest FW version says: "Enabled 1-2 second strobe function for bottom LED lights (latest version app is required) ".

https://autelpilots.com/threads/how-do-you-control-bottom-led-lights.6015/

I agree, I was about to post similarly. Perhaps a drone, hard to see in this low light setting.

 

[NorCal Dave]

At first viewing it seemed to be going in and out of the clouds. Viewed again and counting intervals, I think it is just slowly flashing rather than going into clouds, the interval seems pretty consistent. I suspect this may have given them the idea that it was close to and interacting with the clouds, so that when it disappears at the end it is assumed it disappears into the clouds. But if it is NOT dipping in and out of cloud cover, it may be well below cloud level -- I suspect it is a drone. I have found discussion of a 1-2 second flasher on a drone, which is about what this seems to be.

latest FW version says: "Enabled 1-2 second strobe function for bottom LED lights (latest version app is required) ".

https://autelpilots.com/threads/how-do-you-control-bottom-led-lights.6015/

That would explain the flight path. Is the strobe then creating some artifacts that appear as the traces or "echos" of light.

 

[JMartJr]

Or maybe video compression doing weird stuff?

 

[Mick West]

Or maybe video compression doing weird stuff?

I think the traces are mostly from the low-light setting where it's combining multiple frames. The compression then makes it even more janky.