Solved: A Balloon-Like Entity near Sutter Buttes, CA is a Graduation Balloon

Mick West

Administrator
Staff member

Attachments

  • 1675095576548.png
    1675095576548.png
    51.8 KB · Views: 156
Last edited:
Huskies as in the Washington Huskies
2023-01-28_12-37-52.jpg

The balloon is possibly underinflated, crinkling things.
 
Possibly related... looks like there is more than this, could be a more elaborate balloon, could be two balloons, or could just be the way it is folding...
 

Attachments

  • s-l500.jpg
    s-l500.jpg
    23.4 KB · Views: 132
It looks to me as if it's in the shape of a T-shirt, so "Huskies" (or a similar word) suggests a sports team.
 
i dont think those are leters. in the original video zoomed it looks like black crinkled cartoon spaceship thrusters.
1674950543301.png

are they in a glider or doing a parachute jump?
what's this in the back of the plane?
Screenshot 2023-01-28 185327.png

add: or this shape and its on its back
kitty.png Screenshot 2023-01-28 185000.png
 
Last edited:
yuba high school had a grad night meeting (i assume its to plan for the may graduation?)... timing lines up, they could have had a decoration. or a private grad party for a college kid who "graduated" Yuba college (or similar school) after the fall semester.

1675013278355.png
 
Well done @deirdre! Seems like a relatively obscure balloon.
your idea. i just googled "graduation balloon tassle"... it wasnt far down the image page. i must just have different search results after viewing your inputs on MB. the internet does tend to "know" what i view on MB because i often see youtube suggestions or image suggestions that reflect what i just looked at here. so...you primed my search results.

ps. next time you go to yuba check out the party store for that balloon :)
 
your idea.
I think the first person to suggest "Hassle" and a graduation balloon was Oswald Heger on Twitter, a couple of hours after I posted.

Source: https://twitter.com/Oswald1160/status/1619466791004286977


i just googled "graduation balloon tassle"... it wasnt far down the image page.

Dang, there it is!

2023-01-29_11-28-43.jpg
And the graduation photo is a few pages below that.
https://www.postregister.com/chroni...cle_b833bbbf-8e09-54bd-8d8f-432445656d1a.html
2023-01-29_11-31-34.jpg
 
also this shot i grabbed from the original video (i clicked "see more" in the OP tictok vid) and just want to point out how weird the sun glare looks when i turned it on its side. so balloons and sun (or anything smooth and sun) can do funky things in photos.
1675023398865.png
 
How are the missing appendages at the top left
2 thoughts:
1. it is there but hidden because of the view.
1a. it is there but it is deflated a bit and flopping behind the balloon head

2.i'm not sure if it deflates first, or if some versions dont have one? i dont really see the tassle in this pic (that's what it is, it's the hat tassle.)
1675046859844.png

bottom of the balloon explained
that's why i kept looking for pics that showed a wider bottom base. the tie flap isnt inflated, its just a hangy piece of plastic. because the balloon is on its back the tie piece is hidden against the black bottom. in this pic the tie is still long...
1675047557658.png

its possible it was ripped off, but i think this might be it here ..they arent supposed to be as long as they are out of the box

1675047423500.png
also it could have been rolled: ?

first pic timestamp :15 "i prepared this to show you how NOT to tie a balloon"
2nd pic time stamp 1:16 (the right way)

1675047924448.png2.png

Source: https://youtu.be/MKRU0lysuIU?t=76
 
Last edited:
I think @deirdre was the first to coin the Hassle balloon! Congrats, good work.
This is got to be the nail in the coffin, I cannot imagine a hardcore ufo person is still going for a craft from ZentaurX. On the other hand, knowing reddit.. :)
 
Seems to me the gold arm and the tag are not visible because it's rotated on to it's 'back' so they are obscured by the body of the balloon.
Probably gonna have to buy one and take a photo of it angled the same way to really nail it home, like that guy who bought the batman balloon.
 
Seems to me the gold arm and the tag are not visible because it's rotated on to it's 'back' so they are obscured by the body of the balloon.
I think the "gold arm" (the tassle) might be visible, just on the right side, briefly in this animation, because the balloon is reversible.


The black tag at the bottom is there, just not visible.
 
apparently you can get 10,000 views by standing in the same spot for 4 minutes and filming a bucket of balloons at dollar tree (there's an odd number of dollar tree youtube videos walking the aisles).

1.so it is a wide bottom.
2.the tag can be straight out ergo invisible (they arent as floppy as i thought)
3. the tags can bend in different directions.


Screenshot 2023-01-30 093045.png



str.png




bend.jpg

1675090147755.png


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U50NxXilS_A
 
there's an odd number of dollar tree youtube videos walking the aisles
Dollar Tree fanatics are very interested in all the things they can buy for $1.25. Stock rotates really quick there, so they're always excited about the newest and trendiest things dropping for cheap there. It's a fascinating subculture.
 
apparently you can get 10,000 views by standing in the same spot for 4 minutes and filming a bucket of balloons at dollar tree (there's an odd number of dollar tree youtube videos walking the aisles).

That is far more weird than a real UAP. But there are at least 5 Dollar Trees and some Dollar generals and .99 Cent stores in the Yuba City/Marysville area:

1675102422285.png


Did I miss it, or was there a claim of when this was originally filmed? It's clearly a graduation balloon, but if it was filmed in January, they're probably aren't too many grad balloons for sale. If it was in May, than obviously they're all over the place.

I'm thinking this was filmed in the spring. I can't seem to screen grab from TicTok, it would not let me pause on a scene, but at the very end of the clip he pans around and one can see the valley. Note the large amount of green, those are rice fields that are growing. This time of year the fields are empty or flooded for waterfowl habitat/hunting. If this was from winter time those fields would look like lakes or dirt, but not green. It's a bit hazy today but here is the Sutter Buttes and the rice fields are all just flooded and look like lakes:

IMG_4397.jpeg
 
they're probably aren't too many grad balloons for sale. If it was in May, than obviously they're all over the place.
usually balloon places have a catalog you can look in and you tell them the number you want and then they blow it up. esp now with the helium shortage i imagine stores arent keeping too many pre-blown up.


add: pic
1675115228418.png



yea iw aqs wondering what california looks like in winter.. my screengrabs

Screenshot 2023-01-28 184627.png


Screenshot 2023-01-28 185207.png
1675108439389.png
 
Last edited:
@flarkey

After wondering for 5 minutes where those phone sounds come from... I realise the person of the video has not seen the evidence as presented by you and Mick.

Nah, of course not. He is probably just ignoring it, to maintain a good story. A wrong story though.
 
It means that we've been caught out. (It was sarcasm)
i told you to mention the DOllar Tree in the OP :)

Blooms did close
1675113906261.png


but here's the proof it is 2 sided (from the video i linked above)

1675114255463.png


edit:added better arrows to pic
 
Last edited:
yea iw aqs wondering what california looks like in winter.. my screengrabs
Thanks deirdre, I figuered out how to get some screen grabs now. Here's from the very beginning of the clip. you can see the 2 planes at the end of the runway. The runway runs parallel to a road that has a T intersection and there's some buildings near the T:

1675116411890.png

Here is the Williams Airport, also known as the Williams Soaring Center. Same T intersection near the buildings and runway parrallel to the the road. Red circles are where the planes appera in the clip:

1675116571512.png

Then we see the Sutter Buttes in this shot:

1675116709620.png

So, on Google Maps the view is East and a little North:

1675116851048.png

When the "UAP" appears, the guy has panned a little south and is looking due East, the Buttes are no longer visible, but there is this squigaly line between fields at the bottom. It's likely a check, a berm that regulates water between rice fields:

1675117223916.png

Which matches up pretty good with this field near the Soaring Center, so the plane has to be about here:

1675117365446.png

Then he continues to pan south as he looks over I-5 where there is an interchange next to a pond:

1675118274809.png

Which would be here:

1675118363361.png

This screen grab by deirdre at the end shows what I thought were rice fields, but now looking at them, they could be orchards. This is looking south west now towards the Coastal Range:



Something like this:

1675118587960.png

The bare dirt in the clips looks like rice fields being readied for flooding and planting, so maybe early spring, they start planting in April. Some of the orchards in the final shot could be evergreen olives as they are planted along the west side of the valley, though usually further north. But the rest of the clip seems to be awfully green for January, and dry giving the rain we've had since Christmas.

I noticed in the comments for this clip people saying it's a balloon and people asking when it was filmed. No responses that I found.

EDIT: If this is from last year, which was a severe drought, those bare dirt fields could be fallow. The west side of the valley had more restrictions on water allocations. I haven't hunted in the last 2 years because my dad's blind near I-5 on the west side didn't get any water. So, it could be May or June.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top