Spinning Comb-like UFO in Thunderstorm in Cambridge

[Mick West]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy-_ZPvEqHI


A weird one, looked at first like some birds, but then frame-by-frame it looks like this, spinning rapidly:




Rolling shutter artifact? Object blown in the wind? Fake?

 

[Mick West]

On this frame, and the previous frame, there's small white thing in the middle. The fact that this seems consistent makes me suspect a physical object like a cheap TV antenna, being blown by the wind. It's a windy day, and we see the tree behind the house swaying in the wind.

 

[Mick West]

It reminded me to this type of thing

 

[DavidB66]

On seeing the pic at #2, I wondered if it was a piece of broken garden fencing. There were a lot of severe gales in the UK in 2020 (and some this year too). After the gales some streets were littered with bits of broken fence and other garden furniture.

A problem with any 'blowing in the wind' hypothesis is that in the video a sound is audible in association with the object. It's quite faint, but unless it is a pure coincidence (or fake) it suggests that the object is powered. The motion also seems too fast, and too steady, for something just blowing in the wind. When I first saw the video I wondered if it was a military jet flying past, as there are air bases in that region. The weird visual appearance would need to be explained as a camera artifact of some kind. But the sound seems too quiet for a nearby jet aircraft, unless the windows of the house are remarkably soundproof. A smaller powered object, like a fast-moving drone, combined with camera effects, might be a possibility.

As for fakery, it is always a bit suspicious when someone has their camera pointing in the right direction just before something remarkable comes into view.

 

[deirdre]

i'm leaning toward fake, because why is he filming his roof for so long before the thing flies over? and then he loses it in the right hand window without even trying to move in or pan up?

 

[Gary McH-P]

I agree with @deirdre. For the speed of the object flyover, you would suspect quite vicious winds, yet the background trees are swaying, but hardly moving in context at the speed of the object. The conifer in the background is moving in the wind, but not to the same extent of a projectile object that looks like an antenna/TV aerial. Why video a rooftop and then an amazing event and stop at the point it reaches the window right hand edge.

 

[deirdre]

plus, im a quiet person so i wouldnt go "what the..." as it came over fast, but my body would instinctively lean back if not just a bit. (i ...being girly..would step back and too my left to try and get behind a wall in case it bashed into my window)

as far as what it is... that he merged the footage... do plastic compost covers look like that in the uk? the string in that one shot looks a tad off center, but reminds me of a pull handle. although those ground drain covers have a rim, so i would guess a compost lid would have a rim too?

 

[Mick West]

i'm leaning toward fake, because why is he filming his roof for so long before the thing flies over? and then he loses it in the right hand window without even trying to move in or pan up?

He claims he was trying to record lighting - which is something I've done myself, so not entirely implausible. If fake, it's a pretty weird choice - or maybe a clever choice, reverse psychology and all.

On seeing the pic at #2, I wondered if it was a piece of broken garden fencing.

It's certainly reminiscent of such. And odd shaped piece though. There's five "pickets" and one crossbeam, but it's got an oval shape.

 

[jackfrostvc]

I'm going with fake. To me the pixels around it look funky

 

[JMartJr]

To me the pixels around it look funky

I agree. Though to me it looks as much like some weirdness in the camera or subsequent compression/processing of the vid as evidence of tomfoolery. It also seems odd to me that somebody making a fake would pick something that looks so freakin' weird, so little like other UFO vids and just so generally suspicious. Though maybe that's the clever choice the estimable Mr. West refers to above? In any case, I'd lean towards an unknown something made to look comb-like by artifacts at some stage between lens and our screens.

 

[JMartJr]

and then he loses it in the right hand window without even trying to move in or pan up?

That MIGHT be the result of where the vid was cut for showing to the world rather then where the original camera shot ended, though.

 

[deirdre]

There's five "pickets" and one crossbeam, but it's got an oval shape.

if its curved like a serving dish, (the pickets would be closer to the same lengths. ??

He claims he was trying to record lighting - which is something I've done myself,

it still doesnt cross into the right hand window. although maybe he was just holding the camera up for lightning but his eyes were over on the Television set watching QI. that could be.

or..

 

[jackfrostvc]

Bit of a difference between some of the earlier frames and this one near the end.
If it's real, maybe it's a clear blimp shaped balloon with stripes




Earlier frame below:

 

[jarlrmai]

I think we need to see an original file here, the sound on the video is very odd for an indoor recorded phone video.

My 1st thought was it looked like interlacing artefacts, but that seems unlikely.

 

[Deleted member 16321]

Looks similar to the thing in the last couple of frames of one of his other videos.



I suspect with all the affiliated links that this is just a kind of revenue harvesting hustle.

 

[jarlrmai]

Looks similar to the thing in the last couple of frames of one of his other videos.



I suspect with all the affiliated links that this is just a kind of revenue harvesting hustle.

That looks like a bird/bug to me

 

[Mythic Suns]

Looks similar to the thing in the last couple of frames of one of his other videos.

Are there any videos by any other uploaders that look like this? If not, and if we go along with the "aliens" hypothesis, then we would have to assume that the aliens are just stalking him for some reason. As a plot to a Sci Fi series it's pretty decent but in the real world, even if aliens did decide to stick their nose around Cambridge for a little while, it seems unlikely they would use their super advanced technology to cloak their ship from all but one person's camera, unless of course that guy did something that annoyed them and they just felt like screwing with his head.

 

[Mythic Suns]

It reminded me to this type of thing

I wouldn't be surprised if he either removed the background from a photo of a similar looking aerial or made the background green and then edited it into the video with a few quick rotation animations to make it harder to identify. I personally don't know how to do this myself but I know that it can be done. As for the choppiness of the video, that could probably be done by artificially reducing then increasing the frame rate.

 

[JMartJr]

I am vaguely reminded of that wonderful cryptid, the "air fish" or "rod."

Are we seeing wing-beats, made weird looking by some step in the recording/processing of the vid?

 

[Deleted member 16321]

There's a bit of an odd thing in the second video posted (Cambridgeshire UFO strikes again in post #15) when the black dot emerges from the cloud. There seems to be a few stationary black pixels that appear, get darker then disappear before the moving thing appears. I suspect fakery and would apply the same guess to the principle video being discussed in #1.

 

[DavidB66]

Playing the video in slow motion (x.25) I noticed that just before the end, at 0:10 seconds, and after the 'comb' has disappeared behind the window frame, a small object or dark blob of some kind appears protruding from the left side of the window frame, about half-way up. I don't think it can be part of the 'comb', unless that has reversed its direction. But I don't know what else it could be.

[Edit: on another look, I think it may be something that was there all along, but becomes more visible due to a change in focus. As the camera is moved in front of the window frame, the autofocus adjusts and brings the nearby objects (mainly the window frame itself) into sharper definition. So a speck of dirt, etc, on the window that was previously blurred might also come into focus.]

 

[Deleted member 16321]

Looking at it again, if it is a real object and not added to the video, it looks a bit like a Disc golf disc (a small hand thrown projectile), or a Hover Disc (which are about 3ft wide) or something similar. Basically a small patterned thing thrown or launched over the house and rotating. The camera moves just before it emerges from the top of the house which I think indicates some awareness of where it's going to come from.




See my highly sophisticated simulation of the rotating pattern...

 

[Mendel]

Basically a small patterned thing thrown or launched over the house and rotating.

Maybe a rotating disc towed by a drone, which would explain the noise.
Or a serrated frisbee.

 

[Gary McH-P]

In the UK, even in the most exceptional winds, we don’t get stuff like that flying through the air, like a scene from the Wizard of Oz. Yes, we do get mini-tornados, mainly in the midlands rather than the fens (Cambridge) and they are short bursts of energy that decay quite quickly. The object looks nothing like anyone has suggested, bar the TV Antenna, with a fish bones feel to it. Picket fencing by standard comes in 6ft x 3ft lengths in the UK, but does not look like driftwood as in the video. If this guy has any inclination towards a history of strange sky phenomena, then it has to be suspect straight away.

 

[Ann K]

I agree. Though to me it looks as much like some weirdness in the camera or subsequent compression/processing of the vid as evidence of tomfoolery. It also seems odd to me that somebody making a fake would pick something that looks so freakin' weird, so little like other UFO vids and just so generally suspicious. Though maybe that's the clever choice the estimable Mr. West refers to above? In any case, I'd lean towards an unknown something made to look comb-like by artifacts at some stage between lens and our screens.

Agreed. The shape of the object looks to me as if it is an artifact of the camera process, in much the same way that videos show us spinning aircraft propellers that seem to be bent or even completely disjointed from the hub. I claim no expertise in photography, but if the camera is something that digitally scans the image field, I don't think anything moving faster than the scan can process would show its actual shape clearly. I remember some years ago there were still images that purported to show unexplained darting lights ...but they were taken in a tropical climate and were, I think, insects whose wing flap speed was too high to resolve a single image.

This doesn't address what the object is, of course, but is perhaps at least an explanation of its unusual shape.

 

[Rocky]

The author of this video uses the word UFO on the thumbnail and we all know what they mean. Space aliens in a space craft. Why do they jump to the most unrealistic explanation when it's more likely to be something from planet earth blowing in the wind? Because no one would watch this video otherwise. Waste of time trying to debunk something that is not space aliens in a flying space craft.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

The simplest explanation could be simply a homemade x-shaped boomerang with extra crossbars. A compatriot threw it as many times as it took to get a good looking hoax video. (Well, not all that good.)




There are many types of boomerangs.

 

[Mendel]

There are many types of boomerangs.

This triangular boomerang also has high UFO hoax potential:




The "thrown object" idea would also motivate why the clip stops where it does: if it didn't, we'd probably see the object fall down through the other window.

 

[JMartJr]

It does sorta look like the trajectory of a thrown object. The high wind is a minor objection to that, as a thrown object would have air speed to stay aloft on top of the "ambient wind speed" and given the way those trees are thrashing, it looks like a pretty brisk wind. Which is to say, I'd expect a thrown boomerang/Frisbee-type aerodyne/glider to be moving across the frame faster. But a sufficiently light-weight object could, I suppose, be carried along by the breeze as easily as wind-blown rubbish if someone were to throw it from beyond that house up to where he wind could take it.

Also, I want that giant boomerang.

 

[Trailspotter]

If it's of any help, I have identified the location of the video, using a wider view, combined from two other videos by the same author:


The object seen above the roof marked with star:

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.512...4!1sIXgLpaiYlxqkNTQpCJ7RnA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

[Deleted member 16321]

While this is impressive sleuthing i'm not sure what value publishing what is presumably the home address of a YouTuber has for this discussion.

Shouldn't we focus on what conditions are needed to replicate a similar thing on video?

My guess is that this video was a perfect candidate for video manipulation because of the completely uniform colour of the overcast sky and the small number of frames where the "object" appears. It makes masking and applying a distorting filter to each frame of video containing the "object" very easy to do.

 

[DavidB66]

i'm not sure what value publishing what is presumably the home address of a YouTuber has for this discussion.

I had some qualms about that too, but I suppose it could be said that anyone who films videos around their own house and then posts them on YouTube is fair game. I recall the Teignmouth 'ufo moon' case, where identifying the location of the original photograph was really useful (though in the event the case was solved in another way).

In the present case, I think it is useful to know that the video was taken from a residential house with other houses close by on either side. This somewhat argues against the 'thrown object' hypothesis, since the object would be very likely to land on a neighbour's property, if not through their window.

 

[Trailspotter]

While this is impressive sleuthing i'm not sure what value publishing what is presumably the home address of a YouTuber has for this discussion.

It provides a layout and dimensions for testing "blown by wind" and "thrown object" hypothesis.

As for "sleuthing", it was a challenge to me, a Cambridge resident, to identify the exact spot. It turned out to be quite far from the city, but in the past I definitely passed through this village once or twice by the main road next to it.

 

[deirdre]

since the object would be very likely to land on a neighbour's property,

what makes you think it didn't?

but it does help that we can drive around and see if there are antennaes or other yard decorations that might match, and possibly become windborn (but i doubt this as he uses the same thing in anothr video)

or we can see if there is anything he has access to to make his own frisbee ufo. like: what is this awning thing called? it's fairly new, -not there in 2018- so is it something that would be cut by the homeowner to fit the window? i can see a left over section of this thing as being used for the fake ufo (ive never seen these in America..so not sure how they work). Beautiful neighborhood btw!



ps and we can see there is a decent size park right near by for the throwing of the frisbee part of the video overlay.

 

[Deleted member 16321]

Is the sound at the end of the video in #1 a frisbee hitting a wire?

Is it similar to the sound at [3:30] here? (as the disc is closest to the camera).

 

[Trailspotter]

It seems possible to me that the object is a small toy about 5 inches across that found its way to the neighbours' back yard and was thrown back over their bungalow. Something like this fishbone-shaped silicone pet toy that lost its head and tail:


When it appears over the roof just to the right of the chimney, its angular width is about the same as that of the cap on the chimney pipe some 12 meters (20 feet) away from the camera. At the end, before it disappeared behind the edge, its angular width has increased sixfold, suggesting it was about 2 meters (6 feet) away from the camera, before hitting the wall a moment later. This gives the object's (horizontal) speed being about 4 m/sec. The object's trajectory does not appear to be perfectly linear and seems consistent with it being thrown from behind the bungalow.

 

[Mendel]

This gives the object's (horizontal) speed being about 4 m/sec.

That's ~15 km/h, about bicycle speed, and easily throwable.

 

[NorCal Dave]

My first thought was plastic palm fronds caught in the wind or in a spinning devil wind. Not exactly like these but similar.


However if Trailspotter is right about it being thrown, I would imagine these are too lite to throw effectively, although as it appears to spin on it's axis, I suppose somebody could throw one frisbee style with a strong wind.

And there is the above talk about hoaxing and we seem to have a few out and out hoaxes lately.

 

[DavidB66]

It seems possible to me that the object is a small toy about 5 inches across that found its way to the neighbours' back yard and was thrown back over their bungalow. Something like this fishbone-shaped silicone pet toy that lost its head and tail:

That's a pretty good match to the still pic at #2 above.

The noise still needs to be accounted for. If it is deliberately added to the soundtrack, that involves an element of hoax, even if the visual was just an 'accident'.

 

[Peter I]

It looks like a Frisbee-like disc flown over the roof - not too big, not too far away, and spinning.

To me, the sound is nothing more than coincidental street traffic - especially after seeing the location of the video.
The bit of noise at the end sounds just like a light plastic disc landing or hitting the roof. If he was recording on a phone, there should be no button-click noise.
So rather than a UFO or anything elaborate, think spinning disc toy landing on a roof - and then watch the video again.

Now I wish I could just find the best match for the disc.