UAP central NJ

[peacerunner7]

Hello all. This is my personal video taken on 01/10/25 at 12:29am in Bridgewater, NJ. I am on the 2nd fl of the house recording through a window facing West towards the direction of Round Valley Reservoir. I can't remember if I was simply using my Samsung S23 or a Panasonic FZ80 I had at the time. I wish I had recorded longer. In the morning I ran the video through Lightworks and did basic adjustments. I slowed the video down, made the image negative, and adjusted brightness. To me in the original, I see hints of side marker plane lights. Maybe a green on the left and red on the right. Now in the negative image video I don't see those lights. More so I am seeing a clock wise rotating energy that may have a pattern and seems to blip in and out. I think the smaller light is lens flare, idk.

What are we witnessing here? ty

 

[jarlrmai]

Can you post the original video from the device?

 

[Matt33]

Venus and Saturn with atmospheric scintillation.

 

[peacerunner7]

Can you post the original video from the device?

I combed my cell videos and cell trash plus my one lonesome memory card I use for dlsr... unfortunately I only have 1 other file of the event. It's just an additional :12 immediately after the :26. I do have another 2:02 video but it's too big too post here and it's me trying to draw out what I can on Lightworks again.

 

[peacerunner7]

Venus and Saturn with atmospheric scintillation.

I've recorded planets before but never seen them having a spinning energy nor exhibit faux wing tips.

 

[FatPhil]

... recording through a window ...

To cut off needless trails before we start, could the smaller light be the same thing as the larger one, reflected back off the internal surfaces of the window? The larger one looks bright enough to be mostly a glare/flare/bleed artefact, and a second reflection of it would have less of that, so be smaller.

 

[FatPhil]

Venus and Saturn with atmospheric scintillation.

The fact that the scintillation doesn't cause the object to properly twinkle, it indeed very much points towards planet(s) rather than star(s).

 

[peacerunner7]

To cut off needless trails before we start, could the smaller light be the same thing as the larger one, reflected back off the internal surfaces of the window? The larger one looks bright enough to be mostly a glare/flare/bleed artefact, and a second reflection of it would have less of that, so be smaller.

I'm thinking that as well but really I'm not a specialist like some people in the forum. I really don't know.

 

[peacerunner7]

From my specific location using this site, there was no planet or star in my vista facing as I was, West.

 

[Calter]

Venus and Saturn with atmospheric scintillation.

Either I made a mistake somewhere or Venus had more than set by that time over Bridgewater

 

[Calter]

This is my personal video taken on 01/10/25 at 12:29am in Bridgewater, NJ. I am on the 2nd fl of the house recording through a window facing West towards the direction of Round Valley Reservoir. I can't remember if I was simply using my Samsung S23 or a Panasonic FZ80 I had at the time. I wish I had recorded longer

Can you elaborate on what you actually saw? Was it moving? Did it just stay there until you left?

Also, if you don't mind, could you provide a more precise location?

 

[peacerunner7]

Either I made a mistake somewhere or Venus had more than set by that time over Bridgewater
View attachment 82143

Wow. I wonder why Sky and Telescope gave totally different view. You have senior under your name so I'm going to go with your data.

 

[Calter]

I wonder why Sky and Telescope gave totally different view.

It's the same view, my screenshot is just from a wider angle

 

[peacerunner7]

Can you elaborate on what you actually saw? Was it moving? Did it just stay there until you left?

Also, if you don't mind, could you provide a more precise location?

Details aren't much. I was on my computer and look over my shoulder and see this bright ass object. It's just sitting there. I'm trying to register in my mind what it was. I've been scanning the night sky lately with all the NJ drone drama going on. Of all the videos/pictures I've recorded, I've never had something so bright and so close. It seemed like it was just over my neighbors house. So it finally dawns on me to get my cell but I'm in a dark and crowded room fumbling around for it. Not to mention I got another family member yelling for me on the other side of the house. So I was a little livid because the timing couldn't of been worse. Anyway after dealing with that issue for 6 or so minutes I come back and the thing was no where in sight. Mind you its January and most trees were bare so I could still see through them, but no object in sight.

 

[Landru]

Details aren't much. I was on my computer and look over my shoulder and see this bright ass object. It's just sitting there. I'm trying to register in my mind what it was. I've been scanning the night sky lately with all the NJ drone drama going on. Of all the videos/pictures I've recorded, I've never had something so bright and so close. It seemed like it was just over my neighbors house. So it finally dawns on me to get my cell but I'm in a dark and crowded room fumbling around for it. Not to mention I got another family member yelling for me on the other side of the house. So I was a little livid because the timing couldn't of been worse. Anyway after dealing with that issue for 6 or so minutes I come back and the thing was no where in sight. Mind you its January and most trees were bare so I could still see through them, but no object in sight.

A more precise location would be appreciated.

 

[peacerunner7]

A more precise location would be appreciated.

Hopefully this helps. In the yard picture, the object would have been over the house on the far left.

 

[Matt33]

Either I made a mistake somewhere or Venus had more than set by that time over Bridgewater

Hm, I have the same settings and Stellarium gives me what's on my screenshot. I'm in Europe, maybe some time zone issue? But I set it to Bridgewater and Stellarium should know the local time.
Weird, I just set it to my location with the above time and date and now I see the constellation that you guys have. I guess I'm too dumb for Stellarium.

 

[Calter]

Hopefully this helps. In the yard picture, the object would have been over the house on the far left.

That's very useful, thank you. This is the location for anyone interested 40.55745419080746, -74.6606281214643

I believe at least the bright light is a plane, potentially both lights belong to the plane but I have trouble visualizing that, so I'll just claim the big one is.
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?replay=2025-01-10-05:30&lat=40.548&lon=-74.628&zoom=12.1

 

[Calter]

I'm in Europe, maybe some time zone issue? But I set it to Bridgewater and Stellarium should know the local time.

In my experience, stellarium web uses the timezone your system has, so you need to change that manually

 

[peacerunner7]

I've recorded numerous planes, satellites, starlink coming and going with action camera, dslr, mirrorless, digiscoping, full spectrum, and camcorders delight. Never had a plane trip out the sensor producing spiral effect blipping in and out. If you told me that was spacex, I'd probably have an easier time believing it.

 

[Calter]

Here's a simulation on sitrec

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=https://sitrec.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/20014/UAP central NJ/20250702_215803.js

The yellow cube serves as the house, the red sphere is the plane.

 

[Mick West]

Here's a simulation on sitrec

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=https://sitrec.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/20014/UAP central NJ/20250702_215803.js

The yellow cube serves as the house, the red sphere is the plane.

Novel use of the target cube!

I was just doing the same thing. Note you can change the view preset to "ThreeWide" for portrait video, and turn off the lighting in the mian view)
https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?cu...mazonaws.com/1/Peacerunner/20250702_221520.js

I believe at least the bright light is a plane, potentially both lights belong to the plane but I have trouble visualizing that, so I'll just claim the big one is.

It seems to be this

could the smaller light be the same thing as the larger one, reflected back off the internal surfaces of the window?

We've seen such things before.

 

[peacerunner7]

Here's a simulation on sitrec

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=https://sitrec.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/20014/UAP central NJ/20250702_215803.js

The yellow cube serves as the house, the red sphere is the plane.

Thank you. The ads-b data and sitrec makes sense to me. I can see why the head lights flood out the wing lights, but it's really a first for me that I've seen the camera detect a spiral energy around a plane. While negative image and the head lights not a steady projection, that to the side...can you tell me what the stuff being ejected then pulled back in is? You know the specs of black around the head light. If it's black in the negative then that means it must be light too,no?

 

[Mick West]

Thank you. The ads-b data and sitrec makes sense to me. I can see why the head lights flood out the wing lights, but it's really a first for me that I've seen the camera detect a spiral energy around a plane. While negative image and the head lights not a steady projection, that to the side...can you tell me what the stuff being ejected then pulled back in is? You know the specs of black around the head light. If it's black in the negative then that means it must be light too,no?

There's no "spiral energy" here. It's just normal atmospheric shimmering and camera artifacts. You can probably duplicate it by having some go out into the street and shine a powerful flashlight at your window.

You can see similar (but smaller) effects around the street light in the lower right.

You also see the secondary reflection from the dual-pane window.

 

[peacerunner7]

OK atmospheric shimmering. I'll have to be more aware of that next time. So now I'm trying to wrap my head around that small plane looking so big to me at 9 miles away as the crow flies.

 

[peacerunner7]

This was just now. You'll need a magnifying glass to see where this plane is above the tree. That is a plane over Solberg Airport, 5 miles from me. I marked it in yard picture where that plane is.

 

[Calter]

The plane would be a Dassault Falcon 7X, while not as big as an airliner, it's not really that small.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alzV06BQ_oY


You can see here it's got pretty strong landing lights, which is mostly what you are seeing here.

 

[JMartJr]

So now I'm trying to wrap my head around that small plane looking so big to me at 9 miles away as the crow flies.

It ain't the size of the plane, it's the brightness of the lights, and how "aimed" at you they are!

 

[peacerunner7]

Ok thank you folks. This was fun. It's given me ideas to digest.

 

[anonymoose65]

This was just now. You'll need a magnifying glass to see where this plane is above the tree. That is a plane over Solberg Airport, 5 miles from me. I marked it in yard picture where that plane is.

The plane in the original video is faced directly towards you, with its landing lights on, at night. This makes it very visible. During the NJ flap earlier this year, people were watching webcams on the NJ coast and mistaking planes approaching JFK for "orbs". These planes were 40+ miles off the coast.

If you're curious enough, keep an eye out for planes on trackers after sunset headed towards you at low altitude (~10k feet or less), they'll probably be similarly bright.

 

[Kyle Ferriter]

Happy to dig in deeper to this or other videos, but:

(that sitrec link)

So now I'm trying to wrap my head around that small plane looking so big to me at 9 miles away as the crow flies.

The landing lights on the fronts of planes are very bright, and in a dark sky, from a distance, and especially when their beams are facing towards you in any way, they create a big glow much larger than the plane that is visible from many miles away. Even for a small plane.

At the start of the video below, the 3 lights are airplanes approximately 40, 24, and 12 miles ground distance away. A Boeing 737 MAX 8, Boeing 757, and Embraer E175LR, respectively. All under 15k ft altitude, and with their landing lights on. I filmed these approach and fly by me, in a continuous >7min long video. Only around 6min into it can you begin to tell that the last one is not just a glowing circle of light but is in fact a plane with numerous individual lights on it. (I intentionally clipped this video to not show them get close enough to see more than 1 ball of light. This video ends when the closest plane is about 6.5 miles away).

It could be helpful to try to intentionally film planes that are very far away, by using FlightRadar24 (not AR mode) to determine where air traffic control is routing planes over, and seeing if you can film planes <15k or <10k ft up, that are at least 20 miles away, and are flying generally towards you. And pointing your camera in that direction and filming enough to use the timing and angles to conclusively figure out which planes they are. Just to get a sense of what planes that far away look like. A minor caveat is not all aircraft are on all public flight trackers, but around any major airport and its common landing paths there are enough tracked planes under 15k ft to get some video of ones 20+ miles away with their landing lights on and identify the specific plane. Assuming you are somewhere with a clear line of sight, like a lake or large open field or on a hill, where trees and other objects are not blocking the view.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbLE7Sr_efw

 

[elvenwear]

Just out

Ok thank you folks. This was fun. It's given me ideas to digest.

Just out of interest, when you say you were photographing through a window, was it just glass you were photographing through or could it have been insect screening as well? Sometimes insect mesh/screening creates funny effects if you photograph through it.

 

[Mick West]

Sometimes insect mesh/screening creates funny effects if you photograph through it.

I just noticed this out of my window. The sun reflecting on a neighbor's car. With and without window screen, camera about 2 feet from the screen (although distance to screen seems to have little effect, which surprised me))

 

[peacerunner7]

Just out

Just out of interest, when you say you were photographing through a window, was it just glass you were photographing through or could it have been insect screening as well? Sometimes insect mesh/screening creates funny effects if you photograph through it.

No that specific window I removed the screen. It's like my designated plane spotting window lol.

 

[peacerunner7]

I just noticed this out of my window. The sun reflecting on a neighbor's car. With and without window screen, camera about 2 feet from the screen (although distance to screen seems to have little effect, which surprised me))

View attachment 82224

I've only been in to digital cameras recently. People schooled me on refraction pretty quickly haha.

 

[elvenwear]

I just noticed this out of my window. The sun reflecting on a neighbor's car. With and without window screen, camera about 2 feet from the screen (although distance to screen seems to have little effect, which surprised me))

View attachment 82224

Those diffraction patterns you've shown remind me of the unusual diffraction patterns with the Webb telescope (see below), where the small hexagonal gaps in the primary mirror create a series of layered diffraction patterns. Interesting that the distance to the screen has little effect. That is surprising.


Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/54356286748/in/datetaken/

I've only been in to digital cameras recently. People schooled me on refraction pretty quickly haha.

Interestingly, the effect Mick has demonstrated above is actually diffraction, rather than refraction. This occurs because the light is bent when it hits the edge of an object, rather than refraction which occurs because of a change of medium. If you're interested, the term 'Diffraction Spike' will lead you to the most common area of interest, where the shape of the vanes that hold a telescope's secondary mirror, determine the shape of the starburst.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_spike

The Webb telescope adds to the problem of diffraction, because in addition to the three vanes that hold the secondary in place, the hexagonal gaps between the mirror also create another overlaying pattern, much like the insect screen. What I've only now just noticed is the vanes on the Web telescope that support the secondary aren't at 30 degrees like the hexagonal mirrors. They seem to be around 20-25 degrees from vertical.

Source
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/6802406129/in/datetaken/


So as far as I can tell, the long starburst lines that appear on Webb images appear to be from the support vanes themselves. The complex almost tiled patterns in the Webb images along the starburst lines and close to the star itself, I suspect are caused by the hexagonal shapes. I'm only guessing this because of the similarities between the Webb images and Mick's images. The math is beyond me.