UFO photographed by tourists in Patagonia, February 2025

[Calter]

Do we have a map of the route the boat trip takes? Where is the penguin colony?

Pretty sure this is the route (it starts from the red path and returns from the yellow path). (source)

 

[Scaramanga]

Whereas from your purple circle it would appear to the right of that peak:

Yes, the ship is further along the route than I thought...in the town pic. Which would mean the resort is northwest-ish....and the UFO is more like due north. However after several tests with a reflective cylinder I was wrong to think that the reflection would 'point to' the Sun.

In fact ( counter intuitively ) you can still get a reflection off the side of such an object even with the sun almost behind it, and the reflection degree seen in the pic does in fact match the Sun being directly to the left...i.e to the west...with the reflection some way round the object...and is exactly what one would expect.

 

[Scaramanga]

I believe somewhere in the red circle....

Your captain is going to hit those rocks. I suspect there's a reason the map shows the actual ship path.

 

[Calter]

Your captain is going to hit those rocks. I suspect there's a reason the map shows the actual ship path.

The photo is meant to be taken from a scenic tour, not a cargo ship traversing the canal. It's to be expected that they would approach those small islands since there's nice things to see there.

 

[Trailblazer]

Your captain is going to hit those rocks. I suspect there's a reason the map shows the actual ship path.

From the map posted by @Calter above, the boat does pass very close to those islands, so I think my red circle is plausible.

Different companies seem to have different routes but the purple one here is similar to that line, so it looks like the tourist boats do get up close to those small islands on one leg of the penguin tour.

The dashed line on Google Maps looks like a ferry route from Ushuaia to Puerto Williams, although that route no longer seems to operate.

 

[deirdre]

From the map posted by @Calter above, the boat does pass very close to those islands, so I think my red circle is plausible.

they get super close, i looked on instagram as there must have been other pictures from that weekend. its beautiful, and multiple big tour boats up close to the island. theres like a million penguins and a thousand sea lions at times. very cool. and pretty birds.

i only saved this one from jan 28th though as i was looking for whale footage. they are tiny videos on instagram so my blow up sucks.. this whale sort of matches the ufo a bit if i stretched it out a bit.

https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/215520377/canal-de-beagle/

 

[deirdre]

feb 9th. they seem to go wherever the penguins are (not just the lighthouse island)

 

[Trailblazer]

Regarding the position from which the photos were taken, this video (found with help from @deirdre) shows a very similar view of the shoreline to the second UFO pic.

Comparison screengrab:

The UFO picture could have been taken from just the other side (northeast) of this small island, which I think is probably this one, from lining up the peaks behind:

The rock shapes seem to match up

That puts the ship location more like here - but it could be somewhere along the line heading east-northeast between this island and the peak in the image, while still preserving the approximate alignment.

And here is the view back to Ushuaia from that island:

Not a good match at all to the other UFO picture, which would have to be taken from much further to the right (east)...

 

[Trailblazer]

And this shows just how much landscape there is between the two photos. Not a perfect match due to parallax errors panning around in Google Maps - but there's a whole range of mountains in between these two images.

 

[deirdre]

Not a good match at all to the other UFO picture, which would have to be taken from much further to the right (east)...

so were talking the ship in 2 different locations. like here and here? (im just eyeballing the right hand x from the islands i see in the vid shot i sent you..sure its not 100% accurate)

 

[Trailblazer]

so were talking the ship in 2 different locations. like here and here? (im just eyeballing the right hand x from the islands i see in the vid shot i sent you..sure its not 100% accurate)
View attachment 77495

I haven't quite figured that out but I think it might be possible for both photos to be possible from a single position if the ship is somewere on a line between the little island below your left hand X and the tall narrow peak in the right-hand (eastern) photo. Trying to match views from sea level in Google Earth is a frustrating business.

Drawing lines of the correct bearings for each photo they cross over about here, which is pretty close to my first estimate: 54°50'21"S, 68°11'17"W.

The ridge in the second photo looks too high, so I think it would have to be taken from further away from the coast, if Google Earth's elevation is correct. But it has sea level about -150ft here so take it with a pinch of salt.