Multiple Reports of Four Light Arrays Photographed in Daylight

New Zealand - Photo at Dusk *NELSON* -- I was at dinner on December 29, 2008, and enjoying the sunset so I took two digital pictures of it. Only later while looking at the pictures on my computer I realized there was something else in the photos. This is when I saw the four lights. Thanks to MUFON CMS _______________________________________________________________________ (From Filer's Files #11 2009) Chathamkent, Ontario -- My sister was simply driving and taking photos on February 15 2009, during a landscape photo session that my sister does quite often. I've never seen something like this before except on TV and the internet, it may be nothing but then again we can't figure it out. She discovered these lights when she viewed her pictures afterwards. Nothing in any other frames before or after the photo was taken. She takes hundreds of pictures. I guess sooner or later something would show up kind of unexplainable. Thanks to Brian Vike - HBCC UFO Research: (The picture actually shows 5 lights, but the brightest four are in the same arrangement as in the previous pictures.) _________________________________________________________________________ October 21, 2009 From Joe: Driving across Wyoming last Wednesday (Oct 21), I took a number of landscape photos while driving along I-80. Basically I would just point my camera in the general direction of the image I wanted to capture, let the camera auto-focus, and then shoot. I wasn't too concerned about photo quality because I wanted the photos to primarily give the viewer a sense of motion on the road. I planned to post the photos on my blog that evening, but bad weather from Nebraska all the way home kept me focused on driving exclusively for the next 2 days. Yesterday (October 24?) I finally uploaded the last images I shot during the drive across Wyoming, before I was greeted by the rain and snow in Nebraska. In the very last image I shot--of mountains to the north of I-80 and in the eastern part of the state--I was stunned to discover I also captured what appears to be 4 brightly glowing objects. As I said earlier, I was just pointing and shooting and not spending time framing images. I didn't see these objects when I took the photo. The objects also appear to be emitting a "tail" that shows their trajectory in an almost "J" entering the top right of the frame and then swooping over the mountains. The camera used was a Canon PowerShot A630. Resolution is 8.0 megapixels. I'm almost certain I was shooting in Auto mode. The manual says "When Auto is selected, the optimal speed is selected based on the brightness of the environment at the time of shooting. The EXIF data are as follows: Date: 10/21/09 Time: 7:55:24 (this must be eastern time) Shutter: 1/100 Aperture: f/4.0 Max aperture: f/3.5 Exposure bias: 0.00 Focal length: 12.57 mm Sensing: One-chip color area Flash: Off Metering: Pattern I shot the picture through a closed window but I was not using a flash. Actually I shot a total of 17 photos the same way that day (ie, while driving on I-80 and through the windows of my car) and this is the only photo that contained the light array. Did you notice the "J" shaped tail coming from the array? Would something like that form as the result of glare? The camera was almost certainly pointing north, as I was driving east on I-80. At the very right of the photo you can see a truck headed in the opposite direction (west). My best guesstimate is that the photo was taken at about 4:30 in the afternoon. It was the very last photo I shot that day (and actually the very last I shot on the trip, as the weather worsened in Nebraska, requiring me to focus my attention exclusively on driving). One other bit of info you might find helpful. I just looked at a map of I-80 as it passes through Wyoming, and I'm almost certain I was heading southeast, either shortly before or after passing Laramie, when the photo was taken. I-80 dips to the south at that point. I think that explains the positions of the shadows in the photo. Also, mountain time in WY would place the time of the photo being taken at 5:55:24 PM. __________________________________________________________________________________

Analysis

In Joe's pictures the ellipticity of each light image MIGHT be a result of the motion of the camera if the objects were close to the road and if they were basically circular in the sense that, they would have appeared as circles had there been no relative motion. The effect of camera motion - moving the lens axis parallel to itself during the exposure time without twisting the camera - is apparent in the broadening of the images of the fence posts on the far side of the road, for example. If the lights were very far away, such as the distant hills, then the ellipticity is an indication that the lights could have been round but were seen from an oblique view (a circle appears as an ellipse when the sighting direction is not perpendicular to its surface). The appearance of this arrangement of bright lights in the daylight sky reminds me of the Salem, Mass. Coast Guard witness' picture from 1952 except those lights were "in echelon" formation rather than a diamond shape.