This object was found on the Mono Lake webcam Monday
morning. Keep reading for notes from one of our volunteer
photo analysts, Dan Drasin. Dan has been a videographer,
documentary film maker and photographer for 35 years.
His comments:
It's not the kind of "orb" that shows up in a lot of digital
photos (those are two-dimensional and therefore not
really "orbs"at all--I hate the name, but alas, it's stuck). But
IF this one isn't faked it certainly seems to be a real orb
(sphere).
"This one, if it's really a solid object, is apparently of a
pretty good size (hence, not likely to be a common weather
balloon) because it seems to be out over the lake, judging by
the reflections in its surface. There's nothing in the photo to
indicate absolute scale, but one can estimate things very
roughly by the size of the trees, the apparent elevation of
the camera above the lake, and the fact that webcams tend
to have short focal-length (wide-angle) lenses. In this case,
the terrain seems to confirm that in several ways.
"IF those diagonal streaks represent sun rays filtering
through clouds in a misty or dusty environment, then the
position of the sun on the sphere is just about right. (These
were later determined to be probable streaks on the glass
front of the webcam housing. Ed.)
"The object casts no visible shadow, but given its apparent
height, and with so much sky light reflected from the water,
that doesn't tell us much one way or another.
"The photo could have been faked in at least two ways: The
most obvious is Photoshop, but usually fakes of this
kind would have the sphere looking stationary. This one,
however, is either moving or phasing in or out--something
I've seen in quite a few arguably legitimate UFO photos (i.e.,
not grossly obvious fakes).
"If this is a real webcam photo (not one previously
prepared and then emailed around on this date in order to
seem legit) it could have been done by accessing the
webcam site and dangling a small sphere on very fine mono(!)
filament. The sphere would, of course, have had to be
painted to simulate appropriate reflections.
"There may be some other perfectly prosaic explanation, but
I can't think of one right now.
"Interestingly, a friend (who, as far as I can recall, had
no interest in UFOs) reported to me some years ago that she
was driving south on highway 395, very near Mono Lake,
when her car's engine suddenly quit. She said she rolled to a
stop within about 1/4 mile of a HV transmission line, and
could see a huge "round" object floating near one of the
towers (whether 'round' meant 'spherical' or not I
don't recall). There was some kind of probe extended from the
object to one of the lines. This lasted several harrowing
minutes--she was totally freaked out by this sight, and felt
powerless because her engine wouldn't start. And then the
probe was retracted, the object whisked itself away a
blinding speed, and her engine restarted itself. I've heard
many stories of this kind, but that's the only one I'm
personally aware of from that immediate area.
"Conclusion: 95% likely a real object, probable unknown."
Anne Strieber comments: "In the over half a million letters
from experiencers that I've read, I've noticed that
clear
orbs of this type are commonly sighted. I clearly remember
reading a letter in which an observer described seeing several
orbs of this type coming out of the water, just as this one
appears to be."
Are The Grays bothering you? Relax...
go to
the movies (just make sure it's the
right
movie)! Better yet, come to our
Dreamland
Festival in June!
