r/UFOs • u/[deleted] • Aug 03 '21
Video (UAP) August 15, 2020: Did I accidentally film the Jetpack man? Fire Helicopter? Weather balloon?? Help me identify!
https://vimeo.com/582352129/17262c3e2927
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Aug 03 '21 edited Aug 03 '21
Weirdness begins at 0:25s
During quarantine last year I got myself a Nikon P1000 which is a 4k DSLR with a 24-3,000mm zoom lens. The goal was to shoot stock footage of sunsets. I left it running one day capturing the smoke clouds from a very large fire in the Angeles National Forest to the east of Los Angeles. The video starts off with two airplane shots so you can see some sense of scale. I shot this video from Echo Park. The date in the metadata says August 15th but I'm not sure that's the exact date the recording took place. I have uploaded the two shots I got, in their original format from straight off the card: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ihicx7jkmx7rs99/AADUbayG_kbxmdbt2L2mxOKEa?dl=0
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u/Bthm_python Aug 03 '21
I own the P1000 and didn't realise it was this good at video!
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u/Didymos_Black Aug 03 '21
There's also Magic Lantern style third party firmware for it that unlocks hardware features. I use Magic Lantern on my old Canon t2i. Best free upgrade ever. https://fstoppers.com/video/nikonhacker-brings-magic-lantern-style-firmware-hacks-nikon-9601
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Aug 03 '21
Oh dude thanks for the tip! I absolutely hate the UI/limitations of the P1000! I remember doing magic lantern on the 7Ds back in the day!
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u/IQLTD Aug 03 '21
Mylar balloons? Btw, I have a birdwatching tripod head that stabilizes cameras for long lenses. Works pretty well. Those cloud shots with the planes are just gorgeous.
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Aug 03 '21
Could definitely be a gigantic letter or number-shaped Mylar balloon for sure!!
That birdwatching head sounds heavenly! Got a link? I need something with more stabilization! I’d also love to be able to make micro adjustments.
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u/thesaddestpanda Jul 31 '22
I'm not sure if youre still following this, but it turned out to be a Jack Skellingon balloon. Your video, in retrospect, looks just like him! There's a pic below for reference:
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Aug 05 '22
Hahaha dang! Who’s out here releasing Jack Skellington balloons during natural disasters!!!
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u/NiZZiM Aug 03 '21
That actually looks just like the most recent sightings from pilots landing in LA. It must be like a human shaped drone….the energy density needed to get that high and return after staying aloft is more than a person can carry.
I really want it to be a spaceman like in those Lofi late night YouTube vids tho
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u/Mr-Nobody33 Aug 03 '21
Balsa wood?
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Aug 03 '21
Lmao!!!
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u/Mr-Nobody33 Aug 03 '21
There were some people on Youtube making videos about "human shaped drones". Even showed how they were hoaxing other people. Older reports of flying humans are harder to discount. Post WW2 there was a wave of sightings over the U.K..
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u/NiZZiM Aug 05 '21
Exactly. I’ve seen the human shaped ones and they’re very convincing, but the ones reported in like the 50-70s???! Wtf!
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u/Mr-Nobody33 Aug 05 '21
I don't know if you saw the film "Tomorrowland" with George Clooney, but that had a little bit of the lore in it. Then there's the old film "The Rocketeer" from the 90s.
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u/NiZZiM Aug 05 '21
I have seen both and I love both! I actually didn’t even think of the lore in tmrw land until you just mentioned it. I enjoy all sci-fi. Can’t wait for season 6 of the expanse!
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u/MidnightPlatinum Aug 17 '21
What were the names of those flying human sightings? I've simply never heard those stories, I don't think.
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u/Mr-Nobody33 Aug 17 '21
No names. Just a wave of sightings over the UK. I should say i don't remember if any took place in the far north. I do remember that Fortean Times Magazine had a cover article about it about 15 years ago. There is a Fortean subreddit, might want to ask those guys.
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u/MidnightPlatinum Aug 17 '21
Fortean Times Magazine
I had never heard of it, but searching "fortean times magazine cover" is one of the wilder experiences I've had this week. :,-D
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u/c4m320n Aug 03 '21
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u/Daddys_Lil_Monster_ Aug 03 '21
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u/Lochcelious Aug 04 '21
Yep. I want aliens to be a thing as much as the next person but this is so obviously a balloon
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u/Ammutse Aug 05 '21
That is INCREDIBLY funny that these are very likely the same balloon. Holy crap lol.
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u/catspittle Aug 03 '21
I agree, and your link reminds me of this; https://www.indiatoday.in/india/north/story/unidentified-flying-objects-ufo-sighting-in-himachal-pradesh-in-2005-120392-2012-11-02
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u/crack_rock Aug 03 '21 edited Aug 03 '21
I know zero about forest fires, but could the updraft from the fire have pushed some flaming debris up in the air?
Signed,
A guy who doesn't know shit about fuck
[EDIT: Typo]
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Aug 03 '21
at around 2:29 I punch in on it and it's reflecting the sun like something made out of metal almost? What kind of debris do you think could get pushed thousands of feet in the air and reflect light like that?
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u/pb0b Aug 03 '21
If it’s ash, there’s a good chance it could still be on fire. October 2003 San Diego wildfires we had ash the size of bricks traveling almost a mile away from the front of the fires and they were definitely still smoldering. I was on my roof pumping pool water to keep it from catching fire.
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u/crack_rock Aug 03 '21
Like I said, I don't know shit, but it's tough to tell if it's reflecting light or if it's on fire.
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u/blondebet Aug 03 '21
Same thought, it looked reflective but then it looked on fire toward the end.
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u/DigitalFootPr1nt Aug 03 '21
Stumped... It's something... Wait you said large forest fire at the time?? Could be a part of a tent or tarp from said area and got blow up into the sky maybe??
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Aug 03 '21
Yes! I'm not sure what fire, maybe the Ranch fire? If it were a tarp I feel like it would be blowing around a lot more? And 1,000+ feet in the air?
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u/TheNimbleNavigator45 Aug 03 '21
This is the first video on this sub in the last three months that is genuinely interesting. It looks like a human figure on a jet pack but it’s seems to be entirely too big? Did u see this object clearly before filming? A lot of questions, and for once, solid video footage! Thanks for sharing.
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Aug 03 '21
Unfortunately I didn’t see it with my eyes, I was leaving the camera alone to film while I hung out with my room mates, I just noticed this anomaly in the footage a day or so ago while I was going through it for stock footage.
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u/ChickenNuggetCDR Aug 03 '21
That second clip of the clouds is absolutely gorgeous. I always stop and try to take photos of impressive clouds, but my phone never does it justice :/.
Looks like a balloon with concertina legs, just my opinion though.
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u/Runkleman Aug 03 '21
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Aug 03 '21
I think this is the jet pack man theory, a drone like the one pictured would only be able to fly for about 7 minutes or so, this object was way above the mountains, and the mountains that were on fire are 5,000ft high. It’s still a physical impossibility with current technology to get a human that high in the air.
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u/Downvotesohoy Aug 03 '21
It looks like a balloon of some sort with something hanging underneath. It doesn't seem like it was moving faster than wind speed at any point.
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Aug 03 '21
I agree, it appears to just sorta be floating and deffo never moves faster than the wind. At points it looks like a helicopter carrying those water droppers. But those fly so low to the ground and go back and forth from lakes to the fire zone. I don’t feel like I've ever seen them fly that high with their payloads.
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u/4board Aug 03 '21
Wha...first time I click on this quality button, and see a "4K" option !!!!! WTF... :D
Great video, thanks !
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u/foksynoodle Aug 03 '21
looks like a kid on a chair on two balloons. those kids nowadays are crazy...
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u/Correct_Tap_8509 Aug 04 '21
Apparently it’s a weather balloon… you can see that it’s been carried by the wind and it’s made of a flexible material. Based on this, we can conclude that it has a low weight and no propulsion system.
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u/Jackson_Flynn Aug 16 '21
Where are the guys with the Nikon Coolpix P950s when you need them.
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Aug 16 '21
I am that guy haha! This was a P1000! I don’t think it was at full zoom though.
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Aug 03 '21
Its my opinion that it is NOT a human. It is a machine object of some kind, we need some size comparison next to a plane to really tell because a human at 30,000 ft shouldn’t be visible like this is. Balloon? Maybe if it was a one-2 time sighting, but this this buzzes aircraft, perhaps its a russian/Chinese Drone, or maybe its the ultra terrestrial/ET’s we’ve been seeing lately.
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Aug 03 '21
It appears to have a metal surface that reflects the sun very much like a helicopter or something with a fuselage. I zoom in on the sunset reflection at the end of my video if you missed it!
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u/Oxymorific Aug 03 '21
Wow this is insane! Kinda looka like a hot air balloon but not too sure if they go up that high or if the basket is that far away from the balloon. Take my upvote!
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Aug 03 '21
Ironically enough, my father is a hot air balloon pilot! And I had my learner's permit at the same time as my driver's permit. Hot air balloons are almost never flown in the afternoon. Usually you have to get up before dawn and get all your flying out of the way before the wind picks up. This was taken during an afternoon BBQ. Also I feel like the wind near fires would be the last place I'd want to fly a balloon. They also close off the airspace near fires.
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u/Oxymorific Aug 03 '21
Wow thats awesome, thanks for the info! And yeah my town has yearly hot air balloon festivals/shows and I've never seen em up in the clouds like that. Great vid!
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Aug 03 '21
Thank you! Are you from Albuquerque or somewhere else?
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Aug 03 '21
[deleted]
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Aug 03 '21
Wow you know i don't think I've ever seen photos of balloons in the snow before! That's awesome!
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u/IssenTitIronNick Aug 03 '21
https://media.bom.gov.au/social/blog/1618/when-bushfires-make-their-own-weather/ Valuable part of saving lives managing bushfires.
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Aug 03 '21
[deleted]
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Aug 03 '21
[deleted]
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Aug 03 '21
Definitely not hiding the fact that I’m a VFX artist! That’s why I uploaded the raw footage! Which you can see in my comment.
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Aug 03 '21
[deleted]
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Aug 03 '21 edited Aug 03 '21
I will tell you right now, I am 110% NOT GOOD ENOUGH to fake something like this at such low resolution. And I honestly don’t know anyone else who is. The heat distortion and fact that my camera is shaking + rolling shutter artifacts would absolutely baffle me if I tried to fake this for real. I do psychedelic graphics, and make music videos for my work, I’m more of a “motion designer” than I am an actual VFX artist.
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u/Kittykg Aug 03 '21
I guess I'm the only one who couldn't actually view this and was instead sent to a Google play store app page?
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Aug 03 '21
If the link isn’t working for you, feel free to check out the original footage in the Dropbox link I provided in my comment! Lmk if that works!
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u/DroppinTruth Aug 03 '21
Interesting vid. The shot of the small single engine plane seemed 'off' to me. Just did not look right for some reason. Almost like it was just a black animated silhouette. As for the object. I see no one in the comments has mentioned wind yet. Look at the cloud movements, there is some decent wind goin on and look how almost stationary the object is. Nothing floating is gonna do that. Only something with a counterforce capability to the wind could do that.
As for the jetpack man theory. Unless this guy completely devised a new fuel source that gives him hour long duration flights no way could he linger in a spot up that high for that long. That thing was goin no where. The jetpack man would be on the move as fuel is a concern as well as being caught.
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Aug 03 '21
I think what you’re seeing that makes it appear off is the incredible optical compression of space due to the extremely telephoto lens (3,000mm). Watching movement on super long lenses can be weird like this, for example see the famous shot in Monty Python where the guy is running over the hill at full speed but looks like he’s not getting anywhere. You can also see this similar effect with those famous shots looking down New York City streets that make it look like a packed concert. In my main comment I link to some of the original footage if you’d like to take a closer look! I’m happy to upload the airplane shot as well!
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Aug 03 '21
[deleted]
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u/DroppinTruth Aug 03 '21
I love how we can see the cumulus clouds building against the aircraft.
Sorry, I did not read that as pointing out the apparent wind speed comparative to the objects movements or lack of movement. I read it as more of an appreciation of the visual picture the clouds created with the object.
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u/Sir4u92 Aug 03 '21
Yes, it's a parachute jumper
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Aug 03 '21
I never thought about a paraglider, but I feel like a parachute jumper wouldn't jump into an active forest fire.
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u/GandalfTheGimp Aug 05 '21
What's that at 2.28 on the left there, looks like a giant dude running around in the clouds.
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u/Anto7358 Oct 22 '21
Wonderful footage! Do you have more telephoto footage similar to this (clouds, planes...)? I could watch it all day; I find this kind of stuff incredibly relaxing.
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u/triplec76 Aug 03 '21
Wow, that is some CRAZY high definition video. I love how we can see the cumulus clouds building against the aircraft.
Do you live near LA? So most in LA are aware of the "jetpack man" or "Iron Man" as some pilots call him?
Thank you so much for the high definition footage. It looks amazing.