My Blue Moon Enigma: Not A UFO
I hiked Iron Mountain at sunset to photograph the Blue Moon above the atmosphere. Instead, I shot an "Enigma."
On August 30th at 7:38 PM to 10:34 PM, for three hours like bazillions of other people, I attempted to photograph the Blue Moon with a camera phone.
I was so frustrated, I almost threw the camera in my bag, and walked off, but then I started seeing what looks like a star or planet on the camera, thought it was interesting, and so I just let the time lapse run. What happened next still gives me chills.
Yeah it looks lamely edited, I agree it does. But it isn’t. I just took it and if anyone cared to look at the phone stamp, they would see it’s unedited.
This is not a UFO, but it also is not an understandable or obvious light source, and
So I am hoping you, dear reader, can help unpack my Enigma.
At the very end, I know you say, “that just happens with the lens” (for three hours though? in different times of evening? and starting from “above” the main moon light source? Not super-likely, and what does “that just happens with the lens” mean, because the same lens took still photos shortly after with no light at all.)
So, what is it?
It is helpful but not necessary for you to have a reasonably scientific mind, like middle school science. Or, to have done photography in the past, or to be an artist, or understand philosophy a little, or geometry.
Anything above would make you smarter than me, as we unpack this together.
First let me answer some immediate questions you will have.
No, this is not a UFO, and I’ll tell you why below.
No this reel is not edited to induce some kind of speculation or interest beyond actually solving my enigma.
What you see up and down as the green secondary source subject approaches the mountains. It shifts right after a jarring of the camera which then happened on three occasions.
When the secondary light source appears to move up then down about 18 seconds in, is also when my backpack that propped the camera up, slipped. So I had to reset it up.
No, this is absolutely not edited.
To the contrary, what you are looking at is a typically poor attempt to use a handheld camera to time-lapse photograph a rising moon.
I took it from 1000 feet above sea level, after a strenuous hike, and the lens is above the atomospheric haze on Iron Mountain, in San Diego County.
And if it were edited for effect, I would be telling you it might be a UFO and I’m telling you the opposite with absolute certainty, it is not. So, what caused this light?
And that is exactly what it is, refracted light.
Because all photographs are refracted light of certain wavelengths, captured. In the same breath, it is not a UFO.
To be a UFO, it would have to be an object and it is not an object at all.
I know this because during the three hours that I took this time-lapse, at no point, with the naked eye could you see the green light source.
Not in the beginning, not two hours later, and I can further confirm it is not a UFO because at least 40 hikers who were also up to see the supermoon passed by beneath me and I overheard at least 20 conversations and not one of them remarked at anything other than the moon.
Here’s what else it’s not that you might think (because I thought then ruled out). It is not a scratch in the lens. 10 photographs taken afterward, on the same phone, have no issues with the lens.
It is not a planet. For the first two hours of video, I became first relieved it was not a scratch, and happy that it must be a planet. That is, until the green dot descends below the mountains which were at a range of less than 500 yards.
So after two hours of assuming it was a star or planet in the night sky, I ruled that out because the green circle would have to have been between me and the mountain, and planets don’t enter our atmosphere, never mind come within a few hundred feet.
Since that is the case, what it might be, and I am still researching this, is moonlight refracted off an object between the moon which is 238,000 miles away from Iron Mountain.
So what could have refracted the obvious light into the lens? (we established that nothing in the lens is mechanically creates the object).
What in THIS world, could it have been?
Spacecraft and Satellites: Various spacecraft, satellites, and space probes have been sent to travel between the Earth and the Moon. These can include communication satellites, lunar exploration probes, and scientific missions.
Astronomical Phenomena: Natural astronomical phenomena like meteoroids and asteroids can pass through the region between the Earth and the Moon. While larger asteroids would have a minimal chance of passing closely, smaller meteoroids and space dust can regularly pass through.
Debris and Space Junk: The Earth-Moon region also contains space debris and junk from previous missions. These can be defunct satellites, spent rocket stages, or fragments from collisions.
Lagrange Points: The Earth-Moon Lagrange points are positions in space where the gravitational forces of the two large bodies provide enhanced regions for spacecraft to exist. Satellites and other objects can be positioned at these points for specific purposes.
Solar Wind and Radiation: Particles and radiation from the Sun, collectively known as the solar wind, can interact with the Earth-Moon system. The Moon's surface is constantly bombarded by these particles, leading to processes like space weathering.
Light and Electromagnetic Signals: Light, radio waves, and other electromagnetic signals continuously travel between the Earth and the Moon. These signals are used for communication, observation, and scientific research.
Gravitational Waves: While not visible to the naked eye, gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime caused by cataclysmic events in the universe—can pass through the Earth
-Moon system.
Interplanetary Travel: Spacecraft traveling to other planets in the solar system might pass through the Earth-Moon region on their way to their destination.
(Not being willing to waste time on learning what passes between the moon and the earth, here are things that could possibly have reflected back sunlight, first reflected by the moon to them according to ChatGPT above)
Which gets me to my very best guess, and I’ll ask you to fill me in on what you think:
I believe, using middle school geometry and astronomy as my guide, that the earth created a shadow of darkness with the sun behind it. And that in that moving cone of darkness one of the following three planets (I used sky finder app), and have shown below the location of the moon and planets along the mountain range.
I at first believed, during the two hours it was suspended in the sky, that it was the North Star, but after it dipped below the horizon, it could not have been that, the only thing bright enough to have registered. That was further excluded by the fact (I am a knucklehead for not checking) I was staring due “South.” So unless it was refracted light from a star or planet int he South sky, it could only have been light from the moon itself on an object between, bouncing about in our atmosphere above the lowest atmospheric level, or light from the planets Neptune, Jupiter or Saturn.
So now I leave it to you - was it a soul returning to earth or some otherworldly light being, a will o the whisp, or one of these fine planets, or Formalhaut?
Anyone who did not feel their time totally wasted by this, who can help put my mind at ease that this is simply some kind of refracted light, post me on it or answer in comments. It is certainly light.
But what is it possibly being refracted off, appearing to move opposite the moon?
We plucked this from today's clear, and delightfully French comment winner:
Dear Bowen Cohen,
We are very impressed with your theories of course, but the answer is far more complex.
You see wise advice team tracked down a team of experts on the subject.
What you witness here is a clear example of the pulley method.
If you look closely as the object lowers down as the moon rises. The moon is being lifted by the weight of the object going in the opposite direction. It's a very common method of the ancient world.
Although we are sure that many of the answers to this post will be excellent, we now feel we should have named it simply "Moonlight On Lens, Einstein," and reduced the wordcount from several thousand to four.