Larry H-L
Well-known
The much-anticipated government report on UAPs / UFOs has finally been released and it was disappointing. No Klingons, Vulcans or Borg to be found. Dang.
So, I thought I might add a personal report. I have been really reluctant to show these photos, only a few of my colleagues have seen them.
This series of photos was taken last September during the height of the pandemic. My partner and I headed to a rural area in western Maine and we stayed at a lakeside cottage owned by family. Each night I would walk out onto the dock to take some sunset or water photos. On this night, September 06, I was shooting with a Sigma SD Quattro (aps-c) with a Sigma 17-50mm f2.8 and a Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6.
I had my eye mashed up to the camera most of the time but at some point I became aware that something had flown over my head. I didn’t pay much attention at first because there are so many birds in the area, eagles, osprey, loons, ducks, etc. Then I noticed it again and looked up and saw a dark object moving along the sky. I was pretty sure it was a drone, but there were not any navigation lights (it was getting dark) that I could see and no sound that I could hear.
I changed to the longer 70-300mm zoom to get a magnified look. The "drone" was a perfect dark smooth square cube. No propeller arms, no props visible. It seemed to be almost satin black, very dark, but the sunset sky reflected slightly off the bottom which looked flat and smooth. Judging by the size of larger birds at a similar distance, I estimate that the cube was between 3 and 6 feet on a side.
I watched both through the camera and by eye for several minutes as it moved in all directions, east, west, north, south at different times, and it moved vertically climbing and descending. No sound that I could hear. I considered early on that it could be a square balloon of some sort but it changed directions and moved swiftly against the breeze. Eventually it disappeared against, or went over the tree line on a hillside about 2 or 3 miles from me. The flag pole that you see is about 100 yards away.
Back in the cottage I reviewed the shots. The Sigma is not a low-light camera but I had several shots that showed the drone quite well, though some shots showed slight movement as the shutter speeds were quite slow as the sun had set.
Then, in reviewing my earlier shots with the wide zoom, I discovered that there were actually two identical drones. Concentrating on the one drone through the camera, I never saw picked up the second one by eye.
I am fairly certain that these ARE drones, but in scouring online images, I cannot find a large, black, smooth, cube-shaped drone without arms or propellers. There is a drone that folds into a cube for storage, but it opens for flight.
Any drone pilots out there who can solve the mystery?
Below is a Dropbox link to a folder of full-sized photos if you want to take a closer look. The first few wide angle photos are the ones that sort of weird me out, two black cubes hanging in the air with sunlight bouncing off the bottom of them. I've circled the objects in Photoshop. Zoom in on those.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/98tusnzcw56kxrz/AADK0bkUD57T16OQEgr8fO0Ta?dl=0
Mini-Borg, I guess.
Enjoy.
Larry
So, I thought I might add a personal report. I have been really reluctant to show these photos, only a few of my colleagues have seen them.
This series of photos was taken last September during the height of the pandemic. My partner and I headed to a rural area in western Maine and we stayed at a lakeside cottage owned by family. Each night I would walk out onto the dock to take some sunset or water photos. On this night, September 06, I was shooting with a Sigma SD Quattro (aps-c) with a Sigma 17-50mm f2.8 and a Sigma 70-300mm f4-5.6.
I had my eye mashed up to the camera most of the time but at some point I became aware that something had flown over my head. I didn’t pay much attention at first because there are so many birds in the area, eagles, osprey, loons, ducks, etc. Then I noticed it again and looked up and saw a dark object moving along the sky. I was pretty sure it was a drone, but there were not any navigation lights (it was getting dark) that I could see and no sound that I could hear.
I changed to the longer 70-300mm zoom to get a magnified look. The "drone" was a perfect dark smooth square cube. No propeller arms, no props visible. It seemed to be almost satin black, very dark, but the sunset sky reflected slightly off the bottom which looked flat and smooth. Judging by the size of larger birds at a similar distance, I estimate that the cube was between 3 and 6 feet on a side.
I watched both through the camera and by eye for several minutes as it moved in all directions, east, west, north, south at different times, and it moved vertically climbing and descending. No sound that I could hear. I considered early on that it could be a square balloon of some sort but it changed directions and moved swiftly against the breeze. Eventually it disappeared against, or went over the tree line on a hillside about 2 or 3 miles from me. The flag pole that you see is about 100 yards away.
Back in the cottage I reviewed the shots. The Sigma is not a low-light camera but I had several shots that showed the drone quite well, though some shots showed slight movement as the shutter speeds were quite slow as the sun had set.
Then, in reviewing my earlier shots with the wide zoom, I discovered that there were actually two identical drones. Concentrating on the one drone through the camera, I never saw picked up the second one by eye.
I am fairly certain that these ARE drones, but in scouring online images, I cannot find a large, black, smooth, cube-shaped drone without arms or propellers. There is a drone that folds into a cube for storage, but it opens for flight.
Any drone pilots out there who can solve the mystery?
Below is a Dropbox link to a folder of full-sized photos if you want to take a closer look. The first few wide angle photos are the ones that sort of weird me out, two black cubes hanging in the air with sunlight bouncing off the bottom of them. I've circled the objects in Photoshop. Zoom in on those.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/98tusnzcw56kxrz/AADK0bkUD57T16OQEgr8fO0Ta?dl=0
Mini-Borg, I guess.
Enjoy.
Larry
