I’m always sceptical about little green men and their flying machines. There’s always one nutter/hoaxer claiming to have captured an UFO on a blurry film. This time, however, it’s hard to dismiss because multiple people caught it at the same time.
Here’s the original video, showing a bright dot descending and hovering over Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest spots in the world, at the heart of the Jewish-Muslim conflict in Israel:
It’s not very different from other blurry videos, except that this was simultaneously being filmed from different angles by other people around the city, including American tourists. Here are more videos comparing the shots:
According to the Muslim version of the Lord of the Rings, the Dome of the Rock is the place where Muhammad ascended to heaven accompanied by the angel Gabriel. They also believe that Muhammad hanged around here with Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. The Jewish also believe that Abraham prepared Isaac for sacrifice.
I don’t know what this means. I don’t know what the hell this is, but that kind of behavior—hovering close to a building and accelerating at blinding speed upwards – can’t be replicated by any flying machine known to humans. Maybe it’s all just a very elaborated conspiracy. Or an awesome hoax. Perhaps it’s just some secret military device. I’m only certain of one thing: I can’t wait for Bill O’Reilly to tell us about how this was probably Jesus descending in his spaceship to check out if the tides were still working or not.
Lee F
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 8:31 AMI’m guessing it’s a hoax trailer of some sort, any alien invasion movies coming up?
either that or we all best get ready for anal probing. :O
CraftyNinja
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 11:36 AMSimon Pegg tweeted (about a week or two ago) that there was going to be some viral marketing around “Paul” an alien/roadtrip/buddy movie starring himself and Nick Frost, that would involve alien sightings.
Whether its got anything to do with this, or just a plain coincidence of a hoax, is another matter entirely.
Martin
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 9:41 AMlooks suspect to me. in the original clip there appears to be two flashes of light then the object shots upward at high speed. In the second clip where the dome is much closer there are no flashes of light before it shoots upwards.
deev
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 11:06 AMAgreed. The close up clip basically disproves the distant clip simply by the lack of flashes before ascent…
glennc
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 1:54 PMthe close up clip is a fake. it is of this still image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Jerusalem_night_7088.JPG
the others are not so easy to prove fake
Rastus Oxide
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 10:05 AMlooks to me like a helicopter dropping the orb on a rope then yanking it up really quick.
Michael
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 11:24 AMYeah sure. Think about it. If this actually happened there would be hundreds of witnesses. And where are the (at least four) witnesses heard on the video? Notice how the supposedly brillant object when close to the ground fails to even slightly change the illumination of any ground objects. People who believe this nonsense probably also reply to emails from the Nigerian lottery office.
Jono Rogers
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 11:53 AMAlso, in the second clip, why was someone already filming the top of the dome at night time, conveniently just when an alien orb hovered above it? Also, why do they zoom in, and then conveniently zoom out again when it’s about to ascend?
I call hoax bs, although elaborate and well done.
Macca
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 11:55 AMThis might be part of of Simon Pegg’s movie ‘Paul’. He did mention on twitter about some viral marketing involving UFO sightings.
John
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 12:48 PMHave to disagree with Michael and Martin. Watching the first video which shows 3 clips synchronised the object flashes before departing in each clip. Also the area is already very brightly lit but when the flash occurs the surrounding area is lit up more.
All that said I wouldn’t put it past Simon Pegg to do this. New movie!? Tell me more!
Michael
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 4:30 PMIf your look when the flash occurs, it is over an area but do you see anything in the shadows actually get lit up? Or the shadows even move with the bright light? Notice the flash also appears on top of the foreground guy as well.
In the close video you see external lights around the dome lighting the sides but the top is shadowed. Mysterious brilliant light hovers near top of dome but top remains shadowed.
On the subject of video cameras, those snap zooms in and out stay in focus without a hint of autofocus hunting. Also check the blooms around the street lights, notice how they don’t move at all with different amounts of zoom. Normally these will change as the lens elements move to different positions. Unless of course the original scene was from a static viewpoint and the zooms added post production. Fake.
Shane Kerr
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 1:53 PMDon’t just tell me it’s fake, tell me how they faked it.
Michael
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 3:57 PMAnyone with Adobe Premiere experience could have done it. You take some footage or photo of your scene without the UFO. Next layer in your footage or animation of your bright light. The black background means a simple blend would work fine. You could back project the video behind the foreground or layer the foreground in later. Revideo footage with a crappy cam (don’t forget to add your reality TV camera shake for a nice amatuer cameraman look). Show video to stupid relatives and record their gasps of amazement. Add to soundtrack. Repeat for however many videos your want.
Post to Youtube and let gullible people do your promotion for you.