The Last Word (hopefully) on the Jerusalem UFO
I have a Google alert for “UFOs”. I like seeing some of the nonsense that people come up with, and most UFO claims tend to go away within a day.
But this one of a UFO above the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, persisted.
The first video I saw was this one:
Which looks horrible! I was surprised this even got any attention. The blob is clearly CG animated, and the background looked kind of weird.
In fact, as Steven Novella pointed out on his blog, the lights in the video don’t twinkle at all, they are still.
Have a look at this screenshot I took of the above video:
Now, compare that to this photo of the Dome of the Rock, available for free via Wikimedia Commons:
Looks quite similar doesn’t it?
But of course there are a few other videos which “confirm” the UFO, none of which are overly impressive:
Life’s Little Mysteries goes into some detail about why these videos are fakes. First, they point out how illogical it is that someone would report these videos anonymously. People would WANT the attention of discovering something like this, wouldn’t they?
Second, no one else in the area reported seeing this UFO. The Dome of the Rock is a pretty prominent structure. Someone else should have seen these weird lights.
Robert Scheaffer, author of Bad UFOs blog also noted,
Effects of the video processing software are clearly seen. The hoaxer used Motion Tile effects with edge mirroring to introduce camera shake into the video. You can see the mirroring effects along the edge of the video. This proves that the video did not go directly from the camera to YouTube
This ‘motion tile’ effect is illustrated in this video uploaded by HOAXkiller1:
Frankly, the UFO videos weren’t all that impressive to begin with. But the evidence is pretty clear that the videos are fakes.
I do enjoy watching them though. It is pretty interesting to see what new trick these hoaxers will come out with next. I don’t think we’ll have to wait long for the next one…
Leave a Reply
A Quantum of Knowledge 
Gee… nobody demonstrated 3 are fake yet… just that one passed some editing program (to change format?) with no prove yet the videoitself has been modified (the border mirroring is just a filler), there are still different opinion among CGI experts around. The one posted from US was debunked in few minutes. The others are still not technically debunked, just assumptions, even if correct ones. Why no other witness? But considering the particular environment could be reasonable to be shyer than our standards. Still under investigation, not hoax.
yeah – i agree – the mirroring that is seen – although maybe perhaps suspicious – doesn’t actually prove in an iron-clad way that the overall footage is fake – i.e in the way that people imagine it to do. the logic there is not completely sound. if you really think about it. its like saying – there are suspicions about a person – so therefore he is guilty of this and that crime – then straight – away – i still say this footage is the real thing – clip 4 is unreal – & no mirroring in that one ;-)
1. Some digital cameras have inbuilt software to deal with motion blur that includes the mirroring effect.
2. it is possible, even likely, that Eligael Gedalyovich did use anti-shake software (many UFO witnesses do) to clean up the video before uploading it. Anti-Shake software uses the exact same mirroring effect as the software designed to add artificial shake
Re: ” illogical it is that someone would report these videos anonymously. People would WANT the attention of discovering something like this, wouldn’t they?”
Thats just DUMB – one would be inclined to think that the ufo subject/topic itslef would be a very taboo/frowned upon one – in jerusulum that is
– most of the ordinary joes would not be inclined to be so quick in coming forward.
Also re: this…”Second, no one else in the area reported seeing this UFO. The Dome of the Rock is a pretty prominent structure. Someone else should have seen these weird lights.”
Sadly too – this is very ignorant/ill-informed subjective tripe no end.
January 28 was Friday night. The Sabbath night. Can use your brain a little and consider just what that means in the Holy City? Whether any given person is religious or not? On Friday at sundown the whole city STOPS. Every Friday night. Always. For millenia. No cars on the road except for the occasional Arab cab, and cops. Many go to shul. Then virtually ALL the city dresses their best and have the Sabbath dinner in their homes or the homes of friends or family within walking distance (almost everywhere in J’lem is walking distance.) This is not a religious thing so much as a Jerusalem cultural tradition. There’s almost nobody out late at night on Friday night in Jerusalem. At all. Ever. For millenia. And if the occasional person were to be out late on a Friday night, they would almost never have or use a camera. I’m surprised so many vids actually showed up – most Jerusalemites would never admit to having filmed something on a Friday night even if they had. You just don’t do that. Any who would do so would almost certainly be young people – teens most likely to disrespect cultural traditions. In short, your assertion that there should be more videos or eyewitness accounts is purest crap, showing nothing but your ignorance.
most of the above article is just a load of subjective, opinionated total-crap really.