Are These Pictures Valid?
Was it Carl Sagan who
once observed that, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof?"
I don't make extraordinary claims but the pictures at this website (and in my
books and videos) might be considered extraordinary by some. What proof
can I offer supporting validity of pictures presented at this website?
Unfortunately, there is no
acceptable way to prove pictures have not been faked in this age of computer
generated images. Some times a careful investigator can prove images were
faked by spotting small inconsistencies but the absence of obvious fakery can
never completely eliminate the possibility of fake images.
What I can do is take the time
to explain how pictures at this website were obtained and why they look the way
they do. That might help. We need to start with the fact that almost
all of my pictures are time exposures because at night that is the only
practical way to take pictures. Fast shutter speeds so standard in
day time photographs produce completely black pictures revealing nothing because
in the dark there is insufficient light to record an image. If the
light target happens to be moving while the shutter is open, then the resultant
photograph will show a light track depicting where the light moved during the
time exposure. You will see light tracks in all my photographs
unless the light source happens to be standing still during the time of
exposure.
Mystery lights have a habit of
turning on and off and varying in intensity during their short life times.
If they are moving cross country the off states appear as gaps in the light
track. You will find examples of this phenomena, on "Mystery Lights 1
and 2" pages. On some of the images in my video you will also find
rainbow-like strips of color. The colorful strips of rainbow-like color
are light spectra. They are generated by the light in my camera as the
rays of light pass through a diffraction grating that has countless tiny prisms
to break the light down into its color spectrum. You would not see these
patterns at all if you were present because they occur only in my camera.
I am able to get both the target light and its spectra in the same picture by
placing the diffraction gratings behind the lens near the light's cross over
point.
All of the color pictures
presented at this website were taken by me using either film or digital SLR
cameras. One of my digital cameras has been modified to record infrared
light in addition to visible light. Images photographed by this camera are
reddish in color and may include features not visible to an ordinary camera
or to naked eyesight.
The Snoopy and Roofus pages
include a number of black and white frames taken by those two black and white
cameras. In all of the cases presented at this website those pictures were
created by stacking images to create each recorded frame. This stacking
technique is used to enhance the recorded image by building up collected light.
Depth of the stack is a user variable from 1 image to 256 images per frame save
and the time required to compile the stack varies with the depth of stack.
For example, it takes 4.267 seconds to create each stack of 128 images so when
using that depth of stack saved frames are equivalent to 4.267 second time exposures.
This causes moving light sources, such as aircraft, to leave light tracks
proportional to their speed. The faster they are going the longer the
recorded light track. Smaller stack depths are also used resulting in shorter
time exposures, but still long exposures compared to conventional daylight
photographs.
Roofus and Snoopy both use
astronomy type cameras capable of providing marvelous detail. In order to
fully exploit available light on dark nights intensity controls have been set to
high gain values. As a result these cameras routinely capture faint/dim
details that would otherwise be lost. But extreme light enhancement
settings come at a price. Bright light sources such as the moon bloom,
sometimes dramatically if they are bright enough. The meteor depicted on
the Snoopy page is a good example. That was the largest and brightest
meteor ever seen by Snoopy but its intense light caused the image to bloom
making the meteor appear larger and brighter than it actually was. This
same blooming effect can be seen in other Roofus and Snoopy images whenever
light targets are sufficiently bright.
None of the images presented
in this website (or in my books or videos) were faked. They are all real
photographs taken in Marfa. Some of them look like they were taken in day
light instead of at night because I do use computer enhancement to bring out
back ground terrain whenever that is possible. Not all of them are mystery
lights. Some are ground vehicles, aircraft, lightning, sprites, etc. but
in each case they are labeled as to what I believe them to be. If later I
find that a mystery light image was actually an artificial light source (an
aircraft or ground vehicle) then I immediately remove the image or else add text
explaining what it is believed to be. I am not in the business of trying
to fool people. Non-fiction is so much more interesting than fiction.
Mystery lights are out there. They are uncommon to be sure, but they are
very real and they constitute a rich deep mystery well deserving of study,
wonderment, and excitement because they are beyond the edge of what can be
counted as known.
I hope you enjoy this website
for what it is. You will find it best to open your minds really wide
before proceeding into this unknown realm. It is not a scary realm but it
is a realm of mystery.
James Bunnell
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