Extraordinary claims. Ordinary investigations.

It’s full of falling stars! But wait a minute. There are even more videos from this same user. Does he waste every night looking at the sky? Does he goes through hundreds of hours of videos searching for meteors? Is this a hoax?

No, he just uses a fantastic piece of software that automates mostly everything: the UFOCaptureV2! It’s joined by the UFOAnalyzer and the UFOOrbit. The whole package automates the process of detecting unusual phenomena in the sky, and even attempts to automatically classify and analyze it.

Check the samples of videos captured by the software: meteors, birds et al and, what I was quite skeptical when I first saw it, even sprites, elves and jets! Of course, it wouldn’t be worth its name if it didn’t also capture UFOs.

The software is free for use for 30 days, and the price is more than worth it, as the developer actively adds features and corrects bugs, being also available in support forums. For less than U$5,000 one would be able to set up a system, and that’s from scratch: the most expensive parts would be the high-sensitivity night camera and associated optics, and the dedicated PC.

I’m completely flabbergasted and excited by this piece of software and its results. This may look like a paid advertising post, but it’s in fact simple candid enthusiasm.

You see, it took science, and those brave real scientists, a lot of effort to even prove and accept that meteors exist – rocks do fall from the sky. Then, sprites, elves and jets were only confirmed scientifically – by accident – less than twenty years ago. It involved special research equipment and even the the Space Shuttle. This is really new, advanced stuff.

But now, you can confirm the existence of these phenomena literally at the comfort of your own home, giving a new meaning to armchair research. Check unusual sky phenomena just like you would check your email.

The resulting data will also make robust physical evidence, as the setup automatically records time, you wouldn’t be changing places much often, and it even automatically tries to estimate various data such as angular sizes from a built in star map system. If several people aim at the same area of the sky, it would make amazing physical evidence. Just like the Japanese are already doing to track meteors, lightning and all.

I’m really excited about it, and plan to promote and setup a system here in Brazil, a hotspot for lightnings and, local ufologists claim, UFOs.

Not convinced yet? Take a look at this (and the video). Did you know meteors could do that? More images and videos can be seen here.

There’s more UFO software suggested by the French folks of RR0, and my personal discovery of this gem came yesterday thanks to Odin from Ufofu.

“This June 23, 2008, around 5PM, a strange “UFO” appeared in the skies of Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Many people saw it and some were able to capture it in photos.”

Not only that, it was also captured in a cell phone movie. And, of course, put on Youtube!

It looks like a classic example of what we call a “Vortex UFO”, the most spectacular one being the Viborg “Jellyfish”.

[Photos by Carlos Albert, shared by Joanes]

UPDATE: I posted higher-quality versions of the two photos above, along with a witness description of the event, over at the Portuguese website. Another pal kindly sent me the original image files and other videos, but what I present here is truly the best of what was captured.

There was an expo going in the city near where the “Vortex UFO” must have come, and the only questions remaining is exactly where did it come from and how.

This last Sunday, a Boeing 757 from Northwest Airlines going from Detroit to Tampa, apparently collided with an unknown object in mid-air. The damage to the nose cone can be seen in the image above, click for the news and video.

Though initially believed to be caused by an unfortunate bird, the aircraft was flying at 18,000 feet when the pilots heard a loud bang before the weather radar, inside the nose cone, went dead. That’s above the height birds usually fly.

Other possibilities mentioned go from structural failure to a lightning hit. The FAA is analyzing the nose cone, and the case echoes the more bizarre event of the Romanian fighter jet that hit unidentified objects at great height.

And in yet another case, another aircraft reports a near-collision with what looked like a small rocket in Houston, at over 5,000 feet. The near accident happened this last Memorial Day.

Invasion? UAVs? Viral marketing for the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still”?

Seriously, it’s not even clear the incident over Florida was a collision, and the one over Houston definitely wasn’t one. As for the Romanian case, that remains an unexplained one.

[via CoW/VJ Ballester Olmos]

UPDATE: Friend José Américo suggested a news item  which in turn pointed to another news of a nearly identical case.

In Janurary another Boeing 757 going from Newark and at 10,000 feet was hit by lightning, to the despair of the crew and passengers. They saw the flash of light, even smelled something burned.

Fortunately nothing much worse than that happened, but when they landed, they noted a somewhat familiar damage:

Let us wait for the FAA conclusions on the Florida case, but if I had to bet… now would be much easier to do so.

… 50 years ago, when Major Donald Keyhoe, director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, was interviewed by Mike Wallace.

It’s dismaying how little our knowledge about UFOs, also known as “ufology", has advanced. In fact, it probably got even more confusing. There, in 1958, was a public figure representing the first civil UFO research group, with clear arguments, admitting they didn’t have "absolute proof" of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, discarding the nonsense of the contactees, backed by high-ranking credible witnesses. At that time, UFOs were officially investigated by the USAF. Later, congressional hearings on the subject would be conducted, even a symposium on the AAAS is part of what has been done. You would assume everyone seriously interested in ufology knows that.

But half a century later, we can’t even use the term "flying saucer" without immediate association with Greys, Area 51, MJ-12 and all those kitsch pop culture elements. Abductions are taken seriously. There are still contactees and even those who take them seriously. People keep trying to prove not only UFOs, but Zeta Reticulli spaceships are real by presenting credible witnesses, exactly like Keyhoe decades ago, and claims that this or that case are "absolute proof" of the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis, much unlike Keyhoe, saluting every Larry King show as a "great advance".

Fact is, the flying saucers are still as real as they were more than 50 years ago. But the spokespersons for them, it seems, got a lot more unreal.

The remaining two parts of Keyhoe’s interview after the jump below.

Read more

Retired lawyer of ‘Banco do Brasil’ and three times South-American underwater hunting champion, Amilar Vieira Filho (83), died [yesterday, June 11th] after being shot during an attempted robbery in the Permietral Avenue, downtwon Rio de Janeiro.

According to the police, he was driving home towards Niteroi. Vieira Filho was one of the founders of the Icaraí Underwater Hunting Club, in Nitereiu, and was member of the Icaraí Yacht Club. The lawyer also became known as one of the witnesses of the alleged sighting of a UFO in Brazil, in 1958, in the case that became known worldwide as the Trindade Island Case.
source: Tricampeão de caça submarina é morto no RJ [in Portuguese]

Last February I interviewed Amilar Vieira Filho, who graciously answered all my questions about the Trindade case. He was still os a very clear mind, and must have had long years ahead. Above, a photo from the times that he was president of the Underwater Hunting Club.

Vieira Filho joked that he was the last one standing, and he was in fact the last known witness alive. This tragic news is even more tragic because, in Brazil, we don’t have to imagine any terrible government conspiracy to silence him.

Such crimes are commonplace, Rio being a particularly dangerous area.

None of the other known witnesses have been murdered, but one is already too much.