A few days ago I watched a program about what are being called 'Rods'.
They appear to be elongated and most of them appear to have a similar shape to centipedes with hundreds of legs.
They range from a few inches to several feet long and they fly around our atmosphere both indoors and out so fast that they cannot be seen by the naked eye.
Aparently they can only be glimpsed when watching videos frame by frame because they are so fast. Another way of seeing them is from a photo print.
It is certainly a strange phenomenon and I know very little about them. I would be interested to know if anyone out there knows about them and even if they have photographic evidence
"Rods are insects caught in the act of flying by a video camera. Some hoaxers or very imaginative people have been maintaining that rods are actually some sort of unknown life form of alien origin. But, according to Doug Yanega of the Entomology Department at the University of California at Riverside and a member of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, rods are
a videographic artifact based on the frame capture rate of the videocam versus the wingbeat frequency of the insects. Essentially what you see is several wingbeat cycles of the insect on each frame of the video, creating the illusion of a 'rod' with bulges along its length. The blurred body of the insect as it moves forward forms the 'rod,' and the oscillation of the wings up and down form the bulges. Anyone with a video camera can duplicate the effect, if you shoot enough footage of flying insects from the right distance.
Rods seem to be a favorite topic of UFO and cryptozoology buffs. One of the more outspoken defenders of rods as aliens is Jose Escamilla, host of the RoswellRods.com web site. Jose has even brought his story and films to The Learning Channel. Some hilarious photographs of 'rods' have been posted on the Internet at the Escamilla site. My favorite is 'the swallow chases a rod' which looks just like a bird going after an insect."
__"Rods are insects caught in the act of flying by a video camera. Some hoaxers or very imaginative people have been maintaining that rods are actually some sort of unknown life form of alien origin. But, according to Doug Yanega of the Entomology Department at the University of California at Riverside and a member of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board, rods are a videographic artifact based on the frame capture rate of the videocam versus the wingbeat frequency of the insects. Essentially what you see is several wingbeat cycles of the insect on each frame of the video, creating the illusion of a 'rod' with bulges along its length. The blurred body of the insect as it moves forward forms the 'rod,' and the oscillation of the wings up and down form the bulges. Anyone with a video camera can duplicate the effect, if you shoot enough footage of flying insects from the right distance.
Rods seem to be a favorite topic of UFO and cryptozoology buffs. One of the more outspoken defenders of rods as aliens is Jose Escamilla, host of the RoswellRods.com web site. Jose has even brought his story and films to The Learning Channel. Some hilarious photographs of 'rods' have been posted on the Internet at the Escamilla site. My favorite is 'the swallow chases a rod' which looks just like a bird going after an insect."__
I can understand how video cameras could create an artifact but how do you explain the still photographers who capture these images. I recently did an engagement session where I captured about 10 images with what appear to be rods in the background.
Originally posted by lbartley: I can understand how video cameras could create an artifact but how do you explain the still photographers who capture these images...
Dust. Reflections. Bugs. Poor film development. Flaws in the paper.
Posts: 4759 | Location: Rochester, NY, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
I'm not very knowledgeable regarding photography, but I do know that a slow shutter speed will cause a fast moving object to appear just as you describe. The image of a "rod" will be made worse by any movement, however slight, of the camera in the direction opposite of the object's movement.
Even the naked eye can be fooled by moving objects. Watching a horse race closely would convince an alien who had never seen a horse that the horse had either much more than four legs or some sort of solid body between the front and back set of legs. In fact, it wasn't until photography and motion pictures were invented that humans were certain that a galloping horse did indeed have all four legs off the ground at one time. (The same inventions have also proved that elephants do not run, at least not in the classic and common sense definition of running; they always have at least one foot touching the ground. They do, however, walk very fast. Only the fastest humans could match or beat an elephant over almost any distance. Elephants can move across land at anywhere from 15mph to 25 mph; The current human world record for 100 meters figures out to 23 mph.)
Many years ago, some little girls in Britain featured in photographs showing aethereal fairies. These photographs cause quite a stir.Only when they were old ladies did they admit that the 'fairies' were no more than models of fairies, carefuly photographed so that it appeared they were with the little girls themselves.The girls must have been a bit precocious, since the trick was done by them.
And, of course, photos of plasma issuing from the mouths of mediums and of other such other-worldly manifestations, have been fooling the credulous for a very long time.Conan Doyle went to his grave believing the truth of such 'evidence'.
