Rod (optical phenomenon)
Visual artifacts in photos and videos, often explained as insects.
Rods are elongated shapes that appear on video footage but are not visible to the naked eye.[1][2] They are now understood to be optical illusions created by the way video cameras record flying insects.[1][3]
Quick Facts
- First filmed by
- José Escamilla
- Date of first filming
- March 19, 1994
- Location of first filming
- Roswell, New Mexico
- Documentary network
- China Central Television (CCTV)
- Documentary date
- August 2005
- Debunking location
- Tonghua Zhenguo Pharmaceutical Company, Tonghua City, Jilin Province
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
José Escamilla claimed to have first filmed rods on March 19, 1994, in Roswell, New Mexico, while trying to film a UFO.[4] Escamilla later made additional videos and gave lectures promoting rods as alien life forms.[4] Scientists at the facility set up huge nets to catch the creatures.[3] A two-part documentary on flying rods was broadcast by China Central Television in August 2005.[3]
Video from the company's security cameras showed rods matching those in Escamilla's footage.[3] The rod-like appearance on video was determined by researchers to be an optical effect resulting from the camera's lower recording speed.[3]
What the cited sources add
A 2000 report by staff at "The Straight Dope" added that motion blur from long exposure times creates the rod-like bodies.[1] After consulting entomologist Doug Yanega, Robert Todd Carroll concluded that rods are video images of flying insects recorded across multiple wing-beat cycles.[4][5] Carroll explains that an insect, as it moves forward and is captured several times on video, creates the false impression of a single long rod-shaped object with protrusions.[4][5] UFO researcher Robert Sheaffer noted that some "rods" were "insects zipping across the field at a high angular rate" and that others were bird wings made blurry by the camera's exposure.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Rod (optical phenomenon)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Yanega, "What's up with "rods," the mysterious insects that can be seen only on video?", The Straight Dope, September 18, 2000 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Yanega, "What's up with "rods," the mysterious insects that can be seen only on video?", The Straight Dope, September 18, 2000. facts only, no text reused. straightdope.com
- Wikipedia, "Rod (optical phenomenon)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: 中国UFO悬案调查：飞棍出没的世界(下) SINA Technology News, "China's outstanding UFO Investigation: fly rod Haunted World (Part Two)" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Rod (optical phenomenon)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Carroll, "The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions", John Wiley & Sons, 2003 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Carroll, "The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions", John Wiley & Sons, 2003. facts only, no text reused. skepdic.com
- Wikipedia, "Rod (optical phenomenon)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sheaffer, "ET, You've Got Mail", Skeptical Inquirer, March–April 2000 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Rod (optical phenomenon) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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