Really weird meteorite or lightning in French sky

Mountainsandh

Don't really know whether to post this in Weather, or Space. But here goes : in the South of France, last Friday, a weird phenomenon was captured on video by a lady who loves space and weather events. She was trying to get lightning strikes, and there was a storm ongoing.

A space specialist woman reckons it's not very likely to be a meteorite, unless it's one of the heavier ones, but it's red in colour, and it bounces.

It looks very unusual.
Any thoughts, other than :pac:
via Imgflip Meme Generator

Here's the link to article in French (scroll down for video).
Any thoughts ?
Could a meteorite bounce like that ? It hit near the pier, they think. I wonder could something bounce on a metal container for example.
http://www.varmatin.com/faits-divers/video-mais-quel-est-ce-phenomene-etrange-qui-sest-abattu-dans-la-rade-vendredi-112804

Or is it a spoof ?

ScumLord

It's impossible to say, that could have been a bit breaking off, an optical illusion caused by the camera, it could have been a bug flying past the camera being lit up by something.

SOPHIE THE DOG

Reflection off water surface at the end?

Mountainsandh

I hadn't thought of a bug Scumlord, but I'd kind of rule it out, after watching it a few more times.

I managed to isolate the frame where it "hits", and it looks like there's a line where it goes down to hit, then a dark section, then another light where it bounces.

It's starting to look to me that it's passing behind some big building, and that the "stream" is not really broken upon landing, it just curves back up.

This would raise the question as to whether it landed at all. Maybe it just veered down and up again and ended. Would that make sense for lightning maybe ?

Doesn't look much like lightning to me actually, wouldn't you expect more of a trail ?

Also, if I'm right and it passed behind a building, it rules out the bug.

edit : I just understood what the expert was suggesting : she thinks it's a ball of fire/lightning, and that the way it looks like it's curving back up is in fact clouds on the opposite side reflecting the light.

Could be, don't know. This has me perplexed.

muskyj

Mountainsandh wrote: »

I hadn't thought of a bug Scumlord, but I'd kind of rule it out, after watching it a few more times.

I managed to isolate the frame where it "hits", and it looks like there's a line where it goes down to hit, then a dark section, then another light where it bounces.

It's starting to look to me that it's passing behind some big building, and that the "stream" is not really broken upon landing, it just curves back up.

This would raise the question as to whether it landed at all. Maybe it just veered down and up again and ended. Would that make sense for lightning maybe ?

Doesn't look much like lightning to me actually, wouldn't you expect more of a trail ?

Also, if I'm right and it passed behind a building, it rules out the bug.

edit : I just understood what the expert was suggesting : she thinks it's a ball of fire/lightning, and that the way it looks like it's curving back up is in fact clouds on the opposite side reflecting the light.

Could be, don't know. This has me perplexed.

Could this be a timelapse video and the light is a plane coming in to land then had to abort and took off again (due to weather conditions maybe)?

it goes through the cloud but doesn't illuminate it suggesting it was not really very bright.

Mountainsandh

I think you might have cracked it muskyj, the timelapse crossed my mind, very sped up, and I just checked and there is an airport 25 km away, which I'm guessing from daytime pics is exactly the direction she was facing.


So she was a con, looking for her minute of glory :mad:
And here I was thinking it was some fascinating phenomena.

And how the hell is the quality so bad anyway, if she's a photographer ? :rolleyes:

Thanks

https://www.google.ie/maps/@43.0947116,6.0969336,4043a,20y,85.6h,44.25t/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

ScumLord

Mountainsandh wrote: »

And how the hell is the quality so bad anyway, if she's a photographer ? :rolleyes:

Taking video at night is very difficult. Cameras don't like low light levels. Even a cloudy day causes issues.

Time lapse makes perfect sense once you take that into account. Even the best photo camera is going to need to be set to a long exposure, need a decent lens, a filter to block out the light coming from the town. The long exposure and probably high ISO setting is going to make all sorts of artifacts too.

Mountainsandh

ScumLord wrote: »

Taking video at night is very difficult. Cameras don't like low light levels. Even a cloudy day causes issues.

Time lapse makes perfect sense once you take that into account. Even the best photo camera is going to need to be set to a long exposure, need a decent lens, a filter to block out the light coming from the town. The long exposure and probably high ISO setting is going to make all sorts of artifacts too.

Ah in fairness Scumlord, I do photography as a hobby too, and this looks like it's taken on a phone. Plus her exposures can't have been that long to catch the plane/phenomena, unless the timelapse is only two shots, one on the way down, one of the "rebound", but I think lights flicker throughout if I remember well.

ScumLord

Mountainsandh wrote: »

Ah in fairness Scumlord, I do photography as a hobby too, and this looks like it's taken on a phone.

Depends on the camera too. If I take a high ISO photo at night on my camera it looks like it was taken on a phone.