Mick West | Drone Zip-by UFO Video Recreations @MickWest | Uploaded February 2019 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Over the last few years, there's been several "UFO" videos that looked something zipping by a drone. Some people interpreted these as large fast alien spacecraft. But I think these are actually very small slower objects, like birds or insects, that are quite close to the camera, and they just look big and fast because we interpret them as being far away. I call them drone zipbys.
Some people have done computer simulations to show how this illusion can happen, and I plan on doing some myself later. But I always like to do a physical recreation if possible.
I don't have a drone so I started out by throwing some rocks at my camera, and then from behind the camera. Neither of these were very useful as the motion was mostly vertical.
Next, I tried throwing a paper plane on my camera. It was really hard to get close, so I switched to the other side, and after a few goes I finally got one. I played it in reverse. And then sped it up to typical drone speed. I then compared it against the Utah video.
Wanting more control, I tied some fishing line to my gate post and then to my fence below, and made a UFO out of some card and a pen tube. This slid down at about 7 miles per hour. I was able to get it fairly consistently flying by the camera.
Speeded up to 28 miles per hour it's not a bad match for the Utah video.
I wanted to try moving the camera instead of the object. So I got on my bike, holding my phone, and pedaled towards a small UFO hanging from a tree. Unfortunately, it's a bit hard to see. It kind of matches up with Utah video in parts. But so far my zip line recreation is the best I've done.
I should probably just buy a drone.
Over the last few years, there's been several "UFO" videos that looked something zipping by a drone. Some people interpreted these as large fast alien spacecraft. But I think these are actually very small slower objects, like birds or insects, that are quite close to the camera, and they just look big and fast because we interpret them as being far away. I call them drone zipbys.
Some people have done computer simulations to show how this illusion can happen, and I plan on doing some myself later. But I always like to do a physical recreation if possible.
I don't have a drone so I started out by throwing some rocks at my camera, and then from behind the camera. Neither of these were very useful as the motion was mostly vertical.
Next, I tried throwing a paper plane on my camera. It was really hard to get close, so I switched to the other side, and after a few goes I finally got one. I played it in reverse. And then sped it up to typical drone speed. I then compared it against the Utah video.
Wanting more control, I tied some fishing line to my gate post and then to my fence below, and made a UFO out of some card and a pen tube. This slid down at about 7 miles per hour. I was able to get it fairly consistently flying by the camera.
Speeded up to 28 miles per hour it's not a bad match for the Utah video.
I wanted to try moving the camera instead of the object. So I got on my bike, holding my phone, and pedaled towards a small UFO hanging from a tree. Unfortunately, it's a bit hard to see. It kind of matches up with Utah video in parts. But so far my zip line recreation is the best I've done.
I should probably just buy a drone.
