North Coronado May 17th Bobby Shafto 2024-05-18 | North Coronado Island made an appearance today from San Diego. This time of year, a persistent temperature inversion and marine layer conditions create coastal fog and haze that tends to limit visibility to 10 miles or less. For whatever reason, the "May Gray" overcast cloud layer was higher and the near surface air was a bit clearer, allowing the Coronados, about 18 miles south of San Diego, to peek through. Those who are familiar with my channel know that this is the view from boat launch on Shelter Island (San Diego harbor). This view had been the subject of many repeated observations that examined the vertical alignment of the North Island Naval Air Station ammo pier (seen at left of frame) with the "spur" on the south end of the island to assess for flatness versus convexity. There's no presentation here, or annotations, or commentary. It's just 10 minutes of footage shot during a lunch break, taking advantage of the relatively clear visibility. I don't expect this video will help my channel's analytics. If I was trying to grow my channel, this is not the sort of thing one should upload. I don't know why I am uploading this, honestly. Maybe just to keep the channel alive and remind folks I'm still around?
North Coronado June 3rd Bobby Shafto 2024-06-04 | Compare with previous videos:May 18th youtube.com/watch?v=BObtTW9PWlEMay 17th youtube.com/watch?v=LRLZF4ZO_jk(Ambient score added to replace/mute excessive wind noise picked up by the mic. It wasn't really all that breezy, but the sound wasn't pleasant.)
North Coronado May 18th Bobby Shafto 2024-05-19 | Same details as previous day. Similar conditions, but clearer. No noticeable inferior mirage. Can see tip of "spur" at south (left) end of the island barely poking up over the horizon.
Hole in the Clouds at Sunset Bobby Shafto 2024-04-18 | Post-sunset sunlight shining through a cloud "keyhole"
SpaceX Starlink Group 8-1 Launch April 7th Bobby Shafto 2024-04-08 | Caught the 2nd Starlink launch from Vandenberg SFS in a week. Higher vantage point this time (240m) and slightly shorter distance (370 km). Stills, nearly a minute of flight time before rocket was visible, passing 7000m altitude. 20 second gap in middle of sequence due to loss of focus and stopping/restarting recording to switch to manual. Tracked 1st stage return entry burn in final sequence of recording. Inset video is SpaceX video feed. Audio commentary is SpaceFlightNow narrator.
Catching 1st glimpse of SpaceX Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg SFS on 4/1/2024. From 233 miles away. Bobby Shafto 2024-04-04 | ...
SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch: April 1st, 2024 Bobby Shafto 2024-04-04 | This was the launch of Starlink Group 7-18 from Vandenberg SFS, aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster. Launch began at 1930 PDT, 1 April 2024. My location was on Point Loma's Luscomb's Point, at Sunset Cliffs. Coordinates: 32.725250, -117.258167Height: approximately 30 ftDistance to Vandenberg Launch Pad Facility: approximately 233.7 miles.First capture of the rocket from my position in San Diego near sea level can be seen about 1 minute after liftoff. (1:08) At that moment, the vehicle had already ascended to an altitude of about 9 kilometers (about 30,000 ft). The first inset video, positioned in the upper right hand corner at the start of the video, is the SpaceX video feed, streamed live by @SpaceflightNowVideo with SpaceFlightNow narration. The second inset, initially in the upper left, is the simultaneous webcam feed by @805Webcams from a camera positioned above Avila Beach, north of the Vandenberg Space Force Base launch facility.Coordinates: 35.18213392816902, -120.74300974111436Height: approximately 600 ftDistance to Launch: approximately 38.7 milesCamera used: Panasonic Lumix FZ-2500 Manual focus was, unfortunately, not as sharp as it could have been.This is a re-upload of an earlier video with some minor edits.
Standing by for SpaceX launch in about 40 minutes. Bobby Shafto 2024-04-02 | Results published:youtube.com/watch?v=aPB5ZNaryzc
17 and 1/2 Hour Old Moon, Waxing Crescent Bobby Shafto 2024-03-11 | I was on the hunt for the new waxing crescent moon, about 30 minutes after sunset, hoping to catch a glimpse through a narrow break in the clouds. I did not see it at all, either with the naked eye or in the display on my camera.Wasn't until I looked at the footage and noticed that I had, in fact, captured the thin sliver of the moon, about 0.1% illuminated, barely penetrating the fading orangey civil twilight. Even though I didn't see it, it was right where Mooncalc predicted.
Waning Crescent: Last Rise Before New Moon Bobby Shafto 2024-03-08 | 5:45am San Diego North CountyMarch 8th, 2024
Mirage Zone Magic Bobby Shafto 2024-02-21 | I've asked this question many times on this channel. I have not received a satisfactory answer, and yet I continue to read and hear that inferior mirage is what is creating the illusion of surface curvature.Ignoring the issue of increasing angular drop of targets with distance for now, how could an inferior mirage that is obscuring a narrow vertical band of an image be responsible for a vertical span of missing visual information that has a greater angular value than that of the mirage itself? Inviting constructive comments below...again.Arcadia - Wonders by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100326Artist: http://incompetech.com
Sunset Under Overcast Bobby Shafto 2024-02-21 | From Otay Mountain, looking west toward downtown San Diego and Point Loma. Footage 1-minute sequenced time-lapse from HPWREN.
Mesa Lane vs Mussel Shoals Bobby Shafto 2024-02-20 | Unlisted video from last year assessing the alignment of the bluff at Mesa Lane in Santa Barbara (a little over 6 miles distant) with the coastal hills beyond Hwy 101 at Mussel Shoals (about 23 miles away). As captured by Pablosdog at UCSB Campus Point 45 ft above the water. Switching this to public view for reference to recent observations and questions about the alignment of a bluff failure “spot” beyond the Mussel Shoals shoreline and the “point” bluffs at Mesa Lane.
2 Ships Bobby Shafto 2024-02-16 | Images captured by Harry Baird, viewing from a height of 250 ft with P900, looking out of the entrance to Sydney harbor.Cliff face left of frame is North Head in Manley. About 3 miles away at harbor entrance. Light beacon on top of North Head (just out of frame) has a height of 250 ft above mean sea level also; same height as Harry’s camera. Dont believe Harry posts flat earth content anymore. Music: YouthMusician: @iksonmusic
No Curvature Calculator Allowed Bobby Shafto 2024-02-15 | Life in Romance by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org
Draft Template for Recent Anacapa Island Videos (See Description) Bobby Shafto 2024-02-14 | This is a rough draft of an idea for comparing globe vs flat prediction against actual observations being published on the Pablosdog channel. These are crudely edited on an iPhone using InShot editing app. It's just a concept video, and utilizes simulated renderings of the scene produced by Heath Carmody. (The magenta notations are from his source video and are not applicable for this presentation.)The flat earth community's contrary argument to a globe earth often focuses on what "should be visible" for a globe earth of a specific radius (3959 miles). When we observer "more than we should," it's suggested to be evidence against a globe earth. Flat earth proponents rarely, if ever, examine what an observation would look like - "should be" - if earth is flat. But as I'll often say, "not a globe" is not the same as a confirmation of flat. An observation that appears to match a globe earth of radius 5000 miles or even 10000 miles is still not flat. What this template for overlaying comparison real world video captures of this scene can do is place a globe prediction and a flat prediction, without any adjustment for atmospheric/atmoplanar refraction on top of each other for comparison, and against which we can gauge whether the actual observation is closer to a geometric globe or geometric flat earth. The first question I have in attempting this is how to anchor the images. Vertical angles relative to the camera/eye are an essential element of the globe/flat comparison, but there are typically no visual cues or measurements provided as to where "eye level" is in an observation. We can predict where that 0 degree vertical angle would be for geometric flat and globe simulated renderings, and anchor the simulation images on that line. But how do we know where "eye level" is in images taken by Pablosdog? In this draft, I've taken a still image from his February 12th video and aligned it with where a globe earth with standard refraction would align "eye level" against the island. Is that biasing? If the flat earth community has a better suggestion, I'm all ears. The apparent horizon is a poor reference since it is universally agreed that it is variable and its vertical location is influenced by distorting effects like mirage. What's needed is some mutually agreed upon method of establishing where "eye level" is in a field of view. Does the flat earth community have any ideas?
Answer to Bridge Question Bobby Shafto 2024-02-14 | Follow-up to Community Post published earlier today. New Sports Arena Blvd bridge across the San Diego River is, in fact, curved. Without seeing the bridge surface itself, the clue to its curvature is the alignment of the identical sized light posts. Perspective is still at play, but the light posts height alignment reveals the curvature of the bridge.
Rerun: Where is Eye-Level Here? Bobby Shafto 2024-02-12 | This is a reposting of a question I can’t answer. If we don’t presume any curvature to the water surface, where should a horizontal plane from the observer appear to bisect this field of view?Camera height was 45 feet above the water. We can’t identify the 45-ft height above the waterline on the ship in the foreground or 45-ft on the high bluffs above the coast of the island in the background. Does that mean “eye level” is at the apparent horizon? Or at least somewhere between that and the mirroring “fold line” of inferior mirage?Or would it appear to be below where the upper limit of where the water surface appears due to an optical illusion of the water looming?Or is it higher, and everything else just appears to be declined (dropped) due to some optical effect?I posed this question last week and got no response from anyone who believes earth is flat. Thought I’d try again before moving on with this observation.
Question 2: Answered Bobby Shafto 2024-02-09 | Earlier, published a request for help to identify a mystery element of a passing container ship, captured by @pablosdog2808 on December 22nd, 2023. youtube.com/watch?v=mTZ2SddfrzgToday, with @bflat1894 's help, that ship was identified as the CMA CGM Marco Polo that had departed the port of Long Beach earlier that day and transited the shipping lane, leeward to the Channel Islands. Estimated distance from Pablosdog's location, 45-ft on the bluffs of UCSB Campus Point about 23-24 miles, quartering aspect: youtube.com/watch?v=IDTkOfRadJcThe mystery object turns out to be the port tip of a wind screen recently installed on the bow. Images of the ship from 2022 and earlier do not show the bow screen. Also noteworthy: the dual funnel arrangement must have been modified at some point, since earlier pictures of the vessel show a single, central structure. Now, with this information, we can better estimate dimensions of the ship and deduce how much appears to be obscured from view.
Need Help Question 2 Bobby Shafto 2024-02-08 | Can anyone help me identify what this is at 0:35 ?Even better if you can help me identify the actual ship, or at least the correct type/class. It was a container vessel transiting the shipping channel northbound off of Santa Barbara on the afternoon of Dec 22nd, 2023. Believe it had departed Long Beach and was likely heading to Oakland. The pairing of bridge structure and twin-funnel stacks is distinctive. It is mostly likely a 330-360m length "New Panamax" class of vessel, but not sure. Could be a rare "mega" 400m ship, though Long Beach can't handle those and they can't transit the Panama Canal. So unlikely. But I can't determine what that rectangular protrusion might be that appears forward of the foremast (though, due to perspective angle, may actually be on the port side aft of the foremast).
Need Help: Question 1 Bobby Shafto 2024-02-08 | Where would a "flat earth" eye-level line be in this image?
Rebuttal of BFlat Rebuttal Bobby Shafto 2024-02-06 | Original video by Pablosdog: youtube.com/watch?v=IDTkOfRadJcMy analysis which included claim of 400 ft obscured at Anacapa: youtube.com/watch?v=YoJmbEAIF8ABFlat's Response challenging my claim of 400 ft of Anacapa Island missing: youtube.com/watch?v=0XHUHkR2qhA
Short Addendum: Eye-Level Conundrum Bobby Shafto 2024-02-01 | Idea suggested by Travis “The ÜberCaste”.
Boat Dropping (Eye-Level Conundrum #2) Bobby Shafto 2024-01-30 | This is a sped-up rerun of a video originally published in June 2023. youtube.com/watch?v=Fm1ZbE8STPEI've added a line notation indicated "eye level" of the camera. Details from the day are outlined in the description of the original video.
Eye-Level Conundrum (Silent) Bobby Shafto 2024-01-30 | Cruise ship Artania entering San Diego harbor. 1st image: 5 miles distance2nd image: 1 mile distance Camera level with cone tip of piling in the foreground. Question: why doesn’t eye-level align at same height on the ship when it’s at 5 miles as when it’s at 1 mile?
Daytime Moon Bobby Shafto 2024-01-24 | Found this in my archives. Shot with an iPhone some time back. Only in Standard HD. Can't find the 4K original. Just thought this was nice. Soothing.
Which One is Best Capture of Flatness? Bobby Shafto 2024-01-18 | IndexList0:25 11/1/23 “It Is What It Is Pan”0:31 11/8/23 “Lunchtime Pan”0:37 11/9/23 “P1000 Pan”0:43 11/12/23 “Sunday PM Pan”0:49 11/21/23 “Distant Shores Pre Sunset Pan”0:57 11/22/23 “Quick PM Pan”1:03 11/23/23 “Afternoon Pan”1:08 11/26/23 “A Quicklook Pan”1:15 11/27/23 “3rd Day Row Pan”1:21 12/1/23 “Typical Pan”1:27 12/4/23 “Non Standard Atmospheric Pan”1:35 12/8/23 “Standard Atmospheric Pan”1:41 12/10/23 “Clear As Day Pan”1:48 12/15/23 “That’s Flat Pan”1:55 12/15/23 “Seven Swans A Swimming Pan”2:01 12/17/23 “Overcast Day Pan”2:08 12/22/23 “Post Rain Pan”2:14 1/1/24 “Happy New Year Pan”2:22 1/4/24 “Fly By Pan”2:29 1/5/24 “Another Standard Pan”2:34 1/7/24 “Not the 11th Pan”2:41 1/8/24 “Many Clear Days Pan”2:48 1/12/24 “Seeing Mirage Pan”These are stills from the last 23 panning videos captured by Pablosdog from UCSB Campus Point and sweeping across the panorama from Santa Barbara's Mesa Lane to Point Mugu. This is of oil rig Platform Henry at a distance of 16.88 miles in the foreground with the hills of Ventura County at 50-55 miles and the Santa Monica mountains at 70+ miles in the background.Details:Camera location: varies slightly. Within 50 ft north/south of 34°24'32"N 119°50'32"WCamera height: approximately 45 ft with tripod.Platform Henry: 34°19'59"N 119°33'42"WVentura County "ridge" in background aligned with Henry: 34°09'35"N 118°55'46"W(see youtube.com/@pablosdog2808 for more information)None of these depict the earth as one might expect if it is a globe with radius of 3959 miles without the optical effects of an atmosphere under varying conditions.Do any of these depict the earth as one might expect if it is flat?If you can, pick the one you believe most closely illustrates a flat earth and leave it in the comment section.
Orange & Teal Bobby Shafto 2024-01-15 | Sky and passing landscape from FL270, looking west during sunrise.
Mystery Island Bobby Shafto 2024-01-12 | What appears to be a separate island to the east of Catalina Island when viewed from a height of about 1100 ft and a distance of about 90-100 miles, is actually two regions of Catalina Island.On the day this photo was taken, elevations below around 1300 feet at a distance of 90 miles (the Silver Peak area at the NW end of the island, and elevations below around 1600 feet at a distance of 100 miles (the Mt Orizaba region of the island), are not visible, creating the appearance of 2 separate islands.
Explain “Aetherband” with this Clip Bobby Shafto 2024-01-11 | This is intended for UberCaste/PlainTruth/Aetherband/Travis, or anyone who thinks he or she can explain how Aetherband works to create the illusion of this vessel appearing sunken (sitting lower, missing hull).This was shot a few years ago from La Jolla’s Ellen Browning Scripps Park with a camera phone mounted onto a spotters scope. Camera height about (edit: height corrected) 25 feet above the water.
Data Gleaning from Sunset Thru Pipe Bobby Shafto 2024-01-10 | Using the pipe diameter and distance from camera, with a secondary reference of the sun's angular width, I was able to calculate the observed elevation of the sun and dip angle of the horizon. Also, using Peakfinder's sun layer, married the image up to get the setting azimuth. Compared that with the sun azimuth/elevation details from SunCalc and horizon dip prediction from Walter Bislin's Advanced Earth Curve Calculator, and amazingly, all lined up pretty well.Which all leads back to the challenge for flat earth to explain a sun having an observed declination below horizontal at the time of setting with a simultaneous subsolar position 6260 miles away.
Test: Setting Sun Viewed Thru a Horizontal Pipe Bobby Shafto 2024-01-10 | This is raw 4K footage of an attempt to capture the setting sun looking through a bit of ABS conduit that's been set level on a tripod. I'd done this before with some ribbed drain piping, but someone commented on that and it gave me the idea to re-try it with this hard plastic pipe that was pretty shiny on the interior. I pretty much eye-balled a prediction where the sun would be just before it "touched down" on the horizon. I didn't quite get it. The pipe was pointed south just a tad too much. The idea was to see if I could capture the setting sun casting light directly onto the upper half interior of the pipe. Being horizontal/level, the sun would have to get to a position below horizontal into order for it to be seen in the inside upper wall of the wipe. This video is pretty boring by itself; literally like watching paint dry. It's not sped up. This is realtime and it takes 11 minutes. I can't imagine anyone sitting through it, but it's good for scrolling through and seeing if there's anything useful (or beautiful) about it.I'll probably use stills from this for a future presentation, unless I manage to capture a better one later. I'm always open for suggestions.Recorded from Double Peak in San Marcos, CACoordinates: 33.109626, -117.177931Date: 9 January, 2024Recording Start: 1649 PSTRecording Stop: 1700 PST
Disappearing Ships Are Never Convincing Bobby Shafto 2024-01-09 | Clear horizon and a tanker loitering off the coast of San Diego afforded an opportunity to zoom in on the vessel from different heights along Hill St above Sunset Cliffs in Point Loma.
January 7th, 2023 Sunset Bobby Shafto 2024-01-08 | Real time (not time-lapsed)Shot with Panasonic Lumix FZ-2500Hilltop ParkRancho PenasquitosSan Diego, CA
Morning Sunlit Clouds Bobby Shafto 2024-01-05 | Camera coordinates33.004340, -117.113400Camera elevation490 ft MSLTimelapse start: 0626 PSTTimelapse end: 0648 PSTSun angular elevation at start: -5.83 degreesSun angular elevation at end: -0.87 degreesMETAR cloud data (KNKX - Miramar MCAS)SCT 150 (scattered 15,000 ft) Video shot with iPhone 15 Pro Max in timelapse mode1920x1080 resolution30 fps1.5 sec shot interval29 second clip lengthtimelapse recorded at 1.5 second shot intervals2/3 frames per second40 frames per minute 22 minutes recording length resulting in 880 frames capturedrendered at 30 frames per second playback results in 29 second video clipedited on iPhone with InShot saturation, contrast, exposure adjusted slightly.1 second added for fade-outroyalty free music "Sunrise" by Ilya Marfinicons8.com/music
Estimating Distances Bobby Shafto 2024-01-04 | Companion to recent video, illustrating how closure distance was estimated.
Pablosdogs Container Ship with Anacapa in Background Bobby Shafto 2024-01-03 | No claim is being made in this presentation about why or how anything is missing from view. This is just data analysis of what we can see in this video clip. Tools used: Peakfinder, Google Earth, MarineTraffic and Vesselfinder, NOAA Buoy data: ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=46053RUC Sounding data: rucsoundings.noaa.gov Link to Pablosdog video: youtube.com/watch?v=IDTkOfRadJcView location: 45ft elevation on Campus Point, UCSBSoundtrack: "Pure Potentiality" by Benjamin Martinsyoutube.com/watch?v=xXm1FS-lPK0
Pond Mirage Bobby Shafto 2023-12-31 | Does the mirage create the illusion that this pond surface curves?
Street Mirage Bobby Shafto 2023-12-28 | Does this street crest on a hill? Or does it just look like it does because of the mirage?
