QuoteGreg Johnson of Skunk Bay Weather on the northern Kitsap Peninsula has one of the most impressive weather cam facilities in the nation, including high quality digital cameras photographing the clouds at night. He is an extremely reliable weather observer.
But early Sunday morning he picked up something that is both startling and unexpected: what looks like a missile launch from Whidbey Island.
Here is the picture (with a 20-second exposure) at 3:56 AM Sunday morning from one of his cameras (looking north towards Whidbey Island). Can you see the bright vertical streak on the left side of the figure? Note the illumination both inside and outside the cloud. It really looks like the ascent of a rocket.
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2018/06/was-there-unannounced-missile-launch-on.html
What do you guys think it is?
I don't see any wings or blinking lights.
(https://i.imgur.com/nouDL0d.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xTzPSS2.jpg)
here is the video of the thing:
http://www.skunkbayweather.com/WhidbeyMissile.mp4
I see that there is a Naval Air Station there -
I had a quick look on Google Maps and was looking for a area where they might be a test bed for launching missiles - couldn't see anything obvious though.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Naval+Air+Station+Whidbey+Island/@48.337575,-122.6731977,1563a,35y,39.09t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x548562f58ebec7b1:0x2c26cc86ecadcd!8m2!3d48.3410904!4d-122.6722573
It definitely appears to be a missile 8)
as for a launch source, at a naval air station on an island, there could be several assorted launch systems to hand
Quote from: Canine on June 13, 2018, 11:38:16 AM
What do you guys think it is?
(https://i.imgur.com/nouDL0d.jpg)
Looks like a rocket to me :D
HOWEVER... it's an H-135 N952AL "Airlift 5" Helicopter with lights on in a time lapse photo :P
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/21461/lets-talk-about-that-mysterious-rocket-launch-over-whidbey-island-photo-from-washington
PS you have to accept the certificate to view that site
Quote from: zorgon on June 14, 2018, 08:49:59 AM
Looks like a rocket to me :D
Agreed. I don't really know anything about such things at all, but I was under the impression that missiles do not usually fly vertically, because that would defeat the purpose. Missiles are usually either fired from an aerial target with the intention of hitting another one, or from the air with the intention of hitting a ground target. In unusual cases they will be fired from the ground with the intention of hitting something above the ground or in the air, but generally the target won't be high enough up, for the missile to fly purely vertically.
I could accept that ICBMs will need to go fairly high, but I would still expect that they would be fired at a steep diagonal angle, rather than an exclusively vertical one, because they are still intended for ground targets. That photo to me looks like the photos I've seen of the space shuttle, which was intended to go outside of Earth's atmosphere.
Assuming it was a missile - and it certainly looks like one to me - it was an SLBM launched from the water off the island.
It had to come from Skagit Bay or Saratoga Passage.
Depth in the middle of either one is about 300ft. Plenty deep for subs, even boomers and not far from Bangor (boomer base).
The pacific SSBNs are based slightly SW of Whidbey, near Bangor, WA. They pass right by Whidbey on their way out of the canal.
As I stated above it appears to be a missile, or rocket, for those wanting to quibble over semantics; appearances can be deceiving 8)
It is a time-lapse video; notice that the streak at the bottom of the object that would normally be the exhaust plume does not expand, but remains as a straight line just as a star trail does during time lapse photography, and there does not appear to be any exhaust plume at all
QuoteAirlift Northwest
@AirliftNW
Replying to @cliffmasst and 4 others
Just spoke with the pilot: They were transiting from Bremerton to Bellingham on a standard instrument flight plan, flying in the clouds with night vision goggles. The search light was retracted flush under the nose, but did not switch off and was facing straight down. #HEMS
(https://i.imgur.com/52PrQiF.png)
@Canine, funny, but I was looking at the draught of the SSBN and the depth of the sound as well bud late last night. 8)
@Zorgon, thanks for the detailed info - most excellent. ;D ;D
Mystery = Solved
#KeepThemComing
Fans' :)
So you are sure it's a choppah?
I'm holding off on any declarative statements. For now I want to see how this plays out.
(https://i.imgur.com/6Q4M379.png)
For those who like to go deep - just putting it out there:
The missile launch was detected at approximately 3:56 AM PDT which translates to 6:56 PM local time in Singapore.
DJT was in Air Force One en-route to Paya Lebar Air Base at the time of the missile launch.
DJT arrived at Paya Lebar Air Base at 8:35 PM local time.
This failed attempt was discretely confirmed by DJT's tweet. Both the words "missile" and "stopped" were deliberately misspelled.
This is what is being reported:
http://q13fox.com/2018/06/11/missile-launch-lens-flare-mysterious-object-spotted-over-whidbey-island-raises-questions/ (http://q13fox.com/2018/06/11/missile-launch-lens-flare-mysterious-object-spotted-over-whidbey-island-raises-questions/)
QuoteBut Tom Mills, a spokesperson for NAS Whidbey Island, said it wasn't a missile launch from the facility. There are no missile launch capabilities on the Navy base at Whidbey Island.
In fact, Navy workers are wondering what it was, too.
"There's a lot of speculation around here," Mills said, suggesting it could be lens flare. "But it's definitely not a missile launch."
Cliff Mass, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington, posted the photos on his blog Monday. Speculation in the comments runs from a Photoshopped picture to airplanes. But Mass agreed with Johnson's assessment.
"It really looks like an ascending missile," Mass wrote on his blog.
On Wednesday, it appeared the mystery had been solved.
Johnson tweeted that a helicopter pilot with the Airlift Northwest ambulance service said on Wednesday that his chopper has a searchlight that was pointing straight down when he took off -- and that's what left that vertical light streak in the sky.
"This morning I contacted Air Lift NW to find out if the Nav lights on the helicopter were different in any way," Johnson wrote on his Skunk Bay Weather Blog. "I got a fairly quick response back from them after they talked with the pilot. Here is the text:
"'They were transiting from Bremerton to Bellingham on a standard instrument flight plan, flying in the clouds with night vision goggles. The search light was retracted flush under the nose, but did not switch off and was facing straight down.'
"So, the path of the helicopter matches perfectly and now that I know the searchlight was in a locked down position and still on, it makes sense now,"
Johnson wrote.
"I know my cameras very well. This was a unique situation that would have resulted in exactly this type of image. I never thought it would be solved like this.... What an adventure.
"I know that many folks will vehemently disagree with this assessment, much as I did in the beginning. I hope they do continue to keep searching for another explanation, but in this case, I am 99% convinced this is the real solution. I will always leave that 1% open out there because I love a good mystery..... :)"
::) ::) ::)
The video shows a time lapse of 5 hours and 30'ish minutes, compressed to 44 seconds of images -
I cant tell the elevation angle, or the azimuth relative movement angle to the time lapse camera, of the "missile/helicopter w/ searchlight ON, and depressed vertically down, as reported other's, and picked up by Z'
I cant work out how long that streak of light (what ever it is) is in the time lapse frame, and I am not expert with video analysis tools #NeedMoreData -
A51 do you have the tools to look at the camera time lapse timings buddy?
Quote from: Canine on June 14, 2018, 06:15:40 PM
This failed attempt was discretely confirmed by DJT's tweet. Both the words "missile" and "stopped" were deliberately misspelled.
Link, please. :)
Armap I said 'for those who like to go deep' -
what are you doing down here man? This is where john lear is at. Down here the shit is so insane we don't provide always links. Not because we don't have them but because posting them would be robbing you of a cerebral and rewarding experience.
the tweet is real. find it.
Quote from: Canine on June 15, 2018, 10:34:22 AM
what are you doing down here man? This is where john lear is at.
I'm not here because of him, I'm not a "follower", I like to think for myself.
QuoteDown here the shit is so insane we don't provide always links.
I think you (general "you") should.
QuoteNot because we don't have them but because posting them would be robbing you of a cerebral and rewarding experience.
A "cerebral and rewarding experience"? What, looking for a tweet?
Quotethe tweet is real. find it.
I'm not interested enough to spend my time on this, I just thought you were the kind of person that like to share. I see I was wrong.
Quote from: Canine on June 15, 2018, 10:34:22 AM
the tweet is real. find it.
On the contrary, you made the initial statement about the alledged tweet from Potus Trump concerning "missile" and "stopped";
the burden of proof is on you to provide validation and justification to back your claim otherwise it is hearsay and naught but alledged rumor and innuendo...
::)
seeker
Did you guys locate the tweet yet? It should be easy
Quote from: Canine on June 15, 2018, 02:34:15 PM
Did you guys locate the tweet yet? It should be easy
It's not a question of being easy or hard, it's a question of respect for other people.
When someone says something like "Something happened, but you don't need to take my word for it, as it happened. I wouldn't show you that it did happen, you have to look for yourself" I consider it a lack of respect, as that person is just teasing other people.
If they have the information, why not present it along with the announcement that the information exists? It's no wonder if people doubt that the information exists and is accurate, as they don't have any confirmation, only the other person's word.
Now people have two choices: accept blindly what was said to them (never a good idea) or look for the information. When people spend time looking for that information they may follow a path that is completely different from the one the other person used, so they may find the same information but something similar, making things more confusing than they should be. At the end things may get cleared, but meanwhile people were losing time with something for which there was no need of losing time, as the first person knew where to get the information but just didn't want to present it.
To me, wasting time is the worst thing people can do to me, as I can never get it back (at least according to my understanding of how things are at the moment ;) ).
Quote from: Canine on June 15, 2018, 02:34:15 PM
Did you guys locate the tweet yet? It should be easy
I found one, but I don't know if that's the one you were referring to, as the context is completely different from the one you implied in your post.
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/Trump_1.jpg)
Quote from: Canine on June 15, 2018, 10:34:22 AM
Armap I said 'for those who like to go deep' -
what are you doing down here man? This is where john lear is at. Down here the shit is so insane we don't provide always links. Not because we don't have them but because posting them would be robbing you of a cerebral and rewarding experience.
the tweet is real. find it.
Wow. Just wow.
If you want to convince us of something you don't tell us to find the evidence.
You provide it to us yourself.
Note the misspellings. 'Missile and' 'stopped'.
(https://i.imgur.com/lqUhpYb.jpg)
Quote from: Canine on June 16, 2018, 12:51:15 AM
Note the misspellings. 'Missile and' 'stopped'.
So what? It's not the first time he misspells words, and I doubt it will be the last.
This tweet is also about North Korea stopping its ICBM test program and has absolutely nothing to do with anything connected to the whidbey helicopter sighting
Doom porn ::)
I made it clear that I was engaging in deep speculation and just putting it out there.
Then you did what you did.
Quote from: Canine on June 14, 2018, 06:15:40 PM
For those who like to go deep - just putting it out there:
The missile launch was detected at approximately 3:56 AM PDT which translates to 6:56 PM local time in Singapore.
DJT was in Air Force One en-route to Paya Lebar Air Base at the time of the missile launch.
DJT arrived at Paya Lebar Air Base at 8:35 PM local time.
This failed attempt was discretely confirmed by DJT's tweet. Both the words "missile" and "stopped" were deliberately misspelled.
Quote from: Canine on June 16, 2018, 11:21:35 AM
I made it clear that I was engaging in deep speculation and just putting it out there.
OK, I didn't understand that by "For those who like to go deep" you meant "For those who like to engage in deep speculation".
QuoteOK, I didn't understand that by "For those who like to go deep" you meant "For those who like to engage in deep speculation".
(https://i.imgur.com/3XK7lY6.jpg)
Quote from: Canine on June 16, 2018, 07:14:28 PM
(https://i.imgur.com/3XK7lY6.jpg)
Could you explain what you mean by that image?
Check this out, it wasn't in the news and only one civilian managed to image it.
It's from between Whidbey where the missile was spotted and the Undersea Warfare Center. it was detected in the early hours of July 4
The guy who photographed it said the rocket fuel vapor looked like it was 500-800 nautical miles w/ nw of Vancouver Island. He thinks it was a THAAD test/interception event.
(https://i.imgur.com/1bvyHIT.png)