The Cumberland Spaceman

[Frideswide]

Indeed, an excellent series of photos bakelite brain.

Even if I did spend some time seeing the mother as a photobombing very large pale blue bird with a slightly curving white beak

 

[PeteByrdie]

This, to my mind, fully explains the 'mystery' behind what I always considered one of the least convincing entity photographs. I'd be pleased never again to see an attempt to persuade people there was ever a possible alien incolved in this picture via another drawn out analysis. Even as an impressionable kid, taking my first steps into forteana, I thought this was a stretch.

 

[sherbetbizarre]

Looks like it was his wife walking away.

Or more likely jumping?

 

[GNC]

Don't wish to trawl the rest of this thread, but has anyone explained the similar-looking spaceman seen abroad (in Australia, it might have been?) at a space research institute around the same time? Sorry to be so vague, but Jenny Randles did a documentary about it many moons ago and I haven't seen the case mentioned since that I recall. She thought the connection was why the Men in Black showed up later.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I think this thread has finally put this mystery to rest (at least, for me it has).

 

[PeteByrdie]

Don't wish to trawl the rest of this thread, but has anyone explained the similar-looking spaceman seen abroad (in Australia, it might have been?) at a space research institute around the same time? Sorry to be so vague, but Jenny Randles did a documentary about it many moons ago and I haven't seen the case mentioned since that I recall. She thought the connection was why the Men in Black showed up later.

There was a spaceman at a space research institute in Australia who looked like Annie Templeton? What are the odds?

 

[ramonmercado]

There was a spaceman at a space research institute in Australia who looked like Annie Templeton? What are the odds?

More likely he would look like a sheep/human hybrid to fit in.

 

[Ermintruder]

BakeliteBrain, simply excellent. For me, also, this bags it.

May I ask, in particular, when you've increased the colour saturation, or moved the gamma correction point (in order to differentiate the surface textures that were hitherto 'sixties spaceman white') has the blue top colour somehow emerged as an evident reality? Or is that a postulative colourisation introduced by yourself?

Irregardless of this point, having dehomogenised that stubborn white puzzle (emphasising the shadow within the bent elbow), you have killed the dragon.

A lengthy saga (surely) now comes to an end.

ps If there were a New Year's Honours List for contributions to Fortean research, you'd be one of these kind of recipients that people would nod their collective heads about, firmly and honestly over the breakfast newspaper, saying, 'Look, they really deserved to get that award!'

And in some parallel reality, perhaps that is happening even now. With tall spacemen, standing behind the main audience at the awards ceremony, awkwardly-respectful and facing away from the action....

 

[Bigphoot2]

Don't wish to trawl the rest of this thread, but has anyone explained the similar-looking spaceman seen abroad (in Australia, it might have been?) at a space research institute around the same time? Sorry to be so vague, but Jenny Randles did a documentary about it many moons ago and I haven't seen the case mentioned since that I recall. She thought the connection was why the Men in Black showed up later.

I found this about the Australian spacemen http://debunkedmyth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/blue-streak-missile-woomera-alien.html

 

[bakelite brain]

I cannot take credit for the analysis of the Spaceman photos. I just reposted them because the first time I saw them I was convinced they explained the mystery, which could finally be put to bed.

When the subject popped up here, I thought they would be equally useful. Seems I was right.

They can be found here, on ATS

BBrain

 

[GNC]

I found this about the Australian spacemen http://debunkedmyth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/blue-streak-missile-woomera-alien.html

Thanks, that was what I was fumbling towards. Can't really tell much from the photo either way, but it was probably a workman in protective gear. Doesn't quite clear up the MiB connection, but other than that coincidence looks likely.

 

[Analis]

The problem with the explanation by the presence of a human being, is that given the position of the 'spaceman', this human being would have had to be on stilts.

 

[Analogue Boy]

What is more likely. A chubby humanoid alien in a spacesuit and a bra with its arms on the wrong way round or an overexposed capture of the missus up the hill looking into the distance?

 

[GNC]

She wouldn't have to be on stilts anyway, a friend of mine visited the location and confirmed it was on an incline.

 

[Analis]

What is more likely. A chubby humanoid alien in a spacesuit and a bra with its arms on the wrong way round or an overexposed capture of the missus up the hill looking into the distance?

Does this mean that the mother was on stilts ?

Relating to the chubby alien humanoid/spaceman angle, I've never seen a 'spaceman' here. This is a matter of pareidolia. In my eyes, it would look more like a kind of 'ghost'. This is an example of aphoto of an unexpected entity, the whom of paranormal archives are full. In fact, it should not even be discussed in ufology.

She wouldn't have to be on stilts anyway, a friend of mine visited the location and confirmed it was on an incline.

I have examinde the photo from any angle, it is clear from the photo that the area behind the girl is flat, on both sides. Any slope, if there was any, had a very small angle. So the stilts were still needed.

The only possibility would be the presence of a mound exactely behind the girl, and narrow enough to be completely concealed by her head. Quite unlikely, and in any case, the photographer and his family would have unmistably noticed it.

 

[Frideswide]

I have examinde the photo from any angle, it is clear from the photo that the area behind the girl is flat, on both sides. Any slope, if there was any, had a very small angle. So the stilts were still needed.

The entire ground surface we can see in the photo is the slope - it's an incline on which the wee girl is sitting facing downhill to the camera. The other figure (the mother) has gone further up the slope to look at the view perhaps.

 

[Monstrosa]

And the father is below the daughter, in what looks to be a ditch (re the second photo)

 

[Analis]

The entire ground surface we can see in the photo is the slope - it's an incline on which the wee girl is sitting facing downhill to the camera. The other figure (the mother) has gone further up the slope to look at the view perhaps.

I have taken a look again, and the ground is basically flat. The position of grass and flowers does not allow for more than a negligible difference in altitude. The fact that the horizon line is far examplifies that. When I try to 'draw' an imaginary shape of the hypothetical missing lower parts of a human being hidden by the girl's head, his or her feet cannot touch the ground. So I think we'll have to disagree on that.

 

[bakelite brain]

What is more likely. A chubby humanoid alien in a spacesuit and a bra with its arms on the wrong way round or an overexposed capture of the missus up the hill looking into the distance?

Your incisive use of Occam's Razor is wasted. There are those who want it to be a space man, regardless of what's most likely...

BBrain

 

[Monstrosa]

I've uploaded a picture I've taken of a lay figure in @the same pose as the mother ie with its back to us.
Could someone compare it to the pic.

ETA and add the pictures to the thread.

 

[rynner2]

I think this is where I came in!

There were discussions about how tall the figure is, how long its legs are, etc, way back in the last century!

It's the mother - get over it! Even 'proving' the figure was wearing stilts does not turn it into a spaceman!

 

[Monstrosa]

yes..and this is a chance for people to make the comparison for themselves.
I concur that it's the mother. I don't need to get over anything, thank you.

 

[rynner2]

yes..and this is a chance for people to make the comparison for themselves.
I concur that it's the mother. I don't need to get over anything, thank you.

Oops! That wasn't a dig at you, honestly, just at all the fluffy woo-woos who do keep worrying away at this, as if they're going to discover the secrets of the universe, or something.

 

[Monstrosa]

Oops! That wasn't a dig at you, honestly, just at all the fluffy woo-woos who do keep worrying away at this, as if they're going to discover the secrets of the universe, or something.

That's OK Ryn I wasn't really upset.

 

[PeteByrdie]

It's the mother - get over it! Even 'proving' the figure was wearing stilts does not turn it into a spaceman!

But... what if it's a shapeshifting alien in the process of transforming into the mother, almost there but not quite fully formed. While daddy is taking a picture of his little princess, his wife has been absorbed and replaced by an extra-terrestrial. Can you rule it out? Can you prove it false? Eh? Hmm? Well?

 

[rynner2]

But... what if it's a shapeshifting alien in the process of transforming into the mother, almost there but not quite fully formed. While daddy is taking a picture of his little princess, his wife has been absorbed and replaced by an extra-terrestrial. Can you rule it out? Can you prove it false? Eh? Hmm? Well?

It was years ago, so I think any danger is now long past!

 

[PeteByrdie]

It was years ago, so I think any danger is now long past!

You would say that. If you were one of THEM!!!

 

[Analis]

Oops! That wasn't a dig at you, honestly, just at all the fluffy woo-woos who dokeep worrying away at this, as if they're going to discover the secrets of the universe, or something.

But you are looking at finding new secrets of the universe, in the case of a levitating woman !

On a serious side, yes, it does matter if she could not be there without stilts ! The theory that this is the mother, based on a perceived likeness, whatever its merits, can not work if she could not be there where the figure is. And she could not. All of this reminds me, among other examples, of the believers in the Turin Shroud, who have made all matter of interesting cases for the Shroud being older than previously thought. Yes, but they bump into the basic fact that the figure is not of a 3-dimensional man draped in a shroud, but of an almost flat figure, like a recumbent statue. Interesting as a theory might be, if it doesn't tally with a basic fact, it is wrong. Plain and simple.

 

[Loquaciousness]

But you are looking at finding new secrets of the universe, in the case of a levitating woman !

On a serious side, yes, it does matter if she could not be there without stilts ! The theory that this is the mother, based on a perceived likeness, whatever its merits, can not work if she could not be there where the figure is. And she could not. All of this reminds me, among other examples, of the believers in the Turin Shroud, who have made all matter of interesting cases for the Shroud being older than previously thought. Yes, but they bump into the basic fact that the figure is not of a 3-dimensional man draped in a shroud, but of an almost flat figure, like a recumbent statue. Interesting as a theory might be, if it doesn't tally with a basic fact, it is wrong. Plain and simple.

Not that I believe that the Turin Shroud is supernatural in origin, but wouldn't a recumbent statue also produce a 3-dimensional image, unless you mean it is a photograph of a statue?

 

[GNC]

Analis, have you ever sat on the ground and looked up at someone standing a distance away from you? They do tend to look taller from that perspective.