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The Big Orb Thread

What do you think 'Orbs' are?

  • Nothing, just an artefact on the camera lens or lens flare.....

    Votes: 13 50.0%

  • I dunno.

    Votes: 2 7.7%

  • Might be something but I'd have to take pics of them myself before making up my mind....

    Votes: 1 3.8%

  • They are extremely round ghosts.

    Votes: 1 3.8%

  • Usually dust, water droplets, or the like, but you never know ...

    Votes: 9 34.6%
  • Total voters
    26
rynner said:
Dingo667 said:
P.S I hate orbs as much as anybody but I do think my ones look quite nifty. Don't get angry about silly orb threads, it isn't good for your health... ;)
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I know, I was having a bad day yesterday!

The link I gave is in the main orb thread (on Page 6 of about 25!)
Click to expand...

Are you tyrin to claim credit for solving the riddle of the orb! When obviously within the same thread I conclusively wrapped that sucker up in sticky fly tape and bunged it out the window! Sheesh! ;)

Page 17 of 26!!! Of the ORBIOS thread!
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 809#412809

Anyway, what else is there to talk about? Haven't been any good pictures of ghost aliens or ought in awhile! We could ponder the vectional, trigonometry of particles in air flows, for some time... well... it's something to do...

For the love of god someone find something extra-dimensional soon!!! :!:
 
rynner said:
Dingo667 said:
P.S I hate orbs as much as anybody but I do think my ones look quite nifty. Don't get angry about silly orb threads, it isn't good for your health... ;)
Click to expand...
I know, I was having a bad day yesterday!

The link I gave is in the main orb thread (on Page 6 of about 25!)
Click to expand...


Are you tyrin to claim credit for solving the riddle of the orb! When obviously within the same thread I conclusively wrapped that sucker up in sticky fly tape and bunged it out the window! Sheesh! ;)

Page 17 of 26!!! Of the ORBIOS thread!
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 809#412809

Anyway, what else is there to talk about? Haven't been any good pictures of ghost aliens or ought in awhile! We could ponder the vectional, trigonometry of particles in air flows, for some time... well... it's something to do...

For the love of god someone find something extra-dimensional soon!!! :!:

Don't merge the threads! That would make a 26 page thread a thirty page thread! People will die before they ever reach the end! I know it's not the longest lived thread, but it is the most boring!!! :p
 
Afrter taking a photo of the Triffids in the back garden and fiddling with the brightness this little chap appeared:

Nixonorb.jpg


Reminds me of the late President Richard Milhous Nixon, or it could be the Joker...
 
I don't watch it so I've no idea if this is true, but apparently there was an orb on The Alan Titchmarsh Show last week (no, it wasn't Alan himself). Anyone know anything about that? Bit of a novelty to see one moving, I would have thought.
 
It's quite simple to dissuade those people who claim that orbs are merely dust close to the lens illuminated by the bright lights of the flash or the fill-in.

Start using stereoscopic camera setups. From there it is simple geometry to discern whether the "orb" is 2" from the lens or 20 yards away.

(of course that sets up the "why didn't the orb show up in the other camera, only this one!" madness.)
 
I thought I'd include a photo of a dust related orb photo. This is from 'The Whittle' public house in Lancaster, which is now known as The red Lion. this was reputed to be the pub in which those who were to be haged on the moors above the town would be taken for their last drink. Although the pub was shut at the time there were six of us and two pub staff and what you see is dust.

As an extra bit, it has been suggested that the pub in which the last drink took place was actually over the road, and a historian friend of mine stated that he believed that it was the hangman who went for a drink, not the condemned. If anyone has info on this I would be grateful to hear it.

Whittle4.jpg
 
I agree totally about orbs n digital cams ,but what about when they r seen with the naked eye? When i was a young un ,i was staying at my friends house ,we where chatting getting ready for bed, me on the main bed next to the wall , my friend on a pull out next to me but lower ,when we both said "WHAT THE **** IS THAT" coming through the open doorway was a blueish/white ball of light ,at first it seemed to be moving casually ,but on us shouting it seemed to speed up and in a clockwise motion turn and in my view go through the wall , my friend said it went back the way it came.
Since my friend had seen 2 ghosts in the house when he was 14 ,we assumed it was a spirit of some sort ,now a days we say we dont know what it was , but it seemed to have intelligence.
So we both seen it ,at the same time ,with the naked eye ,as someone on this thread said before 99% of orbs will be dust ,insects etc,but the other 1%...well who knows?
 
titch said:
I agree totally about orbs n digital cams ,but what about when they r seen with the naked eye? When i was a young un ,i was staying at my friends house ,we where chatting getting ready for bed, me on the main bed next to the wall , my friend on a pull out next to me but lower ,when we both said "WHAT THE **** IS THAT" coming through the open doorway was a blueish/white ball of light ,at first it seemed to be moving casually ,but on us shouting it seemed to speed up and in a clockwise motion turn and in my view go through the wall , my friend said it went back the way it came...
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Wow, this is weird, last post on this subject was Sep 18 2007? Looking at Titch's post it read as September 2009? How did it popup now?! Weird! Now it registers as March 31 2010?

Anyhow... Now your moving into other realms, such as actual physical manifestations of Ghosts, Ball Lighting, tricks of the light..., or hallucinations. :p Did you get a photo? Of course it woudl not have matter, we'd just pass it off as an orb... :D
 
September, 2009

September, 2009, was the date Titch JOINED the FT list.
 
And i have only recently started to post,hence all the threads from the past reappearing,but as for the orb my friend and i seen,i call it an orb because i really do not have any idea what it really was,and what gets me is that we both seen it,it was unlike the orbs from mh,and was well before orbs became fashionable.
 
Perhaps it would clarify the issue if instead of calling them 'orbs', we called them 'bokeh'.
 
A few days ago, a nephew took a pic of my sister in law on a digital cam,then came running to show me the orb over my sis in laws head,I felt such a meanie meanie jelly beanie as i told him about digital cams,flash and dust.I doubt randi would feel such a spoilsport let-down.
 
titch said:
A few days ago, a nephew took a pic of my sister in law on a digital cam,then came running to show me the orb over my sis in laws head,I felt such a meanie meanie jelly beanie as i told him about digital cams,flash and dust.I doubt randi would feel such a spoilsport let-down.
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Sorry about that... but thats what happens when you fill kids heads with silly ideas of ghosts, gouls, fairies, strange monsters, woodland elves, and the like..... hmmmm.... :( now I feel depressed....
 
Waylander28 said:
Sorry about that... but thats what happens when you fill kids heads with silly ideas of ghosts, gouls, fairies, strange monsters, woodland elves, and the like.
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That depends upon whether such beasties have any objective existence or not. I'm pretty much (but not entirely) convinced that one of your five categories has such an existence, suspect that a second or possibly even a third do and am in fact willing to study the evidence for all five.
 
Don't get me wrong - I do not believe in orbs as paranormal phenomena.
But what I tried to say on my blog (http://uair01.blogspot.com/) is:

1) As experienced Forteans we should be surprised that "angelic communications" as practiced by Dee and Kelley have returned in the guise of orbs :shock:

2) We should be able to produce "better" explanations than just "spirits" or "ghosts". I especially like this one - orbs as a special fungal organism:
http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-020
But this one is nice too: it is either plasma or a spore of some weird organism:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/niffer/89434028/

Wouldn't it be fun to devise a new paranormal orb theory that would replace the current ones?
 
It is not difficult to come up with original ideas. The trick is to come up with useful and valid original ideas. Originality is interesting but there are any numbers of ways to be original but wrong about a phenomenon and where's the value in that?

By the way, why does this poll not include the most obvious, and easily verifiable, option that orbs are out of focus bits of dust, insects, water droplets etc caught in the flash of a camera?

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr-6xKaLJsg, for instance, for a simple demonstration.

Concerning the option "Nothing, just an artefact on the camera lens or lens flare.....": A speck on the camera lens is invisible in photos while a large object there would produce an overall dimming in the area affected. Neither would produce orbs. Though some lens flare can resemble orbs, it is usually simple to tell the difference. The situation in which the vast majority of orb phoptos are taken will not produce lens flare. So, as it stands, there is no obvious way of answering this poll.
 
I've added an option to the poll. Because, I think orbs are usually dust, water droplets, or the like, but you never know ...

P_M :)
 
I didn't think the poll looked all that serious in the first place...!
 
I was startled to see the instructions on my new Sony camera (a WX5 if anyone cares) contain instructions on how to avoid orbs. None of it advocated bell, book or candle. The previous week I'd photographed a disused quarry on film that was positively riddled with the buggers. Do you suppose sleet and on-camera flash had anything to do with their appearance?
 
I'm surprised to find this thread still chuntering on. I gave the explanation for most Orbs (with the maths) way back on page 3
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewt ... 1306#31306
(back in January 2002)

Mikelegs and I then collaborated on a little website (which sadly no longer exists) called "Make your own Orbs"!

To summarise:

Orbs are out-of-focus images of dust particles or water droplets that are very close to the lens (and flash) of a compact camera (which can be digital or film). Because the object is so close, the camera lens would only form a sharp image behind the CCD or film, which means that the actual captured image is a disc.

This can be proved by a simple experiment. Set up a camera (in a situation where the flash will fire) with a few seconds delay on the shutter. As the shutter is due to fire, sprinkle dust in front of the lens (ground white pepper is a suitable 'dust'). You should get from a few to dozens of orbs on the resulting photos!

Case closed! :twisted:
 
When it comes to anomalous phenomena, for some people at least, the case is never 'closed', unfortunately.

We live in a time when people want to 'see' something before they believe it, which is why I gave a link to a video a few posts back. It actually shows dust turning into orbs and back again as it goes in and out of focus.

Just about everyone now gets that orbs are bits of dust but far fewer seem to appreciate the crucial point that it is out of focus. If it wasn't, you wouldn't get the characteristic orb shape! If anyone ever says to you that orbs are dust caught in the flash, which is true if incomplete, ask them why it is circular.
 
... Or diamond shaped.
The believers also insist upon anything from bits of gossimer floating about, to insects caught in the light, as "orbs". Sometimes, people will stop at nothing to bolster their beliefs. Racists will not admit defeat when given the true facts, and believers of the paranormal will do the same. :?
 
coaly said:
... Sometimes, people will stop at nothing to bolster their beliefs. Racists will not admit defeat when given the true facts, and believers of the paranormal will do the same. :?
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A deeply unfair and nasty comparison.
 
Ok then, just so I don't appear unfair or nasty... I should have put,
"... Sometimes, people will stop at nothing to bolster their beliefs. Racists will not admit defeat when given the true facts, and believers of the orbs will do the same.(Sometimes, and some people, not all.) :? "
The comparisen was there, because, when given the facts which should be a closed case, like Rynner and Norton 51 stated, some believers in orbs continue to believe, just like some racist people, (equally as irrational, and equally as stubborn)... I didn't mention religion, as that's a completely different thing, faith based, rather than simple ignorance. Should I have said "Daily Mail readers"? 8)
 
coaly said:
Ok then, just so I don't appear unfair or nasty... I should have put,
"... Sometimes, people will stop at nothing to bolster their beliefs. Racists will not admit defeat when given the true facts, and believers of the orbs will do the same.(Sometimes, and some people, not all.) :? "
The comparisen was there, because, when given the facts which should be a closed case, like Rynner and Norton 51 stated, some believers in orbs continue to believe, just like some racist people, (equally as irrational, and equally as stubborn)... I didn't mention religion, as that's a completely different thing, faith based, rather than simple ignorance. Should I have said "Daily Mail readers"? 8)
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In my experience, racism is less the result of ignorance, than it is of bigotry and intolerance. Ordinary ignorance can be excused, wilful ignorance needs effort. But, bigotry and intolerance, they're only worthy of contempt.

As to Daily Mail readers, even some of them only read it for the celebrity gossip and not just to confirm and reinforce their prejudices.
 
coaly said:
Racists will not admit defeat when given the true facts, and believers of the paranormal will do the same. :?
Click to expand...

The paranormal is a broad area to condemn based on advocates of suspended aerial particles as psychic phenomena. The usual low hanging fruit brings out the same responses.
 
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