Busty Taylor
After all the debate about the "Oliver's Castle Video", I decided to pull the weather data for Saturday 10th. August and Sunday, 11th. August, and also travelled to the site after viewing the video to get the exact location of the camera.
As I said in my earlier bulletins, the formation was due west from the point of the camera and this has turned out to be true. Peter Sorensen and myself checked this out with a compass and it was exactly 270 degrees from north.
On Saturday, 10th. August the wind was 240, coming from the south west (Fig. 1)
and on the Sunday 11th. August it was 310, from north west (Fig. 2).
The wind change was due to a low-pressure area that moved across the midlands during the night, thus giving us very bad weather on the Sunday. The weather report was updated at 1500 hours on the Saturday due to the low pressure moving much faster. For those who read my Internet posting, I said "crap weather" persisted all day on Sunday.
If we look at the first few seconds of the video showing fields in the distance, we will see a piece of grass in the foreground moving across the lense from left to right. This indicates that the wind was from the south west when the shot was taken. (Incidentally, the grass on this hill is very short due to sheep grazing, therefore the camera must have been on the ground when the footage was taken. No wonder the dew-warning light came on!)
I have already pointed out that the shadows are on the top right hand corner of the circles, which means the light is coming from the north west, therefore the shot was taken in the late evening time. We know that the wind was also coming from the south west on the evening of Saturday, 10th. August. These two factors indicate very strongly, therefore, that the footage was not taken on the morning of Sunday, 11th. August, but on the evening of Saturday, 10th. August, thus giving anybody plenty of time to computerise the "lights" that we see on the video and create the illusion of the formation appearing.
Further analysis of the video shows a very dark shape in the "7 o'clock" circle. (To me, and quite a few people I've pointed this out to, it appears to be a person actually in the circle, for it seems to move up and down - either measuring or flattening the crop out?) I suggest to anyone who has the video to play with their contrast and/or brightness controls to enhance this shape.
So let's look at this in perspective. "John Weyleigh" stated that he videoed this "event" on 11th. August at 5am. and turned up at The Barge Inn, Honeystreet (Alton Barnes) at 10pm. the same day, trying to contact Colin Andrews, but, on failing to find him, talked to Peter Sorensen and showed him and a few others the video. There are video editing suites not too far away - in Bath, Bristol and Swindon, and Peter later went with "John" to one in Swindon to have a better look at the footage. For those, unlike myself, who have not been to this studio, it needs to be mentioned that it is stacked from floor to ceiling with dozens of video recorders. "John", nevertheless, went straight to the correct machine without even having to ask which one to use, indicating that he had prior knowledge of the setup there.
In this studio the computer equipment is capable of zooming in to any portion of a video and enhancing the image and would be quite able to manufacture the "lights" that we see in the Oliver's Castle Video. (Incidentally, this studio is only twenty five minutes' drive from Oliver's Castle, thus giving someone plenty of time to produce the tape.)
Points to consider: "John Weyleigh" said it was 5am. on Sunday - I suggest it was about 7.30pm. on Saturday. He knew where to go in the studio - ? The shadows are all wrong for the claimed time of day. The wind is wrong for the claimed time and date. There appears to be someone in the "7 o'clock" circle which, unlike all the others, is incomplete in shape.
Since there are provable and obvious discrepancies concerning the meteorological conditions at the alleged time of filming, for those who claim this footage as genuine, I suggest you start to look at the evidence and not at the "balls of light"!
(Charts courtesy of Bracknell Met office)
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