File / uss-russell-2019
USS Russell — the “pyramids”
Triangular objects that are the shape of a lens aperture
Night-vision footage showing triangular, flickering objects above the ship. The material circled the world as evidence of pyramid-shaped craft.
Official position
The Navy confirmed the footage is authentic. Analysis indicates the triangular shape is an optical artefact.
Alternative hypotheses
- Defocused points of light — aircraft or stars — recorded through a night-vision device with a triangular aperture; bokeh takes the shape of the aperture.
The simplest lesson in the database
The shape of a defocused point of light in an image is the shape of the lens aperture, not the shape of the object.
A lens with a triangular aperture turns every distant light into a triangle. A lens with a hexagonal aperture turns it into a hexagon. This is a fundamental of photography, familiar to anyone who has looked at a night photograph with blurred lights in the background.
The footage is authentic. There is no pyramid. Both sentences are true at once, and this is exactly the kind of distinction this database exists to make.
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