What Is It?: Skyfish
May 7th, 2008 by timbotron
Skyfish (also known as “rods” or “solar entities”) are a fairly recent cryptozoological phenomena - since the beginning of affordable video cameras. They appear as small semitransparent rods with ridged lateral membranes [top right and left photos, artist's reconstruction bottom left]. According to enthusiasts, they can only been seen through a video camera - they dart through the air at such a velocity that they are unseen by the naked human eye.
The reality: There is no record of anyone ever catching a skyfish, though a Chinese effort to catch them (in 2005) revealed ordinary flying insects. Given that all skyfish evidence comes from video footage - and first-hand observations from skyfish enthusiasts/idiots - the answers to the mystery are obvious: frame-rate, motion blur, birds, and insects. The combination of the slower frame-rate of most video cameras (50-60 fps) and the frequency of ‘wing-flap’ of insects and (small) birds in flight produces a blurred/elongated body with multiple wing-flap cycles within a single frame set. A similar effect can be seen in high speed footage of birds and insects in flight [bottom right photo].
How to Catch a Skyfish:
Bonus Round:
The stick used to catch skyfish is called a “spoodle.”
May 10th, 2008 at 1:30 am
I watched that whole dam thing thinking I was going to see one of them catch a Skyfish.
I feel ripped off.