Sunday, October 29, 2017

A Speeding Orb

Photo date: October 27, 2017. Photographer: Mark Mahin.

The photo below shows a speeding orb I photographed indoors.  How can we tell that a photo like this shows a speeding orb? The effective shutter speed of my camera with a flash photo like this is about 1/1000 of a second, but the speed of drifting dust particles in only about 2 miles per hour, as you can see by raising some flour dust in the air and watching how fast it moves.  For you to see something like this in a photo suggests a speed of hundreds of miles per hour. If I photograph a thrown ball moving at 30 miles an hour, my photo will show only one position state, not two.

See here for nearly 600 similar photos of speeding orbs, many showing motion much more dramatic than we see here.

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