Rod (optical phenomenon)
Channel: all the knowledge of the universe PRINCIPIA
Date: 10/12/2021

Rod (optical phenomenon), by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=6918 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Cryptozoology
#Unidentified_flying_objects
#Alleged_UFO-related_entities
#Pseudoscience
This long-exposure photograph of moths flying around a floodlight shows an exaggerated "rod" effect.
In cryptozoology and ufology, "rods" （also known as "skyfish", "air rods", or "solar entities"） are elongated visual artifacts appearing in photographic images and video recordings.
Some paranormal proponents claim them to be extraterrestrial lifeforms, extradimensional creatures, or very small UFOs.
However, these artifacts appear naturally in video and outdoor photography as the result of an optical illusion due to motion blur, especially in interlaced video recording, and are typically afterimage trails of flying insects and their wingbeats.
Robert Todd Carroll （2003）, having consulted an entomologist （Doug Yanega）, identified rods as images of flying insects recorded over several cycles of wing-beating on video recording devices.
The insect captured on image a number of times, while propelling itself forward, gives the illusion of a single elongated rod-like body, with bulges.
"The Straight Dope" columnist Cecil Adams （2020） also explained rods as such phenomena, namely tricks of light which result from how （primarily video images） of flying insects are recorded and played back.
Adding that investigators have shown the rod-like bodies as resulting from motion blur, if the camera is shooting with relatively long exposure times.
The claims of these being extraordinary creatures, possibly alien, have been advanced by either people with active imaginations, or hoaxers.
In August 2005, China Central Television （CCTV） aired a two-part documentary about flying rods in China.
It reported the events from May to June of the same year at Tonghua Zhenguo Pharmaceutical Company in Tonghua City, Jilin Province, which debunked the flying rods.
Surveillance cameras in the facility's compound captu...