Hail Mary Analysis

[Ric Gillespie]

Here's what we know so far:

• During what we're calling the "Hail Mary" attempt to obtain imagery of the anomaly location the device took a total of 426 photos. A little fewer than half of them - 179 photos, 42% - are useful images.  The others show only blue water as the device was descending and ascending, or are extreme, out of focus close-ups of the bottom because the camera was too low. 

•  Based on the 67 GPS readings taken by Walt Holm during the exercise, Bob Brandenburg plotted the path of the skiff from which the device was lowered. At one point the path came within an estimated three feet of the center of the anomaly coordinates as calculated by Ocean Imaging Consultants from the sonar data collected by Phoenix International. The full anomaly is over 21 meters (69 feet) long running roughly north to south.  Based on the skiff path, we should have good coverage of the anomaly location and the areas immediately to the east (upslope) and west (downslope). We're not yet sure about how much coverage we have because we haven't yet matched up the time stamp in skiff GPS readings with the time stamp in the photo meta data. A copy of the plot is attached below.

•  There is no obvious airplane debris visible in the photos but neither is there an obvious geological feature to explain the anomaly.  There is considerable overlap from image to image in many of the photos so we should be able to construct mosaics that will tell us more about the bottom topography.

•  There are a few man-made objects in the photos.  There are also a few possible man-made objects. At this point we don't know what they are.  All are small (a few inches in size). I'll post some photos.

•  The 179 potentially useful photos are loaded into a TIGHAR Dropbox. Each photo is roughly 3MB in size.  If you're a TIGHAR member and you'd like a link to the Dropbox just send me an email at tigharic@mac.com.

[Albert Durrell]

I give up.  What's to the left in 351?  Fish?  Part of the camera system?  Don't see anything like it in any others.

[Brano Lacika]

The path between positions 39 and 40 is parallel, or perpendicular or what angle to the axis of anomaly? 

[Greg Daspit]

Attached is a study I did to get a rough idea of the scale of what was covered and how it relates to the depth and the size of images. The angle of the anomaly is a rough estimate.
I used the sample image provided earlier and using the 2.5" laser scale in it, the image covered about 8'-7" in width. Of course other images would be different based on the camera distance varying. The skiff shown is 6.8 meters. The depth used is 600' .
This is for rough scale study only.

[Ric Gillespie]

I give up.  What's to the left in 351?  Fish? 

Yep.  Big ol' Grouper.  He's in several of the photos. 

[Ric Gillespie]

Attached is a study I did to get a rough idea of the scale of what was covered and how it relates to the depth and the size of images. The angle of the anomaly is a rough estimate.
I used the sample image provided earlier and using the 2.5" laser scale in it, the image covered about 8'-7" in width. Of course other images would be different based on the camera distance varying. The skiff shown is 6.8 meters. The depth used is 600' .
This is for rough scale study only.

Greg, I think you have interpreted the Ocean Imaging Consultants image of the sonar anomaly differently than I did.  They show a red line (red L in the table) representing the entire length of the anomaly that is 21.432m long.  They show a blue line (blue W in the table) representing the portion of the anomaly that has enough elevation (black H in the table, 1.664m) to be casting a "sound shadow" (green line, green L in the table, 2.536m). The blue line is 10.360m or 34 feet long - about 3 feet shy of the length of an undamaged Electra fuselage.

I interpret the "Center" in the table to be the center of the entire 21.432m anomaly.  You seem to interpret it as the center of the blue line (putative fuselage). If my interpretation is correct, the blue line (putative fuselage) portion of the anomaly extends down almost to Point 5 in the skiff path.

[Ric Gillespie]

This object occurs in only one photo - 557.  Attached below is the annotated entire photo and a detail from that photo. The object looks a bit like a conventional beer can (Guinness to be exact) with a dark body and a silver-colored top facing the camera.  However, it's much too small to be a beer can.  It seems to be about the size of a D Cell flashlight battery.  A similar object, "Can 2" appears in the very next photo and several subsequent photos, as does the fish (his name is Stanley).

[Ric Gillespie]

This object appears in several photos.  It's similarity and proximity to "Can 1" suggest that they are probably two examples of whatever-they-are.  The best view of "can 2" is in 560.

[Ric Gillespie]

This round shape seems to be embedded in coral.  It appears in several images. It's quite close - within a few feet - of "Can 2."
It could be a rusted man-made object or it could be a natural feature but I can't find anything similar in any of the other images.

[Ric Gillespie]

This object appears in 346 through 348 - much earlier in the sequence of photos than the other objects.  It could be a natural feature (sea urchin spine?) but the blue color is unusual.  It seems to be a cylinder that is flattened at one end and have a gray or silver-colored tip at the other end.

[Ric Gillespie]

Near the blue and gray object in 346 is what appears to be a curved piece of wire reminiscent of the famous curved wire in the 2010 "wire & rope " ROV video.

[Greg Daspit]

I interpret the "Center" in the table to be the center of the entire 21.432m anomaly.  You seem to interpret it as the center of the blue line (putative fuselage). If my interpretation is correct, the blue line (putative fuselage) portion of the anomaly extends down almost to Point 5 in the skiff path.

Thanks Ric. You are correct. I had interpreted the center to be for the putative fuselage only. Attached is a scale study to show the center as the combined putative fuselage and "tail". (total anomaly)
(edit: Point 5 could be closer to the nose depending on the angle interpretation. I can see the angle being more north south than I showed)

[Ric Gillespie]

There's a lot going on in 346.  In the upper left corner is another puzzling shape.

[Ric Gillespie]

Thanks Ric. You are correct. I had interpreted the center to be for the putative fuselage only. Attached is a scale study to show the center as the combined putative fuselage and "tail". (total anomaly)
(edit: Point 5 could be closer to the nose depending on the angle interpretation. I can see the angle being more north south than I showed)

Yes, but in any event we do seem to have good coverage of the anomaly location.  We'll know more once we've figured out which photos were taken at or between which points.

[George Lam]

Is it possible that items were discarded/accidentally dropped over the side of Nai'a while it as stationed over the anomaly during Niku VIII?