cryptozoology Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness ...

and

ufology Ufology ( ) is the investigation of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by people who believe that they may be of extraordinary origins (most frequently of extraterrestrial alien visitors). While there are instances of government, private, and ...

, "rods" (also known as "skyfish", "air rods", or "solar entities") are elongated

visual artifact Visual artifacts (also artefacts) are anomalies apparent during visual representation as in digital graphics and other forms of imagery, especially photography and microscopy. In digital graphics * Image quality factors, different types of vi ...

s appearing in photographic images and video recordings. Some

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

proponents claim them to be extraterrestrial lifeforms, extradimensional creatures, or very small

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

s. However, these artifacts appear naturally in video and outdoor photography as the result of an optical illusion due to

motion blur Motion blur is the apparent streaking of moving objects in a photograph or a sequence of frames, such as a film or animation. It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, due to rapid movement or lo ...

, especially in

interlaced video Interlaced video (also known as interlaced scan) is a technique for doubling the perceived frame rate of a video display without consuming extra bandwidth. The interlaced signal contains two fields of a video frame captured consecutively. Thi ...

recording, and are typically afterimage trails of flying insects and their wingbeats.

Optical analysis

Robert Todd Carroll Robert Todd Carroll (May 18, 1945 – August 25, 2016) was an American author, philosopher and academic, best known for The Skeptic's Dictionary. He described himself as a naturalist, an atheist, a materialist, a metaphysical libertarian, and a ...

(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 "The Straight Dope" was a question-and-answer newspaper column written under the pseudonym Cecil Adams. Contributions were made by multiple authors, and it was illustrated (also pseudonymously) by Slug Signorino. It was first published in 1973 in ...

" columnist

Cecil Adams Cecil Adams is the pseudonymous author of ''The Straight Dope'', a popular question and answer column published in ''The Chicago Reader'' from 2 February 1973 to 2018. The true identity of Adams, whether a single individual or a group of authors ...

(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

, 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 captured video footage of flying rods identical to those shown in Jose Escamilla's video. Getting no satisfactory answer to the phenomenon, curious scientists at the facility decided that they would try to solve the mystery by attempting to catch these airborne creatures. Huge nets were set up and the same surveillance cameras then captured images of rods flying into the trap. When the nets were inspected, the "rods" were no more than regular moths and other ordinary flying insects. Subsequent investigations proved that the appearance of flying rods on video was an optical illusion created by the slower recording speed of the camera.中国UFO悬案调查：飞棍出没的世界(下)SINA Technology News, "China's outstanding UFO Investigation: fly rod Haunted World (Part Two)"
/ref> After attending a lecture by Jose Escamilla, UFO investigator

Robert Sheaffer Robert Sheaffer (born 1949) is an American freelance writer and UFO skeptic. He is a paranormal investigator of unidentified flying objects, having researched many sightings and written critiques of the hypothesis that UFOs are alien spacecraft ...

wrote that "some of his “rods” were obviously insects zipping across the field at a high angular rate" and others appeared to be “appendages” which were birds' wings blurred by the camera exposure.

Paranormal claims

Various paranormal interpretations of this phenomenon appear in popular culture. One of the more outspoken proponents of rods as alien life forms was Jose Escamilla, who claimed to have been the first to film them on March 19, 1994 in Roswell, New Mexico, while attempting to film a

. Escamilla later made additional videos and embarked on lecture tours to promote his claims.

In popular culture

* In the manga and anime series ''

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1987 to 2004, and was transferred to the monthly ''seinen'' manga ...

'', the '' Stone Ocean'' part features a character named Rikiel with the Stand ability "Sky High" that allows him to control rods, which are described as real unidentified animals, and use them to attack his enemies by absorbing their body heat. * In the videogame '' Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow'', there is a rare enemy type called Sky Fish based on the "rod" phenomenon. Sky Fish resemble rods in appearance, and can only be defeated by slowing down time. * The 2010 ''

Super Sentai is a Japanese superhero team metaseries and media franchise consisting of television series and films produced by Toei Company, and Bandai, and aired by TV Asahi ("Sentai" is the Japanese word for "task force" or "fighting squadron"). The ...

'' series, ''

Tensou Sentai Goseiger is the title of Toei Company's 34th entry in its long-running ''Super Sentai'' franchise. It follows an angelic motif as well as a trading card theme. It joined '' Kamen Rider W'', and later '' Kamen Rider OOO'', as a program featured in TV Asah ...

'' featured the antagonistic cryptid-themed monster group Yuumajuu. One of their members is Zaigo of the Skyfish, who has the secondary theme of stick insect. * In the 2015 ''

Kemono Friends is a Japanese media franchise created by manga artist Mine Yoshizaki. The first project was a mobile game developed by Nexon, which ran from March 2015 to December 2016. A manga by Furai was serialized in Kadokawa's '' Monthly Shōn ...

'' mobile game
Skyfish
appears as a playable Friend and minor character.

Explanatory notes

References

External links