TheBanyanTree: Midnight Mystery

[Tom Smith]

Thanks a ton for your explanations, Mike and Laura.  I thought of that 
possibility,  but couldn't picture moths flying that fast or straight or being 
that big.  This moth covered a lot of territory in about a second.  I think the 
frame rate of the video is 30 per second.

It's wonderful to be able to see this nocturnal world, literally in my 
back yard.  Now, I'm off to educate myself about the sphinx moth.. and
maybe learn how it got its name.   I much appreciate your weighing in on
this.  It's kind of a relief, too.  

Laughing..
  Tom    
  
Mike Pingleton wrote:

> Tom, I see a sphinx moth.  Once your camera activates, its frame-capture 
> rate is just a trifle faster than the moth's flight speed.  When the moth 
> flies in a straight line, the image captures appear to be joined together 
> into a really odd looking creature.  You'll notice that when the moth's 
> direction is erratic, the effect is not there. 

 Laura wrote:

> I've seen these multiple times. It's a moth/butterfly/bug. Because of the 
> way video capture works, you may get several different images of the same 
> bug in a single frame. It's basically what would have been called a double 
> exposure in 'olden days'. 
 
" "...these rods appear in film because of an optical illusion/collusion 
> (especially in interlaced video<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlaced_video> 
>  recording), and are typically traces of a flying insect's wingbeats." 
 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_(optics)