Swadlincote Paranormal Investigations

Orbs have been the subject of deep discussion and heated debates for many years now, viewed by some enthusiasts as evidence of paranormal activity but ridiculed by sceptics as being nothing other then dust and water vapour captured in photographs and video footage.

I have personally met people from both sides of the argument as well as many people who sit on the fence by saying that most orbs can be explained by dust and water but occasionally an "interesting" orb is captured which is different from the rest and could be linked with paranormal activity.

For me, this is frustrating. I feel that it is about time that we all had an answer one way or another. This experiment is about finding out more about orbs, what creates them and hopefully to produce a definitive answer as to whether or not there is a link.

The word Orb is from the Latin word "orbis" meaning circle or round object. An orb captured by a camera is described as being a sphere of light which is believed by some to be the simplest form of a ghost manifestation. Below is just a few examples of orbs captured by members of Swadlincote Paranormal during investigations.

The first orbs starting appearing after the invention of CCD and CMOS lenses used in Digital cameras which sceptics believe is the cause of dust and water appearing on photographs. Presenters of the TV show Most Haunted suggested that orbs they had captured during their investigations could be linked with the paranormal and as thus with the explosion of paranormal investigation teams ever since the interest in orbs exploded too. Even sceptical researchers like myself were once impressed by the sighting of an orb but that is simply because we did not understand what actually caused them so we chose paranormal activity as our logical answer.

There are generally believed to be 3 types of orbs. Solid orbs which are created by dust or pollen, Liquid orbs which are created by water vapour and then Spirit orbs which are believed to be a product of paranormal activity. The aim of this experiment is to learn more about each type of orb to give us all a better understanding of how they are created, how to distinguish one from the other and to find out how credible each theory really is.

The experiment was conducted in 5 phases;

Phase I - To attempt to re-create liquid orbs using basic camera equipment and water as the anomaly without focusing too much on conducting the experiment under test conditions. The primary goal is to simply ascertain whether orbs can be re-created and how their appearance changes at varying distances.

Conducted: October 05th 2007 - Outdoors

Equpiment: Tripod, Digital Camera, Measuring markers spaced out approximately 10cm apart and water.

Using the digital camera set on a tripod, I took a picture with the flash fired at the same time that water was sprayed from a bottle. I took 2 pictures at each marker in case of an error in timing.

Most of the images appeared blatantly as propelled water as demonstrated in the image below.

- Water vapour sprayed at a distance of approximately 48cm from the camera lens.

But as the water was sprayed further away we got some more interesting results including this one below estimated to be 72cm away from the lens.

This is very alike the sort of orb that is often captured on a paranormal investigation. It appears to be very grainy and spotty in appearance and it's edge is surrounded by a blurry haze created by chromatic aberration.

Chromatic aberration, which appears on some images as a blurry haze of colour surrounding an object, is created when a lens has a different refractive index for different wavelengths of light.

It appears like this because each colour of the spectrum can not be focused at a single point on the optical axis.

Astronomers get round this problem by using extremely long telescopes which increases the focal length of the lens thus reducing chromatic aberration.

Two days later, this time with the help of Steve I conducted phase II of the experiment.

Phase II - To recreate Phase I except this time the test will be carried out under test conditions. The water must be released into the atmosphere at distances increasing by an extra 10cm away from the lens each time. This must also be repeated without the flash being fired on the camera at all. This should also be carried out in daylight and in darkness.

The aim is to ascertain the optimum distance for which orbs begin to appear on photos and also to examine how the results vary without the use of a flash.

The equipment was the same as in Phase I but this time the markers were spaced apart more accurately and we ensured that the wind was blowing away from the camera so that we knew the minimum distance of the water vapour.

Left: Example of the equipment when set up. The camera is in a fixed position with orange-tipped markers spaced out 10cm apart. The pole is held at a right-angle to the yellow measuring tape as a guide line for where to fire the water spray.

This time the results were not identical to those of Phase I. The picture below was the first picture taken with water being sprayed just 10cm from the lens.

This shows that the classic liquid orb can be seen when the droplets are 10cm away from the lens, and possibly even closer. The single orb captured in the first phase was fired at 72cm however it could have been the remains of a previous photograph and much closer to the lens then was first thought.

The next few pictures would also suggest this is correct.

	40cm - Whilst the water droplets are still very apparent they don't appear as the large spotted orb as seen at 10cm.
	80cm - As before the water droplets are still very apparent but the smallest droplets are no longer visible at this distance and the larger ones still do not appear as orbs.
	120cm - As before with fewer droplets visible at this distance and still no orbs.
	160cm - Only one or two water droplets are visible and still no orbs.
	200cm - Even the droplets the size of raindrops are barely visible and would not be seen at all unless blown up to full size on a computer screen.

From this test it has become apparent that only the water droplets close to the lens appear as the large orb as seen in the photograph in Phase I. The same test was carried out again but this time without the use of the flash and not a single orb was captured. This was also tried indoors.

The first picture is taken with the flash fired, the second picture which was taken with the flash turned off does not show a single orb despite several attempts.

Due to the reflective properties of water this is the result I expected for this test.

So far from these tests we can conclude that water droplets in the air can appear as orbs when they are very close, within about 40cm of the lens. Although this distance is only an estimate due to the lack of scientific credibility these tests provide. Also these orbs will only appear in a photograph when the flash has been fired.

The orbs themselves are spotted in appearance which leads some people to believe that the patterns they form are the faces of the deceased person the orb is in connection with. They also often have a coloured haze which is created by chromatic aberration.

This experiment continues with tests conducted in daytime and with a variety of cameras including an infra-red night vision camera as used on paranormal investigations. We will also be attempting to re-create solid orbs and comparing them in appearance and behaviour to the liquid orbs. Keep your eye on the website for Part 2.

- Report by Richard O'Connor

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