MIKE SPLEAN
Superstar
It's a confusing picture because you assume it's a single moment in time. The key is where the photographer said he was taking long-exposure shots of the Milky Way. When trying to photograph the Milky Way, photographers set the camera on a still tripod and then take a very long exposure shot. Look at the windows on the house in the pictures and you can tell those aren't normal pictures, the windows are even brighter than the object in the sky, proving the exposure is quite long.
What the picture is showing is a long-exposure of an object with bright lights on the bottom and a blinking red light in the middle. The exposure was long enough for the bright lights to travel across a short bit of sky (making them look elongated rather than single-point) and for the red blinking light to blink 8 times.
What kind of object? I can't tell how far away it is or how large it is, but the pattern looks exactly like a police helicopter with its spotlight on.
UFO extended exposure:
Police helicopter quick exposure:
Only difference is that in the top photo the helicopter is pointing slightly toward the observer (so the tail is partly behind it rather than just on the side) and the exposure is longer so the searchlight blurs a line and the red light blinks 8 times in a row before the shutter closes.
Here's video:
The first couple seconds I timestamped, when the copter is still far away, are virtually the exact same view as in the photos. Imagine a long exposure as the helicopter moves slowly to the left and towards the cameraman so that the taillight is somewhat above and behind the spotlight (I think the helicopter in the photo would have been traveling slower than the helicopter in the video). It would show the extended bright spotlight with the light below and the small red light blinking periodically. It's literally the exact same thing.
Extra evidence #1: The photographer says he heard "engine noise" as it flew overhead - do we really think flying saucers sound like internal combustion engines now?
Extra evidence #2: If you look at the youtube comments someone in the area saw the same thing that night. Their exact description? "Saw it on my way to work on my overnight shift in Kankakee County, IL as I was crossing the river. I thought it was a helicopter because it was following the bends in the river looking for something, but it just didn't look right."
Seems pretty likely that a conversation with the local police or whoever governs flight paths in the area would clear it up. Unless it's a drone, but from the evidence I think it's likely to be a full-sized helicopter.
Breh it’s a fukking ufo