1ST OF 3 PHOTOS OF ORANGE ORBS TAKEN ON RAINY NIGHT.
Description: Our sighting occurred at about 7:30 Thursday evening. Skies were cloudy and light rain was falling. The lights were west of the freeway at the Seaward Ave off ramp. Te photos were taken with an I-phone 4s. We first saw about 6 lights while driving along Freeway 101. They appeared to be stationary and then started moving north. We took the next off ramp and pulled over at which time there were 4 left and climbing. It started to rain harder so we continued our trip to Santa Barbara. We did not see the lights again. Note to Commenters: If you are reporting a sighting, be sure to include the location (city, state, country), date and time of your sighting. Be detailed in your description. You may also use our report form to report your sighting. Comments will only be published if they are in "good taste" and not inflammatory. Also the name that you list in the comment will be posted. Use abbreviations or aliases if you don't want your name listed.
If those were out over the ocean, could they have been the offshore oil rigs in the Santa Barbara channel? They give off pretty good lights when the conditions are right.
There is absolutely no question that those lights are out of focus. You can make an “orb” out of any point source or bright light by slightly altering the focus. Phone cameras are notorious for poorly auto-focusing under dim/dark lighting conditions and without a sharp in-focus image, there is nothing that can be determined about the source of the light.
So many people have seen these orange orbs and judging from most photos shown I-phones don’t take good pictures anyway. I completely think these were orbs not street lights. I don’t need proof of anything as I have seen these orbs also and so have hundreds of other people. Most people who are brave enough to report things generally are bright enough to know the difference between street lights and orange orbs.
They are just badly out of focus lights. They could be anything, streetlights, tower lights, who knows. Photos of out of focus lights at night are pretty much useless as evidence of anything.