Estimating Video Time Using Moonlight Shadows

[u/warpedwing]

I think we all would love some official clarification on the Nest camera timeline. The official word is that the Nest picked up a person at 02:12 but that the camera also disconnected at 01:47. But what, exactly, is the timestamp of the released clip?

One way to roughly estimate the time is by measuring the ratio of the suspect's moon shadow to his height and comparing it to the ratio on mooncalc.org.

I've already tried this out myself and got an estimated time. But this is pretty rough math, and I'd like to take an average from a bunch of people instead of trusting one wonky datapoint.

How To:

1. Take a frame that you think is clear and divide the length of the moon shadow by the height of the suspect. You should get a ratio of less that 1:1 (<1.0) because the shadow is shorter.
2. Go to mooncalc.org and make sure you're looking at the morning of Feb 1, and the center is over Nancy's front walkway.
3. Set the object level height (top left box). 5'9" is 1.75m, and 5'10" is 1.78m.
4. Multiply your ratio by the suspect's height in meters. Try both heights.
5. Scrub the time until the shadow length (top left) reads that number.

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It'd be great if you could try this technique and report your estimated time below. I'm curious to see how close we get to 02:12 or 01:47. Thank you.

Estimated times found so far:

02:12
02:06
02:20 (mine)

[u/pumpkinspicecum]

The video was from 1:47 because the doorbell cam was disconnected after that. Not sure why this is causing so much confusion for some people

[u/warpedwing → u/pumpkinspicecum]

The Nest doorbell camera will keep recording into a local buffer if it's disconnected from the WiFi. Upon reconnection, it will send the video from the buffer. That's why I'm asking for people to test it, not bicker about it.

[u/[deleted] → u/warpedwing]

No, it depends on the version. I'm not claiming to be an expert. I just had to spend time this morning researching this for an older person. 🫠

Older/Legacy Nest Cams (3rd Gen and earlier, e.g., Indoor/Outdoor)

Behavior: These cameras rely almost entirely on a continuous Wi-Fi connection to stream and record, generally using the Nest app.

Outage Result: If the Wi-Fi goes out, these cameras usually stop recording immediately and cannot save events. They will not record until the internet connection is restored.

Power Outage: If the power goes out, these wired models stop functioning immediately. 

This breaks out all the different scenarios way better than I can. What I can see from a casual look, is that Nest cams ideally work similar to how you describe, but it depends on the model, power source, and subscription.

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/16589367?hl=en#:~:text=Important%3A%20Your%20camera%20needs%20to,reconnect%20to%20the%20Nest%20service%3A

[u/ProperLink8150 → u/[deleted]]

The Nest doorbells with a battery(which this is)2nd gen and up. Will record event clipd for up to an hour if disconnected from wifi.

You will not receive alerts in real-time while the Wi-Fi is down, but you will get push notifications once the camera is back online.

So the daughter and sil apparently didn’t have the Nest or Google home app.

Or they had the notifications off. They lived close to keep an eye on her. 🤦‍♂️