Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: cowboy on 09/01/2008 17:52:45

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: cowboy on 09/01/2008 17:52:45

what is this in the sky?
it is some kind of light that appeared and sustained for about 45 to 60 seconds.
pic was taken of it in the morning of 12/31/07 around 6am central time.
the light first appeared small then expanded or grew pretty large the it shrunk back down, this is when the pic was taken at the time it was shrinking. pic was not taken by me but by a friend who asked me.
Anybody have any thoughts???

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: SteveH on 09/01/2008 18:24:28

Just a guess ..reentry of space junk.

I did a quick google for anomalous lights in the sky on 12/31/07 and came up empty.

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: lightarrow on 09/01/2008 20:08:58

Quote from: cowboy on 09/01/2008 17:52:45

what is this in the sky?
it is some kind of light that appeared and sustained for about 45 to 60 seconds.
pic was taken of it in the morning of 12/31/07 around 6am central time.
the light first appeared small then expanded or grew pretty large the it shrunk back down, this is when the pic was taken at the time it was shrinking. pic was not taken by me but by a friend who asked me.
Anybody have any thoughts???

It could be a ball lightning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: Soul Surfer on 09/01/2008 20:51:00

The picture was taken through the windscreen of a car with early morning sun shining from the back and slightly to the side.  The angle is too great for any normal ice crystal sun dog.  One possibility is that it was a reflection of the low sun from the surface of the windscreen.

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: turnipsock on 09/01/2008 21:29:17

A plane, with the landing lights on, behind a cloud

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: neilep on 09/01/2008 22:13:37

Don't know if my efforts here over complicate the issue but I played around with a few settings:


Original picture just zoomed in:

 [ Invalid Attachment ]




Gamma reduced:

 [ Invalid Attachment ]



Saturation added:

 [ Invalid Attachment ]





The top portion looks like it's part of a complete ROUND object !!

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: Karen W. on 09/01/2008 22:28:34

That is odd!

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: JimBob on 09/01/2008 22:51:36

There is a phenomenon yhay lets clouds act as lenses, redirecting sunlight so it appears to be coming from a completely different place than it is really originating from.

Any other possibilities? COME ON PEOPLE! Think!

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: Karen W. on 09/01/2008 22:55:56

Well surely it wasn't the moon disappearing  into the morning light...LOL

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: cowboy on 09/01/2008 23:14:38

i was thinking it may be some kind of lightning or maybe an exploding meteorite, but neil just scared me.

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: another_someone on 10/01/2008 01:13:02

Not sure about meteorites, but it does look like some sort of low grade explosion (maybe some gas explosion - maybe something coming out of a chimney, and exploding - except I cannot see any chimney).

It does look to me like something is exploding from the bottom, and then the hot exploding gasses are rising; but there is no indication of what might have caused the explosion.

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: paul.fr on 10/01/2008 08:50:54

questions
1. where was the sun in relation to the light?
2. were you in a vehicle when the photo was taken
3. what were the weather conditions at the time of the photograph and the immediate hour/s before and after...ie, was there any rain?

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: cowboy on 10/01/2008 14:25:50

1. the sun would be rising to the right, as the picture was taken in a vehicle traveling north, sun would have been rising in the east. The sun was barely breaking as it was around 6 am central time.

2. yes, in a vehicle.

3. i think there may have been light drizzle in the area about an hour or two after the pic was taken. Also, it got cold real fast this day. Not sure if this is any help, but the temp did drop pretty quick this day. in the morning you could have worn shorts then by night you needed a jacket and a hat.

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: JimBob on 13/01/2008 02:21:51

I'll go with the sun coming through a break in the clouds and being refracted off of ice crystals in a new direction. I have seen this in blue northers before here in Texas and this sure looks like one. A cold front came through Austin about 10 AM that day. See

http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KATT/2008/1/12/DailyHistory.html?req_city=Austin&req_state=TX&req_statename=Texas

Title: what is this in the sky???
Post by: paul.fr on 13/01/2008 03:47:58

Spot on Jim. Had I the attention span to get back to posts, then the answers to my questions would be the same as yours.
If there was a thunder storm around the time of the photograph, and the altitude was higher, then i would have said there was a slight chance that it could have been blue jet lightning behind the clouds.