Quoted from today's Spaceweather Web site.
ZENITH LIGHTS: "Last night some strange lights appeared in the sky over my house," reports Hiroaki Ohno of Fukushima, Japan. "They had neon colors and were brighter than Mars or Capella." The slowly-changing apparition persisted for more than an hour and he had time to take several pictures using his Canon 40D:
What were these celestial luminaries? Ordinary city lights.
Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley explains: "Plate-shaped ice crystals floating horizontally in high clouds can act as millions of tiny mirrors. They reflect light to form subsuns, sun pillars and artificial light pillars. Here they have reflected the colorful city lights of Fukushima as streaks radiating outwards from the zenith."
Indeed, says Ohno, "there were some translucent icy clouds floating over the city and my neighborhood has many neon signs on convenience stores and colored lights on a nearby expressway." Icy clouds + neon lights = another reason to keep looking (straight) up.
Off Topic » in reply to ER? Nick? ARRELL?
Another potential source of some UFO sightings
The whole thread (51 posts)
- Some hints for UFO investigators
- re: Still wondering
- Well put
- Pareidolia
- Distance
- But if you had multiple accurate and trustworthy sightings...
- "Ezekial saw a wheel, way up in the air..."