UFO?
No, plane and its contrail lit by the rising sun.
UFO?
No, plane and its contrail lit by the rising sun.
UFO following a plane?
No, winglet of the plane lit by the sun and view from a certain angle plus bad resolution:
Last edited by Elevenaugust; 12-11-2011 at 09:44 PM.
UFO?
No, Dreamworks advertising balloon
UFOs fleet above NYC?
No! Celebration for the 100 years of 'Gran Via' with yellow balloons
UFO?
No, thai lantern!
UFO?
No, camera that can't properly focused on a dot of light (Venus here) in a pitch black night (no reference point to focuse on), the shape varie due to the shape of the camera shutter.
Last edited by Elevenaugust; 12-13-2011 at 11:00 AM.
UFO?
No! Lens flare!
UFO?
No, zenithal light pillar:
Light pillars are a kind of optical phenomenon which is formed by the reflection of sunlight or moonlight by ice crystals that are present in the Earth's atmosphere.
The light pillar looks like a thin column that extends vertically above and/or below the source of light. The light pillar is prominently visible when the Sun is low or lies below the horizon. It normally forms an arc that extends from five to ten degrees beyond the solar disc. Light pillars can sometimes also be seen arising from the Moon.
Light pillars are formed by reflection from ice crystals with roughly horizontal faces.
It can also be created by artificial lights:
Full explanations at atoptics
Pillars to the zenith here
The lights are a form of light pillar and are produced by flat plate shaped ice crystals in layers of ice fog above the city.
Why do the lines of light converge on the zenith?
The diagram at right shows rays from just one nearby city light shining upwards onto crystals at different heights.
Only crystals on a column roughly midway between the light and the observer give a reflection into the eye because the small crystal mirrors are nearly horizontal and the incident and reflected rays must make equal angles to the crystal faces.
The higher the crystal, the more closely does the reflected ray come from the direction of the zenith. Therefore, when there is a cloud of crystals, their reflections appear as a line of light that points directly overhead, the zenith.
Why are the lines broken?
That night there must have been several layers of crystals at different heights over the city with zones in between them either without ice crystals or with crystals that were not specially oriented.
More samples of light pillars:
I must say I really enjoyed the postings and pictures on this thread. Ed
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