What did I just see?!!

[BatteryCharger]

I was just driving home in the dark. As I got to my driveway I had a clear view of the hills in the distance, maybe 2 miles away from me and 1000' higher than my elevation. For about a second I saw an amazingly bright blue flash that must have been hundreds of feet across, and shaped sort of like a flashlight beam pointing up. Almost like watching lightening strike, except WAY bigger! (and it's not stormy) It's hard to say because of the distance, but it's almost like shining my X990 straight up but about 100 times more light!

I didn't hear any noise and I still see smaller lights scattered across the hillside, meaning the power didn't go out, so I don't think it was any kind of electrical failure. WTF did I just see? It's kind of hard to explain but it's one of the weirdest things I've ever witnessed...

 

[StarHalo]

Re: WTF did I just see?!!

I don't know, but we'd certainly love to reproduce it..

 

[Zeruel]

Re: WTF did I just see?!!

and harness into a tube... and you know the rest.

 

[csshih]

Re: WTF did I just see?!!

I call... 60" arclight.

 

[Vesper]

Re: WTF did I just see?!!

Hide your cows.

 

[light obsessed]

Re: WTF did I just see?!!

Could you draw a picture and post it here?

 

[BatteryCharger]

Re: WTF did I just see?!!

Could you draw a picture and post it here?

Honestly it looked much like the pic above, without the obvious UFO of course. Except the beam was sort of triangular shaped, like when you shine a flashlight up on a foggy night. And it was BRIGHT! My first thought was firework...but it was just too big for that. I was expecting to hear a big boom, but I didn't....

I've seen electrical transformers blow up with a bluish flash before, but this was like 100 times bigger! And no sound that I could hear...:tinfoil:

 

[Vinniec5]

Re: WTF did I just see?!!

Is there an Electrical Substation up there? Maybe you saw a switch open or close

 

[Tekno_Cowboy]

Re: WTF did I just see?!!

Is there an airport nearby? The local airport uses a very bright spotlight that can be seen for miles on a clear night. It looks a quite a bit like you described.

 

[DimmerD]

Re: WTF did I just see?!!

Martians are flashoholics too? lovecpf

 

[TooManyGizmos]

Search for "light canon"

 

[LED_Thrift]

Maybe Data is working on his replacement for the DataBank70. Do you live in Pennsylvania?

 

[AnAppleSnail]

Maybe Data is working on his replacement for the DataBank70. Do you live in Pennsylvania?

Good point - we need a map of "If you see weird lights, it's this CPF member"
Could it have been a headlight coming over a hill? I know it's silly, but I've had a less-dramatic effect from that.

 

[DM51]

Maybe it is LightSward's homemade 24" scratch built & designed reflector. He said he was about to make a 48" one!

 

[FrogmanM]

Probably some "Swamp gas from a weather balloon was
trapped In a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus."

-Kawika

(most likely Data's newest creation)

 

[jayflash]

Do you know what buildings, equipment, utilities, etc. which are located in that area? Any engineering labs or hobbyists with their own HV transformers? That's pretty darned large for a "normal" electrical discharge. You've got me curious.

 

[Patriot]

The Transformer Bumblebee signaling for help from his friends..........?

 

[JohnR66]

I agree, probably electrical in nature. Check out this phase to phase arc:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abXAonbevaA

 

[Patriot]

I always liked this one. Too bad it wasn't at night time.

 

[JohnR66]

I always liked this one. Too bad it wasn't at night time.

That was a good one. Being interested in electrical power transmission, I've probably seen them all. This page has the information of what is going on there:
http://205.243.100.155/frames/longarc.htm

This one is pretty cool too. Fault protection gear wasn't working too well here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FsRZ-I9_F0&feature=channel_page