A Reason to take your Flashlights out Tonight - request to confirm an Observation

There was an observation I made initially on the 4th of July as we were sitting outside watching fireworks (lots of big fireworks we can see right from our yard). I had a couple flashlights on me that I would point skyward sometimes and noticed how much dust, debris, smoke or whatever it was that seemed to be in the air. I wondered if it was just the July 4th fireworks smoke or if it was always this way. I didn't smell any fireworks most of the time. So I made it a point to check several times over the last month or so and each time it looked about the same - very dusty. So at that point I think maybe it's just that my flashlights have gotten so bright that it really lights up all the junk that is in the air and it's just like this everywhere. I wanted to make this a poll but I didn't see that option available so I'm going to ask anyone who would like to take their light out after dark (great excuse to the wife/gf if she frowns on your playing with your lights - "I've got to do some research Dear" ) - to pick a number below to simply this or you can choose to explain your observation in more detail with the last choice. What I'd also like to ask is either your location or the type of environment your are in. In other words you might say your are in the forest 5 miles from the nearest neighbor or in downtown L.A. or on 2 acres by a river in Montana or 200 yards from a steel mill - anything that will give an idea of your probable air quality. I've found just pointing a light straight up seems best for this test unless you're by an airport with a tank light - so don't get in trouble in the interest of this little research project. Thanks to everyone who can provide any input on this!

1. Looks like a major sand or dust storm - I can't believe visibility is more than 20 feet.

2. OMG - this is so bad looking I'm going on Oxygen now! Cough cough!

3. Looks like I'm in a room full of poker playing cigar smokers or a Gazillion nano-flies.

4. Is there a bonfire next door?

5. Who just shook out their carpet?

6. I see lots of little dust particles but it doesn't look bad.

7. I can almost count the amount of particles floating in the beam.

8. I see a few bits of dust in the beam at any one moment.

9. I saw one particle after about 10 seconds - maybe I should bottle this and sell it?

10. Other - your own description

:thanks:

Lol, like I need another reason to go outside and shine my light up in the air! Sounds like an interesting experiment. I'll play.

You should go to Las Vegas and check out the biggie, the light that shines up from the top of the Luxor pyramid.

That beam is full of bugs and birds, in an all-night battle of life and death.

BTW, the airline pilots complained years ago, and the light is not much dimmer than it used to be.

I would rate it a "5" based upon my experience. Yes, there is a LOT of garbage and / or minute insects that we are inhaling with each breath. I was amazed at how much you can see, espeically with an intense narrow beam (within a couple of feet) like that from a Kroma.

Most of the time its either a 6 or 5 here (Scottsdale Arizona) It *sometimes* will go down to 4 during winter nights and is usually 5 but will get into 6 or 7 when i need to change the filter in the AirCon unit.:sick2:

I'll go out and play tonight. But in the meantime, this it what it looked like in our last AZ dust storm.

Well it's dark here now and I tried this little test with my brightest light. I live in Mesa, AZ, in the city, but only 5-10 miles from OPEN desert. No wind tonight, clear skies. I think our air rates a 6 on your scale. Kind of amazing to actually "see" what we breathe.

We're going up to the forest this weekend to camp. I'll try the test again up there.

I live in rural coastal southern Maine, we have a salt marsh on our property, so foggy nights are common

With my brightest lights (Thor 10MCP, MagCharger) I'd rate particulates in our air..
Foggy nights;4.5
Clear nights;9

Medium strength lights (A2, E1L-SR, Maxlite II)
Foggy; 5
Clear; 9.5

Id say im about a 8.5-9, but i live in suburbia with a very large forest near me. No traffic, plenty of natural air filters, i feel bad for you city folk.

I'd weigh in, but it's been raining here literally all day, so all that're in the air now are raindrops.

There is a story (from when Los Angeles was smoggier than it is now) about a guy from LA who went up to the mountains and thought he was going to die, because he couldn't see anything to breathe.

Thanks to everyone who has helped out here so far. I'm going to try to get a beam shot of what I've got here with the focus set on manual so I can do a close up of what's in the beam. Reports so far sound a lot like what I expected although I wasn't sure if anyone would get into the 9 range - glad to hear that.
paulr - that was a good one - I know what LA smog is like - I almost sprayed my breakfast on that one :laughing:

Living out in the rural backwoods of Texas we have lots of dirt roads .. so it ranges from 1 to 2. Especially when the kids decide to start doing donuts down the road on their ATV's with only the slightest of wind blowing.

I did this last night, and I started out with my X5 and I saw hundreds upon hundreds of orbs. They were coming down at me faster than I could track them all. And they were WET, it was amazing, I didnt know orbs would actually physically effect someone.

Then my wife yelled at me to come in out of the rain...

Wow, I've never relized how much dust is in the air till I tried this! I'd say it's around 6 here.

Thanks again for more responses. Gotta watch out for those rain orbs - I just went outside again for a minute with the Novatac. With almost no wind here tonight and it's amazing what you see. I tried photographing it but I'll need to try that again when I have more time to get out the tripod as the pics I just got are worthless. I didn't think about how hard it is to photo moving dust particles in total darkness with a flashlight beam. Because the dust seemed to be fast moving - I think it was rising from heat off the patio - and the camera mostly saw darkness beyond the beam it wanted to take a long exposure resulting in just a blur of light. I hope to figure out a way to do this next try. I'm going to call tonight about a 4 or 5. It still seems shocking how much is there when you don't see it at all during the day.

I've never tried this, but if you hold a picture right above the light, push shutter half down to lock focus, then remove the picture it might work.

Using both laserlight and highpower flashlights the air above LAX less than 1 mile from the pacific ocean the air quality looks to me to be somewhere between a 4 and 5.
Actually pretty nromal. Last night it was very clear and laserlight which shows particulate matter in the air very well there seemd to be much more airborne debris I would have made it about a 6
Yaesumofo

Good old Alaska! I would give it a 9 on most days! I cant wait till winter in Fairbanks... like 18 hours of darkness.. A flashaholic's paradise!!

Another thought on this question. Just the other day i noticed the MOON seemed to be much more orange much higher in the sky than normal.
Most of you in north America can go outside right now and if it is clear enough to see the moon you may be able to judge by the color of the moon how much debris is in the air.
The other day the moon was quite RED very high in the sky. I live in a coastal area and the prevailing wind is from the west. normally since there is nothing but ocean for 5000 miles there are no source for pollutants which would cause the redness in the moon. when the wind is from the east it carries the dirt air over causing nice sunsets and red moons. do not recall any major wind shifts recently. weather history web pages ma be of some help in this area.
yaesumofo