Captured a SPRITE!!!!!! More than just lightning - So excited about this one!!! Get a close-up look!
To the left of the pole - see the upward spray of green light!!!? THAT is a Sprite!!! … Or possibly a Blue Jet or a Pixie. At any rate, Tougher to capture than lightning! Some have said they're not even supposed to be visible to the naked eye -- but obviously they are, even if just barely!!! They are usually very difficult to see.
I took this at the Balloon Fiesta Park, 4th of July (Independance Day) celebrations - In Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. It was 07/04/2006 approximately 8:45pm local mountain daylight time (20:45 MDT on 07/04/06, or 02:45 UTC on 07/50/06).
I appologize that this is the largest viewable size - I had to crop (& lighten a bit) so we could really see it better. There was a row of food vendor tents a few yards behind me (a little light coming from them). And please forgive that pole being in the way - but I needed the lightning in there too and unfortunately, this is just how it worked out. Some dude walked in front of the lightning just as it happened (SLAP him, Please!)... so I almost deleted this one... but when I looked closely at the shot, THAT is when I realized that I caught the illusive sprite in the shot!!!! This is a pride & joy of mine.
I know it may not mean much to many or most of you, but to anyone who knows anything about the studies of lightning - Sprites are only recently discovered companion phenomenon of lighting. Lighting happens in the cloud and under the cloud and the sprites were recently discovered to spray upwards above the cloud -- Sprites can occur up to 50 km from the location of the lightning strike, and with a time delay of up to 100 milliseconds.
For more info on Lightning and Sprites - I provide some links here:
www.fma-research.com/Papers&presentations/spr-view-1....
www.lightning.nmt.edu/sprites/sprites.html
www.fma-research.com/spriteres.htm
Captured a SPRITE!!!!!! More than just lightning - So excited about this one!!! Get a close-up look!
To the left of the pole - see the upward spray of green light!!!? THAT is a Sprite!!! … Or possibly a Blue Jet or a Pixie. At any rate, Tougher to capture than lightning! Some have said they're not even supposed to be visible to the naked eye -- but obviously they are, even if just barely!!! They are usually very difficult to see.
I took this at the Balloon Fiesta Park, 4th of July (Independance Day) celebrations - In Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. It was 07/04/2006 approximately 8:45pm local mountain daylight time (20:45 MDT on 07/04/06, or 02:45 UTC on 07/50/06).
I appologize that this is the largest viewable size - I had to crop (& lighten a bit) so we could really see it better. There was a row of food vendor tents a few yards behind me (a little light coming from them). And please forgive that pole being in the way - but I needed the lightning in there too and unfortunately, this is just how it worked out. Some dude walked in front of the lightning just as it happened (SLAP him, Please!)... so I almost deleted this one... but when I looked closely at the shot, THAT is when I realized that I caught the illusive sprite in the shot!!!! This is a pride & joy of mine.
I know it may not mean much to many or most of you, but to anyone who knows anything about the studies of lightning - Sprites are only recently discovered companion phenomenon of lighting. Lighting happens in the cloud and under the cloud and the sprites were recently discovered to spray upwards above the cloud -- Sprites can occur up to 50 km from the location of the lightning strike, and with a time delay of up to 100 milliseconds.
For more info on Lightning and Sprites - I provide some links here:
www.fma-research.com/Papers&presentations/spr-view-1....
www.lightning.nmt.edu/sprites/sprites.html
www.fma-research.com/spriteres.htm