I photographed fire in the sky

Has anyone else here who lives on the Mediterranean tried to get a similar night shot in the direction of Etna?

www.nydailynews.com...

I believe you are genuine. Being that the phenomenon is predictable and in the same place, I'd suggest you set a video camera.

Originally posted by tryingtomakeit
Is it me or does the smoke look like faces coming out of the fire. Probably nothing. Just thought it was notable.

That is what I saw a main face on top and multiple faces below the top face. I am shocked no one mentioned it until now. I have yet to see anything like this but it does seem interesting! I will keep reading this thread!

reply to post by LastStarfighter


Thank you for your faith in me I did really see this and so did my husband, and I asked his fam to watch the sky too, and tonight I will have another looksy and definitely if I can video it I will. Thanks again.

Originally posted by liliththedestroyer

Originally posted by tryingtomakeit
Is it me or does the smoke look like faces coming out of the fire. Probably nothing. Just thought it was notable.

That is what I saw a main face on top and multiple faces below the top face. I am shocked no one mentioned it until now. I have yet to see anything like this but it does seem interesting! I will keep reading this thread!

Thank you, yah its weird anyway that's why I mentioned I thought it might be an omen from God, like the gates of hell opening or a door or something, lol.

First time I remember somebody answers all questions, provides location data, daylight shot and seems really interested in finding out what it is instead of shouting "aliens!!"

star and flagged

Originally posted by CottonwoodStormy
reply to post by elevenaugust

 

if I'm center and look NE around the 45 degree or 50 degree mark that would be where I am seeing the lights and pulsating sky which according to the map posted is the direction where Mount Etna is. it is hard to believe that is what I'm seeing since as people have noted its very far away, but I have no other explanation for what could produce this. Tamara

Mt Etna is ~072 - 074 degrees True and ~069.5 - 071.5 degrees Magnetic from your position.

I think that possibly the Island of Zalita is in the right range over the horizon and right bearing to produce this light. Cities and volcanoes do not typically produce a 'dancing' light over the horizon, however single point sources and fires often can. See if the fishing village on the south side of the island is having any special spring festival event.

Alternatively, a country such as Tunisia may still be practicing the burn-off of natural gas produced in a crude oil rig. I have seen the glow from oil rig natural gas plumes from as far away as 250 nautical miles on a nice night at sea. Pure natural gas burns blue in small quantities, however, when contaminated with crude oil aromatics/other gasses and when low on oxygen ratio, burns a very nice dancing orange.

i still want to see the daylight photo of the same place.

did u already upload it?

Originally posted by Hitman47
i still want to see the daylight photo of the same place.

did u already upload it?

look on page 2 the top post

reply to post by TheEthicalSkeptic


Thank you, there was no activity last night to be seen other then a bit of an orange hue mist, and I made a visual note that the sun sets in the west so its definitely not from the sun, it was too faint to video, but I will keep my eyes to the skies. The photo I took really did not do what I saw justice. It almost looked like a orange-red flaming vertical door of smoke, with a smaller one beside it intermingling together with clouds below and above it, was really cool. I hope I do see it again and get a better photo. My husband also thought maybe burning oil could produce the pulsating sky, but the vertical columns were really bright and odd, still not sure.

reply to post by aLLeKs


Awww, thank you, cause I'm telling the truth!!!!!! Nothing to hide!

You say there were two dancing flames? I only see one... Maybe if you had moved the camera a little to the side and caught BOTH of them, then MAYBE we wouldn't have so many people saying its a volcano...

So, apparently you didn't tell the ENTIRE story... How do you suppose it looks when you clain there were two and you present a picture with ONLY ONE!? And no explanation, either. You couldve just told us there were two, and you ran to get your camera, but when you came back there was only one now, or at least something. But no, instead what we get is you telling us there were two, and then showing us a pic with only one.

Did the second one appear later, AFTER you took this photo??

I guess what I'm getting at here, is you need to explain about this second beam and why it is NOT showing up in your picture. IT'S VERY IMPORTANT to know if there were one or two!

What, were you just so drunk that you were seeing double?

I have to leave this thread now before my head explodes...

SnF!

Originally posted by 3n19m470
You say there were two dancing flames? I only see one... Maybe if you had moved the camera a little to the side and caught BOTH of them, then MAYBE we wouldn't have so many people saying its a volcano...

So, apparently you didn't tell the ENTIRE story... How do you suppose it looks when you clain there were two and you present a picture with ONLY ONE!? And no explanation, either. You couldve just told us there were two, and you ran to get your camera, but when you came back there was only one now, or at least something. But no, instead what we get is you telling us there were two, and then showing us a pic with only one.

Did the second one appear later, AFTER you took this photo??

I guess what I'm getting at here, is you need to explain about this second beam and why it is NOT showing up in your picture. IT'S VERY IMPORTANT to know if there were one or two!

What, were you just so drunk that you were seeing double?

I have to leave this thread now before my head explodes...

SnF!

edit on 4/12/2013 by 3n19m470 because: (no reason given)

Really??? The OP has been completely cooperative. She stated that the second beam wasn't as vibrant or visible as the first and it's quite obvious that the the one we do see in the photo didn't photograph as she actually saw it. She has already said that the photo doesn't do the actual experience any justice, so more than likely the second beam wouldn't show up in the photograph.

I know we're used to pranks on ATS and to being critical, but I think you were a little (or a lot!) harsh. I think the OP has been about as cooperative as could possibly be expected and just because the second beam didn't show up in the pic doesn't mean that it wasn't there. It's a photo of the night sky. The exif data has already been analyzed and considering what was photographed, with the ISO used, I think we're seeing all that we can expect to see and the OP is completely believable.

If this thread makes your head explode, I don't know how you stand it here on ATS. This is probably the most cooperative OP in existence of this website.

Can u update. Did it happen again. Did u vid?

Thx

OP, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread and agree with others that you're the most forthcoming OP I've encountered on ATS. Disregard garbage comments made by someone who reads your first post then skips 5 pages ahead to be combative on a very serene thread. Keep up the good work and I hope to hear more about your fire in the sky.

reply to post by CottonwoodStormy


That is the absolute greatest photo of nothing I've ever seen.

Originally posted by azureskys
Sorry, but the distance between Collo and Mt. Etna is more than 750km!!! Over such a great distance you can't even see Mt Etna if our planet would be flat. Imagine that the surface of our planet is curved. The height difference over a distance at about 350km will be nearly 9km. Mt. Etna is more than double away.



www.timeanddate.com...

Distance from Palermo to Algiers

Distance is 925 kilometers or 575 miles or 499 nautical miles
The distance is the theoretical air distance (great circle distance). Flying between the two locations' airports can be a different distance, depending on airport location and actual route chosen.

I'm with elevenaugust on this one. Etna is quite a bit too far away to be visible from the OP's location.

As an astrophotographer I have had quite a bit of experience with light pollution. Even the light from a large city (which would be much more light than Etna is generating, except perhaps during a MAJOR eruption) would not be visible to the naked eye from more than 200 or 300 km away, and we are talking much further here.

I also specialize in meteors and fireballs, and whilst these can be visible from up to 1000 km away, that is as much because of their altitude (usually between 50-100 km) as it is due to their extreme brightness in the case of bright fireballs.

Crucially, when they are observed at these distances, to an observer they appear to be VERY LOW above the horizon, and not high up in the sky like the OP's mystery lights.

Whilst I don't know what it is that the OP saw/photographed, the chances are that it was relatively close - at most 100 km, but probably quite a bit closer I would guess.

What the OP is seeing can effectively be considered to be "light pollution" (ie light from the ground) since it's been seen for at least a few different nights in the same part of the sky, and it can not be an astronomical phenomenon since it would be visible over a very wide area, and would have been reported by now if it was.

Light pollution is only visible in the sky because water droplets/ice crystals/particulates in the atmosphere (specifically the Troposphere) scatter and reflect light from the ground back to the eyes of someone looking at the sky.



As you can see in the diagram above, the Troposphere only reaches up to about 14 km altitude, and it is here that the vast majority of light is reflected back to the eyes of an observer on the ground.

My first thought when I saw the OP's photograph was Light pillars:


Source: click here

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5aeeecd2a5ef.jpg[/atsimg]
Source: iltasanomat.fi


Source: blog.syracuse.com...


Source: www.arborsci.com...


Source: www.icstars.com...


Source: apod.nasa.gov...


Source: www.extremeinstability.com...


Source: indigofarm.blog106.fc2.com...

Columns of light apparently beaming directly upwards from unshielded (and wastefully polluting) lights are sometimes visible during very cold weather. Plate shaped ice crystals, normally only present in high clouds, float in the air close to the ground and their horizontal facets reflect light back downwards.

The pillars are not physically over the lights or anywhere else in space for that matter ~ like all halos they are purely the collected light beams from all the millions of crystals which just happen to be reflecting light towards your eyes or camera.

Artificial light pillars can be much taller than their natural counterparts because rays from the lights are not parallel and plate crystals with small tilts can still reflect them downwards. The crystals producing the pillars are roughly halfway between you and the lights.

When ice crystals float in the air around you, pillars (and other halos) can even be seen around streetlights a few metres away.

I'm not so sure they are light pillars since they are not a frequent occurrence in the part of the world where the OP is, but it may be a possibility. More likely I suspect would be some kind of a search light shone in the sky as elevenaugust suggested.

reply to post by 3n19m470


Are you for real? I think you need to take an anxiety pill, holy. I stated from the beginning of this thread that there were 2, if you had actually read through it, firstly you would have read that several times I stated there were 2. Secondly, I took a shot at getting a photo, it's not my fault only one showed up, jeez. I had been watching it for several hours, made my husband watch, then decided to get out the cam, not sure if anything would even show up, cause as I said previously it was just an average camera, and I didn't have much faith in it. I decided to max out the evening brightness, turn the flash on and take a photo in the direction in which I was watching this occurrence and this is what showed up in the pic. it's quite simple, calm down okay?

reply to post by gemineye


Aww thank you Gemini eye, really hey! I think that poster has something wrong upstairs, lol.

reply to post by LastStarfighter


I wish I could say it happened again but it hasn't. It's been increasingly hot here, and maybe the temps in Europe are improving, maybe the Mediteranean is warming so the atmospheric conditions aren't the same now. I don't know exactly, but thank you very much for asking and I am watching, The sky has been predominantly dark with a faint hue to the east but nothing substantial. If I see it again I will do my best to photo it. Thank you again, Tamara