Not Sure. Light Pillars? Stationary Aurora?

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Not Sure. Light Pillars? Stationary Aurora?
Taken by Adam Brown on March 28, 2014 @ Brainerd, MN

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Camera Used: Canon Canon EOS 60D
Exposure Time: 30/1
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO: 400
Date Taken: 2015:11:26 12:10:59

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Details:

March 28th, 2014, 11:14PM-2:18AM (CDT) (29th), Brainerd, MN. I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette, and I happened to look up and saw this. As far as I know, there weren't any Aurorae happening at the time, and these stayed perfectly motionless for three hours. These were STRAIGHT up in the sky, not coming from the horizon. The Panorama is oriented such as the top of the photo is looking to the West. What in the world did I witness? One can see some clouds rolling through in one of the photos (IMG_8147 ed1 LR), but these lights were visible even through the clouds. All photographs were taken outside, with no lens flares, reflections, etc.

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Comments

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These are amazing, not really sure what to say other than than it certainly follows the magnetic tendrils of a zenith(overhead) aurorae.

Perhaps you captured an extremely-high-radio-frequency ionosphere test conducted by the military! (yes they do that sort of thing)

Posted by amplelight 2015-11-26 12:56:41

The golden color is unusual for aurora and does resemble that of a sodium lamp, but usually light pillars are not clumpy like this. Perhaps you captured a very rare Hexagonal ice-crystal display to produce the usual light pillar, with an obscure angle? Very lucky indeed!

Posted by amplelight 2015-11-26 13:01:19

Here is another example i found by typing in zenith light pillar into google image search.

http://www.nationalufocenter.com/artman/uploads/48belgiumnov06.jpg

Posted by amplelight 2015-11-26 13:03:53

https://images.google.com/

Posted by amplelight 2015-11-26 13:05:08

http://www.theoutpostforum.com/tof/showthread.php?168-UFO-misperceptions-samples/page7
Good explanation of effect here

Posted by markbuxton 2015-11-26 16:37:24

These are reflected urban lights indeed, the reflection being caused by higher level ice Crystals with horizontally oriented crystal faces. So this phenomenon is similar to subsun and light pillar halo types, but here the light sources are of artificial origine. These have different colors, and so do their reflected images ahead. They must have been located quite close to your smoking location!

Posted by pphv 2015-11-27 02:23:45

I agree with the light pillar conclusion. The description by you, the colors in the photos, the related links, all suggest that light pillar is correct. VERY NICE CAPTURE !!! What a sight... dont look at your mobile device, look up!!!

Posted by dougr855 2015-11-27 13:59:41

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