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Neat winter light show.
Jan. 22nd, 2005 10:31 pmOn the way to work Thursday morning, I noticed an effect so neat that I pulled off and watched it for a while.
It was early, dark, very cold, below zero F, and at this point in the trip the air was absolutely still. There were ice crystals gently falling; not really snow, more very very tiny ice crystals that were just condensing out of the air.
The effect was that every source of light had a column of light going straight up from it like a laser beam. This was the case even if the light itself was hidden from me, so it wasn't a diffraction effect of the glass I was looking through.
What I'm pretty sure it was was that the ice crystals were aligning as they fell through the still air, and reflecting light in a straight line, so that if they were between me and the light, they'd reflect the light at me. So a whole plane of them were shining at me. The effect looked like a laser beam from any vantage point. When I looked out over the countryside, there were "laser beams" coming up from every security light, even cars on roads up to a mile away, whose lights I wouldn't see for a minute or more. It was pretty cool.
When I drove a bit further and got out of the large hollow so there was a bit of a stirring in the air, the effect was gone. That's what leads me to think the stillness was necessary for the effect.
I need to start carrying my camera.
It was early, dark, very cold, below zero F, and at this point in the trip the air was absolutely still. There were ice crystals gently falling; not really snow, more very very tiny ice crystals that were just condensing out of the air.
The effect was that every source of light had a column of light going straight up from it like a laser beam. This was the case even if the light itself was hidden from me, so it wasn't a diffraction effect of the glass I was looking through.
What I'm pretty sure it was was that the ice crystals were aligning as they fell through the still air, and reflecting light in a straight line, so that if they were between me and the light, they'd reflect the light at me. So a whole plane of them were shining at me. The effect looked like a laser beam from any vantage point. When I looked out over the countryside, there were "laser beams" coming up from every security light, even cars on roads up to a mile away, whose lights I wouldn't see for a minute or more. It was pretty cool.
When I drove a bit further and got out of the large hollow so there was a bit of a stirring in the air, the effect was gone. That's what leads me to think the stillness was necessary for the effect.
I need to start carrying my camera.
