Moon Beams?

Cloud Front

Moon Rainbow

Southern Light Beam

I love photographing the many variations of sky color and cloud patterns, and the eastern sky has produced many interesting subjects as of late. Yesterday the intense blue I viewed from my home office window beckoned to me. Answering the call, camera in hand, I stepped outside and was confronted with an awesome cloud front looming like a giant tornado. After capturing its image against the beautiful blue of the sky I settled the camera back in its place and continued with my work. As the daylight quickly faded, the blues that had lured me receded, and the massive cloud front I had captured all but faded with it.

The camera was then forgotten. Darkness of the northern winter evening signaled the close of another day, and the crisp air slowly chilled farther. Our only source of heat comes from the hot water that circulates though out the house, heated by a large wood burning stove outside. No less than twice a day in winter this stove must be fed. Mine is the noon shift, and my husband's is the evening. On this particular evening, only minutes after my husband had closed the door to take his turn at stove feeding, I was surprised to see him enter again, quickly grasping for the forgotten camera. "Northern lights." he said. "But very strange ones." I peered out of the door at the cold dark sky, but only spied one long straight streak overhead. Nothing as spectacular as some in previous years. I was disappointed, as we hadn't seen good northern lights for many, many months.

Later that evening, when my husband loaded the images into the computer he asked me what I thought. I was stunned. Never had I seen lights as these! What were they! These lights were not in the north, but in the east and south west. Many times we had seen beams of light from stores trying to attract customers from afar, but they were not like these. Those that appeared close to the rising moon were rainbow in color and seemed to be created from the moon's light. But the huge green beam far to the south west was strange indeed, and reminded me of the light a spaceship would create in a science fiction movie! These lights still have us questioning.

What are your thoughts. Have you ever encountered an evening sight like this?