Posted on 11/29/2017 12:54:55 AM PST by Swordmaker
Something VERY strange occurred tonight while my girlfriend and I were soaking in our spa in the backyard about 9:45 PM. We live in the unincorporated area between Sacramento and Rancho Cordova, CA.
It was a very cool and clear night and we could, for the first time in a long while see the stars clearly. We turned off the security lights that illuminated the walkway along the garage and enjoyed to clear stars as we lay back and enjoyed a glass of brandy in the spa. Air temperature was about 46º F but the water temperature was a toasty 100º. Winds were only 4 mph. Nice.
Orion was very clear in the South East and I was scanning the sky when I saw a meteor streak in the Eastern sky about 15º-20º NW of Orion between four tall palm trees (separated in two groups of two) in our neighbor's yard. I told my girlfriend about it and she turned to look but missed seeing it. Just then, to more very bright meteors came in the same area, essentially coming from the East and heading generally West.
As I watched, four more meteors of various brightness flashed across the sky in that area, generally angling from about the same area of sky and burnt out. Then, very quickly about seven or eight more, also of various brightness, some as bright as magnitude 1. . . some as low as 5 or 6. All streaking straight as an arrow, all seeming to come from the same small area of the sky, all from an area seemingly way far above and obscured behind the palms. This was highly unusual.
None of the meteors lasted for more than a few seconds before burning out but brightnesses were all over the place. Pretty quickly we were seeing dozens of meteors. . . sometimes up to ten of fifteen in the space of ten seconds, going in a cone shape all from the same small area in the sky, coming down in droves. Sometimes there were a dozen in a second! All straight line of trajectory! Some longer flight than others, the brighter, the longer. You could see bright flashes through the palm fronds as well. I have never in my life seen so many meteors in such a short span of time.
I called my daughter who lived about fifteen miles East me so she and her husband could go look at the "meteor shower." I also called my primary client down in Stockton to do the same.
BOTH reported they saw nothing at all! Strange. If these were meteors, they should have been visible over a wide area.
What my girlfriend and I were seeing HAD to be a local phenomenon!
The meteor shower lasted a good ten minutes and then petered out. . .
My girlfriend had dashed inside to get my iPhone so we could try to take photos and videos but it was fruitless. She'd also put on a robe so she could try to get some photos with out the palms blocking the sky. The sky was too dark for the size of the lens on the phone to give us good pictures. Some still photos show the trees, but the meteors were pretty much gone by then.
A local meteor shower was already pretty weird, but THEN it got really even weirder.
The PALM TREES started magically twinkling and flashes of light started joyfully diving in and out of the palm fronds. These flashes were not any where nearly as bright as the "meteors" high in the sky had been, but were more like somewhat dimmed white/blue Christmas tree lights. They'd flash on, circle around the tree, diving in and out, flash a bit brighter, then go out. Some lights inside the tree would flash making a glow behind the fronds for a second or two as the light reflected off the fronds, and then go out. There'd be several more of these interior glowing globe like lights around inside the fronds. . . they'd last a second or so and then wink out. Sometimes one of the zooming lights would flash through the tree, and the flash would become a moving globe light, then come out the other side, to wink out in mid flight, or fly in, stop, then wink out.
This had all the appearances of birds or insects of some kind finding places to land and rest for the night, settling in and getting comfortable. This took about ten minutes as the activity slowly settled, the lights dimmed further and further, even in the darting around, and the twinkling died down.
During all of this my girlfriend and I heard not a sound. Nothing. No flapping of wings, no chirping, no singing. Nothing. It was totally quiet. Nor, could we see anything in the light that look like a bird or anything else, just light. These trees are perhaps 60-75 feet away, and perhaps 75 feet tall.
The photos show the trees, but I was never able to get one of the flashes. One four minute video get some faint flashes. . . and an aircraft in the back sky flying and flashing which I hoped would disturb whatever had alit in the trees. Nope, did not bother them.
Various theories were essayed by those we talked to:
Too bad, so sad.
Any other viable theories?
Lightning bugs, perhaps?
We thought about that until something started sparkling in the trees. Weather doesn't usually do that unless perhaps it's a new manifestation of Al Gore.
Meteor shower associated with plant life? It can mean only one thing...
Triffids.
We’re all doomed. Thanks for that.
;-)
I did think about that. . . but swarms of them that small? Maybe you're right.
Saw no sheet or ordinary lightning. No clouds in the sky. No unusual aurorae.
Weird.
Nanoparticles is a viable theory, but a bit outré. My buddy was wondering about someone sticking LSD in the spa water. . . generally though hallucinations are not shared to that extent.
Tornadoes have been known to cause plant life to appear to glow. Was there anything unusual with the jet stream, any very high winds aloft, barometric pressure changes?
Check out “bliss lights”. It is a decorative laser light that shines on houses, trees, especially around the holidays. I had one that we shined into our tree ravine in the summer. My neighbor thought there were firefly all over the trees.
Possible. . . but one snifter of excellent Brandy is usually not enough to qualify. I'd allow some mixture of the Brandy with spa chemicals but we don't use many that way. . . minimal only after we get out. . . and by the next day, the test strip shows none left. Besides see the photos I've been able to bring out. Booze doesn't show the DTs and pink elephants on photos.
Hmmmmm. There were 146 tremors on the San Andreas this past weekend. . . But then, when are there not tremors on the San Andreas.
On the other hand, that's 70 miles West of here.
Fair enough, and I didn’t consider hallucinogens.
There are a wide enough variety out there that do weird enough things.
But yeah, shared visual effects puts that as “unlikely”.
Keep an eye out, still haven’t ruled this out.
I’ll catch back up in a few hours.
Just got off work and am catching some z’s for a bit.
My daughter lives off Sunrise in Fair Oaks. I live just West of Bradshaw, East of Rosemont. She saw nothing from her back yard. . . so it was definitely local phenomenon. . . but it looked from our point of view as if the meteors came from space.
Those things must be LED and very cheap on electricity, because there’s a house on the way to and from my mom’s that appears to never turn them off, just a different color for different holidays or seasons. I suppose it’s off during the day, but never at night.
Well, there was a distinct blue/white cast to the lights in the trees. . . but the lights were way too small.
Say, did I mention I'm growing green and yellow dotted tentacles from my toes?
Did you hear that the California collection of idiots (read Legislature) is talking about legalizing Magic Mushroom ingestion next? What's next? LSD? Ecstasy? Roofies, so their female (or male) aides won't recall exactly what happened last night at the boss's house?
We're not close enough to the Bay Area. . . although we are beginning to detect a perturbation in the detectors. It's growing closer every day, like a tumor. The one hope is that it will grow into and downward and seal the San Andreas fault. It does want to fill dark recesses, you know.
Local Features (bugs)....
I'm just gonna live my life vicariously through you now.
Can’t be St. Elmo’s Fire. Otherwise he would have made a Peanut Buter and Jelly sandwich, left it on the kitchen counter and forgot about it until the next morning.
Now, because it is his kitchen and his refrigerator, his counter and finding his sandwich still there the next morning “It was the best Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich he ever had in his life”
Saint Elmo’s Fire, my friend....
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