Weird Event. . . looked like meteor shower but wasn't but something else! (Vanity)

Swordmaker Vanity | November 28, 2017 | Swordmaker

[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:

1. Itty-bitty UFOs. Discounted very quickly.

2. Very tiny robot drones with lights from the NSA coming to spy on us.

3. My granddaughter, who will be six on Friday, is of the opinion they are fairies. I did not dissuade her.

4. Another popular theory is Fireflies. . . but they are not native to this climate.

5. Radioactive Bats flying in from Russia.

6. Or perhaps someone went to a lot of trouble to attach bright flashing LEDs to a flock of birds, which they then released from a balloon high in air above Rancho Cordova, CA, hoping someone would witness them, video record their frantic flight pretending to be meteors, and then put it on the internet where it would go viral creating panic about an asteroid coming to destroy the world, or at least Sacramento. . . but alas, being a cold night, only people such as my girlfriend and I were out in a hot tub, without really large lensed, low-light video equipment with which to record this magnificent sight. . . and can only report our visually stunning event. . . with a few pathetic under exposed phone videos that have no chance of viral exposure what-so-ever to prove it ever happened.

Too bad, so sad.

Any other viable theories?

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

Why low possibility? There are news reports that last evening this attempted satellite launch failed to reach orbit and the satellite and 20 mini satellites all burned up in earth’s atmosphere.

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

https://hosted.ap.org/article/7d9b39c6a4444a3bb7bd8a433cca2cf5/russian-weather-satellite-fails-enter-orbit-after-launch

[huldah1776]

be thankful the poles aren't flipping and earth is still protected by the magnetic field...

just learned about the Carolina Bays
Carolina Bays

"Bay Formation Theories One of the first proposals for the formation of the Carolina Bays was made by Melton and Schriever from the University of Oklahoma in 1933. They suggested that a meteorite shower or a colliding comet coming from the northwest could have created the bays. Surface structures created by impacts only became accepted around 1960, when geologist Eugene M. Shoemaker presented criteria for establishing that Meteor Crater in Arizona was the result of an extraterrestrial impact and not the caldera of an extinct volcano."

[gnarledmaw]

The pictures are too grainy for me to see, out of curiosity, did the lights look like orbs to your eye but in the picture appear to be something like a kite shield or the bottom of a glowing ducks foot?

[Swordmaker]

The 'Vette holds seven hours of fuel, even at idle/crawl?

18.5 Gallon Tank. . . and we filled up just before we left SF. Expensive. It takes Premium fuel.

[Swordmaker]

Maybe meteors drop “fairy dust” ???

My granddaughter blesses your validation of her theory . . .

[Swordmaker]

Why low possibility? There are news reports that last evening this attempted satellite launch failed to reach orbit and the satellite and 20 mini satellites all burned up in earth’s atmosphere.

Low possibility because it was not visible from 15 miles away at my daughter's house nor from 45 miles away at my client's house and both had equally excellent viewing. It seems to have been purely localized to my very small area. Satellite falls from the sky are seen across a very wide swath of the country, not just over a itty-bitty area.

One other thing, those sparkling whatevers are back in the trees tonight. We did not get out soon enough to see if the "meteors" preceded them or not. We went out at 9:25PM and they were already in the tree tops, flitting around and sparkling, flying in and through the fronds, but not as brightly as last night with only a couple of them sparking as brightly as a lot had done last night. I got the impression we were at the tail end of the settling in.

I took some more photos but they are less productive of usable images than those taken last night. RATS.

[Swordmaker]

The pictures are too grainy for me to see, out of curiosity, did the lights look like orbs to your eye but in the picture appear to be something like a kite shield or the bottom of a glowing ducks foot?

Some looked like point light sources. Others, inside the trees, were diffuse orbs reflecting off the fronds around them. The "meteors" were streaks with tails and apparently with a head. Looking at the photo that shows two of them, they now appear to be tri-lobed with a head and two lobes in a tail. Strange.

Tonight, they were definitely dimmer blue-white point sources flitting around the tree tops with an occasional orb shape inside the foliage.

[Yardstick]

What’s lighting up the trees in the pics? Is it just the camera flash or is there another light source?

Some birds have almost iridescent feathers — very reflective. Something like a hummingbird has sort of a dangling tri-lobed appearance with its tail fanned out below its body when in hover mode.

So that’s my theory: iridescent hummingbirds congregating in and around the trees reflecting some light source.

[21twelve]

” .... but now I can see that there is a distinct tri-lobed pattern in the tail that may be caused by the flapping of wings ...”

I thought of birds getting into bioluminescent stuff - but that is usually salt-water, although I did see an article on some rare freshwater stuff. (Google Earth shows the American River nearby - a google search of that mainly brought up e-Coli!!) Anyway - with the bio-luminescence - birds could dive in, get covered with the stuff, and then it wears out or the algae or whatever dies in the air).

Also something called a “click beetle” that has it, along with some other insects.

[Swordmaker]

I thought of birds getting into bioluminescent stuff - but that is usually salt-water, although I did see an article on some rare freshwater stuff. (Google Earth shows the American River nearby - a google search of that mainly brought up e-Coli!!) Anyway - with the bio-luminescence - birds could dive in, get covered with the stuff, and then it wears out or the algae or whatever dies in the air).

That's one thought. . . but how is it turned on and off?

Also something called a “click beetle” that has it, along with some other insects.

That's a good possibility. I'm going to contact the County department of Agriculture and pick their brains on luminescent bugs. There does seem to be a native firefly in California. . . but I've never seen fireflies come down from so high in the sky, or occupy trees so tall.

[Swordmaker]

What’s lighting up the trees in the pics? Is it just the camera flash or is there another light source?

Just a generalized source from all around. I've just massaged the exposure of the photo to very high to be able to see anything at all in the picture. If I go any higher the sky gets very blue and blotchy. It's the general glow of the city lights as background. It's definitely not reflective on anything we're seeing. Whatever they are, they are the light source when they light up and when they are bright, they light up the fronds around them to true color green.

These were not hovering, but moving at high speed in the tri-lobed photo. Very high speed, leaving what looked like a light trail.

[missthethunder]

For later

[Yosemitest]

Read about Piezoelectricity and Wikipedia has a good article on it.
Here's two videos on it that have some useful information.

Massive"Booms" Around the Planet/As Earth Slows Rotation. ( 11:45 )


What is COMING? Mysterious Booms Across the USA ( 6:29 )

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

Got it. Thanks for the elaboration. Have a great one!

[Yardstick]

Yeah I get that you cranked the exposure. But the shadows on the tree trunks suggest point source. But maybe not. If it was a diffused source then reflections are out and the objects are generating their own light...but then what, fairies?

[Swordmaker]

Yeah I get that you cranked the exposure. But the shadows on the tree trunks suggest point source. But maybe not. If it was a diffused source then reflections are out and the objects are generating their own light...but then what, fairies?

I am leaning toward fireflies.

I went out last night at 7:35 and they were already in the trees, I counted over 50 distinct lights. . . it was two hours earlier than we'd seen them, but it was colder. Maybe their settling in for the night is a function of temperature. What I found most interesting is the duration of any particular flash was quite long last night. I timed three at over 45 seconds each. I've never heard of firefly bioluminescence lasting more than a about ten seconds for any particular insect before turning off and having to have a recovery time before going back on. 45 seconds seems to me to be a very long time.

They seemed to be brighter than the previous night. . . but that's a subjective observation as there is no real way to measure among the nights except my impressions.

[Swordmaker]

PS: my granddaughter thanks you for your suggestion that her idea might be right. . . hehehehe

I wonder if such high tree lights were not the origination of the myth of fairies?