Mystery Light On The West Coast of Norway

Could it be the light from the Moon reflecting on the lens or lens cover?

If it was it's possible that today it will appear again, but I am not going to spend the night looking at that camera.

reply to post by ArMaP


Ditto, I won't either.

Although, I got some additional information from the guy that captured it. He has set it to automatically take pictures every third hour. 9, 12, 15 etc... And he's had it like that for a good while, it's peculiar that he hasn't captured anything like this before.

reply to post by Droogie


If it's a reflection caused by the light of the Moon then it's not that hard for it not to happen more frequently, the Moons doesn't follow exactly the same path every month or even every day.

But even for a reflection it's a little strange.

Originally posted by Droogie
I would appreciate if anyone could substantiate the conclusion that my latter screen captures are in fact the phenomenon known as "sun dogs".

Assuming you are referring to the little 'sparkle' at about 1/5 down and 2/3 across.. It's a 'flare', imo.

I'd bet my last potato chip that it is a little reflection/refraction on a curved perspex cover over the camera.. but it could also be caused within the lens itself.

The evidence is that it barely moves between the two images taken within a minute, but in the ones taken a few minutes apart, the movement can be seen, as the sun moves...

Not a sun dog, both by appearance, and the fact that sundogs usually require a cloud or mist (although sometimes they do appear in an almost transparent layer of high ice crystals)...

reply to post by CHRLZ


If it's a flare I would like to know what this kind of flare is called for future reference, including some information regarding it.

I've also looked through OzWeathermans' thread of Atmospheric Phenomenen Identyifying- List, and I couldn't find anything that's quite like this, although some examples might not show it very clearly.

I gotta go now, but I'll check in later.

Originally posted by Droogie
reply to post by CHRLZ

 

If it's a flare I would like to know what this kind of flare is called for future reference, including some information regarding it.

I've also looked through OzWeathermans' thread of Atmospheric Phenomenen Identyifying- List, and I couldn't find anything that's quite like this, although some examples might not show it very clearly.

I gotta go now, but I'll check in later.

Droogie, there are a *few* special types of flare that have names, but mostly.. no. Flare just means scattered light in an image, and it is applied to just about everything from 'blooming', where a bright object (eg Sun) appears much larger than it is because of the 'spill' from overloaded sensors (or the equally overloaded heat/light-induced chemical reactions in film grain), right through to diffraction spikes from point sources, to the little rings and circles you get lining up across an image (usually the more elements in the lens, the more 'flares' - modern zoom lenses often have 10-15 elements..).

To a photographer, it really refers to the haze you get (a loss of contrast), when shooting into the light, but it has become an all encompassing term including just about everything that isn't in the real scene, including from windows or lucite/perspex covers on crappy little webcams...

And frankly, flares are inevitable. Every time you have an air-glass interface (eg 2 x for every lens element, front and back), you will get a refraction (bending). The lens is designed to do that of course, but any *stray* light rays (and there are lots of sources of those) will produce an *unwanted* refraction.

Then, whenever there is a polished surface, there is also a reflection, and those reflections don't just happen once - the light keeps bouncing around... So, there are also all those additional reflections at the front and back of every lens element, also at the front and back of any filters, windows or transparent covers AND on the surface of the sensor, then again on the surfaces of its filters, even on the microlenses in the sensor itself... Plus, the curve or flatness of the reflective surface also comes into play, throwing light in all sorts of directions.

In summary:
1. Flare is inevitable in any image involving a lens and a bright light source. Sometimes you may not be able to detect it, but trust me, it's there.
2. Better lenses have reduced amounts of flare (lens designers can take great pains to put on anti-reflective coatings, put matt coatings on any exposed metal inside the lens barrel, etc..)
3. Zoom lenses normally have MORE elements that non-zoom and are more prone to flare.
4. Flare can manifest itself in many ways, from circles and rings to odd shapes and general loss of contrast.
5. Flares can appear from things outside the camera, eg transparent covers, windows..
6. Every glass-air surface will potentially produce a flare. recognising them is the trick.
7. If the images are moving (ie a movie), the flares will move/change in synchronisation with the motion of the camera relative to the light source.

reply to post by Droogie

Droogie
I have resized the image to show the full shot
without cropping or slider bars.



You too can do your own resizing of posted images
by using certain BB code.

[ ats=640x400]image url[ /ats]

just remove the spaces in this code.

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www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by CHRLZ


You seem to be very knowledgable on the subject matter, and I appreciate your elaborate and informative post on the flare phenomenon! Thanks

Nonetheless, I'm glad I caught some screen captures of it and posted it here, because it was actually very pretty to look at and I got some good information at the same time

reply to post by boondock-saint


I wasn't aware that was possible, but thanks for the reply and the help, it's better to view it the way you made it. That bb code can take some time to catch up on.

Originally posted by Droogie
reply to post by CHRLZ

 

You seem to be very knowledgable on the subject matter, and I appreciate your elaborate and informative post on the flare phenomenon! Thanks

You could say I've been around the block a few times when it comes to lenses and cameras. Used to do it for a living, but nowadays just for fun and aesthetics.. I love analysing images, but doing that has taught me just how many traps there are, and I'm always learning new ones, so..

Nonetheless, I'm glad I caught some screen captures of it and posted it here, because it was actually very pretty to look at and I got some good information at the same time

So am I! I really enjoy studying images and trying to work out what they *really* show.


A couple of added comments on this image.. The faint 'wings' on either side of the bright area could simply be smudges or scratches (from careless cleaning) on the perspex cover, and I wouldn't put much credence to them. The 'thing' does have strong signs of motion blur, as if it were a bright thin object that moved down and across, but really that is just a guess. I'll happily admit I haven't a good firm idea about what it is. I'd REALLY like to see an archive of images so I could study the images on the nights before and after this, and also see the way the camera is set up. It might also be possible to use google earth to identify the exact location and direction it is pointing, and work out if the Moon could have been a factor. But given that there seems to be little more information coming out on it, I'm not sure I want to spend the time. Let me know if you hear any more - I'll keep an eye on the thread.