Spooklight Experiment
In the summer of 2017, Prof. Tim Gaudin and I witnessed an anomalous light at close range through a classroom window, while at work at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. I wrote about the sighting in FT373:74. Reading “Spooklights: A Survey of Transient Luminous Phenomena” [FT422:40] inspired me to perform a simple experiment to answer a couple of questions about our sighting, and Prof. Gaudin was kind enough to help me.
Particularly puzzling in our sighting were the streaks of pastel-coloured light I saw on the white woodwork, bright enough to be visible around the door across the hallway. In my FT description I noted that they resembled sunlight on the bottom of a pool. This odd effect was the first thing I saw, even before the light itself. Prof. Gaudin said he didn’t notice them, being focused on the light in the window.
Last year, I read James Gurney’s book Color and Light, and recognised from his precise description (aimed at artists seeking to render water) that the streaks of spectral light were undoubtedly caustic reflections. These occur when light rays are refracted through a lens, prism, water droplets (as in a rainbow), or even a glass of water. This led me to question whether the window glass caused the caustics (a pane of glass possesses refracting properties), or if the caustics originated in the ball of light itself or were caused by it.
With that in mind, Prof. Gaudin went outside and directed a 2500 lumen LED flashlight (price $36 at Home Depot) through the window of an unlit classroom while I photographed the effects inside. Conditions were as similar to the original sighting as could be managed: it was a hot summer afternoon with partly cloudy skies, and the classroom we used was a short distance down the hall, on the same side of the building as the original sighting (that room being in use). The windows in both rooms appeared to be the same.
We muted the flashlight first by screening with the heavy white paper I use for drawing, while Prof. Gaudin shone the light from 15ft (4.6m) away and then at 6ft (1.8m). The screened LED appeared much dimmer and smaller than the approximately 1ft (30cm) diameter ball of white light I remember. Only the unscreened 2500 lumen flashlight at 6ft (1.8m) came close; rays of dim light shone across the room (see photos), though still not quite as bright as the spooklight. Most importantly, there were no caustic reflections.
The most reasonable theory to account for our sighting is that we saw some form of ball lightning. I checked weather records, and although there were no storms that day in 2017, it’s remotely possible an electrical charge built up in a cloud overhead. In addition, ball lightning has been reported to be attracted to windows, presumably due to the quartz content in glass. Whatever we saw, though, how did it operate as a refractive lens to create caustic reflections?
I’ve read about UFOs, ball lightning, and other anomalous light phenomena for over 40 years, and can’t remember any reports of UAPs associated with caustics, although coloured lights generally are a staple of UFO reports. I continue to think it was some sort of energetic phenomenon with a natural explanation, and the fact of the caustics strengthens that conclusion; caustics are well known, even though I’d never heard of them before, and follow the laws of physics. What we saw, whether ball lightning, plasma, or spooklight, was mysterious, but was also something real which acted upon the physical objects around us in a natural manner.
Currently, I’m re-reading the classic Earth Lights Revelation by Paul Devereux, along with the equally classic Mysterious Fires and Lights by Vincent H Gaddis, in an attempt to figure it all out. I even went to the university library and checked out Natural Focusing and Fine Structure of Light: Caustics and Wave Dislocations by JF Nye, along with Physics for Dummies – I’ve forgotten a lot in 40 years. Nevertheless, that stack of books should do for a nice summer evening of ruminations.
Julia Morgan Scott
Chattanooga, Tennessee
What we saw, whether ball lightning, plasma or spooklight, was mysterious