I was sitting with some friends and family the other night playing Animal Crossing. My niece was playing with the dog to the left and behind me. My roomate was sitting behind me and could see the tv and my niece playing with the dog. My friend and my brother in law were sitting on the couch watching the tv. They could see me almost in front of them, and my roomate was in their peripheral view off to the right, as well as my niece and the dog. I see a flash, exactly like a flash on a camera. It was VERY bright, off to my left and back a bit (peripheral view). I turn around and ask what that was and my roomate was wondering the same thing. My friend and bro-in-law didn't think twice about it because they figured my roomate was taking a picture or something. I ask in all seriousness and everyone said the same thing. they saw a flash but didn't know where it came from. It happened where my niece was playing with the dog. My roomate could see it in front of her and my friend and bro-in law could see it as well. I was the only one who did not directly see it, tho I did see it in my peripheral view. We were stumped. We looked for a camera or something in the couch thinking it went off accidentally. There was no camera and there was nothing that would give off a flash. I checked my niece and checked the dog. Nothing. There is no flash that came from the tv because 1) I was playing Animal Crossing and 2) they saw the flash in front of them, not from the tv. No lights blew out. Lights blowing out wouldn't make that flash anyways. It was exactly like a camera flash. My niece was unphased she kept playing with the dog. We all saw it but cannot come up with an explanation. Strange? Yes. Scary? A little. Frustrating? HELL YEAH! I want to know what the heck it was. I need an explanation. Anyone have any ideas?
please dont call the police, i am just very fond of you Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
What you have describe is very similar to what astronauts and cosmonauts have describe of comic rays traveling through things in space ships and space stations: when the ray hits something a bright flash like a flashbulb is seen, but leaves no visible remnants A cosmic ray hitting ground? Very rare would have been very powerful to get that low in the atmosphere.
Hehe don't worry Carnuth, no need to call the police. My roomate thinks it's something....hmm...spirtual? Ghosts or spirits or something to that extent. I'm not even gonna touch that one. No need to jump to conclusions right? I was thinking something like what you say Neuromancer, but don't have the technical knowledge to reason it out. What exactly would these rays hit to cause an emission of this sort? It was very bright. I imagine we are bombarded by such cosmic rays every day. This was indoors however. The sky was overcast and it was very cool the whole day with sprinkles of rain, an all around peaceful day. The thought of static of some sort crossed my mind but I'm not sure how that would cause such a spark. Another theory I have is the following. I just received my telescope the day before and unpacked it where the flash occurred. Could it be some of the coating used on the lenses of the telescope have this property? If I recall, my optics are coated with MgSi. I'll have to go home and check.
a cosmic ray is a atom traveling a very very high speeds (99.9% speed of light) has the same amount of energy in it as a well thrown rock! Cosmic rays strike atoms of air or matter as they come down from above smashing the atoms into subatomic particles which go out and smash other atoms, despite the size of a cosmic ray hitting a air molecule can be as bright as a flash bulb (depending on the energy of the ray)! cosmic rays rarely make it down to the earth surface as most get smashed in high altitude air, very powerful ones can make it all the way down mostly intact which would explain the brightness of what Halo saw. refrence: http://lsda.jsc.nasa.gov/books/apollo/S4CH2.htm http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/SOLAR/COSMIC_RAYS/cosmic.html http://www.physics.adelaide.edu.au/astrophysics/cr_new.html
Have you ever heard of ball lightening? I doubt it would have happened in your room but I suppose it is possible. Obviously this light came from something... there is no way all of you could have imagined it at the same time. Very interesting though.
aside from stalkers with flashbulbs, i would think that the odds of the things you guys described happening are...astronomically against it...try to look into something more man-made...very weird
Oh I knew it was you all along Nebula. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I heard rustling near the back door and figured you'd be there to snap my picture to post on your wall. But can you tell me how you got the flash to go off at my neice's feet, instead of at the door where your face was pressed so firmly against? Hehe. As for Ball Lightning, I have heard about it briefly but I don't really know too much about it. How could it happen in my house? We have tile if that makes any difference. I can see something weird happening on carpets, like static electricity, but tile? I'm boggled as to what other man made things could have caused this.
You saw Nebula with her face at the window...but that was all a distraction so I could get the perfect snapshot!! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But really: sounds like a strange occurrence. Maybe a flaring of some spectral orb? When I did my speech on Ghosts last year, I remember that some specters become evident in haunted areas, in the form of floating lights...perhaps one of them was floating around and exploded? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Any windows in the room? In that case my guess is that it came from outside. Photoflash, fireworks, lightning. In the two latter cases, it could be far away and any sound drowned out by your talking right after, or arriving so late that you did not connect it with the light. Astronauts see flashes when cosmic rays hit their eyeballs. But that is an individual experience. A cosmic ray with sufficient energy (and luck) to pass all through the atmosphere, through part of a building structure and produce a photoflash magnitude flash is theoretically possible, but against astronomical odds. Hans
Yes there is a window on the back door. However, the person sitting behind the couch saw it in front of her. The window was to her right. It was very bright but no sound.
Consider a light-beam entering a window; unless it illuminates blinds or other things in the window opening, if the light source is not in your line of sight, you will not see it as comong from the window (you cannot se a light-beam "from the side"), you will see the flash where the light-beam from the window illuminates something in the room. I have made a crude drawing that shows how light from the flash may reach the observer only after being reflected off objects or walls, thus appearing to come from inside the room. Hans
