Sprites Above Thunderstorm

[CometGuy]

Tonight I was able to witness 2 Thunderstorm sprites both with the naked eye and photographically from the Brisbane evening skies. I have attached the best photo, but other photos are at:

http://www.pbase.com/terrylovejoy/nov27

What on earth is a sprite? Have a look at:

http://elf.gi.alaska.edu/


Terry

http://i.pbase.com/g3/05/412205/3/52809909.sprite_closeup.jpg

[Robert_T]

Brilliant Stuff Terry :)


and thanks for the link - had no idea what a sprite was, sounds like they're pretty damn rare to see and record so well done!
cheers,

[seeker372011]

Golly, that is pretty unique

[33South]

great stuff, I learn something nearly everyday at iis.


chris

[fringe_dweller]

:jawdrop: :bowdown: Nice one Terry!!! amazing!!!

Cometcatcher had some pics a while ago, on these taken with a mintron -
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=2587&highlight=sprites
have you ever seen with the naked eye before?

[CometGuy]

Hi Kearn,

Both Sprites on my webpage were faintly visible to the naked eye. The earlier one was actually fairly easy to see - albiet very brief. For about 30 minutes conditions were ideal for sprite spotting with a very active storm/s and clearish skies above them.

Next time I will attempt to use shorter exposures and higher ISO. I have identified about 5 sprites so far in my images as I continue too go through them.

Terry

[fringe_dweller]

I cant believe for the first time! I am jealous of another observers thunderstorm weather :rofl: that is very cool Terry - thanks for posting :)

[cometcatcher]

A colour shot! Great stuff! I came in to ask if anyone had any colour sprite pics from the recent storms.

I had a couple of storm cells about 130Km to the south east of me tonight and these cells were spewing sprites like crazy! I've never caught anything on camera this intense before.

I hope you don't mind me posting pics in your thread Comet Guy. Mmm, a Comet Guy and a Cometcatcher getting sprite pics. I thing we chose the wrong names for ourselves mate! :lol:

B+W Mintron video camera pics. Wish I had a colour camera with the same sensitivity.

[iceman]

Wow, awesome stuff from both of you.

Good site you linked there too, Terry.. I learnt something new!

[gaa_ian]

Great shots fellas ..
I expect to see some of them on Spaceweather.com this week !
Show Em what a good Aussie T'storm can produce ;)

[CometGuy]

Kevin,

Wow..The most intense lightening activity seem to be to the north but it was too close (anvil cloud obscuring view) and I would have been photographing into street lights.

Did you see any of these with the naked eye? As I mentioned before the one I posted was visible with the eye as 2 faint pencil-like flashes.

I think your shots would be worthy of posting elsewhere....I'll send a link to this thread on weatherzone and digital_astro.

Terry

[cometcatcher]

Hi Terry, I was actually too busy watching the monitor although I did take a quick peek outside. Didn't see sprites but then the monitor had ruined my dark adaption. The drawbacks of video I guess.

These are the best frames. There would be three times that many frames again with fainter sprites. Frame integration was set to 64X or 1.25 seconds. Some sprites can be seen on two or three frames.

I like to play the 3000 frame AVI back at 25fps and watch the animation as the clouds zoom across the sky and the storm in the distance flashing and moving. Unfortunately the entire video is too big for sharing on the net.

[avandonk]

As far as I know airline pilots reported sprites years ago and their reports were ignored until some more careful work was done.They are terribly difficult to image as they are generally very faint.So to capture them from the ground is amazing.Your geometric position relative to them must have been close to ideal.

Well caught!

Bert

[Astroman]

Does anyone have video of the sprites? I would like to show some guys in my Severe Weather club....

Brilliant captures by the way guys, great effort. hmmmm mintron video camera hey hmmmmm got me thinking now LOL

[fringe_dweller]

Andrew looks like you just missed out ;( http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=5611
you guys - those captures would have to end up in a TV show or i'll eat my hat!
Terry was thinking could be the first sprite shots taken with a DSLR!!!!

[cometcatcher]

My pics are just frame grabs from the video avi. But they are not taken at 25 frames per second like a normal daylight video, rather at about 1 frame per second like slow shutter on modern camcorders. The advantage of the avi is that it can be played back at any speed I set it to. If I set it to 25 frames per second it plays like an animation with clouds flying across the sky and lightning flashing wildly. The sprites only take a frame or two so at 25fps they just flash on the screen briefly.

Ok try this little avi. Warning over 400k! Unzip and play. You will need an Xvid codec to play this file. If it doesn't play, look for "VLC player" on the net as it has all the codecs built in.

The video is poor compared to the original. But it's the best I can do for the net I think. Frame rate has been set to about 3fps so the sprites can be seen better.

[cometcatcher]

It looks like in picture 2 andd 3 I've also captured an Elve. http://sky-fire.tv/index.cgi/spritesbluejetselves.html

[CometGuy]

Kevin,

Looks like you also caught the tendrills that seem to curve down towards the storm. Have you got an archive of your shots? What is the field of view of your camera?

Looks like more storm weather on the way :) and with a little luck clear by early morning for some comet hunting.

Terry

[cometcatcher]

No archive. I think I get one free with Bigpuddle but I haven't bothered setting it up.

Mmm, not sure about the field of view. The camera has a 1/2 inch CCD and I was using an 8mm lens. It's fairly wide. Can fit in all of Scorpius and then some. I forgot how to work it out.

[CometGuy]

Kevin,

1/2 format CCD = 8mm diagonal. With an 8mm lens thats 53 degrees field of view. Roughly equivalent to a normal 50mm lens in 35mm film and equivalent to a 28mm lens with a 300D.

It turns out the sprite photographed above was over 400km away since it was just 8-9 degrees above the horizon. An hour later I captured another sprite even lower. I'll certainly try again next time we get a very active storm (last nights fizzled out by the time it was dark and far enough away to image).

Terry

[xrekcor]

Wow! thats amazing, never even heard of them before or seen them, will have to look
out for them. I been to busy trying to snap the strikes under the clouds and never
bother looking above the more distance ones. Thanks for sharing both of you, I learnt
something too!

regards,CS

[avandonk]

This is an interesting article on the connection between Gamma-ray Flares and Sprites and lots more. Just shows that any knowledge no matter how esoteric is connected in most surprising ways.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/02/060221084628.htm

Bert

[stinky]

Guys - radical stuff. The right people in the right place at the right time.

[Vermin]

This is amazing stuff, not long ago it was only astronauts on board the space shuttle that could capture images like that. Well done guys.

[cometcatcher]

What a strange connection to Gamma-ray Flares.