I've never participated in
Skywatch before, but I recently saw this weird black beam in the sky and just had to share it. My husband and I were hiking in a local park a few weeks ago. It was late afternoon and we were almost back to the car when we noticed it. We made some irreverent jokes about how someone was being smote, and decided to try photographing the incident, to see if it was "real." Two separate cameras clearly captured the beam. A dirty contrail? A shadow of a contrail? This first shot is completely un-edited.
In the shot to the right, I cranked the contrast way up so the beam would be more visible. If you look closely at the high contrast version, several more dark parallel beams become visible in the distance. Any ideas what we were seeing?
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Skywatch to see more celestial photos.
In the shot to the right, I cranked the contrast way up so the beam would be more visible. If you look closely at the high contrast version, several more dark parallel beams become visible in the distance. Any ideas what we were seeing? 
20 comments:
What a neat capture of this unusual streak. It looks like it comes off the white contrail so I wonder if they dumped some fuel. we have some really good sky people so maybe someone will have a better idea.
Very interesting photo!
Hope you continue to SWF!!
Take care
That is an interesting sky..wonder what that is...
Please have a very happy weekend—Michelle--
Rambling Woods
Welcome to Skywatch! No idea about these trails! Maybe you discovered a new Roswell! ;)
Great image - regardless what it is! Love the dark blues!
Cheers, Klaus
Welcome to Sky Watch. I have actually seen such black beams here in Norway, but I don't know what they are. Thank you for joining and have a wonderful weekend
Very interesting photo, Thanks for sharing!
Cheers!
Regina In Pictures
I like the idea of someone being smote... Cool pics!
What a unusual photo op. Great shot. Welcome to SkyWatch Friday. It is lots of fun. Thanks for sharing your great picture.
No ide but 'm sure someone on skywtch will know. Interesting.
Oh--ohh! That's spooky!
Not sure what it is but it is great photo of it, Happy SWF!
It's a very pretty sky, whatever the streaks are. :-)
I love sky watching. Thanks for sharing the photo--and the link.
Wow, very odd! No clue what the heck it is though. I'll keep my eyes to the sky around here to see if there's any in the skies above the Chicago area. Wonder if this has something to do with a fire OR farmers harvesting? Hmmm?
Welcome to SWF! Maybe one day I'll get back into it. I have no idea and just read the comments hoping for an answer.
Now, I'll be looking up to see if "they" are here?? LOL
That's so crazy. At first I thought it was something on the computer screen.
I saw one of these black beams 12-21-08 while driving north on highway 19 just south of Canton, Texas. My mom saw it also. It was in a clear blue sky with no white contrail near and only lasted for about 3 seconds then disappeared like it was switched off.
I saw two beams over Kansas City at night the beams are darker than the surrounding darkness mine was more vertical also have seen in the middle of Kansas in daytime.
Hallo...my wife and I notice this Black Bean at 10mls E of Quartzsite Az for 5/7sec I toll my wife if she saw it...needles to say in my 17yrs has Over The Road Truck Driver never seen somthing like this...this happen on the 08/15/11 @ 0900 I 10 W mmkr 27...? What was it..
My son and I witnessed a similar phenomenon today driving through Iowa. The gray beam came from a similar cloud as the cloud in the picture. It lasted for about 10 minutes, then went away only to reappear 10 minutes later. The cloud was vertically aligned and the bam went straight to the ground.
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