12-04-2009, 09:52 AM
Driving home from an 8th grade basketball game last night at around 7pm Central time, I noticed a striking sight. It was the moon low and large in the sky (moonrise was 6:48 PM CST over North Texas last night).
What made it unusual was that there was a coherent, straight beam projecting downward from the moon all the way to the horizon. I have never seen anything like this before. It was not a halo like you sometimes see caused by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. This was like a spotlight with a beam the same width as the moon pointing straight down to the horizon.
I posted on a local forum board to see who else saw it and several people replied that they did indeed see the same thing. As the moon climbed higher in the sky, the effect went away, but it was quite shocking at first to see this!
I'm wondering if anyone else in other areas of the U.S. saw anything like this at moonrise last night.
What made it unusual was that there was a coherent, straight beam projecting downward from the moon all the way to the horizon. I have never seen anything like this before. It was not a halo like you sometimes see caused by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. This was like a spotlight with a beam the same width as the moon pointing straight down to the horizon.
I posted on a local forum board to see who else saw it and several people replied that they did indeed see the same thing. As the moon climbed higher in the sky, the effect went away, but it was quite shocking at first to see this!
I'm wondering if anyone else in other areas of the U.S. saw anything like this at moonrise last night.