16 replies to this topic

[Rhomphaia]

This has been related to me by a mom a couple of times and by my father quite a few times. The story never changed and each time the account was given, it was consistent with the other person's story. Plus, my mom and dad do not lie about stuff like this, so that leads me to believe that this actually occurred.
It was dusk one night in 1976 and they were sitting there in a park and just looking up at all the stars popping out. From the West Hills (a ridge of hills that runs through Portland) a beam of green light shoots out from the top of one of the hills and heads strait for Mt Hood (about an hour away by car).
The beam was thin and had definate starting and ending points, but did not move like light should. It moved fast, but not with the 'instantaneous' swiftness a beam of light should have. It was slow enough that they could discern the begining and ending of the beam.
I am wondering if anyone else has seen this or know of someone who has seen something like this.

[eveningsky339]

Could it have been a shooting star?

[Draco5832000]

I admit that it is curious.
You discribed the distance of the destination of the beam, but what about the hill it origionated on? Were your parents close or near?

[Rhomphaia]

From where they were at, a place called Westmorland Park, I think it is about two and a half miles laterally to the peak the beam originated from.
And no, it was not a meteor. Last I checked, meteors left a fiery trail and had a definate head. I asked my parents this question as well and they said no, not a meteor. My dad is an amatuer astronomer, even back then. He would have known a meteor when he saw one.

[leadbelly]

If you come back to read this, first start a download on this video. I say that because we have a slow connection speed, and it took me an hour. I selected it
because it is an animation of modest ionization, with sub-relativistic movement of a plasma.

R-click and save-

Titan Solar Electric Propulsion 38 MB

Second, I would only guess that what you parents witnessed was not a beam of light, but collimated plasma. As to its thermal properties, that is open for conjecture. The higher the thermal energies produced, at the collapse and implosion of each pulse cycle, the higher the frequency and shorter the wavelength of any resultant radiation. By managing the thermal properties, a plasma may be produced that generates few x-rays, or other high-end radiation.
Perhaps a few x-rays, and some ultraviolet, infrared, or various radio waves
would be detectable as a by product of such a beam.

Below are some arranged images, and an illustration (not easy on my laptop).
Think of it like this. An electric field is generated, and it in turn produces a magnetic field. Some form of matter, in elemental form, is discharged into the field, and this is followed up by a radio wave of some frequency. The source of the matter is open for speculation- air, stored gas, or even meta-physical abilities might be considered as a source of exotic-type materialization (I had to say that- who knows how much like magic such technology might appear).

The matter becomes ionized, and travels away from the ship, and along the
field median. The strength of the field may be regulated to increase. That energizes and expands the plasma along. By increasing and decreasing the electric field, the plasma would periodically collapse. The thermal energy generated from packing the gas into a tight configuration, during cycle collapse, would cause a reaction. A corresponding re-expansion at a rapid rate, may be, in this speculation, the source of further outward projection. In addition, cycling the pulses may capture and contain the majority of the plasma, so it in turn piles outward, like a pontoon bridge, one cycle at a time.

Collimated Plasma Using An Oscillating Electromagnetic Field

Edited by leadbelly, 16 July 2005 - 10:01 AM.

[Rhomphaia]

I do know how plasma works. A friend of mine and I built a crude plasma flamethrower that burned out after one use.
But the possibility of plasma was what one of the possibilities I had thought of. Unfortuneately, I could not load the video. Maybe one of my firewalls is in the way.

[saladins follower]

is it the infamous tesla death ray      

[Rhomphaia]

Saladin, seriously, your icon is cute and all (I love cats) but in the context of these forums, I almost find it disturbing somehow...
Prolly just me being wierd...please take no offense.

As for the death ray thing? I wouldn't think so...Mount Hood is still there.

[Draco5832000]

Interesting...

do you think that it could have been Ball Lightning?

[eveningsky339]

^  Good idea Draco, it could have been ball lightning or some other kind of lightning.  Either that or plasma.  That's what I'm thinking now.

[Rhomphaia]

From their description, it was not ball lightning or any sort of lightning. It was a long line of greenish energy in the sky, not too high up either. I would have to agree that it was likely some sort of plasma, but the question is, what was it generated by?

[Dre_T_Hunter]

Aaah..

Must have been my lost Lasergun...

Damn! I knew it!

D. likes joking sometimes Hahahahhhaahhaah....
......................................................................
..............................................nobody laughs...

[leadbelly]

I do not know what criteria you are looking for. I just read these other ideas, but I did not think we are talking natural phenomena. The fact that they were considering such, gives me an idea. I will have to abandon the ufo related solution, as that is clearly in the minority. And given my reconsideration of the
possible size of the glowing beam, I can only make one more suggestion.

Laser. I read something once where an engineer suggested that the government was much quicker to adapt lasers for communications than we might think.
He inferred from a conversation that they were ahead on the order of a decade.
Lasers the size of a cigar were sold to the public by the end of the '60s, and they were ruby red. Green lasers were not publically available until the mid-70s, and those were optical bench devices.

I am not knowledgeable about optics, so I will only make the most general preface. I was riding with brother-in-law, and he mentioned about the new color on a highway safety sign- dayglow yellow green. He said he thought yellow was more visible, but I thought the yellowish-green is. Our eyes don't see as well on
the ends of the optical spectrum, I would think. We need to make out the deer in the grass...

So, if your parents saw a green laser, that would be easier to explain than a red one, at least with a low haze sky. And even with moonlight. The red would move through the minor haze better than a shorter, green wavelength. The scattering of the green would reach their eyes, easier and to a larger degree.

How to get it to project the light coherently, in a narrow fashion, periodically, and
range the light column? 64K dollar question. First of all, an early optical bench laser might go the distance, if they used a columnater lens adapter. If this was a private or corporate experiment, perhaps it was a more robust system, to test up.
Perhaps they had a receiver at one point, sending data, or something. If they were
in the boonies, and needed power, they may have pulsed the signal to save power.
That may have kept the thermal intensity of the beam at the lower potential.

By regulating the power, perhaps a heating of the atmospheric column was noticeable from afar, as a graduated effect. The more the beam pulsed, over time, the more the temperature of the atmospheric contents accumulated. The scattering of the light was intensified along a growing column of hot dust, humidity, and moths. You can tell them it was the little shimmering wings of moths
making their love in a final display of glorius illumination!

[Saladin]

his is something that my parenst as well as the rest of my family saw.
It was sometime way back in 1978 - it was a september sunday night (around 2030), I think- I was in the balcony, looking out at the night sky (due E) when I saw 3 lights approaching from my left (the N). They were moving together, in a triangular config. I ran back in and called my sis, who was in the adjacent room, and my parents who were in the dining room watching the news on TV. By the time dad came to the balcony, the lights were already halfway across the sky. He went back in to get his camera, but by the time he got back, the lights were gone.
The lights moved from N to S.
Years later I told another gentleman about this and he said it could be a Russian rocket during re-entry. This trajectory was typical of the polar orientation of the launch. This seemed a more plausible explanation than a UFO, but many years later when I saw the space shuttle Challenger come down tumbling and there were these things breaking off and sparks blazing off, I recalled that my lights were not at all like space debris rentering the atmosphere. Moreover, those lights were shaped like orange pips.
so the mystery remains!

[libstaK]

Hi there Saladin,

I would like to bring to your attention that the thread you have posted in has not been active for seven years.  While it is not against any rules to "necropost" it is probably more practical to begin a new thread with your own account.  The members in previous posts here will not all be available or interested in continuing this discussion and newer members will  often be more interested in the most recent topics.

Should you choose to start your own topic please let me know and I will close this thread to avoid confusion.

Having said that, if anyone wishes to contribute please refrain from replying to old posts when doing so as you are not likely to get a response.

Cheers.

Edited by libstaK, 20 May 2012 - 11:37 AM.