Explained: Unexplained Green Light During Thunderstorm [Water on Lens, Caustics]

Mick West

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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqY3l4Bteco


@ufoofinterest pointed out this particular "UFO" resembled the water-drop-on-lens caustics seen here:
https://www.metabunk.org/explained-...e-‘critters’-water-on-lens-caustic-bokeh.t5211/



But those looked bigger and generally more round. I realized that the difference was that the older images were a conventional camera with a 2" wide filter over the lens. Here we just have a phone camera. So it needed a tiny drop of water, and the effect was a bit different:

Metabunk 2018-12-08 15-26-17.jpg

A shape hovering over the distant light:
Metabunk 2018-12-08 15-27-01.jpg

Like the "UFO"
Metabunk 2018-12-08 15-28-40.jpg
 
Yep, many still think it was an unusual event or something mysterious. Ok, I will waiting for you next video.
Unfortunately, those are generally people who either do not watch or do not understand the explanation. The new video is an attempt to go the extra mile in explaining it, so see if it helps.
 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vHa4ldQAXE


I thought I had a perfectly reasonable explanation of the "UFO" that was created by a water drop on the lens of a camera. But not everyone was convinced. So I made an EVEN MORE reasonable video demonstration.

This raises the question of how far you need to go when explaining things. Clearly simply finding the explanation, and telling people what it is, is not enough. Even a simple demonstration does not convince people. I'm sure there will still be holdouts even after this video. Partly its people who just don't watch the video. Partly is people who don't comprehend my demonstration. Partly it's something else - a resistance to the simple explanation (a distorted light) , and a preference for the complex interesting one (a UFO).

However, I still think it's a useful exercise. Often "debunk" videos don't go far enough in both detail and clarity, so we miss some people that we could have helped.
 
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I'm sure this time they will shift the goal posts to the slide being there as well or the apparent colour change of the light in the original video.
 
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