Pine Barren Phosphorescence, and the red sky

[woodjin]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and happy to be here.
On 11-7-04 at around midnight I noticed a very red glow that appeared to be hovering over the mt. Misery woods on the North side of rt. 70. I've seen the a faint red glow over the trees at night before and believed it to be pine barrens phosphorescence that I had read about. However, this was different, the entire sky over this region appeared very red (thought there was a forest fire at first). I walked into the woods and could look up and see a deep red sky. I was under the impression that I was witnessing a unique natural phenomenon. It was gone a half hour later

Did anybody else see this (it would be hard to miss if you were in the area at that hour)? Or, more likely, seen anything like it before at another time?

I should point out that it was a very warm day, but cooled down significantly that night. No moon, lots of stars.

Anybody ever heard of pine barrens phosphorescence?

 

[BEHR655]

Anybody ever heard of pine barrens phosphorescence?

Welcome aboard woodjin.
I've never heard of the Pine Barrens Phosphorescence. I'll have to look into it.

Steve

 

[foofoo]

i know fort dix has been pretty active lately. when they do there bombing and shoots i think its pretty common to set the pines on fire. maybe thats the glow you are seeing.

 

[manumuskin]

what you saw was the aurora borealis (northern lights)Their is hiogh sunspot activity going on at present and this is sending solar wind at the earth which when it hits the magnetosphere creates these lights.they rarely extend this far south being primarily a polar phenomenon.they are fairly predictable.right now were in a period of activity.
Al

 

[Ben Ruset]

Welcome aboard woodjin.
I've never heard of the Pine Barrens Phosphorescence. I'll have to look into it.

Steve

I think it might be the "Pine Lights." I am not 100% sure if it's a real phenomenon or not - I have read it in several horror/sci-fi books relating to the Pine Barrens.

Edit: I am sure that the actual thing you saw was the Northern Lights. I'm just saying that there also is something called the "Pine Lights" which is what the OP might have been talking about.

 

[Ben Ruset]

This is the book that I have: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345422031/002-3407307-0306446?v=glance

Here's what Amazon mentions about the Pine Lights:

"_The Barrens_ by F. Paul Wilson focused on a researcher and his ex-girlfriend, the former obsessed with the phenomenon of pine lights (eerie will o'wisp like globules of light said to haunt the New Jersey Pine Barrens), an obsession that leads the main characters to view the world in an entirely different light. "

Excellent book if you're into HP Lovecraft.

 

[davensj]

Or maybe someone just pissed off the Jersey Devil.......

 

[woodjin]

Ummm... Northern lights. That makes sense. Now that you mention it, I remember by neighbor telling me that he saw northern lights over the woods about a year ago. I thought he was crazy because I always thought of northern lights as an Alaskian, Candadian thing. Didn't realize it got this far south. Interesting. It was pretty cool to see that.

I can't remember where I read of pine barrens phosphorescence. I am refering to that faint red glow over the trees at night. Best seen from across a cranberry bog or lake. Has anybody else seen this? It is usually quite subtle.

Jeff

 

[Boyd]

I used to marvel at the northern lights from our place in the woods of upstate NY. They were visible at times during the winter and had an eerie wispy look to them. However, this place was farther from developed areas than most parts of the pines. I'd think that ambient light from highways, shopping centers, housing developments, etc. would overpower the northern lights in most places.

But OTOH, my place in upstate NY is probably only 250 miles north of here, so I suppose it's possible. You certainly don't need to be in Alaska to see the northern lights!

 

[bobpbx]

Excellent book if you're into HP Lovecraft.

Ben, have you ever read Lovecraft's "At the mountains of madness"? Now there is a spooky book. Very cool. I read it 2 or 3 times.

 

[Ben Ruset]

I probably have. I just went looking for my HP Lovecraft book (I have two - one is a collection of short stories in the Cthulhu mythos written by other authors, and one is an actual HPL Collection)

I enjoyed "From Beyond" the best. Actually if you can catch the movie it's really good. A good mix of gore and suspense.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091083/

I am mostly a fan of Cthulhu stories. The one set in the Pine Barrens (written by F Paul Wilson) is really good, excepting that it's PAINFULLY obvious that his only research was reading McPhee's book.