Sun Shoots Out Lightning? Video from Arizona Observatory

December 26th, 2014 Update: Debunked? When it comes to strange stuff in the sky, it's really hard to 100% debunk much. But it's always nice when we can fully solve a case. Redditor ouroborosity was able to track down a better screenshot than I that clearly shows that the "lightning" anomaly is coming from the camera, not the sun, though I'm not an expert on these things and some of the sun's natural light also spills over on to hand. Check it out:

• When: December 23rd, 2014
• Where: DSW Observatory in Kingman, Arizona
• What: Lightning-like discharges from sun, captured on high-powered telescope
  

An Arizona observatory with a goal of capturing strange sky phenomenons shared a pretty disturbing YouTube video that supposedly shows the sun expelling some plasma or lightning bolt, which was actually visible to the naked eye briefly. Via DarkSkyWatcher.com:

The best I can come up with logically is Ionizing Proton streams shot out and entering the atmosphere. I can't really tell any of you what it is I would only be guessing like all of you. Someone suggested camera anomaly because light rays shined between my fingers in the previous video, well um that's what happens when there is an open space for light to peep through and register a quick frame.  At this point it really doesn't matter to me what it is as much as it matters that we were able to capture it and show that it is not normal on my camera systems.

Spaceweather.com did report a pretty active day for the sun on the 23rd: "A CME sideswiped Earth's magnetic field during the early hours of Dec. 23rd. The glancing impact did not spark bright auroras, but it did induce electrical currents in the soils of Norway."

The event apparently persisted for a few days and is not entirely new to the DSW Observatory.

Some aren't so sure this is anything to be concerned about and guess it's a video artifact. YouTuber LightOfKukulkan commented that there's proof of this, as at the :42 second mark, a hand is placed completely over the camera lens and the anomaly is still visible. To me, it just looks like the sun is shining through the fingers and nothing more, and not to mention - this event was apparently visible to the naked eye for a brief moment in time. As always, you be the judge:

It wasn't light rays shining through your fingers. I would say to go back and look, but it's quite clear that you aren't interested in truth. Your hand completely covered the Sun at 42 seconds on the video - no cracks with sunbeams coming through like you are describing here. The anomaly maintains it's position and movement on the INSIDE of your hand. No changes in behaviour or morphology occur. It doesn't change in any way, it is CLEARLY the camera, and this is why nobody else on Earth is catching it, and why any objective scientist wouldn't bother taking it seriously.

I can't seem to find any other news stories or video footage of this event, supporting the critiques that this is a video artifact. However, daytime webcams like these are not common. Have you seen any other evidence around the web of this sun event? Report it!

Do you have ideas on what this could be? Solar storm, video artifact, hoax, lightning from the sun? Share your ideas in the comments or on the Facebook page!

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