Letters

Thank you for your message--I am familiar with your web site, etc. I got interested in the BMLs when a student reported seeing them and I figured there might be some interesting physics, as you suggest, going on. Knowing that no external funding agency would help me, I submitted a proposal to our campus University Research Council for some equipment money to image them. My idea was to characterize them photometrically in order to see if it would be possible to do some simple spectroscopy, eventually. I wanted to know how bright they are and their apparent motions before considering dragging a C8 or (even) a C14 to get spectra. I have been disappointed.

In several trips I have seen nothing. I am getting skeptical that there is ANYTHING to be seen. This could just be "UFOs up close"--ie, people seeing ordinary phenomena but are clueless about how to interpret them. I am sure I do not have to tell the Cafe' owner that most people have zero experience looking at little lights in the dark and interpreting what they see! So, in spite of being armed to the teeth with intensified video, fish-eye lenses, digital (still) cameras, film cameras, etc., I have not even SEEN them, much less recorded them. What I HAVE seen are obvious camp lights/lanterns, car head/tail lights, etc. I am suspicious of a nearby small airport with its runway pointing at the viewpoint--I have seen many "rising lights" from that. The planes' landing lights are pointed right at us as it lifts off, then "the light goes out"--of course! The pilot turned it off! A careful viewing after usually reveals the red, flashing beacon as the plane flies away. I really wish there were some neat physics going on--extreme dispersion of low stars, refraction through temperature inversions, etc. That is what I had hoped for. However, until I see ANYTHING, I am not hopeful that it is anything more than mis-IDs of common objects/phenomena

I am not sure what to do next. I think I need to visit casually and look over the shoulders of others to see what they get excited about (without comment). I need to see what THEY think are the BMLs. I expect to make some more trips this spring/summer. Next Fall (2001) I am taking sabbatical (but not leaving the area), so I will have some time to follow up even more. I would really like to set up some vandal-proof 'web cam' but that would be difficult. There is no power or phone within miles of the National Forest viewpoint. If I do see something intriguing I will follow up on this, perhaps with a local cell company subsidizing a cellular modem connection. It is hard to do this when I have real, funded research projects, too. However, I have felt that science has an obligation to follow up on some of these phenomena, at our convenience. If you want to stay in touch I will keep you informed of our investigation's progress. Dan

Letter 2:

Hi Daniel, Thanks for your reply. Sometimes I dont know if I will get one or not when I write 'blind' like this. I suspect many people dont want to bother with this kind of subject, but Im curious about it for its prospect of learning something new about human behavior, low light level perception, and a little physics too if Im lucky! One thing I would like to figure out a lot better for my own sake is, what directions do people look to see these lights? I used MapQuest to generate a topo map of the area 20 miles north of morganton on route 181. I wind up at something called 'cold spring' and it is on the west side of a valley. From this point, 2 miles to the east is Chestnuit Peak at 3200, which is about 1000 feet higher than the look out from 181. I have no idea if this is where people see the lights. Unlike the other Lights I have briefly studied from topo maps, these are the only ones whose direction info is completely lacking. If you could help me identify main points seen on the eastern horizon ( I assume thats the direction people look to see' brown mountain', that would be excellent. ALso, I have no sense from the reports if people see the lights below the distant ridge line, or above it, or both. Thanks for any info you can provide! I think a serious spectroscopic study would be exciting, if a resolution of, say lambda/delta-lambda = 100 could be used. That would be good enough to see prominent absorption/emission lines and nail down the source mechanism. What we then get to make of that...well...at least it wont likely be keroscene in a lantern carried by a ghost...we hope ; Thanks again!! Sten

Reply 2: Sten- Could you email me the URL of the MapQuest setup for the area you were talking about? I have never used MapQuest in a topo mode (can not see how to do that, either). I could perhaps steer around and find the view we were looking from. The descriptions of where in the sky the lights are seen are quite confusing and contraditory--typical of people describing locaitons of lights in the sky. I am not sure if they are above or below the horizon, but if they are below it will be difficult to refract a star down into the gorge I was looking at. Send me the URL and I will see if I can help you out. Dan

Letter 3:

Hi Dan 1...First go to http://www.mapquest.com/ 2...then click on the link to 'maps' in the upper right corner within their toolbar. 3...on the left side, there will be a menu bar that says 'map types' click on 'Topographic Maps' 4...in the Place Name box type 'Table Rock' in the State window, enter 'NC' and hit the search button. 5...The map window opens up near the intersection of 181 north of Morganton and a highway going NE. From what I can tell, this is the location '12 miles from Morganton om 181 north' that several reports mention. If you use the navigation keys on the botton left of the map and scan the scene two 'clicks' north, you will see 181 disappear off the west (left ) side of the map. At the 'concavity' in the road just before that point, is the '20 mile' marker, as best as I can estimate it, but I dont know where the measuring of this highway begins near Morganton. Anyway, if you look to the north east about 2 miles you will see 'Little Chestnut Mountain' which is about 700 feet higher than the highway 181 lookout. It seems to sit on the northern end of a ridge and there is a fairly deep valley betwen the 181 Lookout and this ridge. Anyway, unlike the other lights I have studied from topographical information, the BMLs are the only ones where people say there is a lot of activity, but NO ONE bothers to mention where the deuce they are seeing them. Even if all we do is plot on a topo map where the lights first appear, and track, that in itself might in time give us some clues. I am particularly interested in the viewing cone of the observations from any given location. Your idea about airplane running lights is cool. We can identify this airport from the topo maps. Anyway, it beats watching re-runs of 'Home Improvement'!! Sten

Sten- Here is where WE view it from (there are reports from various angles, but this is the popular one here). Go to topo maps, search on "Wisemans View" in North Carolina. You will need to zoom in to the closest or next closest range to see Wisemans View labeled. We look eastward out over the Linville Gorge, over "Tablerock Mtn." and Hawksbill Mtn. I have not taken the time to see how this relates to the view you recommended--I could not figure out where I was in that view. This overlook viewpoint is our viewing place. There are reports of seeing them from a Blue Ridge Parkway overlook and from Blowing Rock, far to the northeast. Dan

Sten- We tried again last night, staring for an hour and a half. Nothing but things that were obviously planes taking off. This morning I went back to MapQuest and took a look at where we were viewing. From Wisemans View we were looking at planes taking off just to the north of Table Rock. If you cut and paste the link below you will get a map that has our viewpoint (not shown at this resolution) which was about half way between the "N" in MOUNTAIN that goes upward at the top left (just above center) and the E of GORGE just to its right--we are looking over the gore and Linveille River at its bottom. Extending a line from there just above (north) Table Rock for a similar distance to the right edge of the map you reach the Morganton-Lenoir Airport. That is the source of the planes seen, I believe. Note Brown Mountain Beach (?) indicated at the top right, also a bit above center. The map link is: I think we need to try to look at a different climatic condition. It was again cool (~40dF) and a light breeze, with increasingly thicker clouds moving in, becoming rain this morning. I want to try next when it is very clear, perhaps nearly photometric. Also, maybe warmer, this spring/summer. I'll keep you posted. Dan