Light Pillars over Winter Towns: Reflections in the Night Sky

Coloured columns seem to rise above streets and rooftops in these light-pillar photographs. The effect can transform ordinary outdoor lighting into a striking winter sky.

Reflection creates the apparent column

Appropriately oriented ice crystals reflect light towards the observer. The pillar is an optical appearance rather than a solid shaft located directly over a lamp. Different light sources can help explain different colours within the display.

Pillars are not auroras

The older article grouped the two as though they shared a cause and existed only in the coldest regions. Aurora light and ice-crystal reflections are different phenomena. Look for the relationship between the pillars and lights near the horizon; that is a useful clue without making a single photograph a complete identification.

Explore more: sun halos produced by ice crystals; aurora light in an Icelandic film.

The gallery moves between several places

The original selection begins at Ruka in Finland and includes Granby in Colorado, Moscow in Idaho, Laramie in Wyoming and Anchorage in Alaska. Keeping those locations matters: Moscow here is the Idaho city, not an automatic reference to the Russian capital. The credited photographers include Timo Newton-Syms, Eric Magnuson, Jasper Nance and Christoph Geisler.

The light source is part of the picture

A town provides lamps of different colours and positions near the horizon. Their reflections can make the resulting pillars look like a coordinated display even though the lights themselves are ordinary parts of the settlement. Compare the columns with the buildings and the bright points below them. That relationship is more informative than describing the display as an unidentified object above the town.

A photograph records an observer’s view

The apparent column depends on light reaching the camera through the reflecting crystals. It is not an illuminated pole standing in one fixed location. This is why the scene belongs with atmospheric optics rather than a catalogue of physical objects in the sky. The gallery’s appeal comes from familiar urban lighting acquiring a very different appearance under the right conditions.