skycandles

Skycandles is a term that can refer to several phenomena, primarily relating to atmospheric optical illusions or celestial events that resemble candles.

One common interpretation of skycandles is the appearance of bright, stationary lights in the night sky that are sometimes mistaken for UFOs or other unexplained phenomena. In reality, these are often distant aircraft navigation lights, or celestial bodies like Venus or Jupiter when viewed under specific atmospheric conditions. The perception of them as "candles" can be attributed to their steady, bright glow and their apparent stillness from a fixed observation point.

Another less common usage of skycandles might describe certain types of aurora, particularly when vertical shafts of light are observed. These aurorae, caused by charged particles from the sun interacting with the Earth's atmosphere, can sometimes appear as glowing columns that evoke the image of candles reaching upwards.

In some historical or folkloric contexts, the term might have been used to describe specific types of flares or signal fires, though this usage is largely obsolete. Modern scientific understanding generally attributes phenomena described as skycandles to natural atmospheric optics or astronomical observations. The specific meaning of "skycandles" can therefore depend heavily on the context in which it is used.