On a sunny day (Wed, 07 Aug 2013 19:13:06 -0500) it happened Sam Wormley wrote in :
That picture definitely is NOT ball lightning. As I have seen one face to face at about a meter distance with window open, me inside, and the thing outside, ball lightning looks much more like the picture in that other link. In my case the ball hang there for quite a long time. several seconds, and then _slowly_ lowered itself to explode on the antenna between 2 trees in the garden. Next morning, after the lightning storm had passed, there was only the burned ends of the copper wire on each tree left. As downstairs neighbor had disconnected the antenna from his radio, a wise decision perhaps, there was no further damage. What I have learned is what I have seen. No heat coming from it (would have felt it). No radiation coming from it (no skin burn), no lasting effects, other then creating a fascinating for it. Dim white light, not blinding at all. No visible structure, No border area, totally opaque same white shade. No sound accompanying it of any sort (would have heard it late at night). Electromagnetic induction, could that be what attracted it to exactly the middle of that horizontal antenna wire? Obviously it takes hundreds of amperes to evaporate 5 to 10 meters of electrical (and it was insulated too) normal cable, so a lot of energy was stored in that ball, and the coupling factor (as in transformer) would have to be strong. The ball was much shorter in diameter (30 cm or so) then the length of the antenna, yet all of the antenna except the ends was gone, was it _radiating_ when hit? So did it function as a transmit antenna, and succumbed to the transmitted power losses (not matched, bad SWR wrong impedance). How is _that_ for 'paper'???, a lot better than a picture and wrong fantasies. A first hand observation by somebody who actually had hands on experience playing with electrons.
Electron black hole?
So Sam, it seems now we can add the search for the ball to the projects like fusion, gravity waves, OAM, Actually I forgot to mention the thing appeared after a lightning strike on the flat roof?