Ribbons of light in the night sky! What are they?

12/15/23 night was spectacularly clear night with mild temperatures in low 30s and was Geminid shower night. I watched a Geminid meteorite live video which showed lots of streaking lights. I decided I will go out and try to capture some from my yard. The northeastern side of my house has lots of trees. I checked the position of Gemini in the sky. It was still very low and behind the trees for me. I figured if I set up time lapse in about an hour’s time Gemini should be visible above my trees. So, I set it up for a couple of hours shooting. But my neighbors’ lights were all over so bright as if conquering me and imprisoning me with lights. I think they are scared something will come and eat them up at night if there are no lights. One of my neighbors’ garage is so bright that it dazzles my eyes daily when I walk in my living room, and it is probably 300 ft away from me.

I spent some last twenty minutes of time lapse looking at the sky. By then both Castor and Pollux were visible. But I did not see any meteorites because of the brightness around me. But I did notice that the sky looked reddish in the northeast. I was not sure if this was pollution or real. When I was randomly checking the shots I found some ribbon like streaking on a couple of frames, my first initial thought was something on my sensor, but after inspecting few more I realized it was not my sensor problem. It was natural. So, I analyzed each and every frame of about 400 shots and here is what I found.

Post photography – analyses

I had shot about 400 photographs, each lasting 15 seconds and interval of 17 seconds between two shots. The first 94 shots, which lasted for 26 minutes, they looked normal though a faint reddish color on the left most part of the frame.

At the 95th shot suddenly the background looked more reddish and it remained like that till I finished the time lapse, though there is variation intensity of redness in the frames. Was it an auroral glow? I think it could be, but I am not sure as it was not supposed to be intense.

After about 69 minutes, at 244th shot, I observed the first streak or ribbon of glow across the frame almost vertical form the left of the middle Norway spruce in the frame. Next few shots the ribbon seems to be wavering in location as if it was moving in the sky.

At shot 280 or at 79 minutes, a second one appeared to the right of the first and both wavered moved to the left in the frame in next few shots.

At shot 301 or after 85 minutes, third ribbon appeared.

At shot 329 the middle one became faint and by 94 minutes or at shot 332 all became faint and almost disappeared. At shot 353 or at 100 minutes, a new ribbon appeared in the middle of the frame and disappeared by about 340th shot.

I am curious to know if anyone else has seen these kinds of ribbons of light in the sky. I don’t think they were human created. I can’t imagine someone sitting and playing with lights. It seemed like a natural phenomenon. Were they STEVES? I am looking forward to any suggestions.

Curious

Meena