when you see lightning off-in-the-distance ("heat" lightning)
you might want to try if you can see a Sprite (not the drink).
sprites are ABOVE the clouds.
GIANT JELLYFISH SPRITE: On Aug. 14th, Stanislav Kaniansky of Latky, Slovakia, took one of the most detailed pictures ever of a sprite,
an exotic form of upward-directed lightning. For a fraction of a second it towered over
the landscape like a massive jellyfish:
"The thunderstorm was about 320 km away, giving me a good view of the atmosphere just above the cloudtops," says Kaniansky. "I captured the sprite using a Sony A7III digital camera with a 3.2 second exposure (ISO 8000)."
From bushy head to tentacled-toe, the sprite stretched about 50 km, ten times taller than a normal bolt of lightning. Balls of light only a few hundred meters in diameter dot the jellyfish's waist and tentacles.
Only a few decades ago, such a photo might be considered outlandish and possibly even fake. Now, however,
we know that sprites are real and that they can assume a variety of fantastic shapes.
See for yourself.