If you ever accidentally decide to go out for a walk in the middle of a night in -20°C, in a small winter resort like Bakuriani, located in Georgia, cutting through the snow covering your knees and ice crystals falling straight into your eyes, make sure that you bring your camera with you, as you may become a witness of an extremely rare event called Light Pillars.
These colorful light beams don't represent any kind of spotlights pointed up in the sky. What's more, they don't really exist - they are just an optical illusion.
Hexagonal shaped ice crystals, normally only present in high clouds, float in the air close to the ground and their horizontal facets reflect light back downwards. This is what causes the optical illusion of light pillars. However, coincidence of some more factors is needed to make it happen, such as strong cold and absolutely windless night.
Even though this is the first time, when someone has captured this phenomenon on a camera in my country, I may never see it again due to its rareness... But still, mother nature, well done!
Shoutout to everyone: If you want to see, what a few have seen, then you have to do things, a few have done!
More info: flickr.com
