Sky Lanterns
September 28th, 2012 at 10:58 pm by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, News, Weather
Picture 1, Picture 2, Picture 3. I watched the sky lanterns from the Art Museum, while I was doing a meet and greet (gave out another 500+ Bill’s moustaches). It was pretty spectacular, with each lantern moving just a little bit differently depending on the heat from the flame and the altitude of each lantern. Here’s pictures and video. At 8 PM the wind in Grand Rapids was northwest at 7 mph. The wind about a mile above the ground was northwest at about 14 mph. In the past, I’ve had calls from people reporting UFOs and they are really seeing sky lanterns. Here’s downtown in the full moonlight.
The video was rather impressive.
yep…good show -
Cue: Wayne Watson….. HOME FREE…..
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What kind of fire risk come with these things?
Thanks for posting the video link – that was incredible!! Wish I could have seen it in person. Hardy Tom – I don’t think these pose much fire threat because the lanterns are aloft as long as they have heat (fire). When the fuel is consumed, the fire goes out and the lanterns drift downward, similar to a hot-air balloon. I suppose if a lantern came apart at the seams, then one could come to earth still flaming – but I haven’t heard anything on the news about “House burns after Art Prize Entry”, so I’m assuming these things are fairly sturdy….
It was also interesting to have a “visual” of the wind currents downtown – how the winds “eddy” around the buildings, judging by the flight of the lanterns
Saw a lantern release several years ago in Vancouver B.C. Many more lanterns than last night and a much cooler city to watch then envelope than little ole GR. I was there last night and was underwhelmed.
Guess one has to scale their expectations…… all things are relative, I’d guess…..’course, it’s hard to improve on the beauty of Vancouver.
the guinness world record was about 12,000 in indonesia before this and they are saying that light the night used all 20,000 of theirs. plus some people brought their own. just saying…
I love our “little ole GR.” Lights in the Night was magical for our family, including for our 3-year-old and 18-month-old. We didn’t care how big it was or how it compared to anything else in the world.
I love GR.
Anybody know what area they came down at?
Michigan?
ArtPrize has been so much fun this year and the weather has been terrific! Those lanters were magnificent! It would be awesome to let a bunch of those off on the 4th of July.
Here are two Sky Lanterns videos on Youtube.
These are annual lantern festival events in Asia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Ko-yvJzHU&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2AQmoh4urc&feature=related
And so pleased that the artist made it into the final ten.
Anyone know where they came down? Did anyone find a bunch of them in one place?
Looks like they were all heading in the same direction it would be quite site to find them all in your front yard!
hi bill, i wonder if there are any moustaches left ? i did not get there to get mine and because i am a fan, sure would like to have one. if that is possible, please let me know. thank you for reading this, mary b