Bavaria Lightning Laser

On Thursday August 18th, the sky above the Allgu Public Observatory in southwestern Bavaria was an amazing sight, with the night lit up by a powerful laser beam and an intense summer thunderstorm. During research on a laser project, this photograph of the laser beam was coincidentally snapped just as lightning flashed, resulting in a breathtaking image that looks like a scene from a science fiction movie.

The laser in this photograph is a powerful one, with a 20-watt beam, but the power in a bolt of lightning peaks at a trillion (one million million) watts, albeit for just a fraction of a second! Shortly after this picture was taken the storm reached the observatory, forcing operations to close for the night.