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OHH sorry, I gotcha now, I was a little confused why someone of your education wouldn't know about meteors, but you never know ;) (I was thinking maybe you were all into the math of it or something and hadn't seen one:P ). Yeah those were odd whisps of clouds being lit up by orange light pollution from the city. You can see them dissipate and move away in the bottom gif.

But they do look really cool, kinda like a crown, or maybe nebula formation or something. I like that they add another element to the photos.

yeah, viewing it few times in gif I realized they are clouds. But they have formation like northern lights with a little less color effect. :)
Once again great photos and thanks for sharing them.
Cheers