A Sudden Swarm of Orbs

Photo date: September 8, 2015. Photographer: Mark Mahin.

The photo below shows the Schwarzman branch of the New York Public Library, and was taken at 9:01 PM. We see the sky above it packed with orbs.

This swarm appeared suddenly, as the previous photo (taken at 9:00) showed relatively few orbs.

The next photo taken after the first photo (also at 9:01 PM) was of a piece of cardboard at arm's length. As always, this cardboard test showed no orbs, indicating that what I was photographing was not dust or any other particles near the camera.

There was no fog, mist, rain, or precipitation on this night. The air quality listed on airnow.gov was "good," with a rating of 50. There was nothing unusual nearby that I could see with my eyes or smell.