A Strange Blue Blob in the Night Sky

Photo date: December 31, 2015. Photographer: Mark Mahin.

The photo below (showing a Civil War memorial in New York City) shows two types of strange weirdness. The first anomaly is the two orbs floating about (the brighter one is not the moon, and did not appear in the next photo from this angle). The second anomaly is the strange blue blob in the sky.

I could see the blue blob with my naked eye. A Google search picked up a warning that you might be able to see the Northern Lights in New York state on this day, because of a solar eruption. But the photo was taken facing west, not north; and the blob looks nothing like pictures of the Northern Lights.  I then saw a news item saying you would not be able to see the Northern Lights from New York City on this day.  A Google search fails to show anyone else who photographed this blue glow.

Another shot from a different location showed the same blue sky blob.