Will-o-the-wisp lighting a bog or mire. Artist unknown. The source is Flammarion’s L’atmosphère: météorologie populaire (1888, p.749). Image via inamidst.com

2017 EarthSky Lunar Calendar pre-sale…is happening NOW!
Ghost lights used to be called will-o-the-wisps. They were a weird glow over swamps or bogs. Nowadays, people report strange lights in the sky in all sorts of places. Some are more famous than others. The ghost lights closest to me are in the desert-like Davis Mountains near Marfa, Texas, but you can also see them in the Brown Mountains of North Carolina, and other places in North America. There are modern, very ordinary explanations for these lights. Yet people still love to try to spot them. Follow the links below to some samples of North American ghost lights.
Ghost lights in history.