These awe-inspiring photographs capture the moment a nuclear-capable missile was fired off the coast of California and shot over San Francisco.
Photographer Abe Blair, 36, was taking pictures of the San Francisco skyline when a dazzling blue light streaked across the sky.
He quickly grabbed his camera and managed to take these incredible images of the unarmed Trident II (D5) missile’s launch by a US Navy submarine.
Thousands of people were left astonished by the remarkable sight over northern California on Saturday evening when the ballistic missile was fired from the USS Kentucky as part of a test mission, including those who thought it could be a UFO or a meteorite.
Among them was Mr Blair, who had trekked up Slackers Hill in the hope of taking photos of fog and a sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge.
Instead he and a friend were treated to a perfectly clear night over San Francisco – and it was then that the mysterious flash lit up the night’s sky.
Writing on Instagram, Mr Blair said: ‘I had headed up to Slacker Ridge in hopes of some fog and a good sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.
The sunset was uneventful and the fog was a no show. My friend Justin and I decided to stick around and shoot some night images and play with some new techniques with our cameras.
‘Then it happened. “What is that?!” we both yell as we are running to our cameras to recompose and try and capture this UFO as it headed right towards us.
‘Just as we got our cameras reset it banked left out over the ocean and this unreal blue and white cloud just expanded bigger and bigger. Over the next minute we watched it go and either leave our atmosphere or burn out.’
