Capturing the Birth of a Lightning Bolt | On Assignment

how do you capture the birth of a
lightning bolt with one of the world’s
fastest cameras I’m Lucy McNeil and this
is National Geographic on assignment
you’re linked to thousands of not to
your Explorers around the globe today
we’re off to the American Midwest
national Geographics Tim Samaras is
hoping to unlock the secrets of how
lightning is formed and shooting its
birth may provide answers high-speed
cameras can shoot up to thousands of
frames per second but even these cameras
miss the instant of a lightning bolts
creation Tim has one of the only cameras
in the world fast enough to capture this
fleeting event it can shoot 1 million
frames per second but at that speed the
timing has to be perfect and a lightning
strike is hard to predict
to capture that moment Tim will need
another very elusive and unpredictable
thing luck we’re almost trying to do the
impossible out here
that’s National Geographic on assignment
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