Yikes. Is this normal for a MH bulb?

[Mr. Clandestine]

That's what I was leaning towards as well, although my nagging pessimistic side kept whispering things to the tune of 'That means it's about to reach critical mass! Get ready for a fire!'

Haha, I had a pretty similar reaction initially, along the lines of: 'I paid dearly for this thing, waited TWO weeks for it to arrive, and now that it's here, it looks BROKEN...or used!' To this day I've yet to have any mechanical issues with the bulbs. Similar to your ballast, many MH bulbs are also designed to experience passive failure (or self-extinguish) if the outer envelope is cracked, or if there's something else wrong with it. But even those that aren't designed with any safety features probably won't experience sudden nonpassive failure (rupture/explosion) unless you severely mishandled the bulb beforehand (i.e. - clubbed someone over the head with it... intentionally sprayed it with Windex while still hot... etc.)

Much appreciated sneaky one, you've set my mind at ease. :thumbsup:

Aye, glad my sneakiness could be of service!