Am I more easily detected while sneaking with a spell equipped?

Question

I've seen it mentioned that your sneakiness is affected by darkness, which makes sense. Obviously if you were to sneak around with a torch in hand, someone could see you more clearly. What I'm not clear on, is if I'm less stealthy with a spell equipped. After all, I do have a glowing ball (or two) of fire/lightning/etc in hand.

Is an equipped spell going to make me stand out more to someone, or does it not matter at all? Is the spell animation purely for my reference to know which spell I have equipped?

Answer 1

Spells only create sound when they're actually cast (unless you have the illusion perk which negates the sound). Spells create light whenever they're selected, and even more when they're actually cast. (This is very similar to the self-illumination via pipboy in Fallout 3).

Given that you can't score sneak attacks with spells in the first place, keep your mage hands in your thief pockets when going in for a sneak stab.