What happens when you switch on your ballast but there's no HID in the socket?

Usually my ballast (it's a magnetic one) makes a small droning noise while the bulb is running, but I switched it on for 2 seconds without the bulb in socket just to see what the ballast does and it started making a light clicking noise, does this damage your ballast?

It was trying to ignite the ballast....

Why would you do this?

Just to see what happens man, from doing it I found out that my ballast makes a clicking noise when there's no bulb in the socket, something I wouldn't of known otherwise, pointless a tad I know, but what I want to know is wether this causes damage to the ballast or not?

I swear I read that my instructions said not to do this... but I'm not 100%.

Am sure it's not a good idea. A bit like slapping the wife around the face 'to see what happens'. Experiments are good but there has to be a point behind them.

I would assume. The clicking sound is the ballast trying to ignite the bulb...