Society for Popular Astronomy

Hi, hoping very much that someone will be able to confirm my first fireball!
Was looking at Cassiopeia through my 22x100 bins when I saw a bright light in the corner of my left hand eye. Was going to ignore it but glanced anyway. I saw a large slow moving orange blob that seemed to start to the left of Cassiopeia and end somewhere in Draco. Ish. So excited that I didn’t pay much attention to where it started or ended. It all happened at 19.37.
Love to hear if you saw it as well.

cheers

p.s. I live in east devon

Could well be.

I saw a fireball once. Was close enough to hear it.

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20x50 bins
Revelation 12 dob

close enough to hear? Wow!
forgot to say that I saw a couple of fragments come off before it disappeared.

cheers

I was laying on the grass with my girlfriend, must've been around 1am, watching the stars. We saw a couple of shooting stars and then right above us for a second there was a yellow streak and a roaring noise. Only lasted a second and am certain it wasn't firework as it only happened once, lasted for just a second and appeared more parallel than perpendicular to the ground. Spooky thing was it happend as she was telling me about one of her friends from years ago who died in a hit-and-run.

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20x50 bins
Revelation 12 dob

oh there is someone on here to record it and a chap called dave i think who looks after that bit, someone here may have seen what you saw and perhaps can confirm it.. they like to keep a record of it.. so find him, i think it's scanlan.. dave scanlan but couldn't be sure..

look under fireball sightings...

Kevvek,

Thanks for the report. What you describe certainly sounds like a fireball.

I haven't seen any other reports, from that time, but most go straight to Alastair and I'm sure he'll be adding a comment here shortly. In the meantime, if you can remember any more details, they'd be appreciated. The details we'd like to know are listed here

arcadian_dream,

Simultaneous sounds associated with meteors is a very interesting, and sometimes controversial, topic in its own right. There was a discussion about it a little while back, which covers some of the background.

For anyone interested in the subject, the Croatian Meteor Society are actively investigating electrophonics and related phenomena. The instrument below is the 'electrometer' from the Tican Observatory used to measure changes in electrostatic potential associated with meteor events

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David Entwistle

Hi, a lot of the details are a bit above me, but here goes...

Location: Honiton, East Devon, height 127m
Date Sunday Oct 26th 19.37 (clocks went back 25th/26th)
Started: not sure as I had my eyes glued to my binoculars
Finished: somewhere in Draco, was heading at a shallow angle downward.
Meteor details: appeared as a large, very orange blob, speed between 2 and 3.
Lasted 5-6 seconds
No noise, did not observe any after trail, did have 2-3 fragments break off.
Was brighter than Venus.

Too excited to remember any other details on the spot I'm afraid.
cheers

Hi Kevvek,

Yep, we saw it too! I was on holiday with the family in Branscome (a few miles South of you), and took the children out to see the lovely dark skies that we don't get at home.

We looked up west at approx 19.38 UT, and saw a very bright light moving East to West through Draco - it seemed to pass through the "lozenge". It was moving very slowly, leaving a trail behind which didb't last for long. The children saw it as orange/gold, but I thought it was whiter. It lasted several seconds, then we lost sight behind the cottage. The path did not seem straight though, as if it was tumbling???

At first I thought it may be a firework, but then realised it was silent, and the direction of travel came from the sea inland.

I've seen a few meteors now, none looked like this. So, I promised the children that I would check the popastro forum and...here we are.

Hope someone else saw it too,

Steve, Ellie (8), Leah (4)

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90mm Mak, cheapy 10x50 bins, lots of enthusiasm

During the fantastic fireball shower of the Leonids a few years ago one meteor, which appeared electric-blue seemed to produce a sizzling sound. Weird as this seems...there should perhaps been a delay between the sight (186000 mps) and the sound (720 mph). I mentioned this to Neil Bone who had just given a talk to the local astro-group and he rather pooh-poohed the idea. Interesting though. maf

Kevvek & Bushy: Thanks very much for your reports. If either of you can improve on the positional details for just where the trail started and ended as you each saw it, that would be excellent, but I appreciate the difficulties of recalling this now some time after the event.

arcadian dream: As my Assistant David Entwistle said, simultaneous or electrophonic meteor sounds are an entire topic for investigation on their own. With any such report, it's very important to try and identify and rule-out any more terrestrial causes of the sounds - a coincidental distant engine, or a light breeze in leaves, for example, through to the sound of your own head moving (neck muscles, or your hair or skin brushing against a hat or collar, for example) - because genuine simultaneous sounds do seem to be rare, and such reports are keenly sought-after by researchers.

Anyone who does believe they've heard such sounds from a meteor needs to give an especially detailed report on the event's other features, particularly its date and time, and the meteor's path in the sky. Some theories suggest the sounds may be heard particularly where the meteor passed almost overhead, for instance, and another key avenue for investigation is what the recorded local weather conditions were (hence the importance of the date and time).

Melanie: Dave Scanlan is the SPA's Variable Star Director, and though he takes a keen interest in meteors as well, all meteor and fireball sightings should be sent to me, rather than him!

Mike:

Well, there's a surprise...

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

Hi, sorry I can't be more specific, next time I will try harder!


Hi Bushy, glad you saw it as well, which means I wasn't dreaming it all..

best wishes

Kev

Kevvek and Bushy ..I saw it also.
I was on holiday in Teignmouth and on the 26th i was waiting outside our holiday chalet admiring a very clear dark sky when it appeared directly overhead from the SE ( from behind a nearby tree) to end fairly low down in the NW.To me it was white but turned orange when it fragmented and faded approx 20 to 30 deg above the horizon.I could not see any train myself but i would say it was approx -7 mag and travelling quite slowly.It was one of those WOW moments ...the best fireball i have seen.

All the best
Mike

Mike's is indeed the third sighting of this October 26-27 fireball now. It's odd all were made from Devon!

Information on its atmospheric path is very sketchy, but it seems possible it was a Taurid meteor, since the general path directions everyone gave were all east to west, descending towards the northwest from somewhat north of overhead, and it was typically slow-moving, as Taurids are.

Whether this is a sign the hoped-for Taurid 'swarm' return is underway remains unclear, however. On this potential Taurid activity, see:

http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=10554

elsewhere on the Observing Forum.

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

Hi, astroman79, thanks for confirming what I saw and to all the other posters as well.
It's a good memory to treasure.

cheers

Kev