Society for Popular Astronomy

Four sightings have arrived so far of a bright fireball around 22:00 UT (23:00 BST) on April 16-17 so far, made from Devon, Hants, Surrey and Glos.

Details are very sketchy as yet, and anyone else who spotted this fireball, or any others - meteors of magnitude -3 or brighter - from the British Isles or nearby is welcome to send a full report to the Meteor Section as soon as possible. The minimum details I need from you are:

1) Exactly where you were (name of the nearest town or large village and county if in Britain, or your geographic latitude and longitude if elsewhere in the world);

2) The date and timing of the event (please ensure these are in UT = GMT, so subtract one hour from current clock time, BST, to get UT); and

3) Where the fireball started and ended in the sky, as accurately as possible, or where the first and last points you could see of the trail were if you didn't see the whole flight.

More advice and a fuller set of details to send (including an e-mail report form) are outlined on the "Making and Reporting Fireball Observations" page of the SPA website, at:

http://www.popastro.com/sections/meteor/fireball.htm .

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

Around this same time (Saturday April 17th at approximately 00:55) I observed a bright meteor whilst I was driving. It lasted approximately 3 seconds (but i don't think I saw the whole flight), travelled quite slowly, and was bright green. (Quite spectacular, one of those which looks like a firework!)

At this point I was driving through a heavily light polluted area in St Albans (Hertfordshire), so under dark skies i'm sure it would been very impressive.

It travelled completely straight down from the top of the sky towards the horizon, and at that particular moment I'm pretty sure I would have been facing South/South East where it ended.

Sorry if that description is a bit vague!

I see a fireball on 23/4 moving down from the tail of Ursa Major into Hercules and the time was about 23.00 BST.

I would put it at Magnitude -3 and was moving quite quick-a less than 2 seconds to be consumed by the North Eastern Horizon.

Its trajectory pointed back to Gemini high in the South West.

_________________
Colin James Watling
--
Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
Web: http://lyra.freewebsites.com/
www.lyrandgyastronomers.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your report Matthew. This seems to have been a different meteor to what the other observers spotted that night, however, as most people saw that around 22:00 UT (23:00 BST). Assuming your timing was in clock time (i.e. BST), that would have made "yours" around 23:55 UT, so almost an hour later. The fact you saw it end to the south or southeast supports that as well, as the other observers all saw "their" event in the southwestern sky, and they were scattered from Kent in the east to Devon in the west, north as far as Gloucester.

Overall, there are now five definite sightings of the ~22:00 UT meteor on April 16-17. Two of these can be found on the UK Weather World's Space Weather Forum, at:

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/f ... =3&start=1 .

That fireball seemed to have been out high above the western Channel, and part of its flight may have been some way offshore of the English coast between roughly Prawle Point in Devon and Lizard Point in Cornwall. Most observers were impressed both by its brilliance and its vivid green colour, though suggestions the colour may have been due to the volcanic ash cloud over and near the British Isles from Iceland at the time, appear to be without foundation. Bright green, though not common, does occur in meteors, particularly the brighter ones, without any such assistance (and as Matthew also noted for his event).

No other sightings from April 23-24 as yet Colin. Can you give more precise positional details on where the event began and ended in the sky?

All further observations of these or other fireballs would be most welcome.

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

I think once the Moon waxes to full on the 28th April these fireball reports may get less due to Moonlight interference.

The one I see was white in colour and its speed 4-5 in a streetlighted area.

The quick moving fireball started just past the last star in the tail of Ursa Major and ended in mid Hercules before being consumed due to its fast speed close to the North Eastern Horizon 10 Degrees or so.

As I mentioned I measured its Trajectory back to the Constellation of Gemini high in the West.

_________________
Colin James Watling
--
Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
Web: http://lyra.freewebsites.com/
www.lyrandgyastronomers.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the additional notes on your April 23-24 fireball, Colin.

It seems April has been quite fireball-productive this year, with news of another multiple-witness event for southern Britain around 20:15 UT on April 27-28. There may have been an associated sonic boom with that one. As usual, any further observations would be most welcome - see my initial posting above for details on what to send and how.

There's no suggestion these events were linked to one another, or that anything unusual is happening meteorically at present, just that a fortunate set of circumstances has helped generate a healthy clutch of sightings. These have included some good, clearer evenings lately, with Venus, Mercury and the crescent Moon nicely on-show, just when the Icelandic volcano ash might have been enhancing the twilight sky, the novelty of a lack of aircraft and contrails - and the equal novelty of their reappearance - coupled with worldwide media coverage of the spectacular, meteorite-dropping fireball over the US Midwest on April 14.

As ever, what this really shows is the importance of being vigilant whenever you're outdoors under a clearer sky!

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

Alastair, I have just noticed your thread regarding 16th/17th April fireball.
My observations of that night are from the Kelling Heath star party in Norfolk, and my notes in my log book are as follows:-
"Meteor began in Gemini and travelled down to south horizon, slow, bright with long tail, about mag 0, 21:40 bst.
23:00 bst: meteor, white, down to west, 3 minutes later another one down to low in east."
I remember the meteor at 21:40 bst as being quite impressive, especially it`s slow speed.
Sorry to not be more specific but that is what I managed to notice whilst I was enjoying the dark location with my telescope.

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250mm Intelliscope dobsonian reflector F4.7
Celestron C9.25
HEQ5
10x50 Binoculars
20x100 Binoculars

Thanks very much for the notes from your April 16-17 meteor sightings Billden. Unfortunately, I suspect the 20:40 UT magnitude 0 meteor was probably really the least interesting of the three you recorded, and was too faint to have been noted as significant elsewhere, sadly. From your descriptions, it's likely that you did spot both the fireballs that happened near 22:00 UT that evening though, the only witness to report seeing both to the Meteor Section so far, so well done for that!

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

Information recently received from French meteor expert Karl Antier has increased the tally of sightings for one of the April 16-17 fireballs to eight, with two reports now from Brittany to go with the six British mainland observations of it. Unfortunately, it's not been possible to refine the approximate trajectory for this meteor beyond what I suggested originally in my April 24 posting, but its probable time of occurrence has now been amended slightly to between 21:58-22:00 UT.

As I noted on June 2, there seems now to have been a definite second UK-witnessed fireball between 22:00-22:03 UT that evening, while as discussed on our "Recent Fireball Sightings" webpage - see:

http://www.popastro.com/sections/meteor ... htings.htm -

there were at least two other fireballs spotted before midnight UT on April 16-17.

Any further British fireball sightings, whether from that night or others, would be most welcome. For assistance and an electronic report form, see the "Making and Reporting Fireball Observations" webpage, at:

http://www.popastro.com/sections/meteor/fireball.htm .

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