Society for Popular Astronomy

[andyT]

evening all,just got to the p.c. i saw a very bright 'streak' of light at 6.45 pm today.i was looking towards orion at the time,this 'streak' of light came from behind me towards orion.it was very fast,greenish,blue with a definate red coloured trail.lasted approx 3 sec's.it came from a rough north easterly direction,heading south/west.i have never seen such a colourful event? anybody have an idea's.
rgds,
andy
_________________
4'' refractor
zeiss 10x50,
helios 11x80.
Leica BN 8x32,
Helios 13-40x80 bins

[Robin Scagell]

I had a report from High Wycombe of a very similar object at precisely the same time and on a similar course. It is quite likely that it was the same object, probably a bright fireball rather than a satellite re-entry according to Russell Eberst whom I asked about it.

The fact that it was seen to fade out at the end of its trajectory suggests to me that it burned up completely rather than being a source of meteorites, but I could be wrong. Such a body would actually be quite small -- my guess is about the size of a cricket ball but I'm no expert on these things.

Robin

[andyT]

HI Robin,interesting sight it was,very colourful too.
i've not seen such a colourful event in 30 years of astronomy.
andy
_________________
4'' refractor
zeiss 10x50,
helios 11x80.
Leica BN 8x32,
Helios 13-40x80 bins

[NevilleP]

Hi, my first post on this on this website.

I was looking at Venus yesterday evening (Tuesday, 10th March) at 18.45 hrs GMT when I saw a bright object pass from a north to south direction to the west of me. It was slightly lower in elevation than Venus and left a very bright brief con trail as it passed. The object and trail were as bright as Venus. The trajectory was in a slight descent when it suddenly took a steeper decline which increased in steepness as it plunged earthways. At the moment its trajectory steepened the object appeared to break up with two con trails in close parallel motion with the object now issuing vivid crimson red flames until it disappeared from my view behind some trees. I viewed the object for approximately 2 secs in total and it travelled about 20 degrees across the sky from when I first saw it till it passed out of view. I half expect to see some form of evidence of it hitting the earth but the object must have been far to the west of me and it probably never reached the ground. Venus was to the right of the object when I first saw it. It was a very bright colourful spectacle.

Peter

[andyT]

hi and welcome Peter.looks like we may have seen the same object?
it was a sight to remember,i'd say.
rgds,
andy
_________________
4'' refractor
zeiss 10x50,
helios 11x80.
Leica BN 8x32,
Helios 13-40x80 bins

[NevilleP]

Hi Andy,

I think it is highly likely it was the same object. It certainly was very colourful especially after it started to break up. Very memorable.

Rgds
Peter

[astropete]

hi neville p and welcome, thanks for your report of your sighting of a "fireball", excellent for your first post. well done.
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150mm short focus 710mm eq3 no drive scope. 8mp samsung Nv4 digital camera, e/p 4,6,10,12.5,15,20,25,32,40,20-70 zoom.
127mm sky watcher super track auto.

[Alastair McBeath]

I've had a number of fireball reports come through this week, but haven't had time to correlate them all as yet. They may not all be of this March 10-11 object, but several certainly seem to have been.

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; 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.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

[Richy]

Hello all,

I've no idea about Astronomy but stumbled across this website while trying to research what I saw yesterday evening.

At 1845 yesterday evening, I was heading (driving) WNW in the vicinity of Fairlop, (near Ilford, Essex, UK) and saw a birght green/blue "Shooting Star" almost directly in front of me which looked as though it was heading in an approx. North to South direction and probably at an angle of about 240 degrees and disappeared whilst still in the air.

That's the best I can do!

[Robin Scagell]

Thanks, Richy, for taking the trouble to join in and report. All these reports are useful in working out the track of this object which was obviously seen over a wide area of the country.

Robin

[andyT]

hi all,have filled in and sent a fireball sighting form.
andy
p.s. via the email sighting form.
_________________
4'' refractor
zeiss 10x50,
helios 11x80.
Leica BN 8x32,
Helios 13-40x80 bins

[Duncan]

Thank goodness for that! I thought I was seeing things on Tue night and everyone I've talked to think I'm daft. I'm not an amateur astronomer but used to be interested as a youngster so this may be my one and only post on your sight.

I live at Lyneham in Wiltshire and at about 18:45 on Tue 10 Mar 09 I saw a fireball for 1-2 secs. As I was in my car and approaching a junction I had to look away and when I looked back it had gone. I was heading approx SW and the fireball was straight ahead at about an elevation of 30-45deg from the horizon and moving from my top right to bottom left view. If you want I can take Sat Nav co-ordinates of where I was when I saw the fireball and the approx bearings of the fireball. Any use?

[markqnorman]

My son told me he saw this on Tuesday. He was sitting at the computer that has a velux window above it that faces due west. He shouted down to me while I was preparing supper say he saw a shooting star through the Window. At the time I was a little surprised as as I looked out of the Kitchen Window it still looked dusk. Anyhow yesterday one of our neighbours who runs a community web site and news letter reported seeing it at the same time, he thought it was around 6:50. So I asked my son to give me more detail. He said it covered the entire window opening from top right to bottom left, I estimate that's about 7 degrees of arc at an elevation of 50 to 60 degrees travelling in a South-South-West direction. He says it was as bright as the moon and he noticed it had a bright white and yellow head with a reddish out line. I'm just really mad I missed it, I've only seen a fireball low on the Horizon when I was a teenager and I would have loved to have seen this. I believe my Neighbour has registered with you to describe what he saw. This must have been a massive event to be seen over such a wide area. Is it normal? Can we estimate the size from this data.
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Mark Q near Totnes

[Alastair McBeath]

Many thanks to those who have added fresh notes here since my last (posting of March 11). I wasn't able to include the more recent reports in my preliminary analysis (below), but I will factor them in shortly, and hopefully will update here next week. It turned out that most of the fireball reports I mentioned last time were indeed of this March 10-11, 18:45 UT event.

The findings so far are as follows.

The fireball was reported from eleven sites across southern England and south Wales, east as far as Hertfordshire, north to Warwickshire, and west as far as Rhondda Cynon Taf and the south coast of mid Devon. Most of the witnesses were on the road at the time, so regrettably positional information on the object's flight is very sketchy. The start may have been somewhere high above the upper Severn estuary, around Herefordshire-Worcestershire-Gloucestershire perhaps, and the fireball likely flew from there at an angle between north-south to northeast-southwest, possibly ending above Devon-Cornwall, but more likely out over the Channel west of Start Point. The end especially is little more than a best-guess, however. It seems to have been quite swift-moving, and if so, it is most unlikely any meteorites will have survived. Two observers reported the object fragmented in mid-flight, but the majority saw no such break-up, possibly because of different viewing angles to the trail. Various striking colours were noted by different people, commonly blue, green and white in the head and red, orange or yellow in the tail, and it may have left a short-lived persistent train.

Any additional sightings would be most welcome, especially where the observer can give details on exactly where the object was in the sky!

Duncan: Any extra positional details you can give on the meteor would be most welcome. The Fireball Observations page in my previous posting has advice and an e-mailable report form.

marqnorman: The event was quite "normal", in that it was a bright fireball, of the kind that chances-by and is seen from Britain several times each year. A fireball being seen over a wide area is fairly common, but the timing of this event has really helped increase the number of sightings, as well as the fact it was in the same rough part of the sky as the brilliant planet Venus for many witnesses, so people would be tending to look that way anyway. The size of the originating body can be estimated by making various assumptions about its nature, but often that isn't very precise, especially where there are no images recorded. The scatter in brightness estimates for this event makes it particularly difficult, but we might guess at somewhere in the tens of kilos to maybe low tonnes mass range.

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)

[treeman]

My first post too - from the same South Devon village as Mark, a few miles SW of Totnes. On Tues 10th March at 6.45pm (called home to report sighting and that call was timed 6.46pm) I was walking into the village in a southerly direction and saw what I now know to be called a fireball initially in my peripheral vision to my right. i.e. to the W, watched it travel through perhaps a 20 to 25 degree arc, at an elevation of perhaps 40 degrees, angling gently downwards. It was travelling across the lightest part of the dusk sky and was by far the brightest thing I have ever seen in the sky. I did not observe any break-up. My impression was of a slight bluish colour. It may have been coincidence, but I'm told there was significant helicopter activity in the area 45 minutes later.