Society for Popular Astronomy

[david entwistle]

The Meteor Section have received a report from Kent of a bright fireball seen on Friday evening, 3rd July at approximately 22:55 UT (23:55 BST).

Klaas Jobse All-Sky Station EN97: 1 also captured an image of a bright meteor at this time. It is thought likely that the two reports are of the same event.

Given clear skies, the fireball would have been visible from across southwest England as well as parts of mainland Europe.

Additional reports of this event would be most welcome. Details regarding the information to provide are available on the Making and Reporting Fireball Observations web page and you can submit your report here.

Many thanks,
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David Entwistle

[@@]

I have written down on a pad an observation i made on the same date :- 3rd July, approx 23.56 BST,, almost due east, 10/12 degrees above horizon travelling towards the horizon and slightly northwards, bright yellow object maybe mag -8 splitting into two with the smaller piece, approx mag -3 redder and dropping towards the horizon.

it was all over in a couple of seconds, and my first thought was that it could have been one of those bloody lantern things but when i saw your post???

PS i live in Solihull in the west mids
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jessops 10x50 binos
skymax 127
J Perez 670 guitar

[Alastair McBeath]

@@: Many thanks for your report. Any further detail you can add regarding exactly where the object was first and last seen in the sky could be very helpful.

The "sky lanterns" tend to be visible for tens of second to several minutes. Anything that lasts less than a few seconds and shows a definite motion in the sky faster than an aircraft or satellite was probably a meteor. There's more advice on identifying such things on the Meteor Section webpages off the homepage at:

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

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