Society for Popular Astronomy

[Robin Scagell]

There are reports of a bright fireball being seen over Ireland about 6 pm. I don't have any reports myself, but according to Astronomy Ireland there is a good chance that the object might have dropped on land. According to RTE there are reports that the fireball has landed in a field near Crimlin in Co Cavan.

Anyone who saw this event should report it to the Astronomy Ireland fireball site. Our own Meteor Section director would also, I'm sure, appreciate receiving the details (meteor@popastro.com).

Robin

[Alastair McBeath]

Information reaching the SPA Meteor Section regarding events on February 3-4 has been somewhat confused, and it's possible there were three separate fireballs seen from Ireland and/or Northern Ireland before 20h UT that evening. Much of the news has come from media reports, suggesting there were "hundreds" of sightings, though so far, a mere three actual observations have arrived, plus details that Irish coastguards were alerted after witnesses called-in from four places, some well inland, scattered across central and southwest Ireland.

One report each around 17:55-18:00 UT has arrived from Co Armagh in Northern Ireland, and a little south of Dublin's city centre in the Irish Republic. The Co Armagh observer saw the object in the northwest to north-northwest sky, while the near-Dublin observer saw the fireball pass behind buildings to the north-northeast, at a similar elevation above the horizon to what the Armagh witness reported for the meteor's start. Confirmation of these details is awaited, but if correct, they would indicate the sightings must have been of different meteors. That might suggest there were two fireballs, one off northwest Ireland/Northern Ireland, the other off northeast Northern Ireland/Ireland, the neighbouring Irish Sea, or adjacent parts of western Britain, around ~18h.

A further fireball seen from parts of Ireland around 19:30-19:40, was reported as apparently fainter than the earlier meteor(s), but almost no information other than this has reached the Section about it as yet.

Aside from Robin's initial posting here, there's a fuller discussion, complete with the initial near-Dublin sighting, and the ~19:35 UT meteor information, plus other media links, on the UK Weather World's Space Weather Forum, at:

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=35138&posts=19&start=1 .

Anyone else who spotted one or more of these fireballs, or any others - fireballs are meteors of magnitude -3 or brighter - from the British Isles or nearby is welcome to send-in as full a report as possible. The minimum details needed 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, in UT (= GMT); 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 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)