A ball of fire...

Scawgeen

is best how to describe what I saw in the sky over Tullamore last night (10.20pm) Apologies to the motorists who passed me as I was gaping up at the sky (thank you all for your honks of disaproval) My son also saw it and said it was like a hot air balloon, but I couldn't see either a balloon or a basket. My question is did anybody else see it ? and what could it have been ? I'm a complete amateur and have no knowledge of the position of stars etc. nor how high up this was in the sky, however it was close enough to see what I saw as a 'ball of fire' and it was directly overhead where I was near Marian Place.

patto_chan

Biffo was lighting his farts again.....?
;-)

oponodon

How big was it?

(i didn't see anything, just curious...)

Scawgeen

Like I said above I couldn't even hazard a guess what size it was, but it was moving and i lost sight of it when it disappeared behind clouds, since I posted this today I've been talking to a friend of mine who saw something similiar in the sky over Athlone about 15 months ago, it sounds like the same thing I saw..a ball of fire. My friend and his passenger were going to work and they also pulled in their car to have a look at it. He described it as a salmon coloured ball of fire which was burning in the sky, moving, was there one minute and gone the next.

humberklog

I came across this a few weeks back when out fishing in Dun Laoghaire at night. There was a number of them drifting in a line though. I thought it was a flare so rang the coastguard to explain that there was what appeared to be football sized orange lights drifting across Dublin bay a few hundred feet up. A chap passing heard my conversation and informed me that they were candle lanterns. Light-weight paper lanterns with a candle set inside. Candles lit...up up and away they go. These were set off on the far side of dalkey Isl. and made it to about Dollymount. A fair distance and surprising height. Popular in S.E asia.
Could it be that?

Scawgeen

Thanks for the reply. Sounds like a reasonable explanation. However it did scare the living daylights outta me.

humberklog

They are very different looking to what one would usually see in the sky. The brightness and size throws the senses quite a bit and makes focussing on for proper judgment hard. Also the movement is very different too. Silent and steady.

Scawgeen

humberklog wrote: »

They are very different looking to what one would usually see in the sky. The brightness and size throws the senses quite a bit and makes focussing on for proper judgment hard. Also the movement is very different too. Silent and steady.

You're on the button there...spot on. Silent and steady, that's it.

humberklog

Look like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi936ei-H0s

Scawgeen

Yes I think that may have been what I saw.

baldieman

Hi,
I saw a ball of fire in the sky nearly forty years ago. My friend and I were just young kids, we were chasing a cat, suddenly a fire ball came flying across the night sky. It was so bright, I can even remember the cat looking up. It was heading north, north west across Dublin. The cold war was at its height, so we thought it was a Russian missile.
Many years later, I read an article about meteor impacts/landings and there was reportedly one hit in Derry in 1969.
I think that might be what we saw that night.

Anyone else old enough to remember that, or know anyone who saw it?