Brilliant Meteorite

Dummy

Hi there,

We were coming in tonight from working outside and saw the most amazing meteorite falling that I have ever seen. It was falling from East to West and fell with a brilliant flamed tail behind it and was easily the brightest object in the sky.

This happened in West Waterford.

Because we have no light polution at all here, we see plenty of meteorites down here but I have never seen anything like this before. It lasted for what felt like 5 seconds and had what I can only describe as a very large, long, and bright flamed tail.

Was there anything expected?


Regards,

D.

jumpguy

No, I saw nothing that was expected. You're very lucky! It must've been at some brightness, pity there's a full moon tonight, it'd probably have been blinding.

mike65

It might be worth checking space sites for mention of debris. Bits of stuff fall back to earth every so often.

Dummy

The moon was more to the East over the ocean at the time. This happened more to the west. Despite the full moon, this was still the brightest object in the sky.

Mike - what sites could I check for space debris? I am interested on reading more about this.

It was an amazing sight to see.

D

jumpguy

Dummy wrote: »

The moon was more to the East over the ocean at the time. This happened more to the west. Despite the full moon, this was still the brightest object in the sky.

Mike - what sites could I check for space debris? I am interested on reading more about this.

It was an amazing sight to see.

D

I don't know of any websites that predict when an object will re-enter. There's hundreds of thousands of man-made objects in space, From nails to tools to spent rocket stages. Although most of the large chunks enter the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean under a controlled deorbit.
If it was something out of orbit, it could've been a spent rocket stage, an old amateur radio satellite, many things. Likely it's a meteorite though, it's peak is coming August 12th.

It was more than likely a bolide (a spectacular meteroid).

I've seen a couple bolides, one of which was of very low magnitude (-5/-6) by my guess, but it could have been a lot brighter.

They're a great sight, very rare too.

Flukey

Dummy, if it was really big, it might even have been a fireball. I saw one once a few years ago, around this time of year as it happens. It was much larger than any meteor. Meteors are normally like stars moving, hence their names as shooting stars, but this was much larger.

Dummy

Flukey - I went short of describing it as a fireball but that description would suit what I saw better. This was a very significant thing that was easily the brightest thing in the sky that evening. It was between 22:10 and 22:15 in the evening and I looked west across the ocean and saw this "fireball" with a flaming tail falling from East to West in the sky. As I said it lasted for what felt like 5 seconds.

The moon was in the south-eastern sky and this thing apeared more to the west.

I have seen meteorites before but this was much bigger and more significant than any meteorite I have seen before. Where we are is very isolated - our nearest neighbour would be 1/2 mile away. It wasn't a flare because it had an altitude much higher than a flares.

Dummy

Just did a Google and what i saw was similar but much bigger than this.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8c6_1234751121

The head of it was much bigger as was its tail.

Flukey

What I saw was something like that too. I am a bit inland and can't see the sea or the coast from my bedroom window, but it would have been out over the Irish Sea. I posted about it here, and someone else had seen it too. It was by pure chance and luck that I saw. I just went to the window for a quick look out, as it was around Perseids time, and I was looking directly at it when it appeared. Spectacular to say the least.

BArra

me and my dad saw it for about 3 seconds, it was very cloudy but we spotted it alrite in cork