Unconfirmed Fireball.

[LukeSkywatcher]

At 1am (exactly) this morning (Fri 4th),i was in my lounge with all the lights and tv switched off. I was just going to bed and all of a sudden the room was filled with a very bright white/yellow glow for about a second and a half. I had the curtains closed but i could see the light above the curtains lighting up the ceiling and even through the curtains. As brief as it was i could tell that the light source travelled from east to west. Bright as daylight (as they say).

I quicky had a look outside as i thought it was a cars headlights but there was no car there (and if there was a car.......it would have to be facing right at my house to light up the room). I live in a small cul-de-sac of 12 bungalows and most people are at home and in bed by 11pm. There are rarely any cars moving about at 1am so thats why i looked outside. There also was no police choppers in the air shining a light downwards (i dont think where i live even has a crime rate). I'd hear a chopper anyway. I live a few miles from Dublin airport and see planes with their "headlights on all the time at night but this would not cause the bright light i saw.

Basically i have dismissed pretty much everything i can think of, and i can only think that the flash was caused by a very bright fireball/bolide/meteor.

Who knows!!!. I'm going to put it down to a fireball. I'll check the Irish astro websites to see if there are any similar reports.

 

[JeremyS]

Hello Paul,

nothing mentioned on the Armagh Observatory fireball page: http://arpc65.arm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/fireballs/browse.pl

There's a list of fireball report web sites on the NEMETODE site: http://www.nemetode.org/fireball%20report.htm

Jeremy

 

[LukeSkywatcher]

58 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Hello Paul,

nothing mentioned on the Armagh Observatory fireball page: http://arpc65.arm.ac.uk/cgi-bin/fireballs/browse.pl

There's a list of fireball report web sites on the NEMETODE site: http://www.nemetode.org/fireball%20report.htm

Jeremy

 

I cant find any other similar reports. I'm not saying it was a fireball but i just cant think of anything else it could have been. Maybe a flash of lightning (without the thunder?). I have seen electrical storms before but they never only produce a single flash. I did wake up to 2" of snow this morning and perhaps it was a single flash associated with "Thunder snow". Ive seen that once before. Its essentially lightning at the same time as snow is falling but there is no sound. Its a very rare event and even rarer in this part of the world. Maybe that was it.

[LukeSkywatcher]

The mystery deepens. I was chatting to a neighbour today. He is a cop and was on duty at the time of my "sighting". He knows i'm into astronomy, and out of the blue he told me that he was in the patrol car just cruising the streets just a few miles from here and at 1am he saw a flash of bright light in the sky. He didnt see anything in the sky.........just the surrounding landscape light up for a second or so. He was asking me if i had any idea what it may have been. He was stunned when i said that i had seen the same thing from home.

There was something up there in the sky. I'm just amazed there are no other reports. I havent searched too hard for reports, so there may be others.

If you cant trust a cop..........who can you trust?.

(i'll get my coat)