Earthgrazer last night?

[Tonys]

Did anyone see the possible earth-grazer I spotted last night (around 02::00 ish 12/08/2016)? I was about to come in after watching the Perseids when it appeared low in the western sky travelling horizontally South to North and visible for several seconds.  If it was a proper earth-grazer I am very happy as it's the first one I've seen.  I spotted some nice Perseids - i though the brightest showed green tints and they had long lasting trails. I can see why some people call them natures's fireworks.

[LukeSkywatcher]

A guy i know who lives a few miles from me was out looking at the "shooting Stars" last night. He said he saw quite a few in a short lived break in the clouds. He mentioned a couple which he said were so bright and very low down that they lit up the ground around him. He also said the same couple of bright ones sent his dogs crazy.

[Stu]

10 hours ago, Tonys said:

Did anyone see the possible earth-grazer I spotted last night (around 02::00 ish 12/08/2016)? I was about to come in after watching the Perseids when it appeared low in the western sky travelling horizontally South to North and visible for several seconds.  If it was a proper earth-grazer I am very happy as it's the first one I've seen.  I spotted some nice Perseids - i though the brightest showed green tints and they had long lasting trails. I can see why some people call them natures's fireworks.

I'm not sure what would define or constitute an earth grazer? How would you tell?

I saw two which were low down towards the horizon, heading north to south though, not sure how they could be going south to north?

[LukeSkywatcher]

In my mind, "Earth Grazers" are those meteors that hit the atmosphere at such a shallow angle that they bounce off of the atmosphere and head off back out to space at roughly the same angle they came in at. Ive only seen this happen maybe twice. They must be bigger than the average meteor to survive the brief touch of the atmosphere and head off again.

I may be completely wrong, but its a memory i have which happened a few yrs ago during the Geminids.

 

[Tonys]

Whatever it was that I saw, as it was moving south to north I wonder if that means it was nothing to do with the Perseid shower, since the latter radiates from the north-east. It had a clear trail visible for the time I watched it, the  same colour as the head ie yellow-white.