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Japanese Fireball


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4 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

I'd love to see one of those.

Last winter, I went outside with the binoculars and within minutes, a bright streak flew right across the view from right to left (S-N). I was looking east but can't remember exactly what I was looking for, but I suspect it was the Coathanger cluster.

Very startled, I moved the binoculars away quickly, and was treated to a bright fireball streaking across the sky.

Absolutely spectacular for several seconds, but unfortunately I didn't see the final demise as the bright streak became obscured by the house roof and absolutely rooted to the spot, I didn't think to run to the rear of the garden. 🙄

It wasn't quite as amazing as the Japanese one, but definitely a big 'wow' moment. I'm really surprised to not read about it anywhere else as it looked like a flaming aircraft flying across the sky.

 

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That's a beauty. One thing I notice is that the terminal flare is very sharp and doesn't so much fade as disappears. My memory of most other Bolides is that there at least some noticeable fade.

Maybe something to do with the material the body was composed of?

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2 hours ago, Paul M said:

That's a beauty. One thing I notice is that the terminal flare is very sharp and doesn't so much fade as disappears. My memory of most other Bolides is that there at least some noticeable fade.

Maybe something to do with the material the body was composed of?

I wondered about that, too.  I don't know much about these things, but perhaps if it broke up at that point then it may not have been bright enough to capture on camera afterwards?  I'm struggling to believe that, but I'm a bit short of other plausible explanations.

James

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Looks like it’s coming straight down? I’ve seen a few whilst out with my scope but they’ve been more grazing and nowhere near as apparently big as that one. Very cool!  Caught one last time i was out actually but the best i saw covered a lot of sky before breaking into 2 and rapidly evaporating

Mark

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Very impressive.

I wonder if it was out over the Pacific and if that final flareup had any explosive force?

Straight down, it  not close to it, over a large metropolitan area could be the formula for a terrible disaster with a big enough bang!

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I once saw one about as bright as that whilst fishing on Blackpool Promenade, about 30 years ago. It seemed to streak onwards all the way to the horizon, indeed semed to be very close to the gas rigs out in the Irish sea! Of course that was just a matter of perspective, but it made us wonder at the time.

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When I was living on Skye, I saw two amazing meteors, one a fireball that travelled E-W sometime about midnight, (not sure exactly as my work finished at different times), lit up the entire area for what seemed like several seconds, the other one exploded in the atmosphere approximately the size of the full moon. This is some 20 years ago, I haven't seen anything as bright since.

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Well it's now approaching 30 years since the last British meteorite fall, which is the longest span since Aldsworth-Rowton from 1835-76. You'd have to say that's surprising, considering the ubiquity of cameras of every sort, compared to earlier times -

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?sea=*&sfor=names&ants=&nwas=&falls=yes&valids=yes&stype=contains&lrec=50&map=ge&browse=&country=United+Kingdom&srt=name&categ=All&mblist=All&rect=&phot=&strewn=&snew=0&pnt=Normal table&dr=&page=0

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8 minutes ago, goodricke1 said:

Well it's now approaching 30 years since the last British meteorite fall, which is the longest span since Aldsworth-Rowton from 1835-76. You'd have to say that's surprising, considering the ubiquity of cameras of every sort, compared to earlier times -

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?sea=*&sfor=names&ants=&nwas=&falls=yes&valids=yes&stype=contains&lrec=50&map=ge&browse=&country=United+Kingdom&srt=name&categ=All&mblist=All&rect=&phot=&strewn=&snew=0&pnt=Normal table&dr=&page=0

Interesting info on UK and Ireland falls here:

http://www.meteoritehistory.info/UKIRELAND/INDEX.HTM

 

 

Edited by John
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