I could hear this meteor travelling!

[kidlands]

Just put my scope away and went back outside just to have a last look at the glorious sky before retiring and saw a meteor travelling pretty much overhead approx north to south over Reading ........and I could hear it!

I'm gobsmacked I actually heard the whoosh of this thing.

wow I cant stop smiling I'm still buzzing!

[brianb]

saw a meteor travelling pretty much overhead approx north to south over Reading ........and I could hear it!

Probably synesthesia. The only real sounds you're likely to hear from a meteor (a big one) is a sonic boom ... sound travels at 300 metres/sec (5 secs per mile) & an ordinary meteor is likely to be 50 miles up, so any actual sound from a meteor would occur about 4 minutes after the meteor was seen.

[Jim M]

Just put my scope away and went back outside just to have a last look at the glorious sky before retiring and saw a meteor travelling pretty much overhead approx north to south over Reading ........and I could hear it!

I'm gobsmacked I actually heard the whoosh of this thing.

wow I cant stop smiling I'm still buzzing!

What your hearing is not due to friction or sonic boom. it's some other effect perhaps electromagnetic derived - there are many reports of people hearing meteors making a hissing sound. I myself heard the sound of an approaching earth tremor which sounded just like an arrow passing me by about 10 or so seconds before the tremor itself.

Google meteor sounds for more info.

[kidlands]

I didnt know I was a synesthete! So it was sound synesthesia mmmmm good point but it seemed so real. I've seen meteors before with no sound.

ah Brian you've just deflated my my entire evening and I have a medical condition I didnt know about as well lol

yes Jim it could definately be described as a hissing sound.

[Jim M]

Curious About Astronomy: Did I really hear a meteor?

I have a lot more info on this topic buried away on my pc somewhere but it's finding it.

[Jim M]

I didnt know I was a synesthete! So it was sound synesthesia mmmmm good point but it seemed so real.

ah Brian you've just deflated my my entire evening and I have desease as well :eek:lol

If you heard light then you'd be hearing it all the time, I doubt it was synesthesia - you'd know about it.

[Jim M]

This link has more detail:

Listening to Leonids

[kidlands]

Thanks Jim just had a quick read of your links its ok I'm not bonkers after all.

Its the electrophonic effect!

[FLO]

wow I cant stop smiling I'm still buzzing!

I know precisely how you feel!

I was laying in grass about four years ago when I saw and heard a meteor. Clear as a bell! Perhaps the grass was transmitting the sound. Whatever the reason, it was fantastic!

[brianb]

If you heard light then you'd be hearing it all the time

Not when it's a reaction to a particular type of event ... synethesia is simply brain waves getting "crossed" so that signals get processed in the wrong area & are interpreted as a different sense. We all have it to some extent.

[yeti monster]

I saw a huge earth grazer during the Geminid shower. I'd swear that I heard that too, except that I'm sure that I didn't really hear it at all. If that makes any sense.......

[Jim M]

Quote:If you heard light then you'd be hearing it all the time

Not when it's a reaction to a particular type of event ... synethesia is simply brain waves getting "crossed" so that signals get processed in the wrong area & are interpreted as a different sense. We all have it to some extent.

Well most people with synesthesia (the ones we know about) are very familiar with their experiences of it having had them from childhood. It also runs in families. It's not an understood phenomenon as research into it has really only just started. It was studied a hundred or more years ago but they didn't get very far with it for obvious reasons.

[David Galvin]

I know precisely how you feel!

Perhaps the grass was transmitting the sound.

Hmmmm, Steve, what type of grass was this exactly?

[Tim]

The meteors are the icing on the cake to me.

I have seen a few over the last few nights, nice slow ones, all seeming to have a radiant in Gemini, perhaps stragglers from the Geminids?

Great post, I have not only enjoyed reading this, but have learnt something too

[WebSentinel]

I saw a couple of meteors last night and I live in Totton, just outside Southampton and on the edge of the new forest. All were heading due South at about 5.30pm, probably emigrating away from the cold and I can't blame them.

On the plus side its been clear skies every night since the 1st of Jan. :-)

[FLO]

Hmmmm, Steve, what type of grass was this exactly?

I can't remember exactly. it was a park in sidmouth. It was summertime and I was one of several who were watching a band. The company I was with were sat in deck chairs facing forward, I was lying on my back. It was evening. I know in theory I should not have heard it but I did, it was a hiss/rumble sound.

[Saturnalia]

Hmmmm, Steve, what type of grass was this exactly?

[David Galvin]

[FLO]

Aaaaahhh ..... I must have lead a sheltered life

[James]

I've only heard one meteor and that was a fireball whose explosion I heard several minutes after the event. I'm blessed/cursed with the ability/flaw of seeing letters in colour (one variant of synesthesia) but if I was able to hear light I'd have gone spare by now.... just think what a starry sky would sound like...

James

[steppenwolf]

My wife and I both heard one a couple of years ago - a stunning happening! Synesthesia? No, I don't think so Electrophonic? Could well be . We both heard it and neither of us have our wires crossed and we are only related though marriage

[peter shah]

i heard the aurora borealis once....honest.....really thought it was in my mind and i was losing it.....i was speaking to astronaut Don Lind about nine or ten years ago, he studied these phenomena aboard sky lab. I mentioned it to him, he asked what it sounded like , i explained it was a whistling and crackling sound, he got quite excited about it and said it was probably the metal in my glasses picking up the frequency:eek:

he went on to say there were a few who have heard it some standing next to over head wires or wire fencing.....

amazing

[Talitha]

Peter, there were quite a few members of my Aurora groups who heard the displays during the last maximum, and also described it as crackles and whistles. Oddly enough, people standing right next to them didn't hear anything. Some of you have all the luck.

There's a Gent by the name of Stephen P. McGreevy who recorded the Aurora, and some of them are labelled 'whistlers'. I'm sure Google can get you to his website.