Perseid fireball with trail lasting 10 seconds south Hampshire

[Star child]

Hi, whilst on a Perseid watch between 01:12-02:12 BST i witnessed a fireball at 01:42BST it dissapered above Aries and left a trail that went from greenish to white and lasted about 10 seconds. did anyone else see this one?

[Llamanaut]

drat! missed that one as i finished my dslr tinkering at around 0140

Saw two previous to this one... the one at around 0118 lasted about a second and half and left a long trail that was blue and brilliant white

the other i saw was about half a second duration and brilliant white

[Keiran]

I missed it too... I would have just left work, and been on my way or in tesco...

Cant wait till tomorrow, no work and off to Salisbury

[russ]

That sounds a great fireball Jay. But I missed it too, packed up around 1am. Hopefully clear again tonight, so you may get another one.

[James]

I saw a very bright flash in the east at 1.42am from Taunton and turned round to see a trail that took quite a long time to dissipate - I guess it's the same one

I did think at the time there must have been others who'd see it.

James

[NickH]

Yes, two people at SSP saw it that I know of ...they said it was amazingly bright

[LukeSkywatcher]

Yep saw it also. I cant be sure of the time but i did see the same thing above Aries. The night before i saw a brilliant orange "ball" skimming along the house behind. It was as if it was just floating along. I say it was a "ball" because it was perfectly round. I have seen similar objects during the Geminids meteor shower but they were green and appeared to just float along. Could they be meteors that are being observed almost head on?................

[LukeSkywatcher]

...

[AndyUK]

Yes... I saw that one too... I initially timed it at 01:53, but having seen this report (and others) I checked my watch (auto-winder) and found it to be about 10 mins fast(!) - It was awesome! I just wish I had my camera trained there at the time...

Over the last few nights (through cloud gaps), I've seen quite a few this year (my first time looking), one of which was fairly bright a few nights ago, but nothing like that one. I just hope the clouds blow away again tonight like they did last night (please?)

[Koy]

Hello, just searching the web to find out what I saw Wednesday 2am mid Devon while camping: amid Perseid shower, a bright green flash and green trail (like a firework) - a fat but not long trail but seemed slow, a couple of seconds. Bright enough to leave an after image on my eye. Is this what is called a fireball? Koy

[LukeSkywatcher]

Hi Koy. A fireball is generally any meteor that is at least as bright as Venus. If it gets really bright and breaks up into smaller pieces just before it vanishes and leaves a fiery train behind then it is called a Bolide. What you saw definitely comes under the term fireball and/or bolide.

[Koy]

Thanks Paul..are they common?

Koy

[LukeSkywatcher]

I suppose they are common enough.

[blinkity-blonk]

I saw this one! the brightest one I've ever seen i think! Very impressive. I swear I heard it scream over as well Didn't capture it on camera unfortunately, though I did photograph one about 20 minutes or so before it. I'll stick it up tomorrow/in the morning. B-B

[AndyUK]

If it gets really bright and breaks up into smaller pieces just before it vanishes and leaves a fiery train behind then it is called a Bolide

I wasn't aware of that... Thanks! I now know it was a Bolide my wife and I saw in the Maldives in October 2003. I'd been calling it a meteor for ages - It was a lot slower than a Perseid though, the trail much thicker, and close to the red end of the spectrum until it broke up first into 2 red fireballs, and then one of those broke up again into 3. It was our first night on the island and the icing on the cake for such a beautiful place!

I always thought that the difference between a meteor and a meteorite was that the latter managed to make it through the atmosphere and reach the earth's surface, but I guess that's not quite right as it would probably be a Bolide before it was a meteorite(?)

[LukeSkywatcher]

I wasn't aware of that... Thanks! I now know it was a Bolide my wife and I saw in the Maldives in October 2003. I'd been calling it a meteor for ages - It was a lot slower than a Perseid though, the trail much thicker, and close to the red end of the spectrum until it broke up first into 2 red fireballs, and then one of those broke up again into 3. It was our first night on the island and the icing on the cake for such a beautiful place!

I always thought that the difference between a meteor and a meteorite was that the latter managed to make it through the atmosphere and reach the earth's surface, but I guess that's not quite right as it would probably be a Bolide before it was a meteorite(?)

Yeah Bolides dont make it to the surface. Meteorites do. Well they aint called meteorites UNTIL they make it to the ground.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I think it goes something like this:

Meteoroid=small particle floating around in space

Meteor=small particle burning up in earths atmosphere

Fireball=small particle burning up in earths atmosphere that is as bright or brighter then Venus

Bolide= small particle that breaks up into smaller particles as it burns up in atmosphere

Meteorite=small particle that burns up in atmosphere but is large enough for some material to survive the burnup and make it to ground.

[barkis]

I saw a couple of bright ones between 10:40 and 11:20 in between cloud shifts. They moved North to South from way below Cassiopeia to Just had the Olympus E-500 fixed on the Snapper T/Pod. Got fed up of waiting for the clear spell promised by the pseudo weather f/casters, and gave up at 12:40 AM.

Ron.

[Nessy]

I saw one that night - viewing North (Romsey to Braishfield direction) it fell a different direction to all others in that it looked to be 'falling' rather than shooting across. Probably the slowest shooting star I have seen and as it got lower to the horizon split into 5.... I made a bit of a racket of 'ooooh' and woke the wife up as not seen one like that before.

[blinkity-blonk]

how big are the particles for meteors/meteorites/bolide etc? I know they're pretty small, like the size of a grain of sand or gravel, I suppose what I'd like to know is what's the smallest they have to be to still make it to ground?

I guess it depends a lot on the angle and speed it comes in at, but roughly.

Also in Armageddon when New York gets hit and Truman says its a meteor shower - does that make him wrong and it was actually a meteorite shower?

[LukeSkywatcher]

Not sure about the size really. Far as i know there is no such thing as a meteorite shower. They are only named meteorites if they touch down. I suppose hitting someone as they come down could class them as meteorites.

[great_bear]

Hi, whilst on a Perseid watch between 01:12-02:12 BST i witnessed a fireball at 01:42BST it dissapered above Aries and left a trail that went from greenish to white and lasted about 10 seconds. did anyone else see this one?

Yes!

I saw that one whilst camping in Dorset - knocked my socks off!!

It left a bright scar in the sky. I had my lovely 12x Helios Aquilla binoculars to hand and took a look. Illuminated by the residual light was an amazing, long, spiralling smoke plume which looked eerie and fantastic in the light.

It was a sight I'll never forget.

Fantastic.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I saw a stunning Perseid on Saturday 14th at around 2:20am. It came right out of Cassi and headed east. It was very bright,slow moving and had a beautiful ion train behind it as it went across the sky. I'd estimate that it lasted for around 5-6 seconds.

[dark knight]

yep saw this one and several others whilst at Salisbury Star Party, not hard to imagine our ancestors thinking the sky was falling...

[icpass]

We saw that one at ssp,my camera just missed it but we did see others the next night,also saw one on sunday night 29th aug which left a vivid green trail.

Did manage to capture a few bright ones at ssp.

Ian