Fireball Trail

[Solanum]

My wife was looking out of the window this evening when she saw, what I realised was a fireball. Although I missed the actual fireball, which lasted only a second or so, there was a clear trail for several minutes afterwards and I managed to take a few photos. On of these is attached. The meteor headed from the top right to bottom left.
The picture was taken with a Canon 350D is is therefore drastically reduced in size!
I used the curve function in Gimp to try and accentuate the trail a little, thus the compressed colours, but would certainly appreciate some advice on how to better process the image.
I'd also be interested on any thoughts on whether this fireball was random or connected with a metor shower (bit late for the Leonids I imagine). I'm in Mildura, northern Victora and the image was taken facing approximately ESE.
Thanks,
Everard

[gaa_ian]

Looks like you may have been lucky enough to catch the reported "Meteorite" seen tonight !
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20832210-1702,00.html
You may find the press will be interested in your Photos for the morning papers !

[67champ]

That is way coooool... :-)

dt

[fringe_dweller]

mate Ian's right, that pic is worth quite a few bucks, try and send it in quick! you would have to be first tho! i hope your still up!
did you hear the sonic boom that was mentioned in the other thread?
awesome! that is definitely a ripper and very rare! thanks for posting :)

[fringe_dweller]

more on it -

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1798687.htm

Everard, got to send/submit to papers before 1 am! I think?

[iceman]

Excellent image Everard! Welcome to the forum.

I heard reports of it on the news this morning too, definitely getting quite a bit of coverage.

[Lester]

Great Capture Everard.

You have got what many never get to see.

[Ric]

Great picture Everard, that is an amazing trail.

well done

[fringe_dweller]

more articles - same text but rehashed, one is international!
I hope someone got a vid like the one in wa last year, that was awesome

http://tinyurl.com/vzzqb

I see one paper that wants pics and accounts - 'shepparton news'

http://news.mcmedia.com.au/story.asp?TakeNo=200509025553088

'Did you spot anything in the sky last night?

If you did let us know by emailing editor@mcmedia.com.au" Target="_BLANK">href="mailto:editor@mcmedia.com.au">editor@mcmedia.com.au or send an SMS to 042SMS NEWS.'

[Solanum]

Thanks for the kind comments everyone. We didn't hear the boom unfortunately.
Actually I've seen a fireball once before, years ago over in the UK. It was at night and very impressive with a big explosion at the end - didn't get a picture of that one though!

Just a bit of luck I had the camera handy. Pity I didn't have a tripod handy too or I could have got some longer exposures. BTW I actually meant WSW rather than ESE....

I wasn't too worried about trying to flog the pics, but I'll send it into the local paper and maybe one of the Oz astronomy mags?

[fringe_dweller]

Everard, looks like yours is the only image out there! I am truly surprised in this day of 3 MP phone camera's ect.! and the time of day.
Thanks again for posting it here :) you say you are facing wsw that would agree witht the sunset in the pic, so extrapolating from the only reliable image out there, the meteor came from NE, for you in Mildura, almost overhead by the looks of it..see next post

[fringe_dweller]

Anyone up for a sky mystery detective game?

I have collated as many reports as I could and marked the locations of witnesses on a map with big red dots - 12 locations

and here are the sometimes slightly confusing/conflicting accounts
---


Mildura, northern Victoria = almost overhead? heading wsw or sw? from ne?

Bordertown SA = 'I also saw the same heading NNW from Bordertown SA'

waikerie SA. = 'seen due south of waikerie SA. It left a trail from about 10.00 oclock high to near ground level'

Renmark, SA

Loxton, SA

Adelaide suburbs = seen in eastern sky

then from people living south of the city = same?

Bendigo, Vic = shooting westward in the sky

Horsham, Vic = shooting westward in the sky

Colac, Vic = 'I was looking to the north' 'shooting westward in the sky'

Kaniva, Vic =

Laanecoorie, Vic = "We looked up and there was a green comet-like thing dropping out of the western sky,"

Riverland resident = We were looking to the south and this massive fireball came out of the sky and it seemed to increase as it come down," he said.


anyone willing to have a go tracing the fireballs path on this jpg i made? i do like a good sky detective game :nerd: :help:

[Solanum]

Yeah, it wasn't far from overhead in Mildura but the trail was definitely still to the west of us, so probably just over the SA border.

[fringe_dweller]

Thanks for further clarification Everard :)
Bear in mind most meteors, even fireballs, are individually rarely seen further than a 250klm radius from dead centre under them. They rarely get lower than 90 - 70klm from the earths surface visually, think of the curvature of the earth, (after that, if they have survived the entry, they literally drop like stones as by then, normally, they have been slowed to normal terminal velocity, as per earths gravity, and are no longer ablating brightly)
This monster was seen at points almost 1000 klm apart! :eyepop: equivalent of as seen from one end of Britian to the other!
reminds me of the biggy in '86 that was also seen from adelaide to melbourne, and actually made it to ground :) pretty rare to be seen so far afield.

[fringe_dweller]

Just getting around to answering all your questions, re wether it was associated with a meteor shower, extrapolating it back to N/E in origin, using your report and excellent photo, I see their is a slight possiblity that it was a late Taurid - this from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Taurids

'If large enough, these meteors may become bolides, with spectacular light shows and even audible sound.'

'The Taurids are also made up of weightier material, pebbles instead of dust grains.'

seeing the radiant was just above the horizon for you at that time, these are the most likliest to be the source if it belonged to a shower.

There is also a chance it was an early Geminid, they also can produce spectacular fireballs, but the radiant was waaay below the horizon at the time, so it would be unlikely.
but doesnt have to have pedigree to be a nice meteor, could of just as easily been a sporadic random event.
HTH

[ballaratdragons]

Ahhhhhh, so that's what it was! :thumbsup:

My next door neighbour asked me yesterday If I saw it, and I got an email from a local today asking what it was! I had no idea what they were talking about.

This is the first I've heard of it. Geez I miss a lot of things doing shift-work!!! :(

[Quaoar]

Hi every1,

missed it here... Wycheproof (36.08S 143.23 E) but reports from further west indicated greenish...copper maybe?

Cheers,

Quaoar.

[fringe_dweller]

Quaoar, the colours seen in bright meteors/fireballs is a debatable subject, greens are usually associated mostly with bright meteors/fireballs. It can be a combination of factors, including the exciting of rarefied gases in the upper atmosphere, in the case of green, oxygen, by the heated meteor ionising the particular gas. Some variables include meteor speed/angle, viewers visual perception and yes even the compostion of the meteoroid (no copper ones tho :P).
I read of quite a few colours were used by witnesses to describe this beauty!

I have seen plenty of green ones, including a monster late geminid while out comet observing in dec 2004, that blinded us, it was so bright, to our dark adapted eye's, we couldnt even clearly focus on its form, it just looked like flashes of sheet lightning!

Ken, you sure that wasnt tuesday nights strange sightings they were talking about (Possibly fueled by the wide coverage of the fireball the night prior - that usually happens, gets ppl looking up at the stuff we are always looking at ;) ) over ballarat?, the fireball that caused this imaged smoketrain was monday evening 8:30 pm for you guys.

while i'm here re distance viewable of an individual meteor, i forgot that with REALLY bright earthgrazer fireballs, they can in fact be easliy seen sometimes further afield than a average meteor. So it is possible for one like this to be seen over a 1000 klm footprint, centred on centerline! which makes my path plotting easier :)

http://www.amsmeteors.org/richardson/distance.html

[gaa_ian]

Kearn, have you ever got involved in recording/Counts of Meteors in Australia (apart from IIS)
I believe there is a group in Oz?

[fringe_dweller]

a little bit Ian - but for the first 4 or so earliest, and most active years I did it, I/we were doing it *freestyle* :P so my/our counts didnt count, we were more into very casual obs. :) that was before I had internet.
after the leonids return era finished, and the eta aqaurids faded, and as the ever creeping LP, at our local dark sites, insidious pus filled tentacles strangled out the stars slowly over many years, I lost a bit of interest, I admit.
But the recently interesting Orionid display, and stalwart geminids might still send me back to the darkside more often.
I have seen that groups yahoo site, from memory it was a closed shop, I always like to try/lurk before I buy, so never joined mate.
But I have been a memeber of meteorobs, and read just about everything posted for about maybe around 5 years or so now? :-)

[iceman]

Kearn, Eric is asking in the beginners thread about the geminids.. I reckon you'd be able to help him out :)

[erick]

Yes, thanks Kearn, in advance. Just wondering which early mornings to go out and sit under a dark sky and look up at Pollux. My reading suggests even midnight viewing might be satisfying? Thanks Eric :)

[fringe_dweller]

Hey guys did my best to answer you Eric here -

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=15436

'sit under a dark sky and look up at Pollux'

Dont look at near the radiant/source erick, look anywhere but there mate ;)

[gaa_ian]

Thanks Kearn, Like you I am in Casual observer Mode, But I do enjoy writing about my experience on my Blog Page & IIS.
So I think I will just keep doing more of the same :thumbsup: