Meteor across Sydney....

[mynameiscd]

Hi all,
Anyone see the meteor that went across NSW last night?
Ive seen a few dash cam views on the web and looked pretty impressive.
"Experts" say it could have come down around Canberra.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/08/05/07/31/meteor-nsw-new-south-wales-sydney-cooma-comet-space

Cheers
Andy
L:astron:

[casstony]

I didn't see that one, but I did see a very bright green object fall to the ground east of Churchill, Vic last night at about 11pm. It appeared to land in the vicinity of Traralgon South. Wish I had a dash cam.

[Wavytone]

Yes, quite a spectacular one.

A sizeable group saw it at the NSAS observing site at Terrey Hills, it passed due south (i was aligning my mount at the time with the SCP) of us at elevation circa 15-20 degrees, from east to west. Far brighter than venus, rough estimate -3... -4, with greenish tinge. It exploded mid-flight shedding some fragments... like fireworks, and yes I expect some made it to ground.

Best I've seen in many many years.

[gary]

Hi Andy,

Last night I participated as a volunteer at a public viewing event held
by the Western Sydney Parklands Trust near Abbotsbury.

I happened to be looking the right way at the right time and witnessed the spectacular
visible phase of its re-entry in most of its entirety.

It was colossally bright and moving slowly and nearly horizontally across
the south-western horizon. As it broke apart it betrayed its elemental
makeup and turned a brilliant green.

Luckily the members of the general public that were there got to witness
it as well and they were awestruck.

There were loud shouts and shrills of joy.

Since we were within the park which has no electric lighting, it afforded
about as good a view of it as one could expect in suburbia.

So for a viewing night were we where happy to show off some views
of the planets, the Jewel Box, Omega Centauri and the Sombrero, it was a big
bonus.

What made it even luckier was that only an hour before it had been cloudy
but the clouds had completely parted after sunset.

My wife also witnessed it driving south on the M1 freeway near Gosford.
It may have been captured on a dashcam but we would need to check.

Best regards

Gary Kopff
Wildcard Innovations
Mount Kuring-Gai NSW

[GOTO]

Yes I saw it too from the grand stand at Eastern Creek waiting for the V8s. It was slow and bright, the brightest I have seen for a while and watching it break up was rather cool.Being only around 15degrees alt it must have been quite a way to the south. The green was interesting but I was under the impression that was ionised atmospheric oxygen as apposed to elemental copper?
Cheers
Geoff

[gary]

Hi Geoff,

The sound of the V8's at Eastern Creek were loud and clear from where
we were 4.5km away.


Not sure with this one :) Nickel meteors can also glow green. So perhaps it was nickel-iron. If someone finds a piece we could know for sure.

[yagon]

I saw it last night from the NSAS meeting. It was a stunning show; best meteor I’ve ever seen.

[ngcles]

Hi all,

I also saw a spectacular and extremely bright bolide, but somewhat later on in the evening (ie not the one everyone else saw at about 6.30pm). I was at home near Billimari about 250km west of Sydney (as the photon flies) having just concluded a few hours of observing, I was on my back south-south-western facing veranda. It was one of the brightest I've ever seen (certainly in the top-handful)

Here's my description:

11.03pm 4 August 2018. Started at about 50 degrees altitude near the triple border intersection of Ara, Triangulum Australe and Apus then tracked toward the south-south-western horizon terminating in the little patch of Centaurus that lies between the Eta Carinae complex and Crux. Took about three seconds to cover 35 degrees. Estimated magnitude between minus 10 and minus 12. Strong, brilliant, shining trail that persisted for a second or so. Seemed white with hints of light green leaving a smoky trail that didn't last more than about 15 seconds. Really, really spectacular!

A U.S based friend has proffered the idea that both of these bolides might have been part of the Alpha Capricornid stream associated with P/169 Neat. This stream has a reputation for (numerically) weak and sporadic displays that are noted for the number of brilliant bolides they produce. Traced backward across the sky, both trains/trails converge near Capricornus. Would seem a logical conclusion to me

Best,

L.

[RichardJ]

We’re observing at Crago Observatory last night. We saw it in the south. It was very bright and it broke up. It was quite green!!

Lucky to observe it.

RichardJ

[mynameiscd]

Good to see that some people in the IIS comunity saw this one.
Ive seen a few red and orange slow burners but never green or see one break up into smaller pieces.
Ive seen some green but normally short fast ones usually around Leonids.
Cheers
Andy

[gary]

Ben Smyth reports on requests for more web cam footage so its position might be triangulated :-
https://www.begadistrictnews.com.au/story/5568274/spectacular-green-meteor-streaks-over-south-coast-videos/

[LewisM]

Large bolide with same colour description was filmed over Siberia on the same day. Must have been a sizeable debris field we chanced upon.

https://www.rt.com/news/435131-meteor-surgut-sky-video/

[OICURMT]

Must have been fairly small... didn't even register.

https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/fireballs/