Tamtarn
04-10-2007, 06:18 PM
Thought I would post this on a new thread. This info is from the website SPA (The Society for Popular Astronomy) UK
SPA Meteor Section - Fireball Observing "An edited version"
A fireball is an especially bright meteor. By internationally-agreed definition, any meteor that attains the magnitude -3 or more with respect to the stars and planets is classed as a fireball.
Some meteors, especially the faster brighter ones, may leave a glowing ionized train along their trajectory after they have disappeared. Rarely the train may last several minutes. Very rarely, typically seen only with deep penetrating meteors, a dust or smoke trail may be left along the object's flight path.
This is what we saw on Tuesday night 2nd October
* We saw a bright flash of light which lit up across the whole valley
* The fireball was at least -4mag
* The colour core was brilliant white to yellow to Aqua the trail was brilliant yellow to aqua to green
* It left a glowing ionized train along the trajectory staying there for at least 2 min
* Then an orange brown dust trail stretched across a large part of the sky then it rose higher then gradually dispersed after 15 mins
We now know we saw a fireball meteor :thumbsup:
Found a couple of shots of 2 other fireballs on the web. The one we saw seemed to be much bigger.
32619 32620
Gives you an idea what it was like..........AMAZING :eyepop:
Barb
SPA Meteor Section - Fireball Observing "An edited version"
A fireball is an especially bright meteor. By internationally-agreed definition, any meteor that attains the magnitude -3 or more with respect to the stars and planets is classed as a fireball.
Some meteors, especially the faster brighter ones, may leave a glowing ionized train along their trajectory after they have disappeared. Rarely the train may last several minutes. Very rarely, typically seen only with deep penetrating meteors, a dust or smoke trail may be left along the object's flight path.
This is what we saw on Tuesday night 2nd October
* We saw a bright flash of light which lit up across the whole valley
* The fireball was at least -4mag
* The colour core was brilliant white to yellow to Aqua the trail was brilliant yellow to aqua to green
* It left a glowing ionized train along the trajectory staying there for at least 2 min
* Then an orange brown dust trail stretched across a large part of the sky then it rose higher then gradually dispersed after 15 mins
We now know we saw a fireball meteor :thumbsup:
Found a couple of shots of 2 other fireballs on the web. The one we saw seemed to be much bigger.
32619 32620
Gives you an idea what it was like..........AMAZING :eyepop:
Barb