BIG meteorite!

[Blackant]

Date - 10/09/2009
Time EST- 21:10
UTC - 11:10
I was just outside having the best time with my new scope after about a week of cloudy weather when I saw the biggest meteorite I've ever seen :eyepop:

I was cruising through the Sagittarius star cloud and just happened to look up when I saw something about 30 or 40 degrees travelling horizontally above the eastern horizon on fire with a big trail behind it. I almost fell off my chair, jumped in the air and ran across the backyard to follow it. Embarrasingly enough I have to admit that at first I actually thought it was a light aircraft on fire :rofl:

It shot along a bit further and then broke up into three or four quite large sections and then disappeared.

I've seen heaps of falling stars before, but they usually tend to be little dots of light well above the horizon that flare briefly and then go out, nothing like this!

I imagine that the more time I spend outside with my new scope, the more I increase my chances of seeing special things like this :)

Kind regards

Ant

p.s. apologies if this isn't the right area to put threads like this, I haven't posted out of the beginners section much :rolleyes:

[seanliddelow]

I always thought you could see 10 meteors an hour in a dark sky. Its a lot more then that.

[Terry B]

Congrats on seeing a fireball.
I have only seen a few despite lots of time under the stars.
A great sight.

[Lumen Miner]

Awesome arn't they!!??

Saw two smaller burn up's last night whilst out.

Have only seen 1 like yours, really top stuff.. I also thought mine was an aeroplane. I thought it was a jet doing an after burn dump. Was it travelling parallel to the horizon or coming in at a sharp angle?

Add the time and date, to your original post and you have a logged searchable record, which may assist others googling for it too. :)

[leon]

Yep they are a sight to behold, I have only seen two in my many years in Astronomy but it is a sight one will not forget.

Leon

[supernova1965]

Yeah I remember about 15 years ago in Eungella 80klm west of Mackay my wife and I saw one when we were waiting for a lift to Mackay at about 3AM it was so bright that it cast our shadows on the road. We thought it was a truck on the road at first. But when I turned around I saw a basketball sized blue light that split into 3 orange sized red pieces that broke up further before completely breaking up.

[astroron]

I am going to be pedantic and let you know that what you saw was a METEOR:) a METEORITE is when you pick it up off the ground:thumbsup:

[Lumen Miner]

Thanks for putting things rite Ron!! :lol: :rofl:

[mswhin63]

I think I saw one on my first ever DSO obs night, got an hour break in the weather and saw this large flare. I was thinking thta we had very good mag viewing that it was a normal shooting star but I think it was one of those massive one. Everyone else was looking the other way.:D

[Blackant]

Thanks all, it was truly awesome :)



ta Mitchell, I've added the date and time. I'm glad I'm not the only one that's thought a fireball was a plane! It was travelling parallell to the ground, coming from the south and burning across the eastern horizon. That's why it looked so amazing, I've never seen on this big, low or going horizontal :eyepop:

Thanks on the meteor meterorite tip too Ron, after I posted it I was thinking hmm, now I know theres a difference but for the life of me I can't remember what it is :lol:

Kind regards

Ant

[mickkk]

A great report, I know exactly what you mean and you summed it up so well. Despite being an avid Astronomer you instincts tell you that it must be something Terrestial, thats when you think back and say wow that was a beauty, it looked so close.

I remember seeing one during a shower about 7 years ago I was walking back from the local dark spot, was all a let down then one appeared just above the power lines 30 feet up, it looked like it was so close, I thought I heard it fizz, I thought it was a skyrocket at first, thats exactly what it looked like come to think of it.

Then the people in here told me that I probably didnt imagine the noise!

[adman]

Just caught onto this thread. I have only ever seen one of these. It must have been about 30 years ago when I was lying on the deck of a boat in the Hawkesbury River trying to get to sleep - it came in low and fast over the western horizon. Bright yellow, with a long tail. The main ball was about the size of the full moon, and it covered 70-80 degrees from the northwest to the southwest before vanishing. I can't remember if it broke up.

It is one of those experiences that leaves you with your mouth hanging open. Not easily forgotten.

Adam

[Blackant]

Thanks Mick and Adam, yeah, seeing one like that is an experience that we'll never forget :)

Regards

Ant