Last night, as a Stargazing activity, we had an impromptu get-together with neighbours out here at TenChain Hill west of Brisbane. It was a bonfire sort of night with the temps well down. So out came the pumpkin soup and the odd drop of whatever. And out came those dusty pairs of grandfathers's binoculars left over from the war.
When I was directing the guests to turn their binos onto M42 which was low in the west, and all eyes were on it when whammo! a very bright and persistent fireball zapped across just below it - travelling south to north so I assume it was space junk de-orbiting - and everyone who was a bit ho-hum about starwatching up til' then was suddenly jumping up and down and taking about stars and comets, meteorites, aliens and on it went. Which of course was the whole point of the night. But ironically it was the fireball not the stars that got it started.
