Serious fireball

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

I saw a sight tonight that I would count myself very fortunate if i saw one again. The biggest brightes fireball I have ever seen!!! It was huge! Fell from zenith to about 20 degrees above the eastern horizon and was much bigger than a full moon at its peak . It was so bright (it was before the moon was up) trees were casting shadows. And brilliant almost electric arc greeny white, with sparks of red and orange breaking off it. Absolutely awesome. And the tail was enormous. But one of the strangest things about it was that as it was dying and fading it slowed right down so that if it had stayed alight for another second or two it would have been almost stationary.

Totally wicked sight.

[Iddon]

Paul - where do you get those faces from !!!

[RAJAH235]

Saw an Earth grazer a couple of Christmas's ago. Travel time approx. 25 seconds & 150 degs. of sky, from west to east. Just happened to be in the right place etc... BIG 'B' too. L.
They make for an unforgetable sight eh, Paul.

ps.They're in the 'Smiley' list. Scroll to bottom. L.

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Awesome Paul
I have seen a few close to that, over the years, how many seconds do you think it lasted for ?
During a Leonid shower in I think 97, I saw a night of multiple fireballs.
Prior to the predicted peak.

[fringe_dweller]

Paul, so it was early evening of course? - you mentioned it was before the moon was up - so around 7pm? A lot of people must of seen it then I guess maybe . Was its path as fat as a fullish moon at some points? If it came from the west at that time of night and was impressive and has the colour orange involved somewhere , then there is a good chance it was a decayed orbit space junk re-entry maybe - there is some interest in these types of fireballs from amateurs and the people that track the space junk for the aerospace industry, and there is interest in fireballs generally (not to mention meteorite collecters lol ).
Cheers
Fringey

[fringe_dweller]

Ian, 1998 was the fireball showers for the leonids - myself and some mates saw the asian peak too - in fact i did four mornings straight 16,17,18,19th nov '98 first three from dark sky sites - they came a day earlier than the mainstream media were saying (18th) when it was the morning of 17th (16th UT) in fact, as was written in the Quasar yearbook for that year (luckily!). There were people everywhere out in the sticks for morning of 18th i still havent seen anything like it since. Their were some unhappy customers from that mix up - a lot of sleepless disappointed people - scary!
But we were there from midnight till 5:30 am on morning of 17th - and the best part of the show was from midnight to 2 am for us - central time - I saw/heard the most amazing fireball i/we have ever seen in my life - It was a monster from the deep - full earthgrazing horizon to horizon, magnitude minus god knows what!! Full Monty loud hissing and spitting! smoking classic stereotype FireBall. first and only audible electrophonics meteor/fireball i have personally heard - i have friend who has heard one once as well.
About 60% of the meteors ( out of about around a hundred from memory) in that two hour period were big juicy fireballs - we didnt start taking photos till 4 - 5 am when it sort of quitened down a fair bit unfortunately. had one fireball ldid eave an exeptional bright train that contorted around in the upper atmosphere and lasted for about 15 min. but there was lots of those in 2001 storm asian peak of course.
Cheers
Fringey
btw must of been Very Good fom northern Australia!!!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

It was moving fast Ian, probably no more than 4 to 6 sec which seems to me that it may have been coming in almost vertical from my position. I've seen a few impressive fireballs but never anything like this. It was awesome. I'm betting it was space junk as I've not seen a fireball or meteor behave like this one. The size of the thing was enough to blow me away, but the colour was unbelievable. I described it above as electric arc greenish white, but now that I have had time to collect my thoughts and calm down I would describe it as the most intense nacre colouring (mother of pearl, almost rainbow shimmering through the glowing head but, intensely bright) with an electric blue halo around the head. And the orange and red colours where like stramers breaking away from the main part and being left behind as the main body punched through the atmosphere.

It was one of those time when you wished you had a video camera already rolling, or a multiple shot camera all ready to go in your hand.

Sorry Slice, yes it was around 6:30 - 6:45coming from near the zenith heading towards the ESE with a very steep path

[Robby]

We all count ourselves lucky when we see a light show like that. I saw one in January from a very dark site while I was imaging. If I had to describe it, it would be very similar to your Paul. The extrra thing was the smoke cloud that was left after it was gone. A swilling grey cloud that hanged around for about 5mins. It was an swesome site in the Bino's. Like a nebula, but moving!
Chees

[Sausageman (Mike Boggan)]

I'm glad that someone else saw it too.
It was unbelievable.
unfortuately I was at work and lost sight of it behind some nearby buildings.
I have only ever seen one bigger, it skipped through the atmosphere travelling East to West horizontally.
Aren't they Awesome things?

Mike

[fringe_dweller]

I have asked if there was any expected spacejunk re-entry over on meteorobs http://lists.meteorobs.org/mailman/listinfo/meteorobs or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/meteorobs/ and was kindly and promptly answered by Tony Beresford, a world famous expert on such matters. There was nothing expected for that time - so was probably just a good old fashioned natural Fireball !
Cheers
Fringey

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

WooHooo. That always makes it better