Watched a meteor break up in the sky!

[Dibbadobba (Frank)]

Hi All,

I bought a used 10" GSO dob the other week and have been enjoying the views it has been giving me. MUCH better than the 80mm celestron refractor it replaced! Im pretty new to all this, but have always hada fascination with the sky and space. I have absolutely no idea how to scan the sky but look forward to the experience of learning how to. Although I've managed to find a couple of interesting sights including a couple of galaxies (hazy smudged objects so I'm guessing they were!) even though I had no idea what I was looking at, was in total awe! If they weren't galaxies I'm just an idiot!

Anyhow the other night I saw the most unbelievable meteor. I watched it zoom across the sky for approx 3-4 seconds and then it just broke apart into about 4 fragments! It was the most unbelievable thing. I live in the ryde area, and it looked as though it broke up over the north ryde golf course (of course distance is hard to judge but just taking a wild guess). Could chunks have fallen to the ground??
Is this a common occurrence? As every other meteor I've seen has just been a quick zip through the sky where it's vanished before I even get to really see it.

Dibbadobba

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Congrats on the 10" dob, they give excellent views don't they.
And congrats on nabbing that meteor too. It sounds like it was a beauty.

[Woffy (John)]

Hi Frank,
That must have been a great experience to see that meteor break up. It is a bolide and is a rare sight. Most meteors are very high up, around 100km or so, so it likely to have been much further away horizontally than it appeared. Check out this link to the American Meteor society, you might even report it to them, they say that they want fireballs reported from anywhere in the world. http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/faqf/

John

[skytry (Peter)]

hi Frank,
good report,
seen many night objects, some unexplained,
always looking sky wood at night,

John, thank you for the link, most interesting,

regards,
Peter.

[Dibbadobba (Frank)]

It was a great thing to see!

That link is interesting, it's great how ametuers are able to assist in real world science!

The 10" is great. I had look through a 17.5" telescope a while ago and ever since my 80mm one just felt like an absolute waste of time! Love the simplicity of the dob!

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Hi Frank and as said you have a great scope there , take you time and learn slowly , the sky aint going any where any time soon .
Start by learning the brightest stars around the southern cross , Carina area as these stars don't set thru the year and are always visible thru out the year , abit at different positions .
This is the best place to start , also buy a 'Planisphere' for sale at Bintel $30 , the best thing you will ever buy.

On the meteor , I seen one do that same thing last year , exciting stuff aye ? , it came in from the east to the west low down , broke up into 4-5 big pieces , I seen orange and green in the fragments , truly awesome !.

Did you notice any colour by the way ? .
Brian.

[Dibbadobba (Frank)]

I'm in no rush to learn. I have downloaded a few apps, bought a telrad, and will look into getting a planisphere, I'm fortunate to travel right past bintel almost daily so it's easy for me to pop in and grab what I need!

The meteor I saw was north to south, It was orange in colour, probably slightly more orange toward the end as it broke up. I guess as bright as Venus has been lately.

My Fiancé laughs at me everytime I get out of the car at night and my head points up (the one ABOVE my shoulders that is!!!!). I have seen a few meteors in the last few weeks and most were in the same direction.

I may have seen a couple of meteors zip through the eyepiece lense as well. I'm unsure if they were satellites, but couldn't see anything with bino's after so maybe I was lucky?