Large Fireball Witnessed over Ireland

The quality in these clips is waaay down from the original:






Phil.

BTW - These two events may not look too spectacular... but note the bright moon swamping the sky!

hi everyone,

I was driving from Clonskeagh towards Ranelagh on the south side of Dublin City and timed when I saw the fireball as 17:57 (that was on the dashboard clock which I need to check to see if it is a minute or two out.)

I was speaking with David Moore and Leo Enright late last night and conservatively put the brightness of the object at magnitude -5 -- certainly not as brilliant as some reports. The time of day meant a lot of people were out and about so it meant more witnesses. Because I was sitting in the car it meant I first noticed the fireball at only about 35 degrees altitude and saw it disappear behind a building to my NNE. It dropped maybe 15 degrees off the vertical so it was descending at a steep angle. The colour was greenish with some orange fragments splintering off with a train about two degrees long. Very impressive!

I'd concur though with some of the others here that we may not see fragments recovered from the object BUT that note of caution is tempered with the fact other reports suggest the fireball was brighter further north. We really would need to analyse all reports and the ones from Northern Ireland will be crucial in pinpointing a trajectory -- if observers there saw it to their SE or South then it will let some form of critical analysis be done on the possible flight path and whether there is a scatter field over land or sea.

When talking with David and Leo I mentioned that the fireball reminded me of one some of us witnessed driving to Mullingar the night there was Mars-watches held countrywide for Mars opposition in August 2003. A major bolide was subsequently seen crossing the country 90 minutes after our earlier sighting. I was amazed when Paul mentioned on an earlier post that Armagh picked up a minor event 90 minutes after the fireball people saw last night -- coincidence that it could be space debris circling the Earth?

Even more interesting is how people are saying the meteorite landed in a neighbouring field (re: the report from a witness in Cavan.) After the 2003 bolide our local paper in Tipperary printed a front page story by a reporter who had seen the fireball. He went on to claim the stone landed in the Silvermines mountains and that it would be worth millions to whoever found it. The paper even helpfully printed a map on the front page with an X marking the spot!!! A few days later TWO bus loads of people arrived out in the area from Limerick to comb the hillsides. I contacted the paper to say the object probably landed in the Atlantic off the coast of the Iveragh Peninsula as I had analysed many reports to draw that conclusion but they weren't interested in printing a correction ...

John

Hi All


Here is an official report for Armagh observatory


Exact Time : Time was around 17.55


Your Location: 53’36’55”N 6’12’31”W elev 37m


Direction you were facing; I was facing North.


Direction the fireball moved (e.g. Left to Right, if you know what direction you were facing) or NE to SW, or S to N, etc) : fireball moved South to North towards Polaris


Height of the fireball above your horizon at start, highest point, and end of its visibility. You can estimate that in degrees if you have the experience, where 0 degrees is the horizon and 90 degrees is overhead. Otherwise, say something like 'halfway from the horizon to the zenith (overhead point) : It was around 35 to 40 degs


How bright was it, compared to a full moon? :-1 to -3


For how long was it visible, in seconds?: 5 to 7 seconds


How far across the sky did you see it travel - e.g. halfway? Less? More? : less


Did you hear any sounds, like bangs, or pops, or crackling? : NO


Did you see it break up, or any pieces fall off it? It broke up to around 7 pieces


Did you see it fade away to nothing, or did you see it disappear behind a building, or tree, or hill etc? : I had a very clear view and I saw it fade away to nothing

Carl O'Beirnes,
Balbriggan Observatory (MPC# J09),
Co Dublin,

Would it have registered on Radar?

Would Dublin Airport or any other Irish airport have information on it?

Or was it too small/high?

Graham

Thanks guys for the reports.
These are being collated and forwared to Armagh Observatory.
Some people are reluctant to post on the public forum here, which is fine.
Please feel free to send me a PM with as much infomation as you can.

So far, I have quite a few reports from the Dublin area.
Any reports outside of Dublin, in particular from the northern regions of our island would be most welcome.

Thanks,

Michael.

Oh boy! I missed this one, I was away on business for two days and hence the sky camera system was not switched on, just typical:blush:

Mike