Borderline Fireball Sat Night

Hi all

At 23.57 BST on sat night i seen a lovely borderline fireball in the eastern sky within Ophiuchus travelling from SE to NE in a horizontal fashion at a shallow angle to the horizon. It was mag -3.0 to -4.0 with a brillant white head, slender short orange tail with a duration of 3 - 4 seconds. I could see red 'flakes' of material falling from the meteoroid as it fragmented before my eyes...lovely sight! Did anyone else see it? How about Robert/Armagh?

Regards

Sorry Martin - nothing to do with your fireball, but you've just put me in mind of something recently last weekend.

I was out in the back garden setting up the scope to cool down about 20:30 when one of the kids came in to tell me he'd seen a rocket? or something on fire flaming across the sky.
When I went out front to see what he had been on about, there was a big smoke trail heading westward, other kids out playing said they had also seen it. Tracking the trail of smoke I guess it would have impacted somewhere near the Naas region. I didn't see it myself but I guess it must have been a meteorite??

Thanks for that fascinating report John.....it sure sounds like a fireball......and a good one to!!!!!

My GF spotted a fireball, coming close to 12 o'clock as she was heading back to Naas. Said it was pretty spectacular. Times and places dont really correlate though. Probably the same one as Martin saw. Where are you observing from Martin?

Dave

Ah, see from your profile your in Derry. Quite a distance to spot the same fireball

One of the disadvantages of using an observatory is that you miss opportunistic sightings like these.