Fireballs maybe?

Hi,

Having listened to the podcast (which was excellent!), something struck me and inspired me to post this.

Earlier this week, Tuesday 28th I think, I was outside mooching with the binos.

I saw (naked eye) what I initially thought was a firework. Sometime later, I saw another, very similar one. The podcast inspired me and having done a bit more reading, I now suspect they may have been meteors and not fireworks. They looked too close to me to be meteors, but I was surprised that there was no sound if they were fireworks - and it was a bit late for fireworks.

I can't remember what time it was but I would guess about 2 AM and the second one maybe half to one hour later.

On the offchance that they really were meteors, I'll describe what I can recall in case anyone can confirm - or tell me I'm nuts. :oops:

1st one:
My Location: Kilkenny, looking North
Time: Nov 28, maybe 2am (though that's little more than a guess)
Colour: bright white head, very long white tail, both with bright green fringes.
Length: 20 or 25 degrees
Direction of travel: Coming almost straight down but definitely moving E to W
Origin: Started maybe 5 degrees below and to the West of Polaris
Sound: none
Debris: none observed, though it did appear to "stutter" maybe two thirds of the way down

2nd one:
as above except:
Time: 30 to 60 minutes later
Origin: Slightly further East, direction very similar

Anyone else see anything similar? Do they sound like fireballs or would 2 in the one night be just too much to hope for?

Keenan

Hi, thanks for the kind words about the podcast.

First question has to be how bright were these? As bright as an average star? As bright as a bright star? As bright as Venus? Brighter?

Chances are these were regular shooting stars. You'd expect to see a few on any night. Around meteor showers that number of course goes up and then things get interesting and you should expect to see one every few minutes instead of a handful in a whole night.

A fireball on the other hand is an exceptionally bright meteor, we're talking brighter than Venus teritory.

Hope that helps,

Bart.

Hi Bart,

Well, even being new to all this, I can say they were certainly brighter than any meteor I've seen before.

As bright as Venus? hmm, not sure but I would say yes - but that could be because the movement made them much more noticeable.

Last night, I saw two of what I know as "shooting stars" and the objects I'm talking about were certainly much brighter than those two.

You're thinking fireworks?

Hi Bart,

Well, even being new to all this, I can say they were certainly brighter than any meteor I've seen before.

As bright as Venus? hmm, not sure but I would say yes - but that could be because the movement made them much more noticeable.

Last night, I saw two of what I know as "shooting stars" and the objects I'm talking about were certainly much brighter than those two.

You're thinking fireworks?

Nope, I'm thinking bright meteor. Were they to have been fireballs I'd be expecting more superlatives and comparisons to the moon in terms of brightness.

Fireworks follow a balistic trajectory (they go up and then down in an arc), meteors etc appear to go in a straight line, that's probably the best way to tell them apart.

Ah, OK - I see.

They certainly seemed to fall straight down which I thought was odd for a firework. But they were bright enough to be mistaken for a firework.

I remember thinking that they were fireworks being launched from the estate 500 yards away but that it was very late for fireworks and that it was odd there was no noise - but that's how bright they were.

Like the moon in terms of brightness? I do think they were as bright as the moon though nowhere near as big of course. The trajectory was definitely straight down, not up and down. In terms of size, they were certainly more like fireworks than the moon.

The best description I can give is that they looked like fireworks, launched from fairly close (ie, not the far side of town). Definitely close enough that I would have expected to hear something. But I didn't which I thought was odd. And they did definitely come down in a straight line.

So what is a fireball, as opposed to a meteor - Is there a definition or any photos I can look at?

Keenan

So what is a fireball, as opposed to a meteor - Is there a definition or any photos I can look at?

Keenan

In a word, BIG!

A meteor is generally caused by something the size of a grain of sand hitting the atmosphere. If you take something bigger, say the size of a melon, you'll get a fireball.

It really is that simple, a fireball is a really big meteor. There is a formal definition somewhere that says if the brightness is above a certain magnitude it's a fireball but I honestly don't remember what the limit is.

Based on your descriptions I's be inclined to say you saw some nice, bright, meteors.