Sweet Geminid 'fireball' - 30 degrees of travel, but no tail

Dee & I spotted a nice Geminid sweep into the atmosphere a little below Cancer, and went straight for Orion's nebula, fading at his right leg. Path estimated around 30 degrees in length, visible as a -3 to -4, bright blue-white, quite fast. But it left no tail that we could see. We were travelling in the car, but had an unobstructed view entry to exit. Time was 23:04hrs. Slowed down/stopped the car at the time to make sure of these details.

It appeared 'large' despite not being brilliant in brightness, so wondered if someone closer to it (where ever that may be on the globe) may have seen it at a better angle, and thus with fragmentation (and maybe even sound)...

We'll probably never know!

Seanie.

About 40mins ago or so I saw a bright fireball passing through Ursa Major. Following the trail back would indicate it to be a Geminid. Difficult to estimate brightness of meteors but I would say it was in the mag -2 to -3 range. Tail lasted a few seconds.

I saw one close to your time from Belfast, but maybe not close enough,Seanie..at exactly 22.50pm. My report was as follows:

"A gorgeous electric blue/violet colour, it took a very leisurely 2.5-3 seconds, looking like a slow rocket, to move a good 90 or 100 degrees across the sky, starting in Ursa Major and trailing smoke right across from NE to S, right through Orion, and still going beyond when I lost sight of it due to nearby houses.
Magnitude I estimate at about -4.5, making Sirius look like a dim star in comparison.

The discrepancy in the other details might be due to the difference in our relative positions, but I have to say that apart from the Bovedy meteorite in 1969 it's the most impressive meteor I've ever seen.

Caught another one slightly less impressive last night, corroborated by another observer about 25 miles away and caught by his camera.

That is a fantastic meteor capture image!

Yes Definitely have to second Seanie on that, :shock: WOW amazing photo, do you know how it was taken.

It was taken by Aaron Hunter from Castleward near Downpatrick, and I'll try to get the details from him and post them here.
Yes, a really great shot...in addition Robert Cobain from Bangor got a superb fireball capture in his Meteorwatch camera. See link below:
www.meteorlogni.com/videos/M20061212_180324_Ivyhill_WS.avi