Fireball 1st August

At 00.02 AM South of Drogheda while driving I saw a very bright fireball colour was Blue/White .

I estimate it to have started about 120 degrees from North from my position and disappeared behind trees at about 70 degrees from North ( ie starting somewhere over the Irish Sea or Wales and heading towards the Isle of Man)

As far as I can recall the path seemed fairly horizontal in the sky and I reckon its elevation to have been between 15 to 20 degrees.

It was very bright so much so my first impression was that it was a low flying aircraft with its lights turned on, however its speed was obviously that of a fireball as it took only a couple of seconds to cover 50-60 degrees of sky.

I would be interested in any other sightings at around the same time.

Sounds like it was a stunner. I didn't see it myself, but I did see a nice Perseid stretch all the way into Coma Berenices. Same colour as yours Rice, with a magnitude of I'd sat 0 to +1. Very long path it travelled. Thhis was around 23:43 hrs last night.

Seanie.

Hi,

Reading your description of the fireball, it came from the South East and travelled just North of East. The Delta Aquarids peaked on the last day or so of July and Aquarius does sit in the SE at midnight, so could it have been a Delta Aquarid?

Neill

Yes SE to NE direct and due E at its closest approach. Given its size and brightness I am surprised that there are no other reports- espially from the Wales/ England as it must have passed nearly overhead there.

I did note that there was light cloud approaching from the South and SE at the time so maybe the earlier part of its track was obscured. Still I'd like to hear from anyone on either side of the Irish Sea or Europe who may have seen it. The incident time of 00.02 is fairly accurate