Fireball?

A fireball in the sky?
Seen west,south-west from Ballycullen, Dublin 24 at about 11:15 last night.
I cannot find any information on this 'item'. Seen through binoculars with witnesses.
I had hoped that someone might have posted this 'phenomenon' on the boards already.

Is a fireball actually a ball of fire?

I saw what I taught was just a shooting star but it left a trail for a few seconds.. is that usual for a shooting star?

Hi Simon,
Welcome to our humble abode.

A fireball, or bollide, is an exceptionally large and/or bright meteor. Visually, you'd think a fireball would have something survive atmospheric entry and touch ground, they appear THAT brilliant.

At that time last night, I was indoors, so I definitely didn't se it. There was also a similar report to your on here:
www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055679666

A bit of conflict in peoples replies as some say it was a host of Chinese Lanterns.

A final note: a fireball would not really be something associated with binoculars due to their speed and size. Are you sure it was a fireball?

Seanie.

Hi Seanie,

Seen your name around the boards a lot! Thank you for the quick response.
Fireball? I really don't know what to call it, I have never seen anything like this.
The story. Changing e.p to observe Jupiter in the southern sky over the Dublin Mountains - turned around to spot a bright orange shape close to the trajectory of the I.S.S, west, south-west of Tallaght. My first thought was something was supporting combustion at considerable altitude. The object appeared 'stationary' from where I stood, it was much lager and brighter than Jupiter. As I could not make out its nebulous shape, I went for my binos, inside and put away. I called my wife and we went to a back bedroom to look at the 'object' through the 12 x 56 Binoculars. We both had time to look, after 10-15 seconds my wife left the scene, I continued to watch, after a further 10-15 seconds, the 'object' dissipated, smaller glowing 'embers' fell slowly to earth, losing their by now red glow - like watching a science experiment such as one for 'Brownian Motion'. The colour ofthe main 'body' was initially glowing 'orange', however this turned to a definite 'red' by the time 'it' fell apart.
With the binoculars, I could make out flames and could see that the combustion was similar to a hot coal encouraging combustion as the coal emits gas, flames chase around the coal, such was this.
I would estimate this 'object' was higher in the sky than Jupiter but not much, close to the height that I have seen the I.S.S. I am a complete novice in astronomy and perhaps there is a simple explanation. As you might expect this 'all' took place in total silence!
Simon.

From how you describe this it sounds to me that it was a chinese lantern.

The ones that I have seen (quite a number of weeks ago - one observation event). In my case there were several lanterns. I saw some ascend rapdily from a low altitude. This sort of gave the game away for me. If one were to just see one at a distance after it had ascended some for some time I'd say it would deceive most. I had to investigate these so I grabbed my binos. Even with these it was hard to discern detail at the distance that they were. The ones I saw were orange and the paper canopy of one caught fire - one could see the dropping embers a little more readily (relative motion) than any flames or canopy shape. Then I saw the failed lantern descend - and the flames became more evident more or less with that.

A fireball would be far shorter lifetime in my oppinion - a small number of seconds to maybe a little longer. I've seen one of those too (I believe - twas months ago) and it was orange. In the case of the object I saw, the trajectory, speed, and apparent size and visual "fizzling" ruled out a chinese lantern or a firework (it was more or less tangental with the horizon - not gaining altitude).

A single chinese lantern - at a distance can be very confusing.

Hope this helps - BTW its exciting to see anything new in the sky so enjoy regardless of what it turns out to be.

Mark

Hi Mark,

Thanks, an interesting idea!

Do you know how high these 'Chinese Lanterns' can rise into the sky?
Presumably, these 'lanterns' will only maintain their zenith briefly, what I saw stayed close to motionless(apparently) for something between one and two minutes.
The intensity with which this item burned made me think that a 'significant' amount of 'fuel' was available,something more sustaining than paper.
I wonder where I could get my hands on one of the 'Chinese Lanterns' and do a "Mythbusters" on it!

Simon