Fireball Reported over Ireland & UK

There are reports of a fireball event (including sonic booms) from yesterday evening describing a fireball with a fiery tail and orange in colour which may indicate excess Sodium within the meteors layering make-up, but the colour of course may depend on other factors as well. From the video capture from Cherryvalley Observatory's North-East Video Meteor Camera system (based in Co. Meath) preliminary details derived are as follows…

Event Start Time: 18:45:16.5
RA 05h 24m 21s Dec: +26°34'36" (J2000) – Approx
Azim: 103°09' Alt: +43°01' - Approx

Event End Time: 18:45:19:7 (when object exited Field of view of camera
This event may have been +6 seconds in duration within the visible EM spectrum.
RA 06h 34m 02s Dec: +23°25'01" (J2000) - Approx
Azim: 90°21' Alt: +30°08' - Approx

Trajectory from Observing site: From 1. Taurus - 2. Gemini - 3. Horizon over Irish Sea towards UK were the fireball then fragmented.

Velocity: ~14 km/s average which is towards the lower end of meteor velocities, reports stating that the object was relatively slow moving.

Magnitude: difficult to measure due to sky brightness from almost full Moon in close proximity to FOV, but I suspect it maybe overall a -3.5 mag event.

Camera FOV: 35 x 31 degrees approx
Camera Orientation: North-East
Azimuth: ~89d
Elevation: ~+46d

This meteor is classed as a "Sporadic", videos and iamges (including Cherryvalley Observatory’s video of this event) is available on the link below. Our colleagues in the UK have also captured this meteor fireball event which will give us a means of determining accurate triangulation values and therefore an actual orbit. Armagh Observatory may also have recorded the event.

Please Note that Cherryvalley Observatory’s Meteor Detection Camera System is part of NEMETODE (Network for Meteor Triangulation and Orbit Determination)



group. www.nemetode.org/index.html

Best wishes and clear skies

Mike Foylan
Cherryvalley Observatory (MPC I83)
Rathmolyon,
Co. Meath,
Ireland

Some bloke in East Belfast rang me last night asking about the "big bright light travelling across the sky" he had seen while out having a smoke.

From his description, it certainly sounded like a fireball.

Lucky him.

I also got a bizarre phone call from a member of the public that was asking about a bright traveling light in the sky that night, and guessed it was a bollide too. Good capture there Mike.

Seanie.