[John Mason]

Just thought I'd mention this. I went fishing this evening 4pm-9pm and enjoyed a lovely sunset and then the best starlight night sky I have seen in quite a few months, which made up for the poor catch of small dabs and whiting. At about 2030 tonight a shooting-star caught my eye, but it brightened like a white Roman Candle as it crossed about 1/3 of the sky after first sighting, before splitting into two, both bits diverging by about 30 degrees and losing luminance within a couple of seconds. Sighting was at Tywyn (N of Aberdyfi) and trajectory was ESE to WNW approx. Not quite a fireball but it sure was impressive - the point source of light was as bright as a full moon but much smaller in size - hence the Roman Candle analogy. What a beauty! Best I have seen for a few years.

Cheers - John

[Dave Hancox]

Interesting John be good to see if any more reports come in. Wonder if any skycams caught it. Always good to see them.

[StephenS]

That sounds like quite a sight, John! I haven't seen any more reports of it yet, but there are lots of sightings of a meteor on what sounds like a similar trajectory at around 1810-1820z on Jan 12. Many witnesses, spread from Cheshire to Hampshire and London to Bristol, a lot reporting that it was green/jade in colour.

[OhCauldron]

I saw this meteor yesterday too - while driving in the south of the lake district, near Grange Over Sands. I never realised how high these meteors must be for them to be visible from such different locations, but sounds like it's definitely the same one - split in the same way described at the same time. And you couldn't help but notice it - as bright as a firework.

[Alastair McBeath]

John, and possibly OhCauldron:

If either of you can send me more details on what you observed, I'd welcome seeing them. So far, I've not had any other sightings from around 20:30 UT on Jan 13-14 as yet, but I have had a few from Jan 12-13 (the event StephenS mentioned).

That earlier meteor has been timed to within a few seconds of 18:17 UT, as it was imaged by both the Niton and Bayfordbury cameras of the Herts University all-sky camera system. David Campbell, who runs that, dropped a line to say that although circumstances weren't ideal for triangulation to this object (it was very low in the sky as seen from Bayfordbury), the end was perhaps around 30 km altitude (if so, meteorically low) about 60 km south of Weymouth on the south coast.

The Niton image (impressive picture!) is available at:

http://star.herts.ac...55939.26151&c=3 ,

while the Bayfordbury photo is at:

http://star.herts.ac...55939.26151&c=1 .

On this shot, the meteor is near the bottom right - don't be fooled by the more obvious trails higher up, which were most likely from aircraft or satellites.

All further data on any of these fireballs would be most welcome!

The three key elements to report to me are:

1) Exactly where you were (name of the nearest town or large village and county in Britain);

2) The date and timing of the event; and

3) Where the fireball started and ended in the sky, as accurately as possible, or where the first and last points you could see of the trail were if you didn't see the whole flight.

More advice on what to report from any fireball observations (a fireball is any meteor of magnitude -3 or brighter) made from the UK and nearby is available on a separate Space Weather Forum topic, at:

http://www.ukweather...ball-reporting/ .

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

[John Mason]

Alastair,

Map of trajectory & my position attached.

Exact time is a bit vague I'm afraid. Realistically the best I can do is around 2000-2030-ish. Tywyn is in Gwynedd, on the coast of the central section of Cardigan Bay.

I first glimpsed it over my shoulder (I was facing NW watching my fishing rods and stargazing at the same time). It was close to overhead (but a bit inland, so to say) when it brightened. When it divided, it had "gone past me" i.e it was to my NW.

Looking at the map, the trajectory was pretty close to true SE-NW as opposed to my initial report.

Cheers - John

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[John Mason]

Have put out a shout on a busy fishing forum I inhabit - there are a lot of South Wales lads on there and there would have been loads of them out last night what with the good weather, so it'd be quite possible that some of them witnessed it.

Cheers - John

[John Mason]

Response: "Yea I saw it too I was drowning worm on knab rock and I seen it come down and break in to two bits Swansea way......"

Knab Rock is near Porthcawl.

Cheers - John

[OhCauldron]

Ok I was here: http://maps.google.c...=12,216.84,,0,0 (Almost exactly there - on the A590 heading towards Newby Bridge).

I was facing south and I saw it above me in the front window of the car so it must have been going towards West-South-West - at a rough guess. High in the sky though - my GF couldn't see it all from the passenger seat because the rear view mirror was in the way.

The time was, I believe 20:28. I recall thinking "oh i should remember that time" and looking at the clock and it being 20:32 but it was within a couple of minutes, so I'd say no earlier than 20:27 and no later than 20:31 GMT.

Alastair McBeath, on 14 January 2012 - 11:06, said:

John, and possibly OhCauldron:

If either of you can send me more details on what you observed, I'd welcome seeing them. So far, I've not had any other sightings from around 20:30 UT on Jan 13-14 as yet, but I have had a few from Jan 12-13 (the event StephenS mentioned).

That earlier meteor has been timed to within a few seconds of 18:17 UT, as it was imaged by both the Niton and Bayfordbury cameras of the Herts University all-sky camera system. David Campbell, who runs that, dropped a line to say that although circumstances weren't ideal for triangulation to this object (it was very low in the sky as seen from Bayfordbury), the end was perhaps around 30 km altitude (if so, meteorically low) about 60 km south of Weymouth on the south coast.

The Niton image (impressive picture!) is available at:

http://star.herts.ac...55939.26151&c=3 ,

while the Bayfordbury photo is at:

http://star.herts.ac...55939.26151&c=1 .

On this shot, the meteor is near the bottom right - don't be fooled by the more obvious trails higher up, which were most likely from aircraft or satellites.

All further data on any of these fireballs would be most welcome!

The three key elements to report to me are:

1) Exactly where you were (name of the nearest town or large village and county in Britain);

2) The date and timing of the event; and

3) Where the fireball started and ended in the sky, as accurately as possible, or where the first and last points you could see of the trail were if you didn't see the whole flight.

More advice on what to report from any fireball observations (a fireball is any meteor of magnitude -3 or brighter) made from the UK and nearby is available on a separate Space Weather Forum topic, at:

http://www.ukweather...ball-reporting/ .

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

[Alastair McBeath]

John: Many thanks for the additional notes from your Jan 13-14 fireball sighting, and those of the third witness. I've still had no further information from elsewhere directly, but I'll post here again if there's more.

OhCauldron: Thanks too for your data. I've only just seen it, so haven't had time for a proper comparison with John's notes, but my initial reaction is your description sounds like it would tally with John's - i.e. so they WERE probably the same meteor!

I have managed an analysis of the January 12-13 event, based on 25 reports so far, however, and have posted that on the SPA's Observing Forum this morning, at:

http://www.popastro....pic.php?t=16606 .

Particular thanks to StephenS for forwarding a large batch of sightings of the latter fireball to me from the UK-UFO Forum - much appreciated! It seems likely this meteor could have dropped meteorites - albeit sadly, into the Channel maybe 20 km off Lulworth Cove, if so...

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

[eh503]

Hi,

After seeing a fireball on the evening of January 13th, a Google search for what it could have been has brought me here.

Based on their descriptions, I initially thought it was the same meteor that John Mason and OhCauldron saw. However, I think I was out a bit later than 20:30 - probably nearer 20:55 (I recall that we had just set the time on my friend's telescope controller at 20:47 and saw the meteor shortly afterwards).

I was in Whiteley, Hampshire (50.88 degrees North, 1.25 degrees West) and first saw it at about 40 degrees above the horizon, roughly WSW (just to the right of Jupiter, at about the same elevation). It continued (from left to right as I saw it) with an orange trail and broke into two main parts, with several smaller, twinkling fragments.

Unfortunately my view to the NW was blocked by a nearby building so I lost sight of it then, but it was probably visible to me for 3 or 4 seconds before that.

Anyway, I hope this information is useful, even if it's not the same one previously reported!

Best regards,

EH

[Alastair McBeath]

Hi EH - welcome to the group!

I'm always pleased to see fireball sightings from the UK and nearby, though unfortunately, I've not had any others to correlate with your sighting as yet. If you hear of any, please let me know!

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

This post has been edited by Alastair McBeath: 16 January 2012 - 19:33

[Alastair McBeath]

I've had a second sighting of the ~20:55 UT fireball on January 13-14 arrive from Somerset, timed at about 20:50 UT. The details indicate they were most probably observations of the same meteor.

By assuming typical meteoric heights, the information available so far suggests this meteor was probably moving somewhere between south-north to southwest-northeast high above Somerset in the general area of Yeovil-Wells-Frome, as a best estimate.

As usual, I'd welcome seeing any additional sightings of these or other fireballs spotted from Britain and nearby!

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

[John Mason]

If those are recorded times, I'd go with them. As I was fishing, and not wearing a watch, they are more reliable. The only true constraint for me was my returning to the jeep @ around 2120. Thus, I would suggest my guesstimate was way out. The descriptions are so similar that it is hard to believe we were watching different items heading down. How many nights do you get two such things doing exactly that within a few tens of minutes of one another??

Cheers - John

[Alastair McBeath]

John: The data indicate there actually WERE two fireball class meteors that evening between circa 20:15 and 21:00 UT. Your description of where you saw the meteor wouldn't fit to the Somerset event, for instance, which would have been to your SSE or SE, not the NE. Sometimes these things do happen!!

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

[Alastair McBeath]

January 13-14 has continued to provide meteoric surprises within the hour between 20:00-21:00 UT.

I've now had a fresh observation, timed very roughly between 20:00-20:30 UT, and from that observer's description, it was definitely a separate meteor to the other two seen later that evening. Using commonly-observed meteor altitudes could have suggested this object passed on a north-south to northwest-southeast course high above the Worcester area, perhaps ending over or around the northeastern Cotswolds of the Gloucestershire-Warwickshire border.

It might seem odd that nobody saw more than one of these, but there's so much luck involved in fireball sightings, this isn't surprising. After all, you need to be facing the right way, and gazing at the key part of the sky at that instant (and then report the sighting where it'll do most good, of course!).

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)

[John Mason]

That's remarkable. I guess that there simply weren't may people out that night, apart from fishermen!

Cheers - John