Texans spooked as massive meteor fireball upstages Supermoon, splits in two

Teresa Gubbins
Culture Map, Dallas
Sun, 13 Jul 2014 00:34 UTC

© David Worthington

10 minutes after the Supermoon rose over downtown Dallas...

A meteor crossed the sky over North Texas on July 12 at 9 pm, enthralling many around Dallas who watched as it split into two before its inevitable fade. From Denton to Waxahachie, from Lake Ray Roberts to Lake Tawakoni, night-sky viewers witnessed what some described as a double meteor, with two streams of blue-green light racing across the sky to the west.

Many were already watching the sky to catch what was the first perigee moon, aka Supermoon, of 2014. According to Dallas photographer David Worthington, who was lying in wait to photograph the moon against the Dallas skyline, the moon became visible at 8:55 pm. The meteor emerged less than 10 minutes later.

Midlothian resident Mike Prendergast was moon-watching with friends when they spotted what they first thought was an airplane.

© Ben Sandifer

...this happened

"It was a couple minutes after 9 pm, and we saw a light coming out of the Southeast," Prendergast says. "At first, I thought it was a plane because it was pretty bright. But it was moving so quick. We probably saw it for a good 15 seconds because it was coming right at us. It was one light coming, but then it broke into two. We could see a tail on it before it slowly melted away."

Prendergast, a hobbyist storm-chaser, quickly reached for his cellphone and grabbed a video.

"I try and catch tornadoes on video all the time, but I step outside my house and catch something more elusive than those," he says. Prendergast described it "blue-ish" in color; others described it on Facebook as green or blue green. One viewer in DeLeon said that it consisted of two white lights that looked like they split.

On the DFW.Scanner Facebook page, witnesses weighed in from Waco, Shiner, Brownsboro, Lampasas, Austin and even one interloper from Corpus Christi. A few attendees at the Rascal Flatts show at Gexa Pavilion spotted it split overhead in the sky.

Astronomical activities are predicted for the month of July, including meteor showers and lunar phases. Seasky.org forecasts meteor showers from July 12 to 29.

Comment: Check out some eyewitnesses' reports: a LOT of people saw this one and many of them were pretty spooked. SOTT.net reader KM also sent us her description of the event:

Saturday July 12th, 2014

We were on the beach at North Padre Island Texas watching the moon, when my granddaughter & I both noticed a light screaming across the night sky. We both thought is was a plane or helicopter and then looked at each other with our mouthes open. It was too big and too fast for either. It was a round circle of light screaming across and downward across the sky. All of a sudden it changed into two lights and then was gone. It was about 9 pm. Everyone with us was looking toward the ocean & moon and the light was off to our left. No doubt it was something, but not sure what. What could this have been. We are still talking about it......