This bright Lyrid meteor was recorded over Spain on 2021 April 23 at 6:03 local time (equivalent to 4:03 universal time). It overflew the Mediterranean Sea. The bolide was generated by a fragment (a meteoroid) from Comet C/1861 G1 (Comet Thatcher) that hit the atmosphere at about 165,000 km/h. It began at an altitude of about 114 km over the Mediterranean Sea, and ended at a height of around 60 km, after traveling about 53 km in the Earth's atmosphere.
The event was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN), from the meteor-observing stations located at La Hita (Toledo), Calar Alto (Almería), Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Sagra (Granada), and Sevilla.
ReRan I am no great stargazer though I like to think that I know the constellations.
Somehow, I've seen TWO! Really cool both times. The first time I was literally crossing from NV into CA at S. Lake Tahoe- that one was HUGE amazing.. Then I saw another one about a year ago while being out and waiting for a launch that got scrubbed. But I was just stretching my neck and it showed up right over me and headed SW. (They're quick; the guy with me didn't see it. Just like in Tahoe, I was the only person who did pointing and saying look and people look not where I'm pointing but at me, and then ever so slowly their thick necks turn their confused bovine expressions towards where it WAS.(I believe that one left a faint trail. It was orangish with a touch of green. The one here was green with blue and white. Beautiful! The AMS had a story on it (see a lot of these type articles.) There was even two videos that were caught of it? Certainly there was one. It was a little over a year ago.
Good luck and keep looking up. (From that PBS show.)
Rowan Cocoan I live on the shore of a wide river and no traffic to be seen. There was one night when we had just turned out the lights when the sky lit up like day for about 2 seconds across the far shore and above the trees. I always wondered if it was a meteor fireball, but of course, no way to know. On a different line of thought, living on the river is the most entertaining place I have ever lived. River birds and animals all the time, you never know what you might see, wolves, deer, bears, and of course, otters and beaver. No one lives on the other side, it is a rock cliff. I love it here. Better than TV.
ReRan Well, that sure sounds like you witnessed a bolide. They're cool.
I too love the woods and have lots of crazy critter stories. I have concluded that I have some Dr. Doolittle gene. I recently came across a little swamp cottontail and I softly talked to him (he could have slipped into a palmetto thicket 20 feet away but he stopped. I kept getting closer to him, sat down in the shade with him about 6 feet from him while he nibbled on the grass.
Have walked right up to two different herds! of deer (~30 and 60, both in Florida and we don't generally see such; usually groups of 4 or 6.) I did the approach and they all look at me for about 3 seconds, then some nervous nellie throws up her white tail and off they go - only times I've heard the thunder sound of hooves. (Both the deer events were at night. The rabbit daytime.)
Rowan Cocoan It always feels like such a privelege when they let you near, doesn't it? When the kids are here swimming all summer, the mallards just swim right along with them, they do not seem afraid at all. I was halfway across one day and brought my head up. An otter was about 25 feet from me. They are way bigger when you get close to them! I turned around and swam back. Can you just see the headline? "Senior citizen mauled to death by river otter."
ReRan I once came out of my house and our local terror pit bull was chasing a big otter down the street. (It was holloween.) As the otter ran toward the lake his neck was almost in a 180 turn (honestly like 150 degrees - I had no idea that they could do that but it sure would be helpful chasing fish and his teeth were bared and the 80 pit bull though chasing so those sharks teeth and didn't want to get too close. Funny stuff. Great ending happened but I've gotta go.)
Rowan Cocoan Wild animals that are really cute and just want to mind there own business can be mighty vicious when they need to be. A lesson the Republicans desperately need to learn. The dems are born vicious, it's all they know.
ReRan Sounds absolutely great, Re. I'm enjoying my current location with a small "backyard" with a 15 foot or so high wall. I've left everything to normal vegetation. Big stalks of "weeds" with flowering dandelion-like heads turning to snowy-white fuzzies attract the birds each day. Lots of stuff for them to eat. I'm having fun watching them. They're so funny. They have these songs...and if you imitate them, they stop. Then, they start again...like..."What the hell did I just hear?"
I'd like to try that sometime...maybe when I'm heading north out of here...near Indian Springs where Charles Hall lived and worked while serving in the Air Force and wrote his book about the "Tall Whites" (space 'aliens' the U.S. government allows here at Nellis' adjacent property to 51). Supposedly their language sounds like the Western meadowlark. Can you imagine imitating that song only to have a "Tall White" pop up? Just strikes me as extraordinarily funny.
ReRan Here's a cute otter needing his fix. [Link] (Of course he ain't wild, and probably doesn't talk with that accent. ) From KLR Productions at [Link]
RC
Heosphorus There is a slight variance in notes between singing rain or sun. You have to listen very closely early in the day. A very slight drop off of the last note in the trill when rain is coming.
ReRan (Re bird calls change with Wx.) Wow. Cool! I was unaware of that but it makes senst to me.
When I grew up here, our father was president of our Aububon Society, (late 60s - 70s; I'd not be surprised if my Mum is still a member.) and we were friends with Alan and Helen Cruickshank (RIP)* who both lived in the next town over. I have lots of stories of that class act, ecologically and naturally aware couple, but one is that I - who although I love music and playing it - (and despite the fact that I have since before and after those days of my childhood and adolescence and on through now, feel as though I 'know my birds', I've always been acutely aware of how my absolutely weakest bird ID factor is recognizing their calls) - used to 'translate'/readily imitate (using that musical side, I guess) what a bird just 'said', for AC (who was a master of recognizing and explicating bird calls but who had lost his high pitch hearing when ack ack blew up next to their plane (he was, as I recall/believe, a side door gunner as I recall in what quick research reveals was probably a RAF version of a B-25 Mitchell I, or similar I'd guess.**)
I would LOVE to hear his thoughts on that. (He was once featured on 'What's My Line'. - I came across that show - damn! I just remembered that wasn't from me seeking it out online but it was on some late night TV showing that I stumbled across while seeking a weather report or such. That was about >15 years ago.)
RC
*At what point does one need to stop writing that? They were great, class act folks. Although to me she was a grandmotherly figure, I had a crush on her. (Time... hmm...)
** I recently saw Catch 22 and my confident guess is that his job was like that of the dying door gunner there. I'm unaware if perhaps there were other side door gunners on UK bombers. (Knowing how much I've always loved WWII airplanes, I'd bet that there was a time when I did know the plane type.) (Also, only a side door gunner would likely suffer permanent hearing loss from such as almost all other folks were enclosed within other areas of the fuselage. Must have been no fun at all.)
ReRan Well I've always envied folks who could recognize bird calls - even moreso those who can perceive when they indicate a change in the weather is impending, and I believe you!
RC
*As re doing that for AC, I would have been between 8 and 12 or so, and the instant I first saw in the Lord of the Rings film, 'What do your elven eyes see, Legolas?", I thought of that back then. ("What do your youthful ears hear, Rowan?")
R.C.