Yet another visitor to our already crowded skies...

Our first detailed eyewitness report of this extraordinary event comes from the Astropolis.pl forum:

Observation sent in from Krakow by Vader, 19.10.2012, 11:33AM

"I saw many shooting stars yesterday, but what I saw about at around 2:20 AM CEST (approximately) cannot be forgotten. I had just come round from the back of the house and was looking in the direction of the Little Bear (Ursa Minor) and Draco (Dragon) constellations. A light-yellow meteor appeared, which sped toward the northern horizon, from the border of these constellations. Then it flew between Zeta Draconis (Nodus I) and Eta Draconis (Al Dhibain) of the Dragon, rapidly brightened to a negative magnitude and changed colour to an intense light-green. Something like those popular laser pointers.

The phenomenon ended up to the right and below the Beta Draconis (Rastaban) and Nu Draconis, where there was a very bright flash and it broke up. It actually became almost as bright as day in that moment. It's hard for me to judge the brightness, because I very rarely see this kind of phenomenon. I think it could well have been of magnitude -8. The overall time of its flight was about 3-4 seconds.

After its passage, I instinctively looked at Jupiter and noted how dark it looked in comparison. The meteor left a visible trail in the sky, which I watched for about one minute. Once I calmed down, I ran inside to get my camera and tripod, then set it up to focus on Jupiter and made a few shots in that direction (55 mm, ISO 1600, 13 sec). The first photo was taken at 2:25 and the second one at 2:38, when the trail was still slightly visible. The brightest star in these photographs is the Beta Draconis.

PS: small focal length, large cro, high ISO, hence not the best quality images."

© Vader

© VaderVisible trail left down by a bright fireball over Poland on 19 October 2012

Comments:

mago83, in Bialystok, northeastern Poland, wrote: "I saw the end of the passage with a fading 'tail'. In fact, the view was breathtaking."

QbaC, in Sierpc, central Poland, 125 km northwest of Warsaw, wrote: "Hey, I too had an opportunity to see it... electrifying! At around 2:20 AM, a group of us were standing at a gas station close to Sierpc, looking at the western sky when suddenly it became BRIGHT as if it was a short-circuit on a power pole. When we turned around, we could see a thick trail left in the sky below Ursa Major following the passage and fragmentation of a meteor. This trace was visible for several [between 10 and 20] seconds! The flash of light was so bright that it lit up the whole surrounding area. Even a friend who was on the bus saw the flare! I often look at the stars, but have not seen anything like that before!"

Brahi wrote: "Thankfully this thing didn't hit the Polish Fireball Network (PFN43) station in Siedlce, operated by Maciek Myszkiewicz, which recorded the fireball ;) It looks like its brightness was over -12 mag during the flash. Traces on next frames are displayed for 16 minutes. Probably a monstrous Orionid.

Tuesday night, around 7 p.m., several witnesses report seeing a fireball streak across the sky in the Washington, D.C. region.

"I was walking to Alliance Francaise from the Zoo metro stop around 7 p.m. last night, and I saw a white light in the sky zip past overhead, and then go out with a small boom while still traversing the sky," emailed Victoria Hall.

Capital Weather Gang reader "snowlover31" left the following comment on the blog: "Saw a VERY large shooting star around 7:15 p.m. near Centreville High School looking northeast.. not one of your average ones either, it was orangish red in color and lasted a bit more than your average blink of an eye shooting star.."

People across Devon and Cornwall have inundated police with calls saying they had experienced an earth tremor. Officers from the region said they received reports of people hearing loud bangs and buildings shaking from about 16:15 BST on Thursday.

Police staff in Devon's Newton Abbot station also said floors shook. The British Geological Survey said it had no evidence of a tremor, but added it could have been a sonic boom from a meteorite falling to earth.

'Spectacular' noise source

Police said the calls were "fairly widespread", coming in from Harrowbarrow in south east Cornwall, as well as the South Hams and Teignbridge areas of south Devon, the Tamar Valley and Dartmoor.

Some heard a loud bang. Others felt rolling vibrations. Still others thought it was a large truck, airplane, or helicopter.

The 4.0-magnitude earthquake that hit west of Hollis Center, Maine, at 7:12 p.m. Tuesday was different things to different people as it rumbled across New England.

"We heard it coming - it sounded like an airplane at treetop level. The quake probably only lasted about five seconds. It felt like it went up my driveway, under the kitchen and out the back yard. It was pretty cool," Bill from Northborough wrote on the "Feel the Quake?" forum on boston.com.

The earthquake surprised residents who rarely experience the phenomenon. Fortunately, no real damage was reported.

More than 7,000 people across Massachusetts, including people from 344 of the state's 351 communities, submitted reports of feeling the quake to the US Geological Survey's website. More than 500 people in Boston and 300 in Cambridge filed reports, according to the agency. Hundreds of people also contributed accounts of the quake to boston.com.

Police in Devon were inundated with calls after a loud bang shook the earth and left people frightened just after 4pm on Thursday.

Police say they initially thought there had been a mini-earthquake, but calls to the British Geological Survey proved that wasn't the case.

The BGS suggested it was more likely to have been the sonic boom caused by a meteor passing through the earth's atmosphere.

A police spokesman said: "We received a number of calls just after 4pm on Thursday from people reporting a loud bang and shaking.

"There were reports of crockery shaking and similar disturbance.

"According to the BGS it is likely to have been caused by a meteor sonic boom."

According to the BBC, doors were blown open at a police station in South Devon.

MBIQ indicates that a meteor was seen minutes ago over California on 17OCT2012 at 07'42 pm. The meteor appears to be slow-moving sporatic fireball meteor and NOT related to the Orionids meteor shower. The meteor fragmented with sonics and is a very good candidate for a meteorite producing event.


CHP and local San Mateo County police radio traffic about a meteor in the San Francisco Bay Area meteor on October 17, 2012:

Sightings of a fireball streaking through the sky have been reported this evening up and down the Central Valley and in the Bay Area.

"We've had a lot of calls about people who have seen a big fireball," said Stefanie Henry, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. "The speculation is that it's part of the Orionid meteor shower that peaks about Oct. 21."

People reported seeing the fireball between about 7:45 and 7:55 p.m. Henry said the reports were of a single fireball.

Many scientists are quite happy to talk openly about a 'sixth extinction' being underway for the past 10,000 years or so because they blame humans for it. Blaming humans carries with it the anthropocentric implication that we are in some way immune to sudden extinction and can do something about the extinction of other species, if only we would change our 'global warming' ways! The true facts of the history of life on earth, however, suggest that, from 'nature's' point of view, humans are just one more species whose days are also numbered. Indeed, the historical record shows that nature has, time and again, proven itself very adept and creative at resetting the clock on even the most 'advanced' civilizations.

For those who don't want to read any further (or be confronted with the evidence), the nitty gritty is that, over the past few years, the celestial signs, in the form of an increasing number of meteorites/comet fragments invading our not-so-rarefied atmosphere, point to humanity being on the verge of an 'extinction-level event'.

Louisiana Explosion - Just one more in a long list

Sott.net has been tracking the startling increase in reports of meteorite/comet fragment sightings and impacts for at least 8 years, and there have been many hundreds of such reports in that time period. This alone should give us cause for concern. Check out the above link to get an idea of just how frequent meteorite/comet fragment sightings have become. Of course, you might say that this apparent increase could just be the result of us paying more attention, but the numbers don't lie. For example, browsing the right bar links on the above Sott.net blog, you'll notice that in 2004, 2005 and 2006, reports were consolidated into two month periods, and there were, on average, less than 10 sightings over that 2-month period. By contrast, in 2008, reports were plentiful enough to begin collating them into monthly records and, since then, their number has increased steadily.

Coming back to the present; over the past few days, several reports of meteorite/comet fragment sightings and impacts across the globe have been registered. However, I want to look at one specific event that occurred two days ago on Monday 15th October.

Eyewitness reports

29 Aug 2012 - Ann Tanner and Alfie Coghill, Brisbane, Queensland 8.15pm

Less than 5 seconds' visibility, facing North. North - East direction. Bright white ball of fire, brighter than the moon. Large, round, white ball of fire, dropped at speed from the sky. Biggest shooting star I've ever seen!

29 Aug 2012 - Jak Yeppoon, Capricorn Coast, Queensland, Australia 20.20pm/aest

4 seconds - Went behind mountain. North - West. I was facing West. Very bright green and an orange tail at the end. As bright as a weld flash solid... clean line, amazing.

29 Aug 2012 - Michael Klazema & Lisa Eroshkin Mackay, Queensland, Australia 20:15 EST

3/4 sec - NE-SW. White fireball with a short white tail with debris of green and orange bits falling off. Very large bright star. On its travel a short distance from the horizon there appeared to be a short break in the light but reappeared instantaneously before fading out on the horizon.

Amateur stargazer Nigel Booth spotted what he believes was a meteor burning up over Grantham last night.

Nigel and his wife Debbie, of East Street, saw the round orange and blue light moving across the sky for almost three minutes - before it disappeared.

Nigel told granthampeople: "The sky was really clear so we went for a walk along our street, which doesn't have lights, shortly after 9.30pm.

"We were facing north and saw a largish, slow-moving, orange and blue coloured light at about a 60 degree angle from the earth.

"We watched if for between two and three minutes moving across the sky from the west to east, and then it faded out.

"It was really easy to see with the naked eye.

"It wasn't a comet, as it didn't have a tail, and it's unlikely to have been a satellite falling to earth or it would be all over the national news.

"I reckon it was a meteor."