August's annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to peak on Wednesday, with a special weather permit and perfect lunar conditions, coming just one day before the new moon.
Astronomers hope that the meteor shower, which falls in the middle of the week this year, is going to be really special. The celestial conditions will differ from last year's, when a bright moon faded the colors of the shooting stars.
This morning, local Tamworth police took a number of phone calls reporting an explosion, houses shuddering and they posted the following on the Oxley Local Area Command Facebook Page:
"About 1.30 am on Tuesday 11th August 2015 Police received numerous calls from Tamworth residents in relation to a loud explosion heard in many different parts of Tamworth. Residents reported their houses seemed to shake with the noise. No-one was able to accurately describe a location for the explosion. No reports of fire were received. Police patrolled several areas of Tamworth in response to these calls however no damage was located.
The mystery appeared solved about 30 minutes later when a local taxi driver contacted Police and reported sighting a large glowing object in the sky trailing a green tail fall to earth somewhere to the south of Tamworth City. At this time, it is believed the explosion can be attributed to the unknown falling object, possibly a meteorite."
Intrigued, I sent this to our resident astronomer Astro Dave Reneke. He knew exactly what this was, a sonic boom, the result of a fireball from a meteor shower... quite rare, listen to the explanation here: Astro Dave with Anna Moulder on ABC NENW Breakfast
Officials in Iran have confirmed that a meteor has hit somewhere in the northern part of the country on July 30, 2015. The event happened a day before a very large fireball streaked over the sky of Argentina.
According to Mohammad Ali Ahani, director of Qazvin Crisis Management Staff, the meteor landed in Avaj, province of Qazvin. There are reports that some pieces of the rock have hit areas in Eshtahard, Alborz Province.
Many Iranian news agencies speak of serious damage to Qazvin, which is located not too far from the state capital, Tehran. Injured or victims have not been confirmed, but such rumors are circulating on the Internet.
Reports of damage come from multiple locations.
Iranian newspapers say the meteor was very large (could be more than two meters long) because there are numerous towns affected by the impact, with shattered windows and damaged fixtures.
While shooting some timelapses, we saw a huge bright flash in the sky. It even lit up the entire ground. We looked up and saw a huge streak across the sky of burning dust.
I did the calculations and the dust fell from the sky for at least 50 frames of my timelapse. Each exposure was 15 seconds long, so that means the burning dust fell for 12.5 minutes. CRAZY!!! This was shot at Shark Fin Cove just north of Santa Cruz on July 21st, 2015 by @PermaGrinFilms.
Up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's a meteor.
And let's just throw in a bit of bioluminescence for good measure.
That's exactly what Vincentia photographer Maree Clout managed to capture at Jervis Bay last Wednesday night.
Along with Corinne Le Gall, whose superb photograph of bioluminescence on display in Jervis Bay featured in Wednesday's South Coast Register, Ms Clout spent three nights last week trying to capture the natural phenomenon.
During one of her 15-second exposures Ms Clout also managed to capture a meteor among the star laden night sky.
Ellie Zolfagharifard Daily Mail, UK Fri, 31 Jul 2015 17:30 UTC
This collage of radar images of near-Earth asteroid 1999 JD6 was collected by Nasa on July 25, 2015. The images show the rotation of the asteroid, which made its closest approach on July 24 at 9:55 p.m. PDT (12:55 a.m. EDT on July 25) at a distance of 4.5 million miles - about 19 times the distance from Earth to the moon
Nasa has captured images of a peanut-shaped asteroid as it made its closest approach to Earth last weekend.
The bizarrely-shaped asteroid appears to be what is known as a contact binary, which is an asteroid with two lobes that are stuck together.
The images show the rotation of the space rock, named 1999 JD6, which made its closest approach on July 24 at 9:55 p.m. PDT (12:55 a.m. EDT on July 25).
The asteroid remained at a distance of about 4.5 million miles (7.2 million km), or about 19 times the distance from Earth to the moon.
'Radar imaging has shown that about 15 per cent of near-Earth asteroids larger than 600 feet (180 metres), including 1999 JD6, have this sort of lobed, peanut shape,' said Lance Benner, who leads Nasa's asteroid radar research program.
Iran has confirmed that a meteor has hit somewhere in the northern part of the country.
The meteor landed in Avaj in the province of Qazvin, Mohammad Ali Ahani, director of Qazvin Crisis Management Staff said, Mehr news agency reported July 31.
Also, there have been reports that some pieces of rock have hit areas in Eshtehard, Alborz Province, Arsalan Qasemi, governor of Boeen Zahra, county in Qazvin Province, said.
Another local governor of Takestan County, Qazvin Province, said that the area witnessed the passing of the meteor, but nowhere in the district under his supervision had been hit.
A massive fireball soared through the sky over Argentina, triggering a wave of social media posts. The mesmerizing show, which lasted just a few seconds, colored the sky green.
The bright object could be clearly seen from Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires. Other reports of the dazzling display came in from Brazil's southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, as well as neighboring Uruguay.
"The purpose of GLADIO was to attack civilians, the people - women, children, innocent people, unknown people, far removed from any political game. The reason was quite simple: to force the public to turn to the State and demand greater security. Under a strategy of tension, you 'destabilize in order to stabilize', to create tension within society and promote conservative, reactionary social and political tendencies."
~ Italian neo-fascist whose prosecution led to the discovery of NATO's 'Gladio' networks across Western Europe
- Vincenzo Vinciguerra
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Comment: A light show worth watching!