Fire in the SkyS

Meteor

US: Fireball over the Northeast

Frank Roylance
Maryland Weather
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:46 UTC
Hearing about another fireball meteor, this one spotted last evening in the northeastern sky. Here's a report from Bowley's Quarters, in eastern Baltimore County. Did anyone else spot this one?

"Hi there, last night about 7pm I believe - Bowleys Quarters- there was an amazing fireball I saw through clouds traveling north in the north eastern sky. I haven't seen anything else on this- I know meteors are common but this was so bright and through the clouds I was amazed. Have you heard anything on this? Thanks, Marcie"
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Telescope

Cameras Capture 'Fireball' In The Sky: Meteor May Have Crashed In Ontario


Science Daily
Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:15 UTC
all-sky view from Orangeville
© Western's Southern Ontario Meteor Network, University of Western OntarioAt 05:28 am on Wednesday morning, October 15, all seven cameras of Western's Southern Ontario Meteor Network (SOMN) recorded a bright, slow fireball in the predawn sky. In the all-sky view from Orangeville the fireball passes from upper left (North) to right (West) ending near the setting moon (the brightest object at upper right).
For the second time this year, The University of Western Ontario Meteor Group has captured incredibly rare video footage of a meteor falling to Earth. The team of astronomers suspects the fireball dropped meteorites in a region north of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, that may total as much as a few hundred grams in mass.
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Meteor

Australia: Northern Territory meteorite mystery remains unsolved


ABC News
Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:27 UTC
The source of bright lights, an Earth tremor and loud explosion in Central Australia remain a mystery for now.

Northern Territory police say a meteorite landing is a possibility.

Residents at the remote Wallace Rockhole community west of Alice Springs say they heard a loud explosion and felt the ground shake last night.

Others reported seeing spectacular lights.
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Meteor

Astronomy Picture of the Day: Spectacular September meteor in Oklahoma

Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA
Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:36 UTC
Image
© Howard Edin
On September 30, a spectacular bolide or fireball meteor surprised a group of amateur astronomers enjoying dark night skies over the Oklahoma panhandle's Black Mesa State Park in the Midwestern US. Flashing past familiar constellations Taurus (top) and Orion, the extremely bright meteor was captured by a hillside camera overlooking the 2008 Okie-Tex Star Party.
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Meteor

Michigan, US: Early risers see fireball flash across the sky

Susan L. Oppat
Ann Arbor News
Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:07 UTC
University of Michigan astronomy professor Mario Mateo was a little jealous when he learned a group of Ypsilanti bus drivers and a teacher saw an apparent fireball Thursday morning.

"Shoot. I wish I'd seen it!'' he said. "They can be very, very bright and are quite impressive.''

This bolide - or fireball - may have been nothing more than a rock up to about a foot in diameter, Mateo said.

It certainly impressed Josephine Watson and Shirley Lucas.

The bus drivers were in the parking lot at the end of Railroad Street in Ypsilanti at about 6:50 a.m. when they spotted a line of fire in the sky that tracked roughly west-to-east.

"Then poof, it disappeared,'' Lucas said.
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Meteor

Ontario, Canada: Meteor lights up the Chatham sky

Aaron Hall
The Chatham Daily News
Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:03 UTC
Carol Handsor and Gillian Andrews were greeted with a bright welcome during their usual morning stroll on Thursday.

While walking on a trail along Mud Creek behind John McGregor Secondary School, the Chatham residents witnessed a bright object falling from the sky.

"It was a huge ball of fire," Handsor told The Chatham Daily News.

"It had sort of a blueish tinge to it. The end of it was coming down with sort of a tail of flames. It went down quick."
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Meteor

Fireball spotted over Australia

Marianna Papadakis
St. George and Sunderland Shire Leader
Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:58 UTC
Image
© Steve QuirkA meteor the size of a cricket ball travelling at a typical speed of 20 kilometres a second can light up the ground as brightly as the moon
Early risers who spotted a greenish-yellow light flashing across the shire on Monday probably witnessed a meteor.

Surfers at Cronulla Beach who saw it moving from east to west over Kurnell at 5.20am said it lasted about five seconds before it split into three and disintegrated into a vapour trail.

''I knew it wasn't a shooting star; it was heaps bigger and much closer,'' said one of three surfers who saw it. ''It looked like a ball-shooter [fireworks].''
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Meteor

Sonic booms rattle Spanish city


BBC News
Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:21 UTC
Two loud booms rattled windows and shook residents of Malaga in southern Spain before officials confirmed the cause as a low-flying plane, not bombs.

"It was very loud and it sounded like a bomb but it's a false alarm," a government spokesman said.

Media initially reported two "explosions", saying people had rushed to their windows and the mobile phone network went dead.

Comment: Do sonic booms usually knock out mobile phone networks? It would appear that the Spanish government is fudging this one, perhaps because the real origin of the booms was something altogether more alarming.

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Meteor

UK: Fireball sighted over Wigan


Wigan Today
Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:41 UTC
A man has emailed the wigantoday newsroom asking if anyone else saw a bizarre Unidentified Flaming Object in Shevington last night.

His email in full reads ...
Hi ... Did anyone else in the Shevington area/Shevington Moor area see the fire ball above Shevington High? I live opposite the playing fields on Parkbrook Lane. At about 9pm last night my daughter and I witnessed what looked like a giant firework/rocket flying several hundred feet on a horizontal path towards Elnup Woods.
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UFO

UK: 'Fireball' UFO over Hertfordshire

Sophie Robehmed
Metro News
Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:54 UTC


Rickmansworth fireball ufo
©Metro / Andrew Baskeyfield
A still from the UFO film.

It seems we might not be alone after what is claimed to be a UFO darting across the sky was filmed on a mobile phone camera.

Andrew Baskeyfield spotted the unexplained ball of light circling above his home in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, at about 7:30pm Monday night.

The bright white dot, which was still visible in daylight against the blue cloudy sky, is simultaneously seen dancing around the screen of three separate mobile phones belonging to the 23-year-old, his father and older brother.
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