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Fireballs over Texas - two meteor events July 26 & 27

nemesis maturity
youtube
Sun, 27 Jul 2014 09:58 UTC
Image

Two interesting events last night and this morning on my allsky cams on the Sandia Sentinel TX station allsky cams.

First at 07:27:18 UT was a very bright fireball just to my north that lit up the sky. It appears to have come in at a Very steep angle.

Second was a double meteor, also to my north, at 11:08:56 UT.

I'm also including data from the Very low Light integrating cam of the fireball for trajectory reference.

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Green fireball spotted over England


EDP24
Mon, 28 Jul 2014 11:14 UTC
Meteor
A Leonid meteor during the peak of Leonids in 2009.
A bright green light "travelling faster than any plane" was seen in the sky above Norfolk at 11pm on Sunday night.

A reader from Upper Stoke, near Poringland, "saw a really bright green light - which seemed to be torpedo-shaped, travelling across the sky towards Norwich, at great speed but absolutely silently.

"I could see it travelling through and above the clouds as I could see cloud beneath the light. It vanished completely after about three seconds."

"It was travelling faster than any plane I have seen and was so bright I initially thought firework but it was a) too high; b) there were no other fireworks and c) it made no noise or explosion.
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Neil deGrasse Tyson: Things have to get worse before Congress will take action on climate change

Tom Boggioni
Rawstory.com
Wed, 23 Jul 2014 11:12 UTC
Image
© Chicagonow.com
In an exclusive interview with Salon, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about his role as a scientist, how the media presents scientific breakthroughs, and about how climate change will have to get worse before citizens force their elected representatives to do anything about it.

Tyson explained that he doesn't see himself as an advocate, but as an educator whose job it is to present "emergent scientific consensus," in the hope that the public and policy makers will use it to make informed decisions.

"I'm just trying to get people as fully informed as they can be so that they can make the most informed decisions they can based on their own principles or philosophies or mission statement," Tyson explained. "What concerns me is that I see people making decisions, particularly decisions that might affect policy or governance, that are partly informed, or misinformed, or under-informed."

Tyson notes that during the Cold War, physicists actively advocated for specific policies because those policies were directly related to their work in developing nuclear weapons. When it comes to climate change, he would like to see more climate scientists take the lead instead of an astrophysicist like himself just because he's famous.

Comment:
ABC: Man may need to live in space to survive cometary impacts, global disasters
We live in a cosmic shooting gallery

See also:
Celestial Intentions: Comets and the Horns of Moses

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Fireball flashes across Calgary sky

Dylan Robertson
Calgary Herald
Tue, 22 Jul 2014 19:29 UTC
Fireball Over Calgary
© Calgary HeraldThe Rothney Observatory posted this photo to its Twitter account Tuesday afternoon, saying the object in the bottom-left corner is a fireball over Calgary.
Some Albertans who were up early Tuesday were treated to a rare sight when a fireball lit up the night sky.

The Rothney Observatory reports that a fireball - which is larger than a meteor - was seen at 1:24 a.m. Tuesday.

"They're so bright that if you're standing, you'll see your shadow, just like in the daytime," said Dr. Phil Langill, who directs the University of Calgary observatory.

A meteor is a small rock from outer space that burns up as it enters Earth's atmosphere. Langill said a fireball is even larger.

"Essentially they're the same thing; it's just a matter of scale," he said.

Scores of people took to Twitter and emailed the Herald about the sudden flash of light.

Jesse Shan was on his south-facing Marda Loop balcony when he saw what appeared to be cloudless lightning just southeast of the city.

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Fireball seen over Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky and West Virginina


Lunar Meteorite Hunters
Sat, 19 Jul 2014 15:31 UTC
Image

Initial Meteor Sighting Reports:

18JUL2014 Ashley Franklin Ohio 5:03 am est 6 E Bright Green followed by red flame very bright fire balls falling off I've seen shooting stars/comets before but never seen nothing like we just saw this morning. My fiance said omg what the heck is that I look up and see a huge bright green ball falling from the sky. It was pretty cool to see

18JUL2014 Genia Bloomington, Indiana USA 5:00:00 10 Eastern sky traveling left to right Blue and red tail bright white head Brighter then the moon No It was so brilliant and colorful.

18JUL2014 j. duke marietta, ohio 500 3 seconds Facing SW Direction of travel W to E about 30 deg RA only lost sight because of obstructions to view green with yellow halo and tail no other heavenly bodies for comparison. not as bright as the sun or moon but quite visable. Looked as a firework. single object I was returning home from work. Stopped at a traffic light. Checking for cross-traffic I observed the object, and watched as it passed veiwable area between buildings.

Comment: As the chart below vividly shows, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of reported fireballs for the last 2 years.



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Fireball seen over North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia

Zachary Stieber
Epoch Times
Fri, 18 Jul 2014 00:03 UTC
Fireball
© Epoch TimesScreenshot 2014-07-17 at 9.29.08 PM.
A meteor or fireball was spotted over North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey on Thursday night.

Many people reported seeing the bright light in the sky between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. EDT. Dan Perhar, a software developer at North Carolina University, captured it around 10:15 p.m. as he was driving on Interstate 440 in Raleigh.

He posted the short video on YouTube.

NASA Solar System Ambassador and WRAL contributor Tony Rice viewed the video. "Looking at that dashcam video it looked pretty low on the horizon. That flash may have been it breaking up," Rice posted on Twitter.

Comment: As the chart below vividly shows, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of reported fireballs for the last 2 years.



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

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

Image
© David Worthington10 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.

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......


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Bird? Plane? No, it was 'definitely' a meteor across Melbourne skies

Matt Cram
3AW693
Thu, 10 Jul 2014 16:23 UTC
Melbourne Fireball
© 3AW693
Astronomy experts have confirmed a meteor burned across Melbourne skies last night.

Melburnians, as well as people in Gippsland, NSW and Tasmania saw the spectacular light show, which lasted about 20 seconds.
@3AW693 pic.twitter.com/VQz1f8a97G

- Matt Kearsley (@matt_kearsley) July 10, 2014
@3AW693 in Tullamarine 9.47pm pic.twitter.com/ZpRlsjXmGa

- Jan Laczynski (@YYarni) July 10, 2014
Witnessed one of the most amazing things in my life at work tonight, never thought I'd see a meteor spectacular sight #MelbourneMeteor

- Mitchell Clark (@Mitchclark18) July 10, 2014
Wow, just witnessed the amazing meteor / shooting star on way home from mums. Amazing! #melbournemeteor #melbourneshootingstar

- Lauren Clair (@lozclair) July 10, 2014
The 3AW talkback line lit up as Melburnians realised what was happening.

John told 3AW Nightline he pulled over while driving in Keilor Park to watch the light show.
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Possible meteor spotted over Southern Manitoba

Brett Megarry
cjob.com
Wed, 09 Jul 2014 15:14 UTC
Fireball
© cjob.com
There are reports of a fireball streaking through the skies of Southern Manitoba.

Scott Young with the Manitoba Museum tells CJOB they got some calls from the Interlake just before 11 this morning.

"Saying, is there something going on? I saw this big trail of smoke in the sky and then we had a big explosion, but I didn't hear any sounds. What's with that?

Well we think what happened is a little asteroid or a big version of a meteor came into the atmosphere somewhere over Central Manitoba, and exploded."

Young says they can't pinpoint where it was yet, but they suspect it was in western Manitoba, so they're asking for anyone who saw it to let them know, so they can triangulate a location.
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Close approach of PHA asteroid 2014 MF6

Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes & Martino Nicolini
Remanzacco Observatory
Wed, 09 Jul 2014 14:17 UTC
The asteroid 2014 MF6 was discovered (at magnitude ~17.0) on 2014, June 23.3 by Catalina Sky Survey (MPC code 703) with a 0.68-m Schmidt + CCD.

According to the preliminay orbit, 2014 MF6 is an Apollo type asteroid. This class of asteroids are defined by having semi-major axes greater than that of the Earth (> 1 AU) but perihelion distances less than the Earth's aphelion distance (q < 1.017 AU). It is also flagged as a "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid". PHA are asteroids larger than approximately 100m that might have threatening close approaches to the Earth (they can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU).

2014 MF6 has an estimated size of 190 m - 420 m (based on the object's absolute magnitude H=20.7) and it will have a close approach with Earth at about 9.1 LD (Lunar Distances = ~384,000 kilometers) or 0.0233 AU (1 AU = ~150 million kilometers) at 1939 UT on 2014, July 09. This asteroid will reach the peak magnitude ~15.3 on the period from 06 to 09 July 2014.

We performed some follow-up measurements of this object on 2014, July 09.4, remotely from the Q62 iTelescope network (Siding Spring, AU) through a 0.50-m f/6.8 astrograph + CCD + focal reducer). Below you can see our image taken with the asteroid at magnitude ~15.3 and moving at ~ 40.43 "/min. Click on the image below to see a bigger version. North is up, East is to the left (the asteroid is trailed in the image due to its fast speed).
PHA Asteroid 2014 MF6
© Remanzacco Observatory
Here you can see a short animation showing the movement of 2014 MF6 (three consecutive 60-second exposure). East is up, North is to the right.
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