Superfast Shooting Star?

Last night i decided to look out of my bathroom window as it was a clear moon and i could see the big yellow moon shining through. I opened it and leaned out to look at the sky and literally as soon as i looked up i saw what i think was a shooting star directly overhead for the first time in my life! I carried on watching the sky to see if i saw any more. About a minute later i saw one shoot in the other direction but this time not out of the corner of my eye.

What surprised me was it's speed.. it was quite faint and bluey in colour but it crossed my path of sight in less than half a second (too fast for me to track with my eyes). When i have seen videos of meteors they don't travel this fast

I haven't put this in the UFO section because as i say its he first timeI have seen a shooting star so i suppose that could be the normal speed.. What DID make me post it is the activity seen in Rochester NY and thought it would be worth putting it here even if it is insignificant.

50/50

Dont forget were coming up to the height of the Perseids meteor showers so it wont be unusual to start seeing them around now

en.wikipedia.org...

I was aware of them, i read somewhere about a week ago but the skies are really light polluted here and with the full moon over the last few nights its not been easy to see much. Like I say it most likely is what i originally thought but I'ts the first time ive seen one, even after spending hours up in the freezing cold looking for the leonids!

The sky is a fascinating place at night.

Originally posted by fiftyfifty

The sky is a fascinating place at night.

It most certainly is

The best view I ever had of the sky without any light pollution was in Australia. We drove up from Perth to Carnarvon and camped all the way and at night, with not a street light or any light of any description anywhere the sky was simply awesome.

Originally posted by Chorlton

Originally posted by fiftyfifty

The sky is a fascinating place at night.

It most certainly is

The best view I ever had of the sky without any light pollution was in Australia. We drove up from Perth to Carnarvon and camped all the way and at night, with not a street light or any light of any description anywhere the sky was simply awesome.

That must have been amazing chorlton. The best I saw believe it or not was on the East coast of the UK, It was amazing how many stars could be seen compared to where i live just 85 miles away. They need to do something about the street lights, they waste so much electricity and block out an amazing view.

I still dont know why they dont switch off say, every other street light from say 1.00 AM.
Would save a lot of money

I need to invent a Infra red/ radio hybrid so that an infrared sensor on a lamp post registers movement and sends a signal up the road to turn lights on, They have a timer so that when there is no traffic or people they can switch off Wouldn't even be that expensive compared to the cost of the wasted electricity...erm that ideas copyrighted by the way

Wow, exactly the same thing happened to me about 5 years ago. It was still daylight, and as I was sitting in my patio, a bright meteor flew directly overhead horizontally to the horizon. At first I thought nothing unusual about it other than it's rare to see such a thing in daylight. Then about 5 minutes later, another one streaked overhead in exactly the opposite direction all the way to the horizon.

As I sat there, I mused on the odds of such an occurrence. Both of them were:

Daylight visible
5 minutes apart
Overhead
Horizontal trajectory
Super fast
Didn't burn out
Opposite directions

As for Perseids, keep in mind that they radiate from a common area of the sky. If you see one going the opposite direction, one of them really can't be from that shower. VERY unusual to see what you saw, especially in a short time frame.

As for Perseids, keep in mind that they radiate from a common area of the sky. If you see one going the opposite direction, one of them really can't be from that shower. VERY unusual to see what you saw, especially in a short time frame.

That's what I thought but like I say it's the first time ive seen them. Like the ones you saw, they didn't burn out either. From the moment I saw them until they disappeared over rooves (quite a lot of sky) and extremeley quick.

EDIT: PLUS this was on the 2nd of August.. the perseids peak on the 12th-13th so what are the chances of seeing two within minutes of eachother that early?

[edit on 11-8-2007 by fiftyfifty]

Hi Fiftyfifty,
i am located in Derby and i have seen one of these on the 5th.
Scared the life out of me as i didnt know what it was until today.

This one came to earth but could not find anything on the ground,it had disintegrated.

If you have a car i would suggest going towards Matlock areas in the hills as there really is not much light pollution .Somewhere like Wirksworth
near the national stone centre is really high up and there is a small observatory there.

Im planning on heading out those ways myself if the clouds remain.



[edit on 11-8-2007 by tracey ace]

Hi Tracey - Nice to see another midlander here

That sounds like a good idea, I do drive so it may be worth driving up there. If there is no cloud cover over the next few days it would be perfect to watch the perseids.

Where did you see the meteorite impact? It would be worth looking a bit more if you are sure that it did as they can be quite valuable.

Did you go? I didnt

Caught some nasty astral virus or something.My throats killing me.

As for the meteorite i couldnt find anything.It was my neighbours garden which it landed in and shes got dogs.Vicious ones.

Im thinking that i will lie to her and say that i threw a ring over the fence so that i can have a look with a metal detector.Just for an excuse.

I think but im not 100% that they contain metals.Is this correct?

yeah i remember the first time i saw one, it kinda scared me too, and it was rather early in the morning, and then i came to my senses. most of the ones ive seen since have been out of the corner of my eye, and by the time i look up they are gone.

Originally posted by tracey ace
This one came to earth but could not find anything on the ground,it had disintegrated.

Hi again tracey,

Sounds like you saw a nice fireball, but it's higly unlikely that anything made it to the ground. See this page, which explains why: www.meteorobs.org...

No I didnt go Tracey. I was too tired and wasn't really up to driving let alone staying up late! I missed it completely unfortunately

As C.H.U.D said, It's highly unlikely that anything made it to the ground as most of the meteors we see are no bigger than a grain of sand. Its just the sheer speed which makes them burn up with such intensity.

Still worth a look though!