Apparent meteor strike at sunset Perth, W.A. - pic at link with very unusual flame-like tail

Apologies first up as I can't seem to upload images, but the link has a good pic to what looks like a very unusual meteor strike.

It hit off the coast of Perth, W.A. yesterday at sunset, and the trail apparently lasted for 20 minutes. What appear to be flames, seem to have hung around for quite some time. Maybe there is someone here who could confirm this is normal?

Interestingly, the coastcam that would have picked this up (hosted on a local gov site), has disabled the archive for the hour period in which this object hit. You can adjust the archiving to within a minute at all other times, except for when this object hit.

But you will only be able to check out that this has been disabled for the next 3 hours only, as it archives only for 24 hours, and then resets to the latest 24 hour period from the current time. i.e. in four hour's time, it is likely when you to adjust it to 5:45pm (or 1745) local time (the rough time the object hit) it will go to the period 15 minutes prior, not the 5:45pm of yesterday.

The meteor/object link and pic is here: www.perthnow.com.au...

The archive cam is here: www.transport.wa.gov.au... (disabled only for the hour period in which this object hit)

reply to post by cloudbreak




Image -- that's interesting.. Damn I hadn't heard about it at all till now. Wish I'd seen it

Good find!

Good thing it landed in the ocean and not in Perth itself, a beautiful city is Perth. It seems the sky is falling after all! _javascript:icon('')

It looks nothing like a meteor and everything like the contrail of a jet flying from beyond the horizon.

reply to post by mainidh


Many thanks for posting the pic mainidh! What do you make of the disabling of the coastcam for only that hour period? I don't see the harm in letting what would normally be publically accessible images to remain available if it just a meteor strike.

Anyhow...thanks.

reply to post by Phage


Why would local gov disable the coastcam for just that hour period if it is simply a contrail? Have a look.

You may well be right, but the witness descriptions don't sound like contrails, and diasbling the cam seems a little unusual.

Was there movement? towards or away from the horizon?
Was it fast or slow? Could be a plane or a missile...

reply to post by cloudbreak

I can't get the time selection to work at all. Only the hourly buttons work for me.

Daniel Jongue, manager at The Naked Fig Cafe, said he noticed ``something on the horizon'' just before sunset. He said the fiery trail took about 20 minutes to dissipate.

``It looked like vapour. It was red, orange and yellow and quite beautiful,'' he said.

source
It sounds just like a sunset contrail.

Very interesting, and awesome find! I can remember a couple weeks ago they released news of a nearby asteroid passing us the day after it happened! They aren't going to tell us ahead of time if something is going to happen, and that's sort of scary when you realize we're flying through space right now and in a flash an asteroid could destroy us. I wish I knew more about astronomy and had a decent telescope so I could see for myself and kiss my a** goodbye.

reply to post by Phage


Even more 'curiouser'. I swear on my life up to about an hour ago, you could input times (as the directions indicate to) up to within a minute for every other time except for that hour period.

Now it seems they have fully disabled the minute checking function. It obviously seemed too odd to only have that hour period disabled and no other time slots. Not being a tinfoiler here, but it was working earlier.

Originally posted by cloudbreak
reply to post by mainidh

 

Many thanks for posting the pic mainidh! What do you make of the disabling of the coastcam for only that hour period? I don't see the harm in letting what would normally be publically accessible images to remain available if it just a meteor strike.

Anyhow...thanks.

I have no idea, and it does seem odd that Perth Observatory and Astronomy WA were also unavailable for contact about it.

Given the witness reports also, people who live here and know the beach, I very much doubt it was a contrail. I tend to factor in eye witness reports in these things, and the people of WA are not country bumpkins that can't tell a contrail from something unusual.

Damn it too, I try to look up whenever I'm out, and this is right on my doorstep, but it had to be in the morning

Oops it said 6pm, even worse!!! lol

reply to post by mainidh

I tend to factor in eye witness reports in these things, and the people of WA are not country bumpkins that can't tell a contrail from something unusual.

Happens regularly. May I direct your attention to these threads:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

And of course, who can forget these?
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by mainidh

Originally posted by cloudbreak
reply to post by mainidh

 

Many thanks for posting the pic mainidh! What do you make of the disabling of the coastcam for only that hour period? I don't see the harm in letting what would normally be publically accessible images to remain available if it just a meteor strike.

Anyhow...thanks.

I have no idea, and it does seem odd that Perth Observatory and Astronomy WA were also unavailable for contact about it.

Given the witness reports also, people who live here and know the beach, I very much doubt it was a contrail. I tend to factor in eye witness reports in these things, and the people of WA are not country bumpkins that can't tell a contrail from something unusual.

Damn it too, I try to look up whenever I'm out, and this is right on my doorstep, but it had to be in the morning

Oops it said 6pm, even worse!!! lol

edit on 1-7-2012 by mainidh because: (no reason given)

What details about this make it not a contrail then?

What is your opinion or facts that it is not a contrail?

reply to post by cloudbreak

Well it doesn't work for Swanbourne either. I wouldn't put too much importance on it.

reply to post by mainidh


Yeah - but to you being from Perth, doesn't it seem a highly unusual tranjectory in any event to be a contrail? Planes typically go north or northwest, not down over the horizon like that into the nothingness of the southern Indian ocean.

If it were a contrail, it would then be past the horizon (which is what..26km away at a guess? giving room for height of a plane) - so why would it be so wide and thick, with so much vapour, at suchh a point in the h just horizon?

A contrail would seem the most logical, but it doesn't add up in my mind (not being an expert, admittedly)

reply to post by Phage


Not every streak in the sky is a contrail Phage It's all over the web.

Google results of "Perth meteor" for the last 24 hours

reply to post by cloudbreak

Have a look at this.
www.lifeonperth.com...
Emirates flight EK 408?

reply to post by Romekje

Not everything you see on the internet is correct. Especially when it's all the same story.

reply to post by Phage


The only importance I am putting on it that this was working before, quite truthfully, in the way I described. That's all. Could be a coincidence, not sure. But this morning, and most of today...it was only that hour period which was disabled. Not to worry. More pics will surface I am sure the next few days.

reply to post by Phage


Ow i realise that very well. Though i tend to hinge towards the meteor side of the story here.