'Fireball' spotted in sky over Northern Ireland

A "fireball as bright as the moon" has been spotted moving across the sky above Northern Ireland, according to the Irish Astronomical Association.

IAA president, Terry Moseley, said the sighting was reported by member of the association who works at the Met Office in County Antrim on Tuesday evening.

'Fireball' spotted in sky over Northern Ireland

Interesting, another flash in the sky tonight over Northern ireland, ( am thinking of the Russian orange glow vids posted atm)

is it me or are these things becoming a little more frequent?

I myself posted a thread once showing how its just that we are recording them better with new technology , but cameras and phones have been around a while now and for some reason i get a gut feeling that sightings of fireballs in the sky seem to be increasing.

Mr Moseley told BBC Radio Ulster: "He was out observing with a group of students and they all saw it. So it was travelling south east to north east across the sky.

"He described it as 'bright as the moon' which is really remarkably bright. I've seen many ones, but never one as bright as that myself."

Mr Moseley appealed to members of the public to report any sightings of the fireball to the IAA.

so am i mad? or these things becoming more common?

Q

a reply to: Quantum_Squirrel

I think it has more to do with the Internet making so much information available. Not that many years ago, we would have never heard of something like this, unless it was local.

Shame they did not get a video of it passing over.

The American Meteor Society has a Fireball Logs page. LINK

Yes, I picked that up from the Rosetta thread...the BBC link for that also had the 'fireball' story. The BBC picked it up quickly since one of their reporters also saw it. I saw now't.
Although there was a biggish one like this way back in the early 60's here in NI..I saw that one!

originally posted by: Quantum_Squirrel i get a gut feeling that sightings of fireballs in the sky seem to be increasing.

ditto.

a reply to: Quantum_Squirrel

russia just had a fireball as well...there is a thread on here somewhere...havent compared the dates yet

originally posted by: Blaine91555
a reply to: Quantum_Squirrel
Shame they did not get a video of it passing over.

There might be yet, it travelled South to North, and over Belfast where there are plenty of CCTV cameras, as well as the towns.
This picture is from an Irish breaking news site.


www.breakingnews.ie...

a reply to: rockpaperhammock

The Russian "event" was reported to have happened on the 14th. I don't think the two are related.

Thanks for the thread OP, interesting times.

Looks like they are extremely common.

How frequently do fireballs occur?

Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.

Additionally, the brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event. As a general thumb rule, there are only about 1/3 as many fireballs present for each successively brighter magnitude class, following an exponential decrease. Experienced observers can expect to see only about 1 fireball of magnitude -6 or better for every 200 hours of meteor observing, while a fireball of magnitude -4 can be expected about once every 20 hours or so.

LINK

Leonid meteor shower peaked yesterday 11/17 and today 11/18.

I'm out watching tonight had lots of clouds on the 17th. so i hope to get some photos.

a reply to: Wookiep

my bad thx for clearing that up...just fired from the hip without checking first!

For context from an earlier post of mine , worth watching full screen in HD



I see the evidence with my eyes but i still think frequency is increasing? i mean the probability of two big flashes caught over Russia? within a certain amount of years? are they just all appearing over populated areas now more than the sea?

Still think reports are increasing .. no data to back me up just a hunch after watching this stuff intently for over a decade. although my decades worth of Data is NOTHING in the grand scheme.

Q

originally posted by: hillbilly4rent
Leonid meteor shower peaked yesterday 11/17 and today 11/18.

I'm out watching tonight had lots of clouds on the 17th. so i hope to get some photos.

Leonid was the first thing i thought of when hearing the news and location , does anyone know the scope of visibility for these showers? could you for instance see them in Russia and Northern Ireland? at the same time? surely they are not visible from the entire planet? this would be a bombardment no?

Q

That wasnt a firball in russia, that was putin sending out the love to the world!a reply to: rockpaperhammock

originally posted by: Quantum_Squirrel
For context from an earlier post of mine , worth watching full screen in HD

I see the evidence with my eyes but i still think frequency is increasing? i mean the probability of two big flashes caught over Russia? within a certain amount of years? are they just all appearing over populated areas now more than the sea?

Still think reports are increasing .. no data to back me up just a hunch after watching this stuff intently for over a decade. although my decades worth of Data is NOTHING in the grand scheme.

Q

Well there is something reasonable enough in Blaine's post about people simply not seeing, while they are common enough and I see plenty because I do look..not tonight though This one was very bright, that's not so common here and appears to be Blue in colour so it's Magnesium and so a metallic meteor as far as I know. As a footnote, there was already a bright one here on the 28th October this year..I didn't see that one either! It might be on my cameras though, as may tonight's, I haven't looked yet.
Mmm, just had another thought, this video and pictures were taken 21st Semptember 2012 also over Northern Ireland and it is thought to have turned out to be actually spce junk, even though there is a resemblence in the video to lanterns, which they were not.

There was another more singular, but very bright sighting a couple of days later and I'm thinking maybe be space junk too, so this will surely add to the idea of more meteors, as well as the known showers occuring in the autumn months, so from that point of view you could be right, the sky's are busier overall.

originally posted by: Blaine91555
Looks like they are extremely common.

How frequently do fireballs occur?

Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.

Additionally, the brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event. As a general thumb rule, there are only about 1/3 as many fireballs present for each successively brighter magnitude class, following an exponential decrease. Experienced observers can expect to see only about 1 fireball of magnitude -6 or better for every 200 hours of meteor observing, while a fireball of magnitude -4 can be expected about once every 20 hours or so.

LINK

Lies, lies, lies and a bunch of BS!

Any person with half a brain can see for themselves these things weren't common until the past few years. They are most certainly on the rise and will continue to increase...

a reply to: hillbilly4rent

Yeah I would say it is to do with this.chances are you always see stuff like this at this time of year.

originally posted by: Rezlooper

originally posted by: Blaine91555
Looks like they are extremely common.

How frequently do fireballs occur?

Several thousand meteors of fireball magnitude occur in the Earth’s atmosphere each day. The vast majority of these, however, occur over the oceans and uninhabited regions, and a good many are masked by daylight. Those that occur at night also stand little chance of being detected due to the relatively low numbers of persons out to notice them.

Additionally, the brighter the fireball, the more rare is the event. As a general thumb rule, there are only about 1/3 as many fireballs present for each successively brighter magnitude class, following an exponential decrease. Experienced observers can expect to see only about 1 fireball of magnitude -6 or better for every 200 hours of meteor observing, while a fireball of magnitude -4 can be expected about once every 20 hours or so.

LINK

Lies, lies, lies and a bunch of BS!

Any person with half a brain can see for themselves these things weren't common until the past few years. They are most certainly on the rise and will continue to increase...

Some sympathy with that, but it's all in the definition of what is coming down, or burning up. There is nothing wrong with what Blaine has given, they are stats. Stats are not definitive however if causes are misidentified, or misdirected.

A young lad drank a gallon of whiskey
And it started his soul feelin' frisky
Wanted to make some art
So he lighted a fart
And traversed the sky rather briskly

originally posted by: skunkape23
A young lad drank a gallon of whiskey
And it started his soul feelin' frisky
Wanted to make some art
So he lighted a fart
And traversed the sky rather briskly

Their was a young lady name Bright
Who traveled much faster than light
She departed one day in a relative way
And returned on the previous night

just getting in the spirit

Q

a reply to: Quantum_Squirrel

I'm not suggesting this did not happen, just wondering why no one seems to have captured pictures or video of this Moon sized fireball?

You would think at least somebody would have captured such an image or it would show up on a CCTV camera or similar device, especially so in this day of age.