meteoroid break up?

Warning: Double internety post, but just curious if anyone else seen this...

Just coming back from the pub (I've only had 3 Guinness), we were driving back home and a funny orange moving light appeared in the sky.

We pulled over and got out of the car (Laura never had a drink) and watched it zoom over head... Then another one, then another... I counted 5.

We were'nt the only ones, there was about 4 cars that joined in to see it.

They appeared bright orange, and moved quicker than a plane... They were pretty low, seemed to be floating around 35 000 feet, roughly the same height as commercial flights, as they seemed to appear on a pretty low trajectory, and as each one came into view, it seemed lower than the last.

I was looking if they had any big brothers kicking around, but after number five, no more appeared (Which was a relief)

I'll be scanning the news in the next couple of days, as its not everyday you see fire balls in the sky!

Anyone else witness this, I'm guessing it'll be peeps from Scotland to Yorkshire, as that was the general direction they were heading in (Pretty much dead on southwards), and I live in Durham, which is in between(ish... northumberland doesnt count, because theres nowt but sheep and cod heeds)! :P

Dabz

I think you've just been Tango'ed :P

Mmm Guinness :)

Hope it was caught on camera, sounds exciting.

lol, I'm afraid it takes me more than 3 jars to start seeing stars! ;)



Exactly... Shlurp!! :)



I've seen a few things in my time, but this was one of the toppers... You realise there and then as they are pelting through the sky that whatever mercy is out there... your at it!

Dabz

Hey sounds cool! Did these fireballs have tails?

You may have caught the last of the Orionids meteor shower; that peaked a couple of days ago.

The Leonids are coming up later in November.

I can honestly say that that may be the case... But they were some chunky arse fireballs flying above my head.

I say chunky arse... they were probably the size of a shoe box when bursting through the atmos... But it was a great sight, a worrying one the way they came in, but great non the less!!!

They didnt have much of a tail that I saw, which probably means there wasnt loads of gas/water trapped in there, but they were bloody low though! For some reason, the way they came 'over' the top of us, it felt that they could just smack into the valley side opposide to where I live (Which was where I was at prior)

I do actually realise that what I may have saw was probably no bigger than a tennis ball heated up due to the friction, in each entity that went past!

But in some ways.... Its was a bloody great sight... You could say I was humbled even.

Dabz

Yeah. First time anybody's seen fire on Tyneside. :D

I witnessed low flying meteroids with long tails about 15 years ago at about 2:00am while fishing. Scared the bajeebas out of me. Looked like missiles coming down at first. Incredible.

GfK, Durham is Wearside, and don't you forget it!

lol, your right, they havent even got TV's yet! ;)

Now over here next to the Wear, we have all the mod cons... VCR, wireless clock radios and we've just recently installed a upstairs toilet! :)

We're sorted! :D

Dabz

Meh. Can't make do with one bloody river, like Stoke, or London, or Clacton by the river Sea.

:)

My most amazing sky sighting came about three years ago. I was out just before dawn and happened to look at the sky. At that moment a light appeared, growing rapidly in brightness. The maximum lasted a few seconds and was absolutely dazzling.

When I got over the surprise I remembered what this had to be, an Iridium satellite flare. There is a web site which predicts these. A check showed a flare for my time and location, at the right place in the sky. The visual magnitude was minus eight, which makes it more that four hundred times as bright as the brightest star.

Possibly related?

I don't suppose the lights in the sky might have been able to be described as "bright green, drawing a green mist behind it - a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight"?

Were you perhaps headed in the direction of Horsell Common?

heh.. sounds cool - kinda amused by how superhuman you are too ;)
- you could estimate theyre size, distance + speed - hahahaha.. that
is impressive.. jst exactly how did you do that? ...small or far away? ;)

interesting post...

didnt see anything up here in shetland - then again, its the edge of the
world.. + i wasnt looking :p

Just general observation really... I never said I was right, thats why I stated I was going to keep pegs on the news! :)

@xlsior

Mmmmm, will look into that! ;)



Nope, they were definitley bright orange.



Theres the Tees too that runs through Middlesbrough, but that doesnt count because we tend to ignore our smoggy neighbours! :D

Hehehe

Dabz

Well if you se one meteroid at planes height. dont tell anyone about it. i dont :)