Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich_  although I knew of fireballs I had no idea how they behaved. |
My own personal 'best' fireball, was about 3 yrs ago.
I was out in the garden with a telescope (as usual on a clear night) - looking into the eyepiece, I noticed the ground around me starting to lighten, I looked up, and this thing was coming from the North - heading across to the East.
A very bright orangey nucleus (bright enough to make the ground lighten up discernably) - clouds of smoke seemed to be billowing from around the head, leaving a long trail behind it - but no sound, which seemed weird at the time.
Took about 30 seconds to cross the sky and disappear over some low clouds to my East, and I counted 6 'shooters' during the time I watched it - The trail lingered for a good 5 mins or more, slowly dispersed a bit like an aircraft contrail (but was much thicker)
It seemed to move very slow to me, and I was also puzzled by that - but not long after, I attended a very informative presentation at a local Star-party, all about meteors/meteorites, and some of the best footage of big fireballs was remarkably similar to the one I was lucky enough to spot.