Fireball over Sussex, UK?

[WiganJu]

Hi everyone,

Going to try and get this short video uploaded - please dont expect it to be wonderful as its from a mobile and isnt fab quality -

That obsessed now with having seen something two nights running that the video camera is on charge! As sun sets we will be out there video in hand ready to capture anything that happens!

Will let u all know!

Julie

 

[Rado]

Maybe some loose tools from the infamous tool box arrived late?

 

[gordon_flash]

Good evening.

You didn't say how far the object moved in the minute it was visible. However, the lack of a trail of any sort, in my mind, wouldn't seem to be characteristic of an object re-entering the atmosphere (I've seen the space shuttle re-enter at night, and it leaves a trail). Could it have been a meterological ballon at high enough altitude that it was lit by the sun? Often such balloons will, when a certain altitude is reached, release the payload, which will then fall to Earth beneath a parachute. That payload would fall vertically, and perhaps get into darkness before any parachute opens. I don't know what they do to the main balloon, but it would make sense that, once the mission were over, the balloon would be deflated as quickly as possible.

There wasn't any unusual noise a few minutes later, was there? When the space shuttle re-enters, we hear a "sonic boom" even from our location in Louisiana, about 5 or 6 minutes after the shuttle passes us by. If there was such a noise (it wouldn't be real loud) then the above theory probably can be thrown in the garbage.

 

[DeeDeeDex]

Its most likely a 'Chinese Lantern', a paper balloon lantern that has candle suspended underneath to create a warm air current for the balloon to fill and lift. The balloon itself often catches on fire making it look like a fireball in the sky that suddenly falls or winks out. There have been many many of these sightings around manchester. Thay have made it into the local Tameside Advertiser Newspaper and even on BBC radio 2s Jeremy Vines Talk show.

 

[ChrisAstro]

It might be a Perseid Meteor...There are some reports of a fireball here:
http://www.spaceweather.com/

 

[lwblack]

Sounds like you witnessed deorbiting space debris. If you could witness the deorbit of the shuttle or the russian supply ships, you would also see similarities to your observances. Except hoping the shuttle doesnt break apart. As for the altering of a portion of the debris arc, trapped gasses or unspent fuel can alter its trajectory when ignited.
One would hope that every UFO incident could be explainable. However, in a scientific sense, it only takes one UFO report to be real for proof of an extraterrestial reality. I for one know that 'Venus' , 'swamp gas', 'mirages', etc. cannot hover, dive into the ocean and then reappear back to the hover position all within 3 minutes time. (eyewitnessed event)

 

[MeteorWayne]

It might be a Perseid Meteor...There are some reports of a fireball here:
http://www.spaceweather.com/

The event lasted far too long for a Perseid meteor. They hit the atmosphere at ~59 km/sec (~ 36 miles/sec) so never last longer than a second or two.

 

[Harvey2001]

I would imagine it was a Chinese lantern which have become popular over her in the UK.

 

[ilindsay]

Hi, don't know how much this fits with your observations, but I was out on Saturday, and was driving back to Petersfield, UK (near the west Sussex border) and I saw something similar. What looked like something burning moving slowly across the sky quite high up. I watched for a bit and it turned out to be a hot air balloon flying late at night. Quite a spectacular sight when they put their burners on full - looked a bit like someone was turning the moon on and off! This would have been about 10:30 BST (9:30 GMT), so the time is about right.

 

[Goz]

I'm not sure of the exact time but it would have been around 10pm I was sat outside my caravan a mile or 2 north west of swanage (Dorset, UK) and was surprised to note that everything around me was bathed in orange light. I looked up and saw a slow moving bright orange shooting star with a long tail. It was north west of where i was sitting and moving towards the south west (though could easily have just been heading west).

I can only assume this was the same thing. I didn't see it break up, though, and I only saw it for about 20 seconds before it disappeared leaving the streak behind it.

 

[ammonyte]

It's worth posting a report here http://www.imo.net/ (International Meteor Organization).

It sounds very similar to something I saw many years ago, including the piece falling more directly to ground. At the time I thought it was a firework (though not at the appropriate time of year for fireworks in the UK). Later after i had seen some videos of fireballs I realised that it may have been a fireball.

 

[Goz]

I'm not sure of the exact time but it would have been around 10pm I was sat outside my caravan a mile or 2 north west of swanage (Dorset, UK) and was surprised to note that everything around me was bathed in orange light. I looked up and saw a slow moving bright orange shooting star with a long tail. It was north west of where i was sitting and moving towards the south west (though could easily have just been heading west).

I can only assume this was the same thing. I didn't see it break up, though, and I only saw it for about 20 seconds before it disappeared leaving the streak behind it.

Hmm while i think about it ... the mention of fireworks in the post after mine reminded me that on saturday night there were fireworks in swanage but this happened the day before so probably about 10pm friday ... So NOT the same event.

 

[MeteorWayne]

It's worth posting a report here http://www.imo.net/ (International Meteor Organization).

It sounds very similar to something I saw many years ago, including the piece falling more directly to ground. At the time I thought it was a firework (though not at the appropriate time of year for fireworks in the UK). Later after i had seen some videos of fireballs I realised that it may have been a fireball.

You can post the reports (not a bad idea) but it was most likely not a meteoric fierball. 20 seconds is too long for one to last. The physics just doesn't work very well.

 

[Smersh]

I thought you might be in U.K. also. Probably a crippled flying saucer. Smersh will have more details, I'm sure.

To be honest, this thread is the first I heard of it. I just did a search in case there are any news articles but nothing came up.

Funnily enough though, I did find the following story about a "UFO" that crashed through a pensioner's roof in Hull a few days ago (not related to the Sussex sighting - Hull is about 200 miles away.) It's interesting in that this object in Hull seems to be a piece of space junk to me, so adds weight to the theory that this kind of thing can happen. As he said, this pensioner was lucky he wasn't killed!

UFO crashed through pensioner's house

Here's a photo he took of the metal object (sorry the picture isn't bigger) ...

 

[MeteorWayne]

Sure would have been nice if they had mentioned in the article what time it happpened.

Non scientists always omit such crucial details

Can one of you Brits tell me where Humberside is?

 

[Smersh]

... Can one of you Brits tell me where Humberside is?

Humberside (where Hull is) is a region in the north-east of England ...

 

[MeteorWayne]

Thanx, now if we only knew the time his roof got smacked, this might all come together...

 

[Smersh]

I just sent an e-mail to the editor of the newspaper (don't know who the reporter was as no name given on the article.) I asked if they could find out the exact date and time it occured. I'll post their response when I get it.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Thanx, good idea!

 

[D8A]

I saw something that evening too!

I noticed it about 45-50 degrees up from the horizon due west, and it travelled due east until about 85 degrees where it faded from view. I'm located in Sussex about 4 miles south of Gatwick Airport. It was getting dark but not yet fully dark, around 9:30pm but I can't be 100% sure of the time now (I made a mental note of the time to check the location of the ISS, Iridium, etc., but then promptly forgot until I read this).

It was bigger than a typical meteor, but not as dramatic as a fireball meteor. I have seen the ISS from this location before and it was similar in perceived size to the ISS with the shuttle attached, but less distinct (when I saw the ISS I could just about see some structure at closest point of the pass). It was also moving slower and did not seem to speed up noticably as it raised in elevation (i.e. got nearer!), unlike the ISS which did. It was undramatic to me but something about it did catch my attention, which living near an airport is unusual. Although I have looked for random satelites before and seen the ISS with the benefit of a time table, I have had no definate satelite sightings from here before other than the ISS (and the moon!).

My assumption was that it was a satelite or aeroplane at highish altitude (we get a lot of lower ones being near an airport and it did not seem to be one to me). I did not see any flames, fragmentation, or anything falling straight 'down', but I'm in a well light polluted urban area. I would have dismissed it as an aeroplane except the way it vanished at high elevation in the same way the ISS did (and no flashing lights), which suggested to me that it might have been a satellite moving into the Earth's shadow, especially given the time of day. I assume someone would have mentioned if a large or well known one was expected to have passed over at that time.

I'm facinated by the possibility of it being something re-entering, or debris, or even an early Persiud. Talking of which, I'm off to watch some of the latter right now...

I would love to see the video, btw.

 

[D8A]

Didn't see any Pesiods, although I did see two faint objects moving steadily from north west to south east at a high inclination at about 12:40 and 1:25 (BST, GMT+1). I don't think they could be metoers through because they took around least a minute to traverse my view and were in the wrong direction (I think - Persious is in the North West from here with the radial point just above the moon in inclination at this time of night). I don't think they could be satelites either because it's too late at night. Too fast for planets or stars so I guess they must be aeroplanes at very high altitude.

With regard to the object on Sunday, I think I've confirmed that the ISS was not visible over Sussex and no Iridum flares were predicted on that date and none of the satelites in my Starry Night software were visible either, but that still leaves hundreds of other satelites... and, of course, that busted flying saucer!

If it was an aeroplane (or two given the distance between the reported sightings), I wonder if the Sun might have reflected of it at just the right angle giving it the fiery appearence reported by some, despite being below the horizon from the ground. Not an exciting possibility, but a possibility.

 

[MeteorWayne]

At this time in the summer satellites are visible almost all night long from the UK an northern US; try looking at the Heaven's Above page and click on "Show all satellites greater than Mag +4.5" You will see how late they can be seen. Then cleck on "Next AM" on that page and you will see there is very little gap between the evening satellites and the morning satellites.

 

[rosdell]

Hi everyone,

Going to try and get this short video uploaded - please dont expect it to be wonderful as its from a mobile and isnt fab quality -

That obsessed now with having seen something two nights running that the video camera is on charge! As sun sets we will be out there video in hand ready to capture anything that happens!

Will let u all know!

Julie

The video Julie the video!! please don't forget to upload it, I would really like to watch it!

 

[D8A]

At this time in the summer satellites are visible almost all night long from the UK an northern US; try looking at the Heaven's Above page and click on "Show all satellites greater than Mag +4.5" You will see how late they can be seen. Then cleck on "Next AM" on that page and you will see there is very little gap between the evening satellites and the morning satellites.

Oh I'm so dumb, this is the site I used to eliminate the ISS (from my observation ), but I did not see the link for all satelites by magnitude! Thanks for the tip - I thought the objects last night looked like sats. I'll check 'em out later.

Regarding Sun, my first pass :roll: did not find an exact match, although maybe Lacrosse 2? Can't spend any more time on it now - got an app't in 6 hours and need to sleep. Nice site, all credit to Chris Peat. I couln't work out how to enter my location, but I hacked the URL query strings which seems to have done the trick.

http://www.heavens-above.com/allsats.as ... 75&Mag=4.5

This should be good for Sussex observers, and it seems to assume BST. Should be easy enough to change the lat and lng for hull or wigan. In fact, for Julie, Wigan should be: http://www.heavens-above.com/allsats.as ... 75&Mag=4.5

 

[Smersh]

Just "touching base" here, to let everyone know that I still haven't received a reply from the Hull newspaper, about my query for more details on the piece of metal that went through the pensioner's roof. Guess the paper has other fish to fry, but obviously if I do still hear back from them, I'll let y'all know.