Meteor Reports 09 Jan

[SNOW_JOKE]

Last night I was fortunate enough to have witnessed one of the most colourful Meteorites ive seen in a long time. I was walking across the fields in the Moonlight looking at Venus when a Beautiful Meteor that lasted well over 2 and a half seconds streaked over.

The display has been reported by a few people around the country and I was wondering wether anyone else also saw this display. Im sure there must have been a few people outside in the clear skies with their telescopes looking at Venus, im even hoping youve caught the meteor on camera as it was quite a colourful display of reds and greens.

[mettalfabrik]

your not the only one but the look of things

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The SOCIETY for POPULAR ASTRONOMY

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Electronic News Bulletin No. 259 2009 January 18

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Here is the latest round-up of news from the Society for Popular

Astronomy. The SPA is Britain's liveliest astronomical society, with

members all over the world. We accept subscription payments online

at our secure site and can take credit and debit cards. You can join

or renew via a secure server or just see how much we have to offer by

visiting http://www.popastro.com/

JANUARY 9 UK FIREBALL

By Alastair McBeath, SPA Meteor Section Director

After a fairly quiet December for fireball sightings, other than near

the Geminid and Ursid maxima, IYA2009 has opened with a clutch of

non-Quadrantid fireballs for the UK. Most were reported from single

locations only (see the SPA's "Recent Fireball Sightings" webpage at

http://snipurl.com/a8ber for details). However, one on January 9-10

was more widely-seen, from at least seven places in western England

and south Wales (Lancashire to Gwent). It happened within eight

minutes of 18:47 UT, and was around magnitude -5 to -8, according to

the more detailed observations. Its possible atmospheric trajectory

has not been firmly-established, but a best estimate from the reports

suggests it may have been moving roughly NE to SW, starting somewhere

high above northwest or central-western Wales, heading out over

Cardigan Bay towards St George's Channel. More accurate positional

data on where the fireball started and ended in the sky from

different locations would be needed to improve this. Most witnesses

described the meteor as slow-moving, and it was visible for probably

3 to 4 seconds or more. Colours reported have included blue, red,

orange and yellow, plus green perhaps in the object's tail. Some of

the sighting reports can be found on the Observing Forum, at

http://snipurl.com/a8mvd, and among the postings on the UK Weather

World's Space Weather Quadrantids topic, at http://snipurl.com/a8myb .

Regular ENB readers may recall there was also a bright, UK-seen

fireball on January 9-10 in 2008, around 18:55-19:00 UT (see ENB 236,

archived at http://snipurl.com/a8n38 ). This seems to be nothing more

than a curious coincidence though, and there is no evidence to link

the two objects beyond their rough timings.

Anyone else who spotted

the 2009 January 9 fireball, or any others - meteors of magnitude -3

or brighter - from the British Isles and nearby is welcome to send a

full report to the Meteor Section as soon as possible. The minimum

details I need from you are:

1) Exactly where you were (name of the

nearest town or large village and county if in Britain, or your

geographic latitude and longitude if elsewhere in the world);

2) The

date and timing of the event; and

3) Where the fireball started and

ended in the sky, as accurately as possible, or where the first and

last points you could see of the trail were if you didn't see the

whole flight.

More advice and a fuller set of items to send are

outlined on the "Fireball Observing" page of the SPA website, at:

http://snipurl.com/a8n8f.