'Meteor shower' dazzles the Victorian sky

Us Aussies are a competitive bunch...

Hot on the tails (pun intended) of the British meteor of last night www.abovetopsecret.com... some lucky Victorians got to catch a glimpse of a meteor over our skies last night. (sadly, I was not one of them...)

A FIREBALL that streaked through the sky last night had many Victorians thinking a plane had crashed. The meteor was seen across Victoria at about 10.45pm, including at Anglesea, Frankston, Berwick, Cairnlea, Tullamarine and Dandenong, reported the Herald Sun. The fireball even caused a sensation in the UK with police inundated with emergency phone calls. Read more: www.news.com.au...

Our little blue globe must be whizzing past a busy section of the astronomical streets at the moment. Mind you, there is nothing unusual about this, its just great to have these latest ones occur over well populated areas! If only I went outside last night! I would love to see one in real life, so I will be up tonight as the chances might be good to catch some more of its friends.

Here is our uber hot sexy chunk of astro junk.



Image and text from Source

EDIT:
Hang on... I'm seriously doubting this is in fact the same meteor as seen in the UK.... I would have thought it to be a separate one, as part of a shower, not in fact the same one.

reply to post by Qumulys


Nice. Pity I'm in Adelaide.

reply to post by Qumulys

post by Qumulys
I would have thought it to be a separate one, as part of a shower, not in fact the same one.

So would I ... otherwise that aint no Meteor
Interesting that we have two rather large Meteors so close together yet the next shower isn't due till April 21-22 ....coincidence or a pretext to something bigger

www.theskyscrapers.org...

reply to post by gortex


Well, did anyone in between see it?

reply to post by bonsaihorn


Yeah, will be interesting to work out if it was seen at another point on the globe..

Is there any details on the exact direction it was heading when over the UK?

edit, also, it would need to be captured by earths gravity at just the right amount to make it all the way around. Perhaps its possible it "bounced" across the UK like a skipping stone on a pond, and then re-entered the atmosphere over Australian skies... But to burn up that long? Quite a feat of our little meteoric friend.

A poster claims it was travelling South-West to North East over the UK.

I guess its technically possible... In that direction it could have crossed Victoria, but it would have ventured across the Northern Territory as well, but I've seen no reports of that. It would help if there were any European (Norway-ish), Russia sightings to confirm, or if a direction can be established over Victoria.

reply to post by Qumulys


The meteor over the UK travelled north to south according to

... the Kielder Observatory, in Northumberland, described it as a "huge fireball" travelling from north to south over the county...

and

Adrian West, of Meteorwatch ... believed it could have gone down in the English Channel or the Bay of Biscay.

Full story BBC

So I dont think the UK one is the same one as the Aussie one. But nice that both hit on the same night. Maybe its a Triffids invasion!

I just seen two about an hour ago and i live right on the Scottish border. One of them was quite large, burning bright for about 10 seconds. Twas awesome.

Here in Northern Victoria 2 nights ago a fireball was seen. From what I can gather, the person working with my wife thought they were seeing things or tripping, but apparently they seen it. Whether it has anything to do with this, I don't know.

Rumoured impact site; helicopters seen to be flying nearby.

just my 02 bits


the Images could be of the same object (likely got jumbled in the rush to publish)

but if the object was streaking through the atmosphere, it was too near the planets surface to be the same object, therefore there were two distinct meteors seen, almost half a world apart.

north to south or an NE-SW trajectories sounds like natural debris
W-E or S-N paths would suggest man made objects falling from orbit

Ok, I wasnt going to say anything, but here goes.

Last night I went outside to put some rubbish out, it was a beautiful clear night sky, Milky way dazzling as usual.
As I always have a look for Satellites etc, I just happened to be looking in the right direction when I saw a "Phenomenon".

Looking South, about 40 degrees, I saw a flash of light, but it wasnt a flash.
Before my eyes I saw an "Orb" just appear in the sky the size of a star, BUT quickly grew in size to what I can only describe as twice as large as Venus when shes bright, or maybe even a 1/4 size of the full moon, then in the same instant, it reduced in size and disappeared.
This all happened in maybe 1- 1.5 seconds....very quickly but enough time to be noted and seen. the light was a yellow orange colour...did not move, or sped off, or act like a satellite, or meteor or anything.

As usual I stayed out for 10 minutes or so...no planes, Helicopters etc etc.

It was just there, then it was gone....and it Must have Been Immense in size (compared to ordinary space junk). I thought It may have been a revolving satellite, reflecting the Sun, but it didnt move, didnt not appear again in any direction.....
I am not claiming ET or a UFO or Secret space vehicle....It was just another unexplained "Phenomenon"
Definitely not a meteor shower, but impressive none the less.

By the way, I have seen Flashes, which are Meteors etc....this was'nt a flash, but a sustained, growing light, then fade in a very short time........As far as my knowledge extends, it could have even been a SuperNova, that happened Millions/Billions or years ago, that I just happened to be looking at the right time, at the right part of the night sky. Perhaps I should buy a lottery ticket.
Either way, Im not loosing any sleep over it .

BTW...Adelaide, Australia....

reply to post by gort51


Must have been quite the sight! You say you saw it in the south from your position, any idea on where it was heading?

I'd say it was part of this 'shower'. Most likely a very small one, say, grain of rice sized. Probably trying its best to become a bolide but just fizzled out. Did it look like any of these in this video?

reply to post by shadowland8


Are you talking about the one in the UK or Australia?

reply to post by gort51


Hi, I've seen this quite a few times. It is an Iridium satelite.

Iridium Flares - Link

Why do they talk about ""meteor shower" if what is described is one single fireball in australia ?

Also did anyone found out if the fireballs are artificial or not ?

weird stuff....