Saw something (possibly explode) in the sky…

1st night, soft-lad here stopped outside, camera on tripod at the ready. Between 10pm and 2am (7 coffees, 14 ciggies, 4 hours of “The Navy lark” on the Mp3) I saw 10 isolates. Rubbish. Over a 4 hour period on any night I would expect 10 or 12. 3 per hour is quite normal. About 7 years ago (Maybe 10 my brain’s gone), the Leonids peaked at 6,000 per HOUR! Now that was a shower to photo! But it was cloudy for me.
That was in the days of Fillum. I did a lot of night shots, 45 minute exposures. They say this is a bad thing to do with the Digatal camera because the sensor is “On” for too long and will burn out. I found this out after stating that I took a 20 minute shot (Which then took another 18 minutes to write to the card BTW). What do you think? (Makes sense to me)
Oh, B4 anyone says it….it is not the same as taking hundreds of shots at 1 second intervals and doing a blend. A 45 minute burn at f11 will pick out the faintest stars, and also show the colours of the stars. A multi-shot wont.

Daughter and I just saw lots of showers of glitter,but it’s hard to tell if we actually were seeing meteorites,with the amount the council squander on street lights plus the flare from Gatwick just up the road. Also we both exclaimed simultaneously ” Oh look ! They’re going in that direction ! ” only I was pointing to the right and she was pointing to the left .

apparently its gonna be mostly up north u will see it…south is gona be overcast

anyone else gonna look up at the sky tonight in the late hours of tonight. early hours of tomorrow for the meteor shower?

trying to…part cloudy over stansted at the mo =[

anyone else gonna look up at the sky tonight in the late hours of tonight. early hours of tomorrow for the meteor shower?

Hi Old shape, You mentioned that you heard the bang approx 30 seconds after the flash. I was told in the past the speed of sound travels approx 3 seconds a mile, but checking up its more like 5 seconds a mile, so you were a lot closer still.
G.

Damn, I thought you’d read an article about it……not using bits of science and rithmitic. 🙂

Get real a Meteor shower!!;)

Wellington285 the forum`s own Stephen Hawking :p

Well thank you kind sir, not at the same level as Mr. Hawking.
G.

the speed of sound travels approx 3 seconds a mile, but checking up its more like 5 seconds a mile.
G.

Wellington285 the forum`s own Stephen Hawking :p

How do you know I was 10 miles away.

Hi Old shape, You mentioned that you heard the bang approx 30 seconds after the flash. I was told in the past the speed of sound travels approx 3 seconds a mile, but checking up its more like 5 seconds a mile, so you were a lot closer still.
G.

What a shame no camera too hand, such is life. You were only 10 miles away when it went bang, a lot closer than being a distant fireball, lucky man to have witnessed that.
G

How do you know I was 10 miles away…..after the BANG I went on the net to see if it was on the news or such. Nothing. Nothing the next day either. I never did find a decent account of it.

Camera was in the room, I was on the shelf outside. I didn’t dare take my eyes off it, as I knew it was a rarity.

Lucky to witness it, but it actually shook me up, that we are insignificant nothings when it comes to the universe.

That is what I thought it might be.:D

It’s the only explanation,:rolleyes:
already ducking:D

Magic lantern on fire?

That is what I thought it might be.:D

Magic lantern on fire?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1204051/Retired-school-teacher-captures-UFO-stalking-RAF-Hercules-camera.html

It took about 5 or 6 seconds to cross the whole sky and it finished with a flash which lit up Greece. 30 seconds later the Boom from the flash rattled every window in the hotel and shook the horizon. As always with such things, NO CAMERA!

So, this could have been a distant fireball.

What a shame no camera too hand, such is life. You were only 10 miles away when it went bang, a lot closer than being a distant fireball, lucky man to have witnessed that.
G

I’m a bit of a meteor spotter, and they are never “Slow”, as per the opening post.
I have indeed seen Orange ones, Green ones, Blue ones (And of course White). I’ve seen them splatter into 2 or many parts, but their speed is rapid.
Not usual for them to last more than a quarter of the arc of sky, and to cover that quarter is about 1 second max.
I was lucky enough to be in Rhodes last year when a mahoosive fireball passed over me in Pefkos. It was disintigrating all the time with multi coloured “Sparks” coming off it. It took about 5 or 6 seconds to cross the whole sky and it finished with a flash which lit up Greece. 30 seconds later the Boom from the flash rattled every window in the hotel and shook the horizon. As always with such things, NO CAMERA!

So, this could have been a distant fireball.

From what direction was it flying from.
Meteors normally run in from the east, any other direction would normally mean a bit of space junk re entering the atmosphere and would travel a lot slower. The Perseid meteor shower is happening about now and if it came in from the east it could be a Perseid meteor fireball seen a few that match your description. The shower peaks around the 12th & 13th August, hope for clear skies around midnight and you will be impressed roughly on average there could be 75 an hour rates.
G.

So, could it have been a plane? Meteorite?

The Wikipedia entry describes meteorites as acting the way I saw, but when I looked outside it was flying along perfectly straight and level…

Could well have been a meteorite burning-up as it skimmed the atmosphere; relatively few meteorites plummet ‘straight down’ to earth.

It was probably much further away than it looked, in the upper atmosphere, so may have seemed to be ‘flying straight and level’.

Congratulations, you’ve probably witnessed something very rare.