Comments on: Taurids Meteor Shower – The “Halloween Fireballs” Will Peak in November 2008

By: Meteor

Meteor — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:09:29 +0000

Fiona,

Thanks for your comment. Bookmark our site and check back with us.

Meteor Mark

By: Fiona knight

Fiona knight — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:21:53 +0000

I live in on the shropshire border of England and Wales in the UK and have been fortunate to have witnessed 2 fireballs. One was sighted on Saturday 22nd November, this was heading east to west and also one was witnessed on Tuesday 25th November this was heading in an easterly direction. Both were seen around the same time before 9pm GMT

By: Katie WI

Katie WI — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:26:04 +0000

I live near Milwaukee WI, and on Halloween night during trick-or-treat there was one so bright, and loud the people with their backs turned all turned their heads. It was a very neat and scary experience. I have been very outdoorsish my entire life and have never seen anything like it. It seemed so close to earth.

By: Meteor

Meteor — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 03:43:43 +0000

George and Rachel,

Wow! Congratulations! You saw a Fireball known as a bolide!

Bolide is derived from the Greek term bolis or to flash. As for the “fizzle pop” sound, that’s rare too! Search this site for, “Do Meteors Make a Sound?” and read the article.

I want to thank you for your kind contribution to the site because where I am (MYSTIC, CT) it is complete overcast, so I can only live vicariously through you…thanks again.

The Fireball was probably part of the Taurids Meteor that peaked on November 5th or it could be a stray fireball from the Leonids Meteor shower that is starting next week.

I can’t fully explain why you saw so many stars in the sky on this clear night, but let me go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe people in the “Big City” have turned off some lights to conserve energy? Imagine that? It most likely was that your view was not hampered by dust or moisture; therefore there may have been less light reflection in the sky.

This is an educated guess and I am so happy that you could share this with me, bookmark the site and check back with me. I will be updating the site letting you know when to Keep Your Head Up and see some more meteors, stay tuned!

- Meteor Mark

By: george and rachel kish

george and rachel kish — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:58:01 +0000

My youngest daughter Rachel and I were cat-fishing Thursday night, Nov. 6, between about 8:45pm till almost 2:00am. We fish from a deck on the water of an 1800 acre reservoir about 20 miles west of Richmond,Virginia. Our view of the sky is from due north to the southeast. At about 10pm Rachel saw a “shooting star” followed by 2 others over the next hour and another that I saw that she didn’t. All of these were typical trails of light that burned out. Between about 11pm until a little after midnight we were treated to a nice show in the sky. We both saw 6 meteors. We saw meteors that seemed to be falling away from earth, ie. appeared to get smaller as it traveled across the sky. Another appeared as a pop of sparking light out of nowhere. Several were unusually brighter than any shooting stars we’ve seen before. One looked like a fireball falling toward earth; it was either very large or very close judging by the size of it. It had a bright, tapering wide tail that was green with a yellow glow along the edges. The nose of it was distinct and looked like a ball of fire. the description of what Joe and Marina in post #5 saw sounds very much like what we saw, including the “Fizzle-pop!” sound.
Something we noticed before the show started was that the sky seemed unusually clear this night. We fish here every week and have never noticed so many stars and small glowing clusters of stars which we now believe are distant galaxies including M31 and M32. Our view is toward the metro Richmond area so there’s plenty of “city light” that interferes with sky-gazing. Could it be that it was just an exceptionally clear night like we’ve never seen before in all the years we’ve been fishing? or is there some other reason why so much more of the heavenly bodies were visible to us this night?

By: Meteor

Meteor — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:55:08 +0000

Hello Meteor Gazers,

Thanks for the comments. A person can see a meteor on any given night. The Taurids Meteor Shower and the Orionids Meteor Shower have been both been active since last month in addition to other minor events, but the Taurids seem to always produce wicked, brilliant, and somewhat eerie fireballs.

Keep Your Head Up!

-Meteor Mark

By: julie

julie — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:52:51 +0000

last night november 5th 08 we watched the fireworks out of the window of our house at about
6.50pm and we saw a huge fireball come into sight
and watched it move straight across the sky we moved to look from our front window and saw it gradually grow smaller into the distance untill it was a pinprick and it disapeared this seemed to last a total of a few minutes and is a vision we will never forget.

By: CAS

CAS — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:37:07 +0000

my dad told me about this shower two nights ago, but i promptly forgot. i walk to and from work in the evenings and coming home at 1:00 am on this perfectly clear night i remembered the rumors and started looking up. i saw one huge fireball that lasted for about 3 seconds! the cool thing is that on almost any given night over the past three weeks on clear nights i’ve seen shooting stars!

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:56:42 +0000

Saw a great one tonight, closer to polaris. Big, green and slow moving, the fireball lasted for about 3 seconds.

By: Ptoe

Ptoe — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:55:23 +0000

I saw a fantastic low meteor the night of Oct. 27th or 28th
But it was low – east to west – in the north – well below Cassiopeia
Could this have been a Taurid?
It was so bright I actually saw it through the window behind my computer monitor with the lights on in the house!
Wish I’d been outside.

By: Meteor

Meteor — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:47:45 +0000

Consider yourselves lucky! What you saw was a form of a Fireball called a Bolide. Please refer to our meteor term glossary for a "Fireball" and "Bolide" definition. By the way if you heard a sound, that also is pretty rare. Please also refer to the article, "Do Meteors Make a Sound?" Thank you for your post. Keep Your Head Up and Happy Halloween Fireball!

By: Joe and Marina

Joe and Marina — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:25:08 +0000

Sunday night, Nov 2, about 9:50 p.m. — Saw a fireball while on a brisk birthday-present motorcycle ride for my step-daughter, 12-year-old Marina Peralta (Worthington, MN). We were out looking for deer, and checking out this area’s dark lakes and ponds, but there was also some occasional meteor activity we were trying to keep aware of. We’d seen one light up the thin clouds to the southwest. But on the way back into town, having just slowed to watch a big buck and doe run from the ditch into the field, both our attention was immediately distracted toward the constellation Taurus. We both saw a slow, spark-throwing, lazy bright meteor that exploded at the end of a long streak. Fizzle-Pop! I’m guessing we saw a fireball? Didn’t look like meteors we’d *been* looking at.

By: Valerie TN

Valerie TN — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:46:15 +0000

From the hot tub tonight there were 2 bright meteors and 2 smaller ones. It has been great. Thanks for all the info for us new bees.

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:14:24 +0000

I just saw two tonight (10/31/08 – 9pm) so far, hopefully, I’ll get a view of a good shower after midnight!

By: Halloween

Halloween — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:13:37 +0000

Cool post thank you.