Comments on: July Meteor Shower Schedule

By: Janine

Janine — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:56:50 +0000

Brandon…

I saw the same thing around 12:30 am Kansas City time. It was amazing. So you are not crazy!

By: Geno

Geno — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:05:22 +0000

To Brandon:

I live in Missouri and I think I saw the same thing you did. It was bright blue like a search light. No one I talked to has seen anything, I was beginning to think I was crazy….

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:23:24 +0000

Thank you for your explanation. Sorry for the third grade grammar and sentence structure of my post. I was still excited when I was typing it and was interrupted several times. I guess I was so anxious to get the post up I failed to proof it. LOL
I guess I should be thankful that Mother Nature still has the ability to make me so giddy. It is a memory that my wife and I never forget. I would have loved to have a picture of our faces as we watched in awe.
Brandon Jordan

By: Meteor

Meteor — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:55:31 +0000

Brandon,

I’m so tempted to say that you had a simultaneous flashback from a Jefferson Airplane concert.

My best guess is that you saw a Bolide. A bolide is a huge meteor/fireball that breaks apart during flight.

Check this link to the Meteor Glossary and look at “Fireball and Persistent Train”. Thousands of meteors go undetected every day. You should consider this moment special and rare. I haven’t seen an event like that in years and I’m out looking all the time. I should add most reports come from people who attended at least one Grateful Dead concert in their life, just kidding…

You should bookmark the site for the upcoming Perseids Meteor Shower of August and view the Eta-Aquarids that is peaking Tuesday Morning July 28. Hope you enjoy the site and if you have any more questions or comments I will be happy to answer them. Please check out the “Thank Meteor Mark” section on the right side of this site and in the meantime…keep your head up!

- Meteor Mark

By: Brandon

Brandon — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:00:47 +0000

All I can say is WOW…. On July 25 2009 I witnessed the most amazing sight I have ever in my 37 years on this earth. My entire family spends a lot of time interacting with Mother nature. So I have seen the beauty she can provide in some rather strange ways.
My wife and I had traveled to Southern Missouri for a concert on Saturday July 25 2009. At around 11.30 PM we witnessed in the eastern sky about 20 degrees or so off the horizon a huge fireball tracing across the sky for 5 to 6 seconds then appearing to break up into several pieces. What followed was a tracer or track left in the sky that lasted for what seemed to be 60 to 90 seconds. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I have searched the internet, watched the news, and spoke with everyone I have come in contact since about it and it sounds like we are the only people that witnessed this incredible sight.
Were we having some sort of simultaneous flash back from our teenage years, or did we see something out of the norm ? I have watched many comets and meteor showers in the past, but nothing like this. We were actually concerns for the astronauts until we got home and found all to be well with the shuttle and the I.S.S. . What did we see? Is this tracer or tail a common occurrence?

By: Meteor

Meteor — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:25:28 +0000

Vince,

Thanks for the questions and be sure to have a look in the upper right hand corner of the site for other pages and the “Thank Meteor Mark” section.

The object with the bright green tail sounds like a Fireball – Check out this article about colors for more information: COLORS

It sounds truly amazing!

To answer your other question, they could be part of the Perseids and Piscis Austrinids. The Piscis Austrinids is peaking on July 28th if you read the above post there is some more info.

Bookmark the site and check with me August 1st for more information on the Perseids where you may see up to 100 meteors per hour!

Keep your head up,

Meteor Mark

By: Vince

Vince — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:12:03 +0000

Mark, another question…

A few years back, we were in the same spot in the Finger Lakes (Keuka Lake). At around 11:30PM or so, a few of us were looking out over the lake in a westernly direction. We witnessed a bright green ball of fire with a cobalt tail (or what is cobalt with a bright green tail?); it was huge, and like nothing I have ever seen. We saw it fall all the way to our horizon. Anyway, it was the most incredible astronomical event that I have ever seen. What was this?

Thanks again.

Vince

By: Vince

Vince — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:06:23 +0000

Mark,

We are on vacation in the Finger Lakes Region of New York. Last night (7.24.09) from about 10:30PM-11:30PM we saw >10 meteors. Many of them were rather faint and fleeting (but still cool), but there were two that were just amazing, 3-5 seconds each, traveling in what appeared to be an East to West direction while falling. They were bright and had tails that faded slowly. At one point, we saw two cross eachother’s path, something I had never witnessed before. Nothing like high-fiving your 8 year old son after seeing a breathtaking shooter.

I noticed that most of the action we witnessed was in a particular section of the sky. Is this consistent with a meteor shower? If so, any clue which one it might be?

Thanks so much.

Very best regards,

Vince

Any idea

By: Meteor

Meteor — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:51:38 +0000

Hello Meteor Gazers!

Enjoy this meteor shower blog? You can “Thank Meteor Mark” by visiting the “donation” button in the upper right hand corner.

- Meteor Mark

By: Meteor

Meteor — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:35:13 +0000

Elizabeth,

RE: Ontario, Canada Fireball

Hopefully someone else saw it too and will report it here. Some fireballs last a second to a few seconds, there are also some that streak across the sky for a longer period of time. I wish I could give you more information, but it does sound like a fireball.

- Meteor Mark

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:30:03 +0000

I live in South Eastern Ontario, Canada. On Monday night July 20, 2009 around 9:30 p.m., my husband and I were driving home to our lake and witnessed a fireball in the east, going from south to north. At first we thought it was a small plane on fire, but when we drove to higher ground, the fireball had disappeared. Did anyone else see this? What was this fireball?

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:55:04 +0000

July 20, 2am. Moonless night, Edmonds, WA

I looked to the sky and within 10 minutes saw 6 significant meteors. Thrilled, I kept watching for 15 more but saw nothing else. We have so much light pollution I am always surprised to see them here.

I also saw something I have never seen before. A star became really bright then looked like it exploded and disappeared.

By: Meteor

Meteor — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:34:59 +0000

Dee,

Anything is possible I suppose. Large meteors called Fireballs or Bolides occasionally create “sonic booms”. Even large meteors like these don’t usually hit Earth with an explosion, but again anything is possible. I’m not doubting that you heard a noise, but just because there was no clouds in the sky doesn’t mean thunder couldn’t occur.

In conclusion, you may have heard thunder or a sonic boom created by a meteor breaking the speed of sound.

Hope this helps.

- Meteor Mark

By: Dee

Dee — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:25:33 +0000

I live in Southern Ontario, Canada, and at 2:40 am this morning (Saturday/Sunday) I saw the whole sky light up like lightning, though there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, I bolted to see what was going on at the window, and within 3-5 seconds heard a distant explosion. There is nothing in the news today, nothing online. Could this have been caused by the impact of a meteor hitting ground? I have never witnessed anything like it.

By: Michele Thrapp

Michele Thrapp — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:17:03 +0000

at approx 9.30+/- we say a huge silver streak out of eastern/southern sky. It was a spectacular surprise. We are in Eagle, Colorado. Down the road, a piece from Vail.