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posted by martyb on Friday September 19 2014, @03:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the big-bright-bolide dept.

On September 14th 2014, a massive fireball streaked across the skies over the northeastern USA. Reports said that for a brief moment it was brighter than the full moon, bright enough to cast shadows on the ground, and visibly broke up. Hundreds of reports show this meteor traveling across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York; with it being visible as far away as North Carolina, Illinois, and New Hampshire.

Are there any Soylents here who saw it? Have you ever seen a fireball? How about a meteor shower or even a meteor storm? Maybe the Aurora Borealis? What is your most memorable astronomical observation?

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  • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @03:55AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @03:55AM (#95339)

    Let's just say that fireball wasn't the only thing that streaked the Northeast tonight. Wooo wooo!

  • (Score: 1) by EvilJim on Friday September 19 2014, @04:12AM

    by EvilJim (2501) on Friday September 19 2014, @04:12AM (#95343) Journal

    yes, I've seen one, plus many singular 'shooting stars' - does this comment add anything to the discussion?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @06:45AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @06:45AM (#95375)

      I'm in Dunedin, New Zealand, and I've seen two fireballs explode. One way back in 1986, when I was out spotting Halley's Comet with the local astronomical club, and another one either in winter 2011 or 2012.

      I was walking along, my little LED torch lighting up the ground in front of me, then I realised that it couldn't possibly be lighting up my whole back yard and casting shadows. I looked up and saw three fireballs in the sky above me, flames streaming off them, for about three seconds, and then the middle broke up and exploded, taking the remaining two with it.

      Just stunning. About 10 seconds earlier, I'd said to my partner that she should look up, you never know what you'll see. She missed it because she was too busy looking at her feet.

      • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @07:05AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @07:05AM (#95382)

        Hey, do you know Shane Baxter?
        I went to high school with him.
        It was a boarding school in another country but he lived in Dunedin.

        • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @11:28AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @11:28AM (#95432)

          The name doesn't ring any bells, sorry. I did know a Mark Baxter, but everyone in town in the early 90s knows him.

    • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by zafiro17 on Friday September 19 2014, @10:05AM

      by zafiro17 (234) on Friday September 19 2014, @10:05AM (#95415) Homepage

      No, actually your comment lends very little to the conversation. The guy below from Dunedin on the other hand took the time to share his experiences, which made for a pretty interesting story. Thanks for being lazy though.

      --
      Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey
      • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by EvilJim on Friday September 19 2014, @11:05AM

        by EvilJim (2501) on Friday September 19 2014, @11:05AM (#95425) Journal

        That is what I thought, happy to be lazy anytime for you. my experiences were nothing noteworthy, just small streaks across parts of the sky so not much to see here. Dunedinite below did have something interesting. thanks.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by EvilSS on Friday September 19 2014, @04:15AM

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 19 2014, @04:15AM (#95344)

    Who's Major Fireball and why was he flying over the east coast?

    • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Friday September 19 2014, @04:35AM

      by zocalo (302) on Friday September 19 2014, @04:35AM (#95350)

      Heh, reminds me of the pun about an MS DOS error "Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?"; quite poignant at the time given how many dollars each MB (yes, that an "M") cost...

      Getting back on topic, I'd probably go for one of the more spectacular aurora I've seen, but it's a tough call between a massive radial burst in all colours - possibly a direct CME impact - and a really rapidly moving band that was cycling between red and green. I've also seen a meteor visibly explode break up over the Namib desert, but that was no way near as impressive as this - not much of a fireball and the whole thing was over in a matter of seconds, but memorable for the spectacular location in our campsite amongst the dunes.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    • (Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Friday September 19 2014, @05:25AM

      by SlimmPickens (1056) on Friday September 19 2014, @05:25AM (#95360)

      Who's Major Fireball and why was he flying over the east coast?

      I don't know but I'm sure he knows Roger Ramjet.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Friday September 19 2014, @08:33PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Friday September 19 2014, @08:33PM (#95650) Journal

      Who's Major Fireball and why was he flying over the east coast?

       
      You might know him by his previous name, Major Tom.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by richtopia on Friday September 19 2014, @05:04AM

    by richtopia (3160) on Friday September 19 2014, @05:04AM (#95355) Homepage Journal

    Dashcam or it didn't happen.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @06:56AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @06:56AM (#95380)

    Saw one in the Hill country of Texas back in the 70's. You couldn't miss it; lit up everything like the sun out. So cool.
    Tins foil hats; Ready Set GO!
    Ok so what's the chance that all these more recent ones are ICBMs being shot down and not Meteors?

    • (Score: 2) by khallow on Friday September 19 2014, @12:52PM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 19 2014, @12:52PM (#95458) Journal

      Ok so what's the chance that all these more recent ones are ICBMs being shot down and not Meteors?

      I'd say zero. It wouldn't make sense to test a anti-missile system over populated areas (both for secrecy and third party risk) and a real ICBM attack would involve a lot more than a missile every few days or weeks.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by zeigerpuppy on Friday September 19 2014, @07:31AM

    by zeigerpuppy (1298) on Friday September 19 2014, @07:31AM (#95387)

    I have seen a fireball and a meteor break up into glowing red and blue fragments. Both these were while camping in remote locations with no artificial light. It's amazing how much more you see when dark adapted.

    If you want to see such phenomena, take a few friends camping, no lights (or red lights if you must!). You may also see a number of other surprises.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 19 2014, @12:23PM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 19 2014, @12:23PM (#95449) Journal

      If you want to see such phenomena, take a few friends camping, no lights (or red lights if you must!). You may also see a number of other surprises.

      Apropos light, darkness and surprises: modern tents don't have a single piece of rope. [xkcd.org]

      - .

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by PapayaSF on Friday September 19 2014, @08:20AM

    by PapayaSF (1183) on Friday September 19 2014, @08:20AM (#95394)

    OK, two are just weather: a large and complete (all four ends touching the ground) double rainbow over Kansas, and a "fleet" of lenticular clouds over the Golden Gate bridge that looked like a group of gigantic UFOs in disguise.

    But my favorite was in a hot tub at Esalen, one Christmas Eve at about 11:00 p.m. about 20 years ago. I heard a roar in the sky, coming west over the hills and toward the ocean. Being a bit of an aircraft geek (at least compared to most visitors to Esalen) I looked up and saw a visible flame almost directly overhead. Was it a fighter on afterburner? The flame was distinct and pretty large: hold your fingers about an inch apart at arm's length. But I couldn't see the silhouette of the plane against the stars, and the roar was a bit rough sounding for a jet engine. For a moment I couldn't grasp what I was seeing, but as it headed out over the ocean I saw it break into two or three pieces, the flame went out, the roar stopped, and though the trajectory meant it landed in the ocean not very far from shore, I didn't see any splashes.

    That's when I broke the New Age-y meditative mood and said "OH MY GOD, did you see that?? Did you hear that?? That was a meteorite that passed so close that we heard it!!" Unfortunately, none of my fellow tubbers were as excited as I was, perhaps because they didn't know how rare it is to hear a meteorite.

    • (Score: 1) by Gnuthulhu on Friday September 19 2014, @06:58PM

      by Gnuthulhu (2718) on Friday September 19 2014, @06:58PM (#95590) Homepage

      I saw and heard a fireball too while lying in a docked boat to look at the stars. This was in 1986 in Haliburton, Ontario.

  • (Score: 1) by wantkitteh on Friday September 19 2014, @08:46AM

    by wantkitteh (3362) on Friday September 19 2014, @08:46AM (#95396) Homepage Journal

    A friend of mine came into my back garden where I was standing with the lights off staring intently into the sky not long after sunset. He told me about this new secret CIA spyplane that a couple of his friends were brewing up conspiracy theories about and proceeded to attempt to talk my ear off with his theories about how it's all fabricated and fake and photoshopped and it doesn't really exist at all and is just a smokescreen for something and yes, I'd switched off and was just making vague uh-huhs and grunts by this point in the "conversation". When he finally asked what I thought, he was someone taken aback when I said I was pretty sure it existed because I'd seen it with my own eyes. It took him quite some time to grasp the fact that the tiny faint dot of light in the sky I'd been watching with watering eyes on the inner edge of my peripheral vision the whole time he'd been talking to be was in fact the X-37B.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @09:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @09:08AM (#95401)

    Aaaaah! Panic! Buy tinned food and ammo! Invade someone!

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @11:23AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @11:23AM (#95431)

    Maybe. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Making love on the beach under the moonlight.

    Do I pass?

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @11:40AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 19 2014, @11:40AM (#95435)

      Maybe. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Making love on the beach under the moonlight.
      Do I pass?

      If you throw in some moaning with those yes-es, I'll let you pass.

  • (Score: 2) by BradTheGeek on Friday September 19 2014, @12:16PM

    by BradTheGeek (450) on Friday September 19 2014, @12:16PM (#95447)

    ...and night fishing on a small lake. There was an occasional car on the road, and you could see them light up the trees (differently depending on the direction of travel). I saw the trees across the lake light up as if there was a car coming from behind me, but it was different, the cast of light was moving differently. As soon as I realized that, it shot overhead. The light had an almost greenish cast. A second or two after it went over the treeline there was a flash.

    It was very surprising. I have stayed up for showers, and seen singular falling stars. To date though my most memorable event was being about 12 or 13 and looking at the moon through a decent telescope (about a 5" reflector I think), during a lunar eclipse and watching the penumbra and umbra move across the moon. The amount of detail available to my eye was astounding.

  • (Score: 1) by dak664 on Friday September 19 2014, @04:55PM

    by dak664 (2433) on Friday September 19 2014, @04:55PM (#95555)

    Going out to the car one morning in 1971 in Illinois I saw a rotating pockmarked meteor moving silently due south for about three seconds. It appeared about the size of the full moon and had jets gases streaming out of holes in various directions as it rotated. Must have been something big just skimming the atmosphere. I called the airport but there were no other reported sightings.

    Carried a pocket camera for a year after that but never needed it.

  • (Score: 1) by SlackStone on Saturday September 20 2014, @03:15AM

    by SlackStone (815) on Saturday September 20 2014, @03:15AM (#95750) Homepage

    Driving from VT back to Philly after a weekend camping off line with my chainsaw. I was somewhere around Albany NY. The moonrise was so intense that evening, then poof - right at 12 o'clock. down the highway. Thanks SN for confirming my story of the massive fireball. What a way to cap off a great weekend in the woods.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 21 2014, @12:23AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 21 2014, @12:23AM (#96070)

      In my mind I am imagining you going on a romantic getaway with your chainsaw. The stars above, and the fire providing warmth.