Kentucky Meteor Fireball 22OCT2011

Email From

Gary D.-Lexington, KY:
Very bright, almost like a magnesium flame. Roughly shaped like a truncated
triangle with narrow part in the front. Some trailing streak. Appeared to be
very low to ground or moving more perpendicular towards ground than would
have expected of meteors.
Almost appeared to "crash" nearby and we even thought to look for a crash
site.
We were in car in wooded residential area traveling WNW and the streak was
moving nearly exactly from the east to the west so it came into view as it
passed over car and appeared as if it would impact. It was lost from view as
it seemed to pass though the trees and was lost from sight. My front seat
passenger and I both reacted out loud as though we'd seen a crashing burning
object.

Michigan Meteor Fireball 22OCT2011

Email From:
Michael M.-I696, MI:
I was driving home from work on I 696 between the cities of Farmington Hills and Novi Michigan at 3am this morning and saw a bright green fire ball to the north come down.  It only lasted a couple of seconds.

Lakeway Texas Meteor Fireball 22OCT2011

Email From:

Ashley L.-Lakeway, TX:
I live in Lakeway, TX.  Saturday night sometime between 10 PM and 10:30 PM I saw a VERY bright and fast light that had a slightly green tint to it.  It was in the west, possibly west-northwest sky.  It looked as if it was falling straight down.  The light disappeared quickly.  It looked like it was many miles away.  I had never seen anything like it.   Thanks Ashley! Others???

Bright Orionid Meteor Captured By ELPALLSKY Fireball Camera 22OCT2011

From ELPALLSKY...The Orionids Are Underway !!!

Nice Orionid Over El Paso, TX To Start The Show !! 22OCT2011 06:44:44 UTC 12:44am MDT

image above and movie below courtesy and (c) 2011 ELPALLSKY-Jim Gamble

 

BC Canada Meteor Fireball 22OCT2011

Email From:

Robert P.-Surrey BC, Canada
large slow moving streak across the entire sky from southeast to northwest
very orange flame with a shower of bright white bits coming off.
a shower of bright white bits at the northwest, and a brief orange glow after.

ROSAT...Another Uncontrolled Satellite Reentry Expected 22OCT2011 To 24OCT2011

FROM...Spaceweather.com

Space Weather News for Oct. 14, 2011

ROSAT RE-ENTRY: The ROSAT X-ray observatory, launched in 1990 by NASA and managed for years by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), will return to Earth within the next two weeks. Current best estimates place the re-entry between Oct. 22nd and 24th over an unknown part of Earth. ROSAT will produce a spectacular fireball when it re-enters, but not all of the satellite will disintegrate.  According to the DLR, heat-resistant fragments as massive as 1.7 tons could reach Earth's surface.  Check http://spaceweather.com for more information.

LAST-CHANCE SIGHTINGS:  As ROSAT slowly descends it is growing brighter. During favorable passes, the satellite can now be seen shining as brightly as a first magnitude star in the night sky.  Local flyby times may be found using SpaceWeather's Satellite Tracker: http://spaceweather.com/flybys .   Or turn your smartphone into a ROSAT tracker using our Simple Flybys app: http://simpleflybys.com

 

FROM...SatTrackCam Leiden station (b)log

SatTrackCam Leiden (Cospar 4353, formerly 4352) is an amateur satellite tracking camera located at Leiden, the Netherlands. It makes accurate positional measurements on satellites of interest, mostly classified satellites -i.e. spy satellites- in order to determine their orbits.

Thursday, October 13, 2011              

Observing another doomed satellite: ROSAT

Shortly after the UARS reentry, which got wide attention, another scientific satellite is about to meet its demise by an uncontrolled plunge into the atmosphere. It is the German X-ray astronomical satellite ROSAT. This satellite is currently predicted to reenter about October 22 to 24.

This evening I watched it pass during twilight (sun at 8 degrees below the horizon, first stars just visible in a blue sky). It was fast, zipping across the sky, and bright: magnitude +1 and an easy naked eye object.

I used the new EF 2.0/35mm lens (a new purchase, first used last weekend during the Draconid meteor outburst, on which I will post in a later post), set to F2.5, making 5 second exposures at 400 ISO. The fast moving objects ran out of the frame of two of the three images. Below is the image thats shows the complete trail. The satellite was moving from left to right, across Cepheus. The streak in top is a streak of cirrus.

click image to enlarge

FOR MORE INFO...VISIT http://sattrackcam.blogspot.com/2011/10/observing-another-doomed-satellite.html