Possible meteor/fireball sighting near my house

Sinapi

Jedi Council Member
FOTCM Member
Hi everyone,

I just wanted to report a possible comet I saw last night at around 7:30 p.m. over Orange County, California, because I haven't found any reports about it online yet. I say "possible" in case there end up being reports of a missile test (like the Trident test last year).

I was sitting outside when it suddenly became very bright around the corner of my house. I thought it was the moon, but there was no moon out that night. Instead, I saw these two bright lights lighting up the surrounding clouds and making a very bright, triangular prism-like shape that connected them. Electrical activity, perhaps? The fog around it was also bright white, then had hints of orange, like a small noctilucent cloud. The two lights were making ripples, like water waves in the clouds. I think the one on the right was rotating, too. There was no sound, just lights. I ran inside to grab my phone and take pictures, but you can only see a faint trace of the "prism" in the first picture because I was too late. The camera is facing northwest.

The light on the right disappeared, but the light on the left traveled across the sky very brightly, in a parabolic motion, for a few minutes until its large tail was gone. I saw the object disappear over the horizon with a single small tail, leaving the larger tail disconnected and still visible for about a minute (if that makes sense).

There was a lot of light pollution and some marine layer, so I'm surprised I saw this at all. I tried to take a video but the camera wasn't picking up enough light (and I'm inexperienced with taking videos) so I attached the best pictures I got.

Anyway, I hope this report is helpful in case some other earth changes (or missile tests) are reported in this area. I've never seen anything like this happen before in person. Thanks for reading!
 

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Hi everyone,

I just wanted to report a possible comet I saw last night at around 7:30 p.m. over Orange County, California, because I haven't found any reports about it online yet. I say "possible" in case there end up being reports of a missile test (like the Trident test last year).

I was sitting outside when it suddenly became very bright around the corner of my house. I thought it was the moon, but there was no moon out that night. Instead, I saw these two bright lights lighting up the surrounding clouds and making a very bright, triangular prism-like shape that connected them. Electrical activity, perhaps? The fog around it was also bright white, then had hints of orange, like a small noctilucent cloud. The two lights were making ripples, like water waves in the clouds. I think the one on the right was rotating, too. There was no sound, just lights. I ran inside to grab my phone and take pictures, but you can only see a faint trace of the "prism" in the first picture because I was too late. The camera is facing northwest.

The light on the right disappeared, but the light on the left traveled across the sky very brightly, in a parabolic motion, for a few minutes until its large tail was gone. I saw the object disappear over the horizon with a single small tail, leaving the larger tail disconnected and still visible for about a minute (if that makes sense).

There was a lot of light pollution and some marine layer, so I'm surprised I saw this at all. I tried to take a video but the camera wasn't picking up enough light (and I'm inexperienced with taking videos) so I attached the best pictures I got.

Anyway, I hope this report is helpful in case some other earth changes (or missile tests) are reported in this area. I've never seen anything like this happen before in person. Thanks for reading!




hello Zlyja:

I heard it was a launched rocket caring an Argentinian satellite over this area....
 
Woops! I heard nothing about the launch. The rocket being from Vandenberg makes sense from my location. It was quite dramatic.

Thanks for clearing that up, Xico!

Mods, please feel free to move this thread if it doesn't belong here.
 
Hi zlyja,
No problem, mistaken identifications do happen. Unfortunately (or not?), we didn't have any spectacular naked eyes comets for a while. Whenever it happens, it will surely be discussed in the forum and all who can see it (depending on the location) will :)
It is possible to have one this december (visible to the naked eye).

As for the rocket Launch, here is how it's described in spaceweather.com:

Last night, shortly after sunset, sonic booms rumbled across the southern California landscape. The loud sounds alerted residents of the area to look up, and this is what they saw:

Behyar-Bakhshandeh-F9_a25_1538968144_lg.jpg

"It was a Falcon 9 rocket launch," says Behyar Bakhshandeh, who photographed the exhaust hovering in the sky above Carlsbad, CA.

Residents described the expanding nebula, containing two active rocket stages and multiple shock waves as "exciting," "heart-stopping," "riveting," and "like an alien invasion!" But this was no alien. All the technology came from the Earth labs of SpaceX, which launched the rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The Falcon 9 propelled an Argentine environmental satellite into orbit. The rocket's previously flown first stage then flipped around and returned to Vandenberg, chalking up SpaceX's first West Coast landing. The booster put on a spectacular show as it descended tail first, deploying four legs and firing up one of its nine engines to slow for touchdown in a cloud of fiery exhaust.
 
Thank you for the extra information, mkrnhr and caballero reyes! That was definitely what I saw last night. I find it interesting that someone about 70 miles farther south than me got a much better view (referring to the picture taken in Carlsbad).

I'll look forward to new discussions on actual comets! But if I see something next time, I'll be sure to check SpaceX and Vandenberg first.
 
Zlyja, when I observed comet Halley last time it came around, it was visible every night for about six months, moving slightly across the sky so that it gradually progressed and was in a slightly different position every night. The comet followed the ecliptic towards the sun, gradually setting with it, and then rising with the sun some time later, in the mornings.
Totally different behaviour to a rocket launch which would be over in a half hour or so.
 
Here is a comet that might be visible to the naked eye (although using binoculars or a small backyard telescope in a remote area would be ideal to see it) in about two months from now for a few weeks: Comet 46P/Wirtanen - 2018 Apparition
Observing conditions are excellent
  • Near opposition at close approach
  • Visible most of the night around close approach (North and South hemispheres)
  • Visible for many hours for months before and after close approach
Dylan O'Donnell‏ @erfmufn
Oops.. typo - it's 46/P Wirtanen. Also note the cute little spiral galaxy on the right hand side.
7:08 AM - 6 Nov 2018

Zlyja, when I observed comet Halley last time it came around, it was visible every night for about six months, moving slightly across the sky so that it gradually progressed and was in a slightly different position every night. The comet followed the ecliptic towards the sun, gradually setting with it, and then rising with the sun some time later, in the mornings.
Totally different behaviour to a rocket launch which would be over in a half hour or so.

Hale-Bopp was a good one also IMHO.

The dates (1995 -1997), also coincided with finding Cass-chat, and Sott, through the Session's.

Life began to change after seeing and being wittness (and participate), with the both. :flowers:

We are living in great times of change. Like C's have said.
 
I think that Zylja meant a meteor/fireball and not a comet; I've edited the thread header accordingly.
 
On Sunday December 16 Comet 46P Wirtanen will be closest to Earth
Coming close in mid-December, Comet 46P Wirtanen hangs in this starry sky over the bell tower of a Romanesque church. In the constructed vertical panorama, a series of digital exposures capture its greenish coma on December 3 from Sant Llorenc de la Muga, Girona, Catalonia, Spain, planet Earth. With an orbital period that is now about 5.4 years, the periodic comet's perihelion, its closest approach, to the Sun will be on December 12. On December 16 it will be closest to Earth, passing at a distance of about 11.6 million kilometers or 39 light-seconds. That's close for a comet, a mere 30 times the Earth-Moon distance. A good binocular target for comet watchers, Wirtanen could be visible to the unaided eye from a dark sky site. To spot it after dusk on December 16, look close on the sky to the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus.

On Sunday, December 16, the hairy star will pass as close as possible to the Earth (in french)
Remember his name well: 46P/Wirtanen. It's the comet of the year! On December 16, the hairy star will pass as close to Earth as possible. This is the perfect time to observe it. With a magnitude of 4.6, it is visible to the naked eye. Its brightness could increase even more in the coming days. A beautiful celestial spectacle not to be missed this weekend, especially when the comet nucleus shines near the Pleiades.
 
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