Spectacular fragmenting fireball over SW UK last night - 11 May 23:40:02UT

Great catch! Truly spectacular, thanks for sharing.

Cheers, Chris

Thanks, and you're welcome.

According to FRIPON it may have reached -12.5 absolute mag. (if I'm interpreting the graph correctly), just slightly less bright than the Moon at the time. That is in contrast to UKMON who say -6.4! The UKMON analysis also says the meteoroid mass was a little over 14g. I guess it must have been an iron for it to last that long/get that bright!

Wuhuuu....congratulations, THAT's been a big one, a "bolide", bravo!

best regards,

Thanks Michael! First of many I hope. I only just missed a couple of others similar to this one in terms of magnitude by a whisker, not long ago.

That’s amazing. I’ve seen a couple in my life. But I’m a million miles from filming one

Thanks John.

If you want to, it's probably not that hard to catch one with a camera like I did. Yes, I had a little luck to catch a major fireball, but there are quite a few big ones around at this time of year , and even more plentiful fireballs that are perhaps a notch smaller than this one. The key is to run the camera for long periods of time, as often as possible. If you have a fair view of the sky, you might catch one after only a few clear nights filming, with a little luck, but more likely weeks. I do it all manually (happy and able to stay with the camera all night), but it can be automated at the expense of a DIY project to build a waterproof housing + a PC/laptop to record, something I will do at some point soon hopefully.

In terms of cameras, there is something for everyone. It can be done on a budget if you don't mind low resolution and want to contribute to science (less than £200) rather than catch pretty footage, but will cost more if you want high resolution footage - prices have (and are) come/coming down which is why I decided to get into it. My own setup cost perhaps £2500 (not including batteries), but if you cut a few corners, perhaps around £1500-£1700 or less is possible if you want 4K (a7s-£300, NinjaV-£500, Samyang 24/1.4-£250 + a few hundred if you need other bits like a tripod/head and to cover SSDs/HDDs for storage/cables etc.). It's a while since I checked prices.

But it all comes down to how common these things are, and I think many (even experienced astronomers) underestimate how frequently they can be observed, and that is partly due to the distances they can be observed at - in this case at least as far as 6-700Km away (someone saw it in the north of the Nederlands ) which is not unheard of for such a bright event - so you don't even need to be that close to it (therefore, even a single camera with a relatively narrow angle lens can cover enough atmosphere to have a good chance).

I actually started my quest to image meteors/fireballs over 20 years ago, but recently moved somewhere that has a reasonable view (low horizons in one direction at least) and it has a nice balcony I can sit on/film from. I started running the camera a year ago (every clear night), and pointed the camera more or less straight up most of that time, which does not cover anywhere near as much atmosphere and makes catching fireballs less likely, but never the less I caught a few little ones, and one larger one shooting out of frame only to explode a second later. In that same time I visually observed at least 4-5 sizable fireballs, all in the direction I now point my camera.

Now a camera can sit out there and record for much longer than I can, so I have no doubt that it will catch more (than I could), at least so long as the weather affords opportunities. Hopefully the next one will be a little closer/higher in the sky!

More than happy to answer more questions if you or anyone else wants to have a go. There is a lack of meteor research/observation going on, and the science relies on observations, so imaging/recordings from amateur astronomers are always welcome.

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Leo S.

1DSmII said:

So after a little over a month of aiming down/at the horizon (much of April was cloudy, and the start of May has not been great either), in order to test the "theory" that aiming down is more likely to catch a significant fireball due to the lens covering more atmosphere, here is the first "hint" that aiming down does increase the odds.

I was lucky to also visually observe it from start to finish, as well as capture start/end with the camera, albeit behind a tree, which didn't seem to make too much difference anyway! The fragmentation and relatively slow velocity of the fireball suggest meteorites may have made it to the ground, or more likely, it's looking like they may be in the Bristol Chanel between England and Wales.
Download: https://vimeo.com/user83167831/download/708888654/88f788be3b

Equipment/settings Sony a7SII + Sigma Art 20/1.4 @ f1.4 - 1/30s, ISO 12800, 30 FPS - Ninja V recorder/monitor recording in 4K pro-res, Slog2 (vivid setting set on camera).

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Nice one Leo - Great share!

-M

Thanks for the detailed reply. I think I mainly own what I would need to get started, although I think I’d want a way of protecting my camera from damp before leaving it out over night. More of a challenge would be where to put the camera.

Presumably what’s needed is a fast wide lens and a means of power the camera not from its own battery. I wave an f2 7.5mm on mft. That’s slow for stars but should be ok on objects with surface brightness. I’m going to try for the Milky Way with it on holiday this summer. It should be better than my last effort with a 10mm f4 lens on an old aps c body. But even that was ok due to my secret weapon. The location with the least light pollution in England

I think when my grown up daughter moves out the room I can use her time. It has a a view that goes lower in the sky. Although there are street lights quite close.



So maybe a project for the future

Thanks!

john Clinch said:

Thanks for the detailed reply. I think I mainly own what I would need to get started, although I think I’d want a way of protecting my camera from damp before leaving it out over night.

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It is a worry if you can't be with your camera or at least check on it. I do check on mine throughout the night, but even so it has been rained on (just light rain) a hand full of times in the last year, usually if I've been distracted by something and forgot to check.

I think the only solution I'd be happy with if I wanted to leave the camera unattended for long periods would be a waterproof camera housing. I have seen housings made from peli-cases with transparent domes attached which look like the best way to go and intend to build one myself. I'll have a look for a link later if you are interested, but here are a couple of pics I saved of the type of thing I'm talking about:

john Clinch said:

More of a challenge would be where to put the camera.

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How about some beefy hooks so the case could be hung out of a window? I have been toying with a similar idea for a while as I could do with raising my camera.

john Clinch said:

Presumably what’s needed is a fast wide lens and a means of power the camera not from its own battery. I wave an f2 7.5mm on mft. That’s slow for stars but should be ok on objects with surface brightness. I’m going to try for the Milky Way with it on holiday this summer. It should be better than my last effort with a 10mm f4 lens on an old aps c body. But even that was ok due to my secret weapon. The location with the least light pollution in England

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Lens wise, ideally 20-28mm FF equivalent, the faster the better. I'm currently using 20/1.4, but a 24/1.4 would have been even better for this particular event. For the most useful scientific observations you need at least 3 stars in your image. Your system should be capable of that with the right lens - you should do some tests before committing, if the science aspect is important to you.

As you're at a relatively dark location your cameras settings will probably be maxed out - definitely consider a Sony a7S series camera which would be able to make the most of your location.

For power, look for an ac-dc coupler to run the camera from mains, or there should also be a way of running it off a 12V battery if required, but it will probably make sense to run from mains if you are at home. I currently use a 12V DC-DC coupler for my a7SII, but when I automate I can also power via USB. You should check what options there are for your camera.

john Clinch said:

I think when my grown up daughter moves out the room I can use her time. It has a a view that goes lower in the sky. Although there are street lights quite close.

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Perhaps a pole with a strategically placed shade if there is a particularly intrusive light in your FOV, but before trying DIY solutions, it may be worth contacting your local council and asking if they could attach a shade to the offending light/lights to prevent direct light spilling over to your property. I've heard some councils can be quite helpful, and actually did something when complaints were made, although I've never had cause to/tried myself.

Anyway, there are a few things for you to think about. There will likely be some obstacles to overcome/kinks to iron out before a project like this can work, so I think it's worth doing some thorough testing beforehand to see if it works with what you have, before committing to building housings etc. Perhaps spend a few nights pointing it out of a window, and hope for a small fireball.

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Leo S.

Wow, really impressive footage!

Thanks!

According to the IMO, The Sky is Falling Over Great Britain! . Not quite over Britain (it was actually over the coast of France), I caught another fireball last night - only my second night running a second camera, and both cameras caught the event. While not quite as bright as the event on 11 May, this one was still easily bright enough to qualify as a significant fireball, but it was significantly dimmed by all the atmosphere (about 450-500 km worth I estimate) in between, and being this low down in the sky and far away, it's not quite as impressive:







Apart from the very slow velocity (15 km/s) the other interesting thing about this event, according to the analysis by UKMON, is the orbit, which I think I'm not mistaken in saying is unusual in that it appears to originate between Earth and Mars:




Orbit - 25 May event

For comparison, and another extreme, here is the orbit from the 11 May event :




Orbit - 11 May event



There was also another interesting smaller borderline-fireball event the camera caught a few nights back on 24 May @ ~23:40UT, but I have quite a bit on my plate right now, and have not got round to uploading the footage yet - I'll try in the next few days!

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Leo S.