You always read about meteorites...

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:26 am

... but have you ever seen one?

Well, I just got lucky; I was on my bycicle on the way to grab a bite to eat, and this bright shooting star grabs my attention, above and to the North. Lasted about a second, during which it grew brighter and then disintegrated (disappeared).

Funny that, for years, I'd go out whenever the Leonids were announced, spend time looking at the sky, and never saw any...

Shockingly bright. Thought it was a plane exploding, the first moment.

Post by **hurleybird** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 5:50 am

Cool!

We should see a lot of shooting stars in 2012 when the sun undergoes polar shift. The weakened magnetic feild will allow more space dust to enter the solar system!

Post by **mkruer** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 6:45 am

This is a no shitter.

Back when hale bop was coming around. My uncle took me out to the valley on a mountain top, near the valley. (need to get away from the city) any while we were looking at the comet there was a car driving by down the mountain glancing over by the car, I looked up as saw these streaks of light, and I though COOL! Meteorites! Then the next car drove past and all it was, was light reflecting off of the telephone wires on the side of the road.

energyman76b · Post by **energyman76b** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 5:59 am

Hi,

I have seen something more than half a douzend until now.

It is a nice view - but are you sure that it was a meteorite? Or was it an Iridium flare?

Post by **dandandaman** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 9:20 am

I've seen tons...and always find it interesting that not everyone else has. I assume you haven't always lived in cities ... in which case even stranger.

That said one of my friends has never seen one .... we even went up to an observatory way out in whoop whoop for a physics field trip thing, and despite there being at least 10 over the whole night (I saw 7, and know of 3 I missed) she didn't see a thing!

Funny

Dan.a

Ryder P. Moses · Post by **Ryder P. Moses** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 3:32 am

Yeah, that's just wierd. Even in fairly urban areas... hell, I can just be walking down the street at night, look up and see one.

Granted, I grew up in the DC area, so they were probably mostly just old Russian spy sattelites and shit finally falling out of orbit.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 7:59 pm

saw a few in my life too,

but the biggest one i ever spotted left an ionized trail of air from right above me 'til something near the horizon

pincushionman · Post by **pincushionman** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:38 pm

Meteor, dude. Doesn't become a meteorite until it hits the ground.

Spaceman Spiff · Post by **Spaceman Spiff** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:40 pm

A small one hit my uncles garage five years ago. But it wasn't a big sensation . It did hardly any damage and my uncle called the cops because he thought somebody had crashed into it with his car and went away. They told him somedays later what it was. I was kind of disapointed. I thought those things would have more power. But it had hit the wall in a narrow ancle and did then go on the concrete ground. I couldn't see anything on the ground. My uncle did show me the side up it could have been anything.... But he still has the rock

makes him happy... tells the story everybody...

VegaObscura · Post by **VegaObscura** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:21 pm

I thought the difference between meteors and meteorites was one has a tail and the other doesn't. Saw something like that on the magic school bus a looooong time ago lol.

Orb99 · Post by **Orb99** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 3:15 am

Here's the breakdown:
Meteoroid: a chunk of rock and such floating in space.
Meteor: the chunk of rock during a plummet through an atmosphere (leaving a visible streak of plasma, and generally making a spectacle of itself).
Meteorite: the same rock, having done whatever damage it's going to do, now resting in the whereabouts of a planetary surface.

As for ones with tails, that would probably be a...
Comet: a different beast entirely.

sepius · Post by **sepius** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:53 pm

Yeah, My Dad and I always checked the leonid shower every year and would see heaps for hours in the backyard at Albury, NSW, AUS. I think here in Aus we get a better show than northern hem, but dont quote that as fact, I am a convinience store manager, not a astro physicist, but down here, seen HEAPS! The satelites look good too on a clear night. The coolest though was when a friend and I found a very shiny sparkly rock. We gave it to our teacher (oh Primary School to by the way) who sent it her old uni in Melbourne, turned out it was a meteorite and we could not get it back, have never seen a rock the same.

Halleck · Post by **Halleck** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 2:36 pm

I've probably seen around six or seven... I went outside for one of those meteor showers once, but only saw two or three then.

They are quite cool.

Post by **loki1950** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 4:14 pm

after 30 odd years of amateur astromony i ve lost count of the meteors that i've seen but the exploding ones are always mererable.

Enjoy the Choice

Reuse · Post by **Reuse** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 9:37 am

Hm, infact there are so many meteors each night, if you just spent some hours staring into the sky at night you have a good chance of seeing one.

I don't know how many I saw until now but it must have been at least some dozens.

But one was espacially cool! It was very bright and big. and it was even leaving a visible smoke trail on the sky. I think I saw this one during the Leonides, but I'm not sure about it.

pheldens · Post by **pheldens** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:41 pm

may have been an iridium flash (sattelite)

http://images.google.com/images?q=iridi ... a=N&tab=wi

pheldens · Post by **pheldens** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:53 pm

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 11:54 pm

No; couldn't have been; it was too late in the evening for iridium sat antennae to reflect sunlight; besides, it was to the North, more than to the West, and it wasn't a "flash" but a gradual intensification until it was gone at once. Besides, the iridiums were decomissioned in 2002.

Reuse · Post by **Reuse** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 3:51 pm

You cannot confuse a meteor with a sattelite.

A meteor is a bright trail is the sky. It is very fast and usually can only be seen for a second at max.

A sattelite reflecting sunlight is just looking like a fast moving star.

energyman76b · Post by **energyman76b** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 2:50 pm

@Chuck
It was planned to shut Iridium down, but than it was safed.

Iridium is still in use. Especially the military uses it.

Post by **chuck_starchaser** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 3:24 pm

Ah, I see... Glad to hear they didn't go to waste, after all.