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I rarely diverge from my favourite subject but, while travelling down to Dorset yesterday evening (to present at a Dorset Wildlife Trust / BC event), I saw my first ever "shooting star" (yes, I know it's a meteor!). It takes something special to really "move" me these days - but to see a bright light travel across the sky at high speed, leaving a trail of light, in the space of 0.5 seconds ... was just breathtaking. I almost had to pull over to draw breath - I really didn't realise how spectacular such a thing could be!

I've seen the aurora borealis from a plane (from a great distance, while flying back from the west coast of the US in 2005) and I've stood beneath a cloudless sky at 2am in Death Valley between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, admiring stars "all the way to the horizon" in 2007 ... but this experience is definitely "up there" among them!

Makes me feel very small in a very large place

Anyone else experienced anything similar? As you can tell - I'm still in awe

Cheers,

- Pete

As a bit of an astrofreak, I've looked for and seen quite a few, although most are not particularly special.

The most spectacular was mid-1980s when I saw one which went from horizon to opposite horizon and left a glowing trail for a minute or so. As it was 3.00 am, only a few people were up and spotted it, but there were reports on the tv news the next day.

Chris

Wish I could have been there Chris - sounds fantastic!

As a recent "inductee" to the world of "shooting stars" perhaps I'm being over-enthusiastic ... I'm the same when I see a new species of butterfly

What I saw what bright white - as bright as the moon ... and pierced the darkness with such intensity (and for such as short time) that this was (for me) a very special event. I'll definitely be looking out for them (when the right conditions arise ... such as a cloudless sky).

Cheers,

- Pete

I am an astro person too, I love looking at the stars. The only few instances I think I saw something, I don't remember the dates, was:

A few bits of comet flying past the sky, think it was a meteor shower, it was only a few years back, quite a cool thing to see. I also saw Hayleys comet when it passed last, that was pretty cool. And a few times around October-December, I am sure I saw the aurorae Boreillas or something, there was lots of flashes of light in the sky that kept going for a while and they were not fireworks, looked like they were flashing down through the clouds, but there has always been clouds so I have not seen it well, also I don't think you can see it properly here.

Shooting stars are always great the first time you see them., maybe even after that too. It does not look like much, but those things are really travelling fast through the atmosphere.

When I was a kid, I had a massive poster on my wall of the planets, it had all the distances in light years, plus loads of other stuff.

Then one day, a kind gentleman down the road, let me look through his telescope, it was huge thing that had it's own shed, with a moving roof. When I looked through it, he had it pointing at Jupiter.

I'll never forget that.

Gruditch

I am fascinated by how people relate to the heavens. In particular phenomena such as UFOs & alien abduction ( I am willing to be persuaded !! )

Charles

Despite being a sceptic (scientist by training and profession), I do have to admit to having had a very serious UFO experience.....I have certainly never managed to find a convincing explanation! As for alien abductions, well, they never seem to take the right people, do they?

Chris

My earliest memory of meteors was as a small child, camping in Scotland during the Perseids (about 13th August). My sister and I slept in the car while my parents got the tent - and we counted dozens and dozens of shooting stars that night, looking up through the back window of our old Maxi. Since then I've kept my eyes pointing upwards during all the major meteor showers. What you describe, Pete, sounds like a 'fireball' - a particularly bright meteor that seems to burn a bright trail across the night sky. They're most commonly seen during the big showers - the Perseids and, a few years ago, the Leonids (November 17th/18th), though the Leonids have not been strong in recent years. Fireballs are really quite spectacular!

I've also watched every comet that's been visible since Halley cruised through in 1985. Most recently was comet Lulin, near Saturn in Leo for a few days a couple of weeks ago. What was incredible about Lulin was the speed of its motion against the sky, so you could detect it had moved after just going inside for quarter of an hour and coming out again.

But best of all has to be the 1999 eclipse, which I watched from a rooftop in Karlsruhe, right in the middle of the path of totality. Surprisingly, the sound of the eclipse sticks most clearly in my memory. You might think eclipses don't make any sound but they do. As they sweep across a region, everyone starts screaming (except me, of course) as totality reaches them, resulting in an audible Mexican wave of sound that approaches from the distance and crescendos to a maximum as the sun goes out where you are.

Guy

...and I expect a lot of people remember this:



That was 8th June 2004 (my sister's birthday, as it happens), when Venus passed in front of the sun. This is the sun cast onto the wall of my house at about 8.00am, with the shadow of Venus crossing its disc. That really excited me.

Guy

padfield wrote:But best of all has to be the 1999 eclipse, which I watched from a rooftop in Karlsruhe, right in the middle of the path of totality. Surprisingly, the sound of the eclipse sticks most clearly in my memory. You might think eclipses don't make any sound but they do. As they sweep across a region, everyone starts screaming (except me, of course) as totality reaches them, resulting in an audible Mexican wave of sound that approaches from the distance and crescendos to a maximum as the sun goes out where you are.

There wasn't any screaming where I was but what I did notice was that all the birds stopped singing during that eclipse. As the sun reappeared the birds began a dawn chorus.

I was just north east of Strasbourg for that eclipse, and if you've never seen a total eclipse it is indescribable.. in attempting to do so... I felt a deeply spine tingling emotional almost euphoric response.. tears to the eyes job!! truly awesome majestic effect with the horizon being dark on all sides, gradually moving through deep blues to a bright pale ring around an absolutely black disc... the presence of the sun in the sky seems to be something of a fundamental human construct, and that of a black disc fearsomely wrong.. no wonder some societies fear them!!! I'm not usually very emotional but that one came as a big suprise... unforgettable.

Also recall, as a young lad in the 60's walking the dog with dad one winter's night & seeing several shooting stars per minute... a propper shower. never seen such a shower since, even when the media has said one is likely.

The aurora has been seen from Richmond several times... sorry about photo quality... 2001:-

padfield wrote:What you describe, Pete, sounds like a 'fireball' - a particularly bright meteor that seems to burn a bright trail across the night sky.

I think you might be right, Guy. This photo is the closest to what I saw, although the path of my phenomenon seemed to be almost horizontal, coming from behind my right, and leaving in front on my right.

http://www.howardedin.com/photos/200809 ... lide-b.jpg

Cheers,

- Pete

Great photo, Paul! And a fantastic picture of a fireball too, Pete. I agree - it puts you in your place when you witness the cosmos going about its daily business in such spectacular style!!

In the summer I sometimes lie on my back outside and scan the Milky Way with binoculars. There are staggering star fields out there - so much going on - almost certainly, so much life ...

Guy

shooting stars do give you a special feeling
the 1st night i moved into my house i was looking up and saw one go straight over my house .
that was 10 years ago but i get that feeling thinking of it like it happened yesterday

My favourite natural phenomenon was near Temple Meads Station, Bristol, in the midseventies when starlings collected there in winter to roost. Their favourite spot was where the railway and A4 road bridges cross the River Avon. The aerial displays of thousands of birds was astonishing. I remember standing by the riverside near the railway bridge where a large number of birds were perched with all of them chattering loudly. Then as one, they stopped chattering and rose into the air with a huge rush of wings and joined a great weaving undulating display before finally all funnelling and diving under the bridges for the night.

They don't apparently do this at Temple Meads in anything like the same numbers these days although I don't know why. Perhaps city traffic has driven them out. The nearest place to me that they can be seen now is Shapwick Heath in Somerset, and occasionally near Slimbridge Wetlands in Gloucestershire.

Chris Pickford wrote:Despite being a sceptic (scientist by training and profession), I do have to admit to having had a very serious UFO experience.....I have certainly never managed to find a convincing explanation! As for alien abductions, well, they never seem to take the right people, do they?

Chris

Would you mind sharing a bit more of your UFO experience Chris ?

Charles

Hi
I've have actually seen a shooting star a few years ago (a few days before I lost my sight), I remember being in complete awe, I was up at the top of dunstable downs with the other half at the time, that was when I really became inspired about the universe and physics, same too for the person I was with! I remember it being cold, I was wearing his hoodie, and we were just lying in the grass waiting for the next one, but it never happened. I just remember it so clearly, as if it were yesterday almost. It is trully an amazing experience. I can't sum it up into words, it's a memory that I'll never forget, I still get the tingles now thinking about it. Magical.
I can certainly relate to the way you must have felt then Pete, I think all the UK butterflies were in my tummy at that moment!
Em

Here you go Pete...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7744207.stm

Trev

Thanks Trev - what a brilliant video; you can't plan to capture such footage, can you?!

Yes - very close to what I saw - although the one I saw seemed to travel must faster.

Cheers,

- Pete

Used to see lots of shooting stars when down the beach at dungeness fishing for cod in the winter in the late 80's/early 90's... as I was always looking up at the tip of my fishing rod I saw lots of them...some nights maybe half a dozen or more though none quite so spectacluar as the one in the photo you linked to. These were more orangy than the bright white in that image.

Most amazing sight for me is when I used to go fishing on Lake Nasser in Egypt and always used to sleep at night in the open on the roof of the boat (It was 30c at night so was desperate for any chance of a slight breeze!). I would stare up at the sky and the stars would just go on and on and on for ever. I don't think anything could top a sight like that for me...

My little film compact I had back then couldn't take any sort of photo of them. Would love to go back with an SLR and the knowhow and gadgets for astro photography to photograph those skies...