Observer:	Rob Andrews
E-mail address:	rob@jam.rr.com
Web site:	www.lowerstandard.com/python
Date and time of Observation:	all night November 17/18, 2001
Observing Location:	Florence, Mississippi, USA
Object Observed:	Leonid meteor shower
Viewing conditions:	medium-heavy light pollution
Optical aid	naked eye
Observing notes:	Due to the heavy light pollution, I counted only 109 meteors during the night, which I kept track of by counting on a Tibetan mala (necklace of meditation beads used for counting). When I completed the circuit of 109 at about 4:30 a.m., I called it a night. The meteors observed came in spurts ranging from a single meteor to nearly twenty at a time, often with long periods of inactivity between spurts. Comment: Reports of this meteor shower from darker skies indicated that it was a very heavy storm. I would have seen many times this number if I had been farther away from civilization.

Report

Whilst camping on Saturday 17 June 2000 just outside Castleton (UK) I was looking out for the first star of the night in a very bright, clear sky. I spotted Arcturus (Bootes) and was trying to see other stars in the area when a fireball streaked past traveling from South to North! 

The fireball was relatively slow moving compared to some meteors I've seen and appeared green / blue in colour with a long tail. As it went past the colour changed to a deep red and the object started to break up before finally going out!

I don't know what this object was. I suspect that it might have been space junk rather than a meteor as I'd expect a meteor to be traveling much faster - whatever it was it made a fantastic sight.

Alistair Thomson.

I've since received confirmation that what I saw was indeed a meteor. Alastair McBeath, the Meteor Section Director at the Society for Popular Astronomy provided a rough reconstruction of the fireball's trajectory based on several reports of the event. "The reports suggest a track possibly passing in a generally easterly to westerly direction, around 80-100 km above the Derby area of the northern Midlands". Wow, 80 to 100K above the ground! This thing must have been huge to create a fireball the size I saw!

Apparently a second (unrelated) meteor, similar to the one described above was seen in France / Italy the following day! See the report below.

On June 18, 2000 at about 13h 35m UT a bright (Mv < -13) fast-moving fireball was observed over North-West of Italy. The trajectory, from south to north, is located between (42N, 9E) and (45N, 9E), the mean height is 70-60 km. The colour of the fireball was green/yellow, the apparent diameter was 0.2 degrees and the lenght of the trail was about 20-30 degrees. The meteoroid exploded at the end of trajectory: the cloud of debris was visible for about 10 minutes and more after the explosion.

Dr Albino Carbognani

I have seen 2 fireballs (lucky me). The first one was back on the 18th of March 2000 looking East. It was a white/yellow colour and it was very, very bright (much brighter than Jupiter that was out at the time). It lasted for about 4 seconds (long for a meteorite) and traveled towards the south at an angle of 20 degrees (0 being the ground). It had a tail and near to the end of its flare up it fragmented into around 4 or 5 pieces. A true fireball!!! I reported this to the BAA and they said that many other people had seen it on the western side of the UK.

The second one was on 5th of January 2001, looking West. Again it was a white/yellow colour and it lasted about 3 seconds. It was much brighter than Venus (that was visible at the time). It traveled from zenith to West horizon (it fell downwards). It broke up into about 3 pieces. My dad also witnessed it.

Matt Prescott
Bolton near Manchester, United Kingdom