QUICK - fireball to the south right now

democrates

Look in the southern sky there's a bright star,

i've only the 100mm but zoomed in that looks like a meteor/asteroid - post a pic in a mo

EDIT - pix.ie:





Over to the astronomers for analysis...

Zillah

What the hell?

A meteor burns up in an instant. You would see a brief streak across the sky and that's it. There is no way this is a meteor unless it was huge and heading directly towards you.

Could you describe what you saw in more detail? By any chance is this...er, "event" still going on?

democrates

Yeah I can still see it even though the sky is brightened, to the naked eye it's a bright star.

SSW about 30 deg elevation, I'm in dublin.

A composite of pics on the way after I try some more shots.

Hope someone with a long lens gets a few in, I think CA may be messing up my shots and appearing as a tail...

EDIT: - the composite
100%crop


sized up


bizarre!

maybe it's a messed up weather balloon reflecting the sun or something...

edit - that sure has the look of ca around the edges, but the apparent structure surely can't be down to distortion, it seems to be tumbling...

Zillah

Swamp gas reflecting the light from Venus.



No I'm not joking. About Venus anyway. Just checked Stellarium. Venus is currently visible at about 25 degrees to the South of Dublin.

Ye big eejit.

democrates

Zillah wrote: »

Swamp gas reflecting the light from Venus.

No I'm not joking. About Venus anyway. Just checked Stellarium. Venus is currently visible at about 25 degrees to the South of Dublin.

Ye big eejit.

Lolol - with a 100mm lens though? Didn't think it possible but occams razor wins again. You've totally spoiled my mood for end of the world sex, but thanks for the info, this gets me back interested in looking up

Zillah

Venus is very bright. As you said yourself, it can be seen with the naked eye. A 100mm lens will bring you a bit closer to it, but as you can see the optics are no where near good enough to get anything other than a deformed white splodge. Some top quality glass might get a sharper picture, but it's never going to look like anything other than a bright dot. I'd say what appears to be a structure or shape in your image is actually slightly out of focus and full of CA (as you noticed).

Out of curiosity, what lens are you shooting with?

democrates

Used the new canon 100mm f/2.8 IS macro, it's sharp but clearly not up to resolving a dot through the atmosphere. Exif on pix.ie ffi. I'm right beside the n11, there's dust here.
Mounted on tripod but didn't use mirror lockup and timer - dim.

Jesus I was so excited this morning, never saw the like and thought I was onto something new. A great feeling while it lasted.

the_monkey

democrates wrote: »

Used the new canon 100mm f/2.8 IS macro, .

That's the L one yeah ?

democrates

the_monkey wrote: »

That's the L one yeah ?

LoL

Tzetze

That's a phenomenon known as 'poor seeing'

pullandbang

democrates wrote: »

Look in the southern sky there's a bright star,

i've only the 100mm but zoomed in that looks like a meteor/asteroid - post a pic in a mo

I wouldn't get too excited. It's probably just a Chinese lantern in the distance.

the_monkey

democrates wrote: »

LoL

?

Sorry but i don't get it ??

democrates

lol = laugh out loud
Laughing at your L-plate gag.
This is turning into a nebulous thread...

Zillah

democrates wrote: »

lol = laugh out loud
Laughing at your L-plate gag.
This is turning into a nebulous thread...

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/canon-lenses/Canon-L-Lens-Series.aspx

Then again he did make it red which would imply the (quite clever) learner plate gag. Course it could just be because the L series all have red stripes on them.

L31mr0d

the_monkey

democrates wrote: »

lol = laugh out loud
Laughing at your L-plate gag.
This is turning into a nebulous thread...

Gag ??

I'm asking if this is the Canon L class 100mm lens, AFAIK there is
an L version and "normal" version...

democrates

L31mr0d thanks for that I totally needed the lol today.

the_monkey wrote: »

Gag ??

I'm asking if this is the Canon L class 100mm lens, AFAIK there is
an L version and "normal" version...

Aha. Zillah was right.
Yep it's the L that came out earlier this year. It's normally sharp.

I think I've a problem with over-analysing. Alcohol is the only off-switch and haven't had a pint since 20th Nov.

magicbastarder

oddly enough, we just saw a weird orange light moving across the sky to the east of phibsboro, moving roughly north to south. no sound, and it didn't look like a plane - plus, definitely moving too slow to be a meteor of any description. we decided it was probably a chinese lantern. it'd coincide with the wind direction, which is coming from the NNE.

Zillah

You'll notice your fireball is back tonight

Perfectly clear sky here in Galway, decided to head out onto the roof of my apartment block. This was taken at 150mm.


Cropped:


Er, now that I think of it, you should ignore the green tinge it has, my white balance was on tungsten :doh:

magicianz

Quite clearly a distant star has gone supernova many millenia ago and we are seeing the effects now!

Much more exciting explanation