Sky Flashing Blue

ItsHoggie

Don't know if this is the right place to post this but, myself and the girlfriend were sitting down watching a movie there ('bout 10 mins ago) when the whole sky flashed blue.

We're in Cork, but a search on Twitter said it could of been a meteor or lightening, but people as far as Tipperary and Galway tweeted about seeing it?.

GoingForIt

i saw this over waterford.......thought it was lightning....but no thunder

onetimeonly

ItsHoggie wrote: »

Don't know if this is the right place to post this but, myself and the girlfriend were sitting down watching a movie there ('bout 10 mins ago) when the whole sky flashed blue.

We're in Cork, but a search on Twitter said it could of been a meteor or lightening, but people as far as Tipperary and Galway tweeted about seeing it?.

Yeah, I saw it too (was out walking the dog just north of Cork city). To me it started in the west and reddish light which changed to blue. It seemed to spread out in a hemi-sphere very very quickly from roughly the same source (although it was finished in about 2 seconds so it is hard to tell). About a minute later there was a rhythmic sound vaguely like thunder but not thunder (faster and steadier tempo). And that was it.

I guess it was something hammering into the atmosphere and putting on a display but I've no idea what. Most dramatic thing I've ever seen by some distance.

bigmike99

Whole window flashed blue like headlights right outside. And waited for thunder with TV paused but no noise or further flashes.
(Also in Cork City)

Zillah

The Delta Aquarids have begun - possibly a larger piece?
http://www.sciencealert.com/a-spectacular-meteor-shower-starts-next-week-here-s-how-to-watch

The best time to watch the sky for these shooting stars is in the hours between midnight and dawn, around 2 or 3am.

Or just a random meteor!

riggerman

On break at work in Cork city and the sky lit up around 12.45 am. About 30 of us waiting for the following bang ,but all we got was an errie silence. Pity it was over cast down here.

jfSDAS

Many thanks for all the reports folks. I was just after leaving Dunsink Observatory around that time (we had hosted the Moon Cycle event for The Festival of Curiosity) and was stopped at the lights by the Travelodge on the Navan Road, near the M50-Blanchardstown roundabout.

I noticed a flash seemingly low on the horizon towards the southwest but dismissed it as lightning. The sky was rather overcast at the time. Very intriguing to hear so many others in the middle to southern part of the country saw something too.


The paragraph below is an update of my earlier post ...
Re-entry of some object or of debris is a strong possibility. Go to http://www.satview.org/ and scroll down to "Spacejunk - Last Reentries". Click on the Details link to bring up larger maps of, e,g., Flock 1E-6. It suggests that what we saw may have been a re-entry from one of those satellites or else some other debris. Details of the Flock constellation at http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/flock-1.htm -- I had originally thought it was Flock 1E-6 but looking at the time (00:45UTC on July 21st) later this morning I realised it referred to Wednesday night/Thursday morning rather than last night. Apologies for getting the hopes up but possibly more updates will appear on www.satview.org

Some other links to re-entry prediction sites are:

http://www.aerospace.org/cords/reentry-predictions/upcoming-reentries-2-2/

http://www.satobs.org/re-entry.html

Although the delta Aquarids are active the last week of July they are a relatively weak shower and only begin to peak around the 28th. The radiant (apparent source of the meteors) is low from Ireland, only gaining in altitude as the night progresses. While a really spectacular fireball is always possible from an active meteor shower they tend to be sporadic in nature.

Two of the meteor camera networks that some Irish observers are members of are http://www.nemetode.org/ and http://www.ukmeteornetwork.co.uk/

Hope the above helps!

John

mickmackey1

Yep, window lit up here too in middle of Co Limerick. Just assumed it was lightning what with the muggy weather, and heard no sound. Thought a fireball capable of producing that much light would have lasted longer.

Brasros

ItsHoggie wrote:

We're in Cork, but a search on Twitter said it could of been a meteor or lightening, but people as far as Tipperary and Galway tweeted about seeing it?.

ItsHoggie wrote:

Don't know if this is the right place to post this but, myself and the girlfriend were sitting down watching a movie there ('bout 10 mins ago) when the whole sky flashed blue.

The was lighting last week from around 1am to4am, it was quite consistent.

ThunderCat

I was just listening to an astronomycast podcast about the science of sunset colours and they touch upon a green flash and even rarer blue flash that appear momenterily in the sky when the sun is below the horizon and the atmospheric conditions are just so. This could potentially be what people saw. Here is the episode:

http://www.astronomycast.com/2016/04/ep-411-science-of-sunset-colors/

mickmackey1

Those effects occur right after sunset, this flash happened three hours later.

ItsHoggie

Yeah, this happened close to 1am.

Has there been any confirmation of what it actually was? Strange how it was seen over Ireland and parts of the UK and there's been very little talk about it.

mickmackey1

Doesn't seem to have been a (predicted) satellite re-entry anyway. Possibly a high altitude fireball, striking the atmosphere at a vertical angle which could account for the short duration. Must be some security cam footage from Cork lying around.

bogwalrus

Possibly solar flare messing with earths magnetic field?

jfSDAS

Got an AI mail that a number of people sent reports to them of a fireball on the night of July 21/22. There seems to be different accounts of the direction of travel though. From what I recall, most of the country was clouded out - or had few gaps in the cover - that night. It's likely the object burnt up completely.

John