Strange sighting in the western sky..

Ronan|Raven

Was out wlaking my faithful sniffer hound when I saw a large glowing "ball" with a long trail out of the back slowly making its way across the horizon, seemed to big and slow to be a shooting star although I saw 3 tonight the sky was so clear here in Roscommon. Anyone else see this in the western sky tonight? Or am I finally going mad after drinking bleach..

Enygma

Hey I saw something here in Cork, lower than a satellite, it was going too fast to be a plane but slower than a shooting star and flew the length of the sky.

A few people pulled over to get a proper look. It was heading north/north west. Only maybe 20 minutes ago.

Just cam here to post about it, anyone know what it was?

Ronan|Raven

Well im glad we both saw it so unless were both drinking bleach...

Would love to know what it was for a brief second I thought it could be a plane on fire on the approach to knock!

Flukey

It sounds like a satellite.

Enygma

Maybe a satellite crashing to earth. I've seen plenty of satellites in orbit, this was way faster and definetely sub orbital. There was a trail of smoke behind it too.
I remember seeing the footage of Mir crashing to Earth and I'd say that's the closest thing to what I saw earlier tonight, only it wasn't falling to pieces.

Is it common for a satellite or other space debris to fall out of orbit?

Only realised afterwards that I had binoculars in the car at the time but I completely forgot about them It was gone within a matter of seconds anyway.

Enygma

A Fireball apparently.
http://www.astronomy.ie/fireball.html

Flukey

It seems to have aroused a bit of interest and confusion.

Enygma

Really? Why and where?