Click on the link below to see the video
I had been telling Mike WN2A how I had put a little red LED on my beacon (he gave me the keying hardware) and that I was hoping to put the LED in the window of my 7th floor shack. I want it to serve as a kind of CW "lighthouse." We are, after all, close to the ocean. I thought it would be cool. Last night, soon after sunset, Elisa and I went out to walk the dog and to look a my little light.
Well, as expected my little light was too small. But HOLY COW, it had us looking in exactly the right direction at exactly the right moment. At 7:09 pm on January 25, 2025 a very bright, green, long-lasting fireball streaked across the sky from North to South (the guy in the clip above got the direction wrong). It was throwing off fragments. One kid in the neighborhood saw it. And soon Instagram lit up (!) with reports and videos. I filed a report with the International Meteor Organization: https://fireball.imo.net/members/imo_view/event/2025/516 It was all very cool. The tiktok clip (above) has a collection of some of the best shots. Just click on the link below the picture.
I hadn't seen one of these since March 1995 (I was in the Dominican Republic then too!):
7 MARCH 95 EVENING: POSTED ON CIS:
Also observed a pretty spectacular fireball in the North (near Polaris) at about 2330. So bright I thought it was a skyrocket. Very slow moving looking like pieces falling off it.
Posts
For a really bright green LED, the ones from lighthouseleds.com are working well for me. The "5mm round top pure green LED -Ultra Bright" is stunning even at low current.
ReplyDeleteYes, now when we see these fireballs, the question comes as to whether meteor or reentry of something. This might be getting more frequent with all the stuff coming back. Starlinks, old cubesats, killer satellite debris, wrenches, screwdrivers(!)
Yes, I wondered about that. On the International Meteor Organization site, I noticed that on some of the events they concluded that the fireball was the result of the re-entry of some satellite. I suppose an RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly) -- that is apparently NASA-speak. I will get some of those bright LEDs. 73 Bill
ReplyDelete