However, I’ve today posted details from the final analysis of this meteor on the SPA’s Observing Forum, at:

http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16810 .

The main headlines were that the event probably lasted between 30-60 seconds, so was an exceptionally rare natural meteoric event. Typically only man-made re-entry events last this long or longer. Such naturally-occurring very long-lived meteors happen-by perhaps only a few times per century for any given place, so this was a most fortunate sighting for all the lucky witnesses.

The object was barely skimming the meteor layer in the upper atmosphere as it passed from somewhere out high above the North Atlantic, perhaps around 140-90 km altitude possibly between or northwest of the Faeroe, Shetland and Orkney Islands, to an end probably within 25 km of a point around 61.6 ± 8.5 km altitude above Bozeat, Northamptonshire, in southeast England.

For more information, see the Observing Forum topic, where there are also links to many of the sightings, images and videos of the event, as well as to notes on four or perhaps five other fireball-class meteors which were spotted from the British Isles that night.

Many thanks again to everyone who contributed data. Even though I didn’t see the event, it’s been one of the most exciting events I’ve dealt with from the past almost thirty years of UK meteor analyses!

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.

http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16837

on the SPA’s Observing Forum.

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.

I’d managed to prepare a preliminary analysis earlier this week, based on the first 43 observations to arrive, including the Whitley Bay video Jamie noted, and an all-sky image of the end of the object’s flight from the University of Hertfordshire’s Bayfordbury camera (thanks to Herts Uni analyst David Campbell for providing data from the image swiftly too). You can find that on the SPA’s Observing Forum topic at:

http://www.popastro.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=16810 .

I’m intending to update that hopefully next week, but that depends on whether I finish checking through all the reports by then, of course!

My best-estimate at present is that the meteor likely had a grazing trajectory, perhaps only a few degrees off the horizontal, and a path about 1000 km long (600+ miles) from somewhere between the Orkney, Shetland and Faeroe Islands to a point likely within 25 km (15 miles) of 0°45′ W, 52°13′ N over southern England. The end height was likely around 60 km (40 miles).

Overall, meteorites seem very unlikely to have resulted from such an event, and the potential fall zone would be enormous anyway – as well as a long way on from the probable end-point.

Particular thanks go to all the lucky witnesses who provided data so soon after the event. Those who contacted me directly will receive a personal reply – albeit that may be some weeks in coming yet! I hope the preliminary analyses both on the AMS site here, and my own efforts in the UK, have helped demonstrate how valued such observations are, no matter what the expertise of the witness, and to provide reassurance for those who found the experience both wonderful and frightening that a) you were not alone, and b) that there was never any real danger to you.

Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.

The observer plots on the map seem largely inconsistent with the statement “Red icons mean, movement was seen left to right, while green icons represent reported movement of right to left.” ?

Quite a heavily populated area, and the low velocity and low fragmentation make this a probable meteorite fall, as long as it didn’t either skip off into space or go in the drink.

Happy hunting!