Fireball over northern Italy - September 03, 2013

A bright fireball has been seen over northern Italy aroud 02:12 local time (00:12 UT) of September 03, 2013.

Recently we installed an All-Sky camera on Mount Matajur Observatory - Italy (MPC Code B68). This all-sky camera is the first step toward remote observing from Matajur Observatory as it will be very important to check the sky conditions before the observing sessions and to image transient phenomena like yesterday fireball. While the camera is still in the testing phase, it has been able to image the flash by this bright fireball. See our video below showing the flash from the fireball and the frames just before and after the event. Click on the thumbnail for a bigger version.

Below you can see an image & video of this Fireball imaged from Ferrara by a meteor-cam station of IMTN ( Italian Meteor and TLE Network ) group.

Some witnesses in the Veneto region have reported hearing sounds (such as explosions) after the passage of the fireball.

On the same night, at 02:26 local time (00:26 UT) - 14 minutes after the Fireball - our All-Sky camera imaged another bright meteor. You can see the image and the animation below (click here or on the thumbnail for a bigger version). 

by Luca Donato, Ernesto Guido & Massimiliano Travagini

Fireball over Hungary, February 28, 2010

A bright fireball has been seen over Hungary aroud 23:24 local time (22:24 UT) of February 28, 2010. The meteor was spotted from Slovakia and Southern Poland too. Many surveillance cameras have recorded the night-landscape illuminated by the fireball.

This is an animation captured at 22:24:49 UT 28.02.2010 by the "Polish Fireball Network" showing the fireball flash as seen from Poland:

(Credit: Szamotuły, Poland M.Reszelski)

The following one is the best video (taken by another CCTV camera) available at present showing the bright fireball in the sky:

Here you can find other videos related to this fireball uploaded on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvJkhiUUAT8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6HFlC0U4Lo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=resXhksKBZY


by Ernesto Guido

Leonids 2009

According to preliminary counts from the International Meteor Organization (IMO) the Leonids meteors reached a ZHR(max) ~ 120/130 around 22UT of Nov. 17, as predicted by forecasters.

The ZHR surge, witnessed by observers in Asia, occurred when Earth passed through the debris left from Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle in 1466 AD and 1533 AD. When Earth exit these streams, the ZHR count fall to the value ~30/40.

Our meteorcam starting to image at 23:30 UT of Nov. 17. In 5 hours of imaging, our camera detected 35 meteors, of which 26 were leonids. This is a composite of the brightest meteors (mostly leonids) imaged by the meteorcam from 23:30 UT of Nov.17 to 04:30 UT of Nov. 18 (because the images were collected over several hours, the radiant of the shower is spread out):

While checking online all-sky cameras around the web, I found this nice fireball imaged by the Sbig All-Sky camera on Nov. 17 at 02:20am local time:

Below  you can see the video sequence showing the fireball and its trail:

by Ernesto Guido