Christmas fireball 24 December 2013

By Richard Kacerek

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We were hoping for one and we got one. A beautiful Christmas fireball was recorded by three UKMON stations:

• Richard Fleet at Wilcot station
• Norman Lockyer observatory Planetary and Meteor Detection team near Sidmouth station
• Steve from Northern Ireland and his Scotch Street station

Wilcot station

Clanfield station

Scotch Street station

While we make some orbit calculations here is Richard’s video:

Bright Christmas Eve Meteor from Richard Fleet on Vimeo

Update:

This was a Sporadic type meteor with apparent magnitude -4.8 which started burning in atmosphere 120.1 km above, down to 97 km with velocity 53.6 km/s Ground map:

Very interesting orbital data:

And a 3D view of this meteor in Google Earth: