Comments on: Swedish meteorball

By: Danish turnover meteorites | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Danish turnover meteorites | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:14:47 +0000

[...] January, a very bright meteor called a bolide or fireball streaked across the north Atlantic skies, and was seen over Denmark and Sweden. Now it’s being reported that German meteorite hunter Thomas Grau has found fragments of it [...]

By: Bigfoot

Bigfoot — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:30:57 +0000

Wow, that meteor rocks!

By: TUESDAY NIGHT LINKS: Gravity Waves, Swedish Meteorballs and Wooden Bathing Suits at ICED BORSCHT & Other Delights

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:35:30 +0000

[...] Swedish Meteorball! [...]

By: suzanne

suzanne — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:12:28 +0000

I live in england and both me and my boyfriend saw the it at about 11.50! but knowone believed us until we saw it on the news, it was amazing

By: Cannonball Jones

Cannonball Jones — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:37:32 +0000

Aww, not fair! How come we never get cool stuff like this over Scotland? Those pesky Swedes get the best vodka, the hot blondes and now this!

By: Erik J

Erik J — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:08:32 +0000

I live right there and I missed it…

I could’ve had both earthquake and meteor on my list by now but nooo. At least I wont miss the Baltic Sea Tsunami of 200x

By: Roger Nelson

Roger Nelson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:51:06 +0000

While I did not see the Buzzard Coulee Meteorite (Near Lloydminster Saskatchwan in Canada) on Nov 20th, last year. Many over a large area saw it. I did participate in the search for fragments and found some myself. If this fall was similar, I would not be surprised to see reports of seeing it from the Netherlands to Finland or Estonia. And if it struck on land there will be thousands of pieces to find. I would look on the top of frozen lakes and ponds.

By: kuhnigget

kuhnigget — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:18:41 +0000

@ Torbjörn Larsson:

If it makes you feel any better, the last time I went to France I was accused of having a southern drawl, like a stereotypical good ol’ boy from the U.S. South. (I’m from the decidedly unaccented Pacific Northwest.) Because my accuser was smiling (in France!) I took it as a good-natured jest.

My epulugeees tu unyune-a vhu ves ooffffended.

By: Marco Langbroek

Marco Langbroek — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:15:53 +0000

This same fireball was indeed also observed from the Netherlands at 20:10 CET = 19:10 UTC, and photographed by a Dutch all sky station operated by Klaas Jobse in the southwest of the Netherlands (where it was very low in the sky). Most Dutch observations are from the north of the country though. It all suggests the location of the fireball should be sought over Denmark.
Link to Klaas Jobse’s all sky image:
http://cyclops.klaasjobse.nl/test/jcms/showpic.php?img=362_20090117_1909UT_web_w600h693.jpg

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:12:44 +0000

I have a wonderful (6 mega pixel) camera that would really do justice to such pictures however, by the time I get it out of my bag, turned on and pointed in the right direction,,,well, you get the idea,,,

Cell phones are rapidly becoming ubiquitous, thus the possibility that one will be turned on and pointed in more or less the right direction improve with every cell phone sold. By the time I have a cell phone, the rest of the world will be totally wired and pics like this should be common place.

Next: Pictures of a flying/free falling YETI.
I wonder if Yeti will glow green or blue as it re-enters the atmosphere???

GAry 7

By: Joe Meils

Joe Meils — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:38:47 +0000

It does seem like we’re catching these things on tape more often… but is that an effect of being hit more often, or just the fact that in the last ten years, video cameras have become so commonplace we’re just pointed in the right direction with a camera more often?

Still, very cool video… watching it immediately reminded me of the opening to George Pal’s 1953 version of “War of the Worlds.”

By: Wayne

Wayne — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:32:30 +0000

Torbjörn Larsson,

If it makes you feel any better, most American’s who actually hear a Swede speak English (and most are quite fluent these days) don’t think they sound like the Swedish Chef. As a grad student, I spent three months in Stockholm/Kiruna/Uppsala, and I’d love to go back. You guys have the best model Solar System around, not to mention the Vasa. That ship is sooo cool.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:13:29 +0000

We saw a large meteor last night (no bursting though) here in central Arizona at approx. 18:55 local time. We were driving due West, and it was directly in front of us. On a clock face it was headed from 2 to 8. It lasted about 2 full seconds, and was blue, then green, then white just before it burned out.

By: Mare Magnum | El meterorito que ha iluminado Dinamarca

Mare Magnum | El meterorito que ha iluminado Dinamarca — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:27:47 +0000

[...] Visto en Bad Discovery. [...]

By: andrew

andrew — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:24:40 +0000

I saw this one, I am in Sweden. It was impressive although not nearly as bright as it looks on the video.

By: Torbjörn Larsson, OM

Torbjörn Larsson, OM — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:37:19 +0000

Swedish meteorball, appropriate lunch reading. No doubt served up by the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

He was testing a surveillance camera when he captured the fireball.

Yes, I recognized the initial frame from the daily newspaper. They messed up the headline too: “Mysterious light lightened up the evening sky.”

[Btw, that doesn't sound so goofy repetitive in actual swedish, since the terms have diversified enough. But this is goofy in any language:

I’m getteeng repurts (here-a (veet peectoores) und here-a (trunsleted thruoogh Guugle-a) und here-a (elsu trunsleted)) thet a pretty beeg furebell ves seee oofer Svedee lest neeght.

It would be funny, if not for the what I believe is the historical background: poor uneducated Swedes immigrated into US without any previous english. When the Irish did the same they got Saint Patrick's Day, but the Swedes got known for overdone meatballs and bad english?! We must hire better PR people. And chefs.]

By: Robert Andersson

Robert Andersson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:59:05 +0000

I saw it too! Living in gothenburg. Sat in my living room facing west, and caught it in the corner of my eye. Compared to the handful of ordinary meteors I’ve seen in my life, this one was *way* cooler.

By: Sergio A

Sergio A — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:01:41 +0000

I have received a report of another fireball seen on the same day (Jan 17) in the south of France (sighted from Toulouse, Avignon, Digne). It arrived 1h20m BEFORE the swedish fireball (18h50 CET vs. 20h09 CET) and it was seen moving in a roughly NNE-SSW direction. As the swedish fireball trajectory has been estimated SW-NE, the two bodies were travelling in opposite directions, so they are unrelated. Witnesses reporting the french fireball on various Internet forums initially thought the swedish video was of the same event, it was so similar to what they saw by themselves…

By: Lo'ihi

Lo'ihi — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:36:09 +0000

kuhnigget

Veery guood! Vhoo ellze….?

By: Magnus Björk

Magnus Björk — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:24:23 +0000

Me and my wife were lucky enough to see this bolide from our living room (close to Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast). My immediate reaction was that it looked like fireworks – it had kind of a greenish glow and left a yellow trail as it gently descended. I realized that it was a meteor when it kept going for so long, keeping a steady pace, and following a seemingly absolutely straight path. I also remembered the film clip from the Canadian police and realized that this thing was very similar.

At first I thought that the meteor must have hit just a few kilometers away, but after reading about how widespread the observations were, I realize that it probably did not hit, and were quite far from us.

Anyway, it was way cool to see it for real, and I would really have been annoyed if I had to read in the papers (and even here) about a bolide over my own home and not having seen it myself…

By: csrster

csrster — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:54:45 +0000

Re: ‘bólido’

Has the word “bolide” totally dropped out of use in English? Otherwise Phil could title his next post on this subject “Never Mind The Bolides”.

By: Tim G

Tim G — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:13:55 +0000

Should we have clusters of video cameras surveying the sky throughout the globe just to capture bolides? A fireball 20 km in altitude should be seen 200 km away at a 5º angle above the horizon.

By: Ярък метеор над Швеция (видео) « Страната под Сянката

Ярък метеор над Швеция (видео) « Страната под Сянката — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:08:52 +0000

[...] (Изкопано от блога на Фил Плейт.) [...]

By: TheWhitePhoenix

TheWhitePhoenix — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:24:24 +0000

Is this a ploy to sell more of your books Phil?

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 01:54:12 +0000

Ah, I see my fleet has arrived,,,about dang time.

kuhnigget: Please have the fleet admiral report to me as soon as he has come out of suspension. His landing attracted way too much attention and he has some serious explaining to do about why he wasn’t in STEALTH MODE.

I may have him demoted back to a grub,,,

GAry 7