I keep thinking I've surely seen it all on livemeteors.com. Then one like this come in. It made an intense screech as it was picked up. It looks like a space dragonfly. This one was short-lived but it was a big monster while it lasted. In all the years I've been going to this site, I've never seen anything larger than a big dot, and I've never seen one that lasted more than a few seconds. Needless to say I no doubt missed some huge ones over the years, but I can safely say that what's currently going on is historic, and I'm far from the only one who's noticed.
So after I see the space dragonfly buzz through and wonder if it can possibly get any crazier and figure that it probably can, along comes this incredible return. So far this one ups the ante. It was very brief but very intense. It obviously exploded violently, but seemingly in an orderly fashion. This is an amazing image, and completely new to me. Except for the number of "candles," it looks like a Menorah reflected in still water. It's too bad there are too many, because it would make a very cool Hanukkah card. Some of my more "out" Jewish friends would love it.
As far as a wide-spectrum gargantuan mateor is concerned however, so far this one is in the lead. It's a bit hard to see maybe, but the return (from the ionized tail, and picked up by VHF waves), extends slightly beyond the frequency band that you can see faintly highlighted at the top. This one probably lit up the sky wherever it came in at least as bright as the Sun, if only for a second. These meteors are different.
I'll be up drumming and checking the computer screen and the sky itself for a while. I can't help it. Both things...drumming and looking for shooting stars. I started the former at about 3 and the latter about a year later. I've easily seen hundreds and probably thousands of meteors by now, and heard maybe 100 times that many being tracked on this site, and this stuff is new. It really makes me shake my head. Just now I heard a major screech and clicked over to the site in time to see what looked exactly like the headstock and part of the neck of a guitar, complete with six tuning pegs. I was hoping it would maybe explode and make the body of the guitar too, but it didn't.
This stuff is nuts. Lots of people poo-poo'd it when I started saying almost three years ago that meteors, and especially large, or fireball meteors, were increasing. They went with the typical, don't-think-for-yourself, just-buy-what-they-say comeback to that, and said it was only because there was an increase in dashcams and cellphone videos and security cameras, but it just goes to show that they aren't even thinking about what they're saying before they say it. A meteor does NOT have to be filmed to be observed, and they're AUTOMATICALLY recorded and logged. These folks might want to think before they speak, but I digress. I just wish people would deal in facts and not opinions (and bullshit). In any case the board is starting to light up more and more as more of the meteors from the debris trail of Halley's comet are coming in. If I'm really lucky maybe I'll see one, but even if not it's absolutely a trip to know that meteors of this size and duration are coming in right now. Two-minute meteors? Space Dragonfly from Hell? Cosmic Menorah? The ships from the Galaga game; fully-loaded with all the bonus weapons? I don't know. Heads up. Have a nice day.
This one just came in and when I saw it I had to get a pic. It looks like a Koi in a pond from above.
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