Meteor or satellite debris? Surrey, 2300 BST 16/04/2010

Seen looking W or SW, from Godalming. Descending from right - north-ish
- and descending at an apparent angle of very approximately 45 degrees.

Slow, big and a decent trail. Biggest meteor - if that is what it was -
either of us have ever seen - were waiting in car at roadworks at time.

Anyone else see it? Re-entry of space junk expected?

--
Peter

In message , Peter
writes
Seen looking W or SW, from Godalming. Descending from right - north-ish
- and descending at an apparent angle of very approximately 45 degrees.

Slow, big and a decent trail. Biggest meteor - if that is what it was -
either of us have ever seen - were waiting in car at roadworks at time.

Anyone else see it? Re-entry of space junk expected?


There were no predicted reentries of large items of space debris, that I
am aware of.

http://reentrynews.aero.org/upcoming.html

The Society for Popular astronomy collect and collate reports of
meteoric fireballs. Anyone else who spotted this fireball, or any others
- fireballs are meteors of magnitude -3 or brighter - from the British
Isles or nearby is welcome to send-in as full a report as possible. The
minimum details needed a

1) Exactly where you were (name of the nearest town or large village and
county if in Britain, or your geographic latitude and longitude if
elsewhere in the world);

2) The date and timing of the event, in UT (= GMT); and

3) Where the fireball started and ended in the sky, as accurately as
possible, or where the first and last points you could see of the trail
were if you didn't see the whole flight.

More advice and a fuller set of details to send (including an e-mail
report form) are on the "Making and Reporting Fireball Observations"
page of the SPA web site, at:

http://www.popastro.com/sections/meteor/fireball.htm .

Information will appear he

http://www.popastro.com/sections/met..._sightings.htm

Many thanks,
--
David Entwistle