Driving NE from Quy in East Cambs tonight I saw a fast, possibly low, pale
green blob (not a point like a meteorite) pass in front probably
travelling N. The general level of haze suggests it must have been close
and low rather than some distance away and high. Any other observations?




Mike

"Mike Causer" wrote in message
newsan.2006.01.15.21.40.03.243735@firstnamelastn ame.com.invalid...
Driving NE from Quy in East Cambs tonight I saw a fast, possibly low, pale
green blob (not a point like a meteorite) pass in front probably
travelling N. The general level of haze suggests it must have been close
and low rather than some distance away and high. Any other observations?




Mike

What do you mean by fireball. Astronomical debris? as it certainly wasn't
thunderstorm related.

In message
pan.2006.01.15.21.40.03.243735@firstnamelastname. com.invalid, Mike
Causer writes
Driving NE from Quy in East Cambs tonight I saw a fast, possibly low, pale
green blob (not a point like a meteorite) pass in front probably
travelling N. The general level of haze suggests it must have been close
and low rather than some distance away and high. Any other observations?

You're just seconds away from Cambs airport. They have a mixed set of
customers and it's possible it was a jet.
--
Tim
http://www.stopharlownorth.com/

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 22:06:13 +0000, Joe Simpkin wrote:

Driving NE from Quy in East Cambs tonight I saw a fast, possibly low,
pale green blob (not a point like a meteorite) pass in front probably
travelling N. The general level of haze suggests it must have been
close and low rather than some distance away and high. Any other
observations?

What do you mean by fireball. Astronomical debris? as it certainly wasn't
thunderstorm related.

I don't think it was astronomical because of the apparent size (definite
shape visible), but it disappeared above the horizon, not behind trees,
and no hills looking NE until you reach Norway....

Track was more or less horizontal. I thought about a recognition flare
from an aircraft, but saw no aircraft lights. And in this electronic
age they are not used much, if at all. Firing flares from an aircraft
just there is going to upset Marshall's Cambridge airport, and the USAF
at Mildenhall & Lakenheath.

For overall weather conditions: I'd just left a pub car park (in a
state to drive legally!) at the same time as a friend who is also an
amateur astronomer and sky phenomena watcher. We _always_ look up and
remark on the vis. Sadly he drives west from there.


One of the fundamental reasons I became interested in atmospheric
phenomena was seeing a yellow, hissing, spitting fireball passing low
over my head in rain but not a thunderstorm, as a teenager. I can give
you a six-figure map reference for it, but only plus/minus a year or
two, sadly. But from that I do know that fireballs are not exclusively
connected with thunderstorms.


Mike

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 22:31:22 +0000, Tim wrote:

You're just seconds away from Cambs airport. They have a mixed set of
customers and it's possible it was a jet.

But OTOH I live directly under the approach to EGSC runway 05, and the
now disused approach to Alconbury that the lovely U2s used. If the wind
is in the right direction I can hear every takeoff from Mildenhall, and
watch their circuits. I had a PPL in the USA, and have flown from
Cambridge in the Marshall's school Cessnas and from Gransden Lodge with
the Cambridge Gliding Club. I have been an aircraft enthusiast since
Peter Twiss flew the Fairey FD-2 at 1132mph to take the World Speed
Record in 1956. I am used to seeing aircraft and to rushing out of the
house when I hear one that I don't immediately recognise from its sound.
And in the case of the U2 or any military piston-engine when I *did*
recognise the sound!


What I saw was not an aircraft.


Mike

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 23:35:56 +0000, Mike Causer
wrote:

But OTOH I live directly under the approach to EGSC runway 05, and the
now disused approach to Alconbury that the lovely U2s used.

Did you ever see a Blackbird out of Mildenhall -quite an impressive
sight? There are still some very distinctive and unfamiliar jet-type
noises at night occasionally. It would be nice to think these were an
Aurora-type flight, but sadly probably not and very possibly myth
anyway. (Maybe less so at Macrahanish?) Impossible to rule out though
and reputedly accompanied by a light show.

JGD

Felly sgrifennodd Mike Causer :
What I saw was not an aircraft.

It wasn't a traffic light reflecting in your windscreen was it? Sorry if that
sounds flippant, but you haven't given enough detail to rule out that
possibility.

Adrian
--
Adrian Shaw ais@
Adran Cyfrifiadureg, Prifysgol Cymru, aber.
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Cymru ac.
http://users.aber.ac.uk/ais uk

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 13:15:19 +0000, Adrian D. Shaw wrote:

It wasn't a traffic light reflecting in your windscreen was it?

Nope, country road, about 1km from the nearest house and streetlight,
in front and 0.5km behind, and 2km from a traffic light. No vehicles
behind or in front.


Sorry if that sounds flippant, but you haven't given enough detail to
rule out that possibility.

Traffic lights are so scarce in East Cambridgeshire that it never
occurred to me to that discount that idea.



Mike

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 21:40:05 +0000, Mike Causer
wrote:

Driving NE from Quy in East Cambs tonight I saw a fast, possibly low, pale
green blob (not a point like a meteorite) pass in front probably
travelling N. The general level of haze suggests it must have been close
and low rather than some distance away and high. Any other observations?

5 Live states police received 20 reports of 'UFOs" in Cheshire last
night. Lights in the sky changing direction.

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006 16:19:27 +0000, Paul C wrote:

On Sun, 15 Jan 2006 21:40:05 +0000, Mike Causer
wrote:

Driving NE from Quy in East Cambs tonight I saw a fast, possibly low, pale
green blob (not a point like a meteorite) pass in front probably
travelling N. The general level of haze suggests it must have been close
and low rather than some distance away and high. Any other observations?

5 Live states police received 20 reports of 'UFOs" in Cheshire last
night. Lights in the sky changing direction.

Disregard. They now say it relates to an event one year ago.

Doh!