News
Fireball over the UK! Seen from HCO!
Many people across the UK witnessed a fireball on the Saturday 3rd March. Some HCO members who were gathered together that evening were lucky enough to see it too. (Not the webmaster though, who is a little miffed he wasn't there.)
One member, Norman Kissoon, sent a letter in to the Banbury Guardian:
On Saturday evening at the Hanwell Community Observatory meeting, the group ventured outside into the courtyard to take advantage of the clear sky to conduct some practical observing of the moon, Jupiter, Venus, Mars and the wonderful Betelguese – one of the largest stars known, some 1,000 light years away.
Suddenly, we witnessed an extraordinary event.
To quote Andrew Baxter, one of the members present, ‘Through the trees I spotted low down on the northern horizon a very bright orange light. It was travelling fast so the first thoughts were that it was a military jet on a low-level night exercise’.
There was no noise. It proceeded to the east of us, climbing higher, which made no sense for an aeroplane or helicopter. David Shirt joked it was a UFO!
It climbed higher and as it passed parallel to us it did not become dimmer, as aeroplane lights would, but it left a vapour trail which looked like it was from a plane and illuminated by the moon.
No noise. It then faded away when about due east of Hanwell, at an elevation of 30 degs or so, we who were there concluded it was a fireball, or a piece of space hardware crashing back to earth.
At say burn up altitude of 100 miles and 30 degs elevation, due east , that puts it about 150-200 miles away, over Holland? I bet it was seen in the north of Britain.
It was a clear night so thousands must have seen it, especially those driving north.
I read in the Daily Telegraph that the fireball may have ended its life in the Bay of Biscay.’
A spectacular finale to our evening.
It was indeed seen in the north of England. Here's a great video taken over Whitley Bay in North Tyneside:
Stars & Snowdrops 2012 a success despite the weather!
Thank you to the 600+ who came along this year despite the postponement and the bad weather on Saturday. Sunday's weather made up for the previous day and many visitors were delighted with the the views of the sun through the solar telescope and, later, Venus in the daytime sky!
Thanks especially to the many members of the community and friends of friends who came out to support us when we had to shift the dates. We might have had to cancel otherwise, so it's heartwarming that you all volunteered.
And thank you to Graham Whiting for this wonderful panorama taken at the event!
Click here to see a bigger version!
Tape measure quiz results
For those of you who took part in this quiz, placing Saturn, Uranus and Neptune where you thought they should go on a tape measure up the drive to the Coach House, the correct answers were:
- Saturn: 4.75 metres
- Uranus: 9.8 metres
- Neptune: 15 metres
We will be contacting the winner soon!
