Fireball Meteor over Michigan 11-05-08

This is a fireball I imaged over my home in Michigan in the early morning hours of November 5, 2008 using a custom built SkyCam.
The interesting part of this time-lapse video is the smoke trail left by the meteor.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• meteor
• fireball
• bolide
• UFO

[dsoimaging]

xalien88, do you have a vid of the event? I clicked your user name and found a vid of a rocket launch at Fish Lake. I used to go there many times as a kid and I'm also into HPR. As a matter of fact, I'm the owner of PML.

[xalien88]

The all sky camera I operate near Lapeer, MI also recorded this - but at starting at 05:09:48

[drkev]

I saw a fireball like that many years ago. It was as if someone had lit a big box of matches and threw it across the sky. It was bright enough to briefly cast shadows. The trail left behind is not a smoke trail, it's an ion trail - the energy from the fireball strips electrons from atoms in the atmosphere which cases the atoms to glow as the electrons recombine with them. Usually the glow is greenish. The trail I saw lasted 25 minutes, deformed by upper atmosphere winds, just like in the video.