Fireball report

Reports Report 8338a (Event 8338-2020)

Observer
Name	Simon W
Experience Level	3/5
Remarks	I saw this interfering with the light of the left star of Gemini, I asked my friend if there was something strange about it, he stopped playing guitar and looked at me funny then said no, I looked at it for another 5 seconds and asked him again, are you sure there’s nothing strange about it, he looked again and then said oh yeh it does look a bit strange, a moment after that things got a little scary. That area of the sky is roughly where planes from overseas come into Darwin, so there was initial confusion. 12°24'01"S 130°3931"E Was approximately where we were sitting at the 5m tide mark approx and I did work out the line from radiant did pass directly through the Pilbara, which is where I saw the videos from after. We saw no colours from the main meteor after initial entry it was beyond white and looked like the brightest plane spotlight ever. Before passing over our heads. I’m unsure of the time entered sorry, my phone was on charge, but at a guess somewhere around 12.25am nt time. Impact site of break off piece is impossible to find as an amateur and from reading probably professionals too. Happy to provide more information if requested

Location
Address	Wagait Beach, Northern Territory (AU)
Latitude	12° 26' 3.72'' S (-12.434367°)
Longitude	130° 44' 31.24'' E (130.742011°)
Elevation	18.852608m

Time and Duration
Local Date & Time	2020-06-15 00:15 ACST
UT Date & Time	2020-06-14 14:45 UT
Duration	≈20s

Direction
Moving direction	From down to up
Descent Angle	-

Moving
Facing azimuth	35.83°
First azimuth	190°
First elevation	15°
Last azimuth	10°
Last elevation	20°

Brightness and color
Stellar Magnitude	-19
Color	Purple, Dark Blue, Light Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, White

Concurrent Sound
Observation	No
Remarks	-

Delayed Sound
Observation	No
Remarks	-

Persistent train
Observation	No
Duration	-
Length	-
Remarks	-

Terminal flash
Observation	Unknown
Remarks	-

Fragmentation
Observation	Yes
Remarks	Fragmentation only viewable after main meteor had passed over the top of us, it was at first an intense dark blue with speckles of red, green on the outside, as we were sitting directly in front it, it appeared to drop vertically, as it reached the bottom of the first drop we saw it went bright blue, then more green, ionisation was intense. It travelled a long way over the water and then Darwin harbour and at the time we thought we would die, just like we did with the main meteor, but it dropped below our eye height in the last few moments, presumably landing within 200 m in front of us in approximately 1 metre of water or less. At the end it was too bright to see and the ionisation head was well in front of it, but perhaps pre ionisation of the air from the main one that went over our heads.

Fragmentation

Observation

Yes

Remarks

Fragmentation only viewable after main meteor had passed over the top of us, it was at first an intense dark blue with speckles of red, green on the outside, as we were sitting directly in front it, it appeared to drop vertically, as it reached the bottom of the first drop we saw it went bright blue, then more green, ionisation was intense. It travelled a long way over the water and then Darwin harbour and at the time we thought we would die, just like we did with the main meteor, but it dropped below our eye height in the last few moments, presumably landing within 200 m in front of us in approximately 1 metre of water or less. At the end it was too bright to see and the ionisation head was well in front of it, but perhaps pre ionisation of the air from the main one that went over our heads.