[AstroNet] Fireballs over Harrismith

Wed Nov 2 16:30:52 SAST 2011

Riaan van Greuning mailed me about a series of bright lights he saw in the  
sky above Harrismith on Sunday night, which he initially described as a  
series of fireballs.  I've had a few ideas as to what they might be, but  
none seem to quite fit the bill (aircraft with lights above the clouds,  
car headlights lighting up the clouds from beneath, fireworks from diwali,  
rocket launches passing over SA) for one reason or another.  You can read  
his description in the attached message below.

Has anybody else received reports of this, or does anybody have  
suggestions as to what it is Riaan might have seen?  He is busy uploading  
the video he recorded onto youtube, and will provide the link as soon as  
it is complete.  He originally sent me a series of screenshots from the  
video, which I can pass on to anybody who's interested, although I'm not  
sure how useful they will be - they just show indistinct patches of bright  
orange-tinted light.

Regards
Allen Versfeld

------- Forwarded message -------
From: "Van Greuning, Riaan" <Riaan.VanGreuning at afgri.co.za>
To: "Allen Versfeld" <allen.versfeld at gmail.com>
Cc:
Subject: RE: Re:
Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:49:32 +0200

The pictures are snapshots from a video that I took of the appearance.
It was cloudy but it was mostly not behind the clouds.
They were all moving approximately at the same speed, I would say  
according to the time and distance
About 300km/h, but that is just a guess. It seem to appear from the North  
and not the North horizon and
It disappeared through the clouds to the south. There was a slight curve  
in the movement but no sudden direction changes.
The shape stayed the same large, round and bright as in the photos. You  
could actually see that it is burning.
There were no sound at all. The first one we saw was 22h00 and lasted for  
about 1min,from the time we noticed it.
Five minutes later we saw another one and it also lasted for about a  
minute from the time we noticed it
Then we went outside and waited with the hope we saw another. About 10 min  
passed.
Then two appeared and moved together for about 1min 30sec then they start  
to split , as they moved on another appeared
This one moved in the same pattern as the others but appeared bigger and  
you could see the burning and flames more clearly.
I would like to send you the video but it is too big to e-mail.
I took it with my cell 12mpixel.I'll see if I can compress it to reduce  
the size.
Thank you.

-----Original Message-----
From: Allen Versfeld [mailto:allen.versfeld at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 02, 2011 10:57
To: Van Greuning, Riaan
Subject: Re:

Hi Riaan

Those pictures are very interesting, but I'm afraid I can't tell much from
them. They seem a little blurry, but I can't tell if they're behind
clouds, or if it's just the usual result of a normal camera trying to
auto-focus in darkness (night-time photography and astro-photography is
pretty specialised - you're working at light levels that most professional
photographers simply don't know how to deal with).
Could you give me an idea of how fast they were moving? Did they travel
all the way from the north horizon to the south, or did they change
direction, start at one point, fade away, or anything else like that?
Were they bright points like stars, or large objects with a shape and size?

The times you gave - 22h00 to 22h22 - do you mean that you saw them at
some point between those times, or that they came at intervals between
those exact times? In other words, did the show last 22 minutes?

On Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:03:39 +0200, Van Greuning, Riaan
<Riaan.VanGreuning at afgri.co.za> wrote:

>
> Good day
> Can you tell me what is on the photo's.
> I captured this Sunday night in Harrismith.
> I saw five of these fireballs between 22h00 and 22h22 moving from North 
> to South.
> Thank you
>
> Riaan van Greuning
> Electrical Technician
> AFGRI Operations Limited
> Tel: +27 12 974 2525
> Fax: +27 86 635 2462
> Mobile: +27 71 679 3533
> E-mail: 
> Riaan.VanGreuning at afgri.co.za<mailto:Riaan.VanGreuning at afgri.co.za>
> Website: www.afgri.co.za<http://www.afgri.co.za/> 
> [cid:image001.jpg at 01CAFB19.D0B70550]

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