Sunday, March 23, 2025

A VERY Bright Fireball

On Saturday morning (3/22/25) at 3:49am there was an incredible fireball to our north.  It just happened to be centered on my night cam and created a beautiful image complete with a reflection on the water and visible through the clouds.  My cams have captured a lot of fireballs, but I believe this is the brightest.


 I like to put these images into a video for a little closer look.....


I thought I would do a follow up with some details that we know about this fireball.  It was reported by 7 observers as far away as Benton City to American Meteor Society https://www.amsmeteors.org/.  It's path seemed to be just south and west of Kamloops BC.  The more reports available make it easier for them to triangulate the exact path.....  So, if you see a fireball, take a moment to report it.


So....  What is a fireball?  Simply put, it is a very bright meteor.  There is a scale that is used to measure brightness of objects in the sky.  It is called the stellar magnitude.  The smaller the number the brighter the object.  A "fireball" is defined as any meteor that is as bright or brighter than Venus.... or about -4 magnitude.  A full moon is around -12 and I classified this as -14.  Robert Lunsford of American Meteor Society is a good friend of mine.  He processes the fireball reports that come into AMS.  I verify some of my magnitude classifications with him as I am no expert.  His response was that this fireball was at least a -14 or brighter.

For more information, here is a good link: https://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/faqf/

  

 

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Thank You To All Of Our SkunkBayWeather Advertising Sponsors


Thank You To All Of Our
Advertising Sponsors



It’s time to share a special thank you and shout out to the businesses that advertise on SkunkBayWeather.  We just picked up a new sponsor, so we have all 5 tiles filled now.  Their support means so much and it is critical to keep the site going with a steady revenue stream.  They have all committed to a full year subscription.  Thank you so much!


Our sponsors now include:

Puget Sound Express – Whale Watching Tours – New this month!

Kenmore Air – Loyal supporter since 2018

Town & Country Markets – New in 2024

Tandem Wheels Photography – Loyal supporter since 2023

The Weather Forums - Loyal supporter since 2023

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Land Slide (12/27/24) and Aurora Show (1/4/25)

A couple of significant events recently.  There was a fair sized slide at Foulweather Bluff on December 27th.  My cams were lucky enough to capture it.....

 


Then on the evening of 1/3 - 1/4 we had a decent Aurora show.


Here is a time lapse of this event.



Sunday, November 24, 2024

Beautiful Sky Event on November 22, 2024

Around 3:00pm on November 22 I happened to look out and see a brilliant rainbow and locked my new cam on it.  It was perhaps some of the most beautiful footage my cams have ever captured.  It went on for an hour and 6 minutes.  I did a time lapse of it and got it down to 4 minutes.  It was beautiful and interesting to the very end.....




Saturday, October 12, 2024

Another Incredible Northern Lights Show - October 10-11


 

This show was almost as good as the May show.  Here is a time lapse of the whole evening.... 



Tuesday, September 17, 2024

The Aurora Shows Keep Coming....

 


They just keep on coming.  Even with a full moon last night we had a very nice Aurora show.  It started very early.  You can see the time stamp on this image is 8:26.  Sunset was around 7:20.  Astronomical twilight when the viewing is best would have started around 8:20.

Here is a time lapse of the whole show....  



Thursday, September 12, 2024

Northern Lights - September 12, 2024


Northern Lights again.  We have been getting a lot of great shows lately.  Here is the time lapse from September 12, 2024.