Re: [meteorite-list] Mystery Lights Observed Over England

[GeoZay]

>>Living in England myself (on the south coast), I have been an amateur astronomer for 20 years (on and off) I can tell you our skies are pretty quiet!<< I have a daughter living I believe in your area right now...Newquay. >>I saw a bat onceâ and thatâs about it.<< Every evening often before I start, I would see bats flying over head. I rather enjoyed it. Once I had a large owl fly right over the length of my body about a foot or two above me. Scared the poo-poo out of me. Didn't see him coming. For a flash of a moment...that was a UFO. :O) He landed in the tops of a tree and sat there gawking at me for about five minutes.  >>What amazes me is that so many people seem to see major fireballs etc! do they sit there and stare up all night, every night???<< Well...I pretty much use to do that when the hours of moonlight wasn't bright, except I laid there. Some nights got pretty long with little activity. Only twice did I see a fireball that had associated sonic booms. Neither broke up, so I'm quite confident a rather large piece made it to the ground. >>(Maybe I should try taking the lense cap off my telescope)â << The years before I did meteor work, I use to stay up all night photographing galaxies and what have you. During most of that time, my eyes were glued to a guiding eyepiece. Only seen a couple fireballs during those nights. Had little opportunity to note anything really unusual. It was only after I started meteor work,  that I was getting a real "feel" of what's in the sky. There was absolutely nothing that hinted ET was involved. I actually enjoyed watching others who sometimes accompany me, see "Unusual" lights. They weren't to me, but they were to them. Sometimes I would break out the large binoculars so they can see for themselves what I already knew. George Zay