Abstract
AT about 8.45 p.m. on November 14, a very bright fireball was seen by a number of people in different parts of Ireland. All the accounts agree in describing it as extremely brilliant, showing lights of various colours—white, blue, and red—and moving fairly slowly earthwards. Some of those who saw it allege that it lighted up the country, a road being visible for half a mile ahead, or the earth being as bright as day. Many people were terrified by the apparition, and one girl collapsed with fright. Most of the accounts come from Dublin and Wicklow, but it was also seen in Co. Tipperary, and a correspondent there describes it in terms almost similar to those used by others in eastern Ireland, namely, “it seemed very close at hand and lighted the whole place up”. A report from Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, asserts that three minutes after its disappearance a dull rumbling noise like distant thunder was heard. No one has given its position at beginning or ending with reference to the stars; indeed it does not appear that any stars were visible, at least for the observers in eastern Ireland. For this reason it is quite impossible to compute its path. Judging by the vague descriptions of its direction, it was probably falling nearly vertically somewhere about the middle of Ireland, probably a little towards the west.
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Bright Fireball of November 14. Nature 138, 965 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138965c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138965c0