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Meteor over South Africa 21 November 2009

Metoer Shower - Wikipedia
Meteor Shower - Wikipedia

UPDATED: I have posted 2 VIDEOS of from Johannesburg of the meteor. Check out the post here -> https://www.marcforrest.com/2009/11/24/video-of-meteor-over-gauteng-21-november/

Update: Christo Van Graan also sent me a video taken from his Security camera’s in the Limpopo Province -> https://www.marcforrest.com/2009/11/25/meteor-video-from-limpopo-province-211109/

On Saturday evening, 21 November,  my wife and I were driving home on the N2 near Ballito,  from my year-end function, at about 22:30. suddenly the whole sky lit up to a greenish/blueish colour. Soon after that there was flash that flew over our heads. It kinda looked like a lightning blot, but there weren’t any clouds in the sky.

I immediately jumped onto twitter, and found that we weren’t the only ones to see this. It sounded like it was a lot brighter in over Johannesburg & Centurion, with a couple of people even saying they may have thought it had reached the ground as well. After checking around, it looked like what we saw was a rather rare occurrence, in that a we saw a meteor in the sky that was close to earth. I have never seen anything like this, and it was phenomenal.

After doing a bit more investigation, in the morning, it sound like it didn’t actually hit the ground, as meteors generally burn up as they hit the earths atmosphere.It also looks like it could be part the Leonid shower which is meteoroid dust from the tail of Halley’s Comet! Although, that may not be 100% correct, as this was scheduled to happen on the 17th of November.

The Weather Service has a blog post about it here, where a couple of people have commented about this. The Times also has an article on with comment from the guys at the Johannesburg planetarium. So far, it doesn’t seem anyone has pictures of this rare occurrence, but hopefully we can get lucky, and get a similar picture to that of a Utah surveillance camera that picked up a meteor shower in Utah last week. Wikipedia also has a very interesting read about Meteor Showers

Did you see the Meteor on Saturday night ? If you did leave a comment, if anyone has pictures let me know, and I will gladly put them up :)

69 replies on “Meteor over South Africa 21 November 2009”

Hi

My wife and I had a couple of friends over on Sat 21 Nov 09. At around 23:00 we also saw the “meteor shower”. It was quite spectacular, but did gve us a bit of a fright though. The clouds turned various colous as the object descended. We were kind of waiting for an impact, because it appeared to be extremely close. (Centurion, PTA)

“My friends and i were sitting outside at about 23h30 when all of a sudden the night sky lit up as though it was the daytime and then disappeared. We originally thought it may be lightening but then a friends father called to ask if we had seen the “thing” flying in the sky. We all tried to get through to various radio stations and airports, it was amazing to say the least!”

I was with friends at a beautiful place called Elements, just outside Warm Baths for the weekend. On Saturday night we were sitting outside on the deck and the next thing night-time became day-time! It was the most awesome thing to experience – a huge ball of fire dancing across the sky with a magnificent “tail” of blue and green lights. I took is a personal gift from the universe, what with my birthday looming at midnight and more so that I am still recovering after being shot by armed robbers on the 31st of July. It was an amazing experience!

Hi there!Me and some friends were in the Krugerpark in Orpen for the weekend. Saterday night we came back from a night drive and at about 11oclock we sat outside talking about the ride. Suddenly the heavens was blue, like a lite coming on and then went white!It was super weird! I was alos waiting for an Impact! Wow, i didnt know what was happening till now.crazy!

I was with friends at a restuarant in Broadacres and myself and two friends were outside when we saw a huge ball of flames streak through the sky. It was amazing to see, it really blew our minds as it seemed so huge and close to Earth. I must say, I also expected to feel it hit the ground…maybe a rumble or something! I am so glad others saw it, since it seemed so surreal at the time.

I was the last one up on sat night, We stay out in lanseria and I was sitting in the study playing guitar when I saw this (At first) Orange Light, which went blue-ish – Green streak across the sky, it was at like 11ish somewhere. My view is of the mountains by Haartebeesport Dam, I really thought it was a airplane going down at first and was looking for flames or to call the emergency services, after sitting and staring out the window for about half an hour with my heart racing, I thought about a meteor and am totally blown away by the fact that i saw it, very very very very awesome indeed!!!

My wife & I, in Musina, Limpopo, were leaving a hall, shortly before 11 pm, having attended a friends birthday party. As we got to the door the whole light lit up. There was a girl and a security guard at the door and I asked was that lightning, as I now realised that I saw no clouds but stars. The guard had backed himself into the door, saying it is rain. A passing car stopped and the driver said something had fallen out of the sky. I concluded that it was possibly a flare being used on the border patrol.

My friend and I came back from following up a complaint of an armed robbery in Theresapark, Pretoria-North. We stopped by his house and talked about the event that took place… Then all of a sudden the sky lit up and as we looked up we saw this ball of fire fly past. Stunned, we looked at each other waiting for the bang that never happened. Awesome!!

Yes i did see the light but i was in the house. I wanted to peek through the window but thought against it coz i chuckled to myself that it might be aliens. But the following day my mom told me she also saw the light.strange thing is that she was on the other side of the house. My dad tried to put us at ease and said it could have been a police van,but their flash don’t have pink and greenish colours so it couldn’t have been because there was also no sound of the sirens nor a car passing. 1 of our neighbours had seen the lights as well and thought it was a fire cracker,but there was still no sound! So this morning we read news 24 and that’s when everything made sense.

We were driving home on sat night,we actually saw the meteor shower. It was amazin,lasted few seconds but I was glad that we saw it. the sky just lit up and the next thing,these yellow ball came and the was tail behind it. Amazing it was

Nine of us were having drinks and laughs by the vaal river, shortly after 11pm I saw with a friend of mine a blue light traveling through the sky and at that moment I turned to him and told him that some people just don’t know when to quit with fire works. When I had finished saying this a very bright white light appeared just over the horizon and from there covered the entire sky with white, blue and finally red. Must have been pretty high up as the light came through the clouds and not under. Sadly we were filming about 5 minutes before. All 9 guys talked about it for about an hour after that and we still thought we were just to on our way to have seen something like this, which was confirmed by News24 the next day. once in a lifetime event and it was great.

i was having my bday party at my farm in magaliesburg. when we just see the sky light up to a very bright white/blue colour. with yellow/red/orange after that. it was very nice to see. if poeple have pic’s of the Meteor over South Africa please send a link to it on the site as i like to get some pics.

We were in Ficksburg for the Cherry Festival and at around 11pm Saturday nite, the sky lit up with a brite white lite that went red at the end. It only lasted about 5 seconds but the reality of the sighting will remain forever.

I’m just happy that myself and my husband were not the only ones to see this flash of daylight in the evening because we’d had a few drinks and we didn’t want to sound like over imaginative alkies this week.

I was, 35 kilometers east of Polokwane sitting and chatting with a friend in the sitting room with the curtains closed and the lights on . I was facing the window and my friend was facing me, with the window behind him. All of a sudden I saw bright light bluesh light, the same as the one we saw from a welding torch. The light was so bright and kept on coming closer until i thought it was about to consume everything around me. In a split second it was dying out and i could not see where it ended because of the visual obstruction from sorrounding buildings

Hi daar
Ons plaas is so 10km vanaf die Botswana grens (Platjan grenspos) naby Alldays.
Ons het Sat aand wakker geword van die helder lig en die enorme ‘ontploffing’ sekondes daarna. Die hele aarde hier rond het geskud, so ek sal min verbaas wees as die ding hier naby ons ‘geval’ het, of dan in die lug gedisentegreer het.
Wat ook al, al wat ek weet is dat ons dog ons is onder aanval en bomme het ontplof. Selfs die bure het gebel om te verneem of ons ok was. Hulle was oortuig die ‘ontploffing’ was by ons. Ons het Sondag oggend gery om te kyk of ons enige iets sien, maar ek reken dit kan waarskeinlik iewers in Botswana wees. Die impak van so ding kan waarskeinlik baie ver gevoel word.

It was Saturday night; I really don’t know what time was that. I was going outside to fetch my cell phone from my car. Suddenly when I opened the door I saw something like a camera flash light, for a moment I thought someone is taking me a picture and all of sudden it turned yellowish like sunrise.

We were on our way back from a wedding just outside Thabazimbe when we suddenly saw the sky turn green then orange then yellow and finally bright as daylight I actually stopped in the middle of the road waiting for the feaken thing to hit us but then it was gone. scary stuff in you had a few toots !

Also saw the light saturday night – got surveilance cameras around our house – the sky lits up – looks like in the middle of the day – looks like some kind of explotion – then all turn to red and back to black again… no footage of the meteor – only the sky that is lit!

At about 23h00 we were sitting on the deck with a view into Kruger Park (we are situated on the crocodile river).The next moment i saw a light with a ball at the bottom of it followed by a light simular to lightning with colours of green and blue. Then just before it disappeared a orange colour surrounded the ball. It was surely very spectacular. It was very close and we thought it fell in The Kruger Park. That close it was. We are based in Malelane near the Malelane gate

My friends and I were camping in the Drakensberg. We were sitting outside arond the camp fire It was the most clear night with stars in full glory. It was around 10:30 pm. The whole sky and ground lit up as if it was daylight again. Something I will never forget. Really amazing.

my friends and i were in the street right infront of my frineds we all saw this greenish light but it was very cloudy aswell we actually thought it was just lightning but wow! it was a meteor

Sitting in the swimming pool at BELA BELA resort.
It was an ordinary saturday night for mmyself and a few friends. We all took a late night swim when suddenly the sky became brighter than day in not even 2seconds. When we looked up in the sky we saw something that was beautiful but also scary. We saw a ball of yellow, orange and red flames with bright bluewish green fllames that followed. It llooked to be the size of a soccer ball but ofcourse distance from earth to where it was in the sky could mean that the true size could have been much bigger. This meteor as we know it flew through the sky and lit up BELA BELA resort for about 15 – 20 seconds.
It looked as if it was going to storm there at first but as soon asthe meteor passed by, there was not a cloud insight. THis happened instantly.No we dont drink so all of us werent drunk, we saw what we saw and it was an amazing feeling.

It was also a wake up calll because i saw how quikly some people actualy thought the world was coming to an end and started praying for their sins.

I also see people are talking about aliens.. No trace of aliens have been found yet and we cant say that they do not exist aswell. There are so many planets out there that we cant even reach so we cannot prove anything yet.
To the people who think they dont exist, here is a question for you “If GOD created you and I does that not mean that he has the power to create ALIENS?”
Think about it.

As for me mabe the want us to know that they do exist and now they throwing balls of fire or what we call a meteor at us. Who knows?

As for me i believe that WE ARE NOT ALONE.

We were camping in the Tuli Block, Botswana when we saw the sky lit up like fire and then heard and felt what we believe to be the impact of the meteor. We are guessing there was a crater somewhere in Tuli.

Hallo,we are from Germany,and have seen the Meteor in Berlin.It was a Green Ball with stripe and than it is exploded in the sky

We were at home Sat eve. around 11pm, on the 21 Nov
& also aw a bright orang flash – that lit up the
night sky for several seconds, then turned a brilliant white & died away! White River, Mpumalanga

We were at home Sat eve. around 11pm, on the 21 Nov
& also saw a bright orang flash – that lit up the
night sky for several seconds, then turned a brilliant white & died away! White River, Mpumalanga

I saw the meteor on saturday, it seemed very close and had a bright greenish glow. I actually waited for it to hit the ground… it was very very close…
I was sitting in my livinroom when I saw this bright flash that looked like lightning. I looked outside when I saw this bright greenish light (a ball with, that looked like a tail). It light up the sky, and it looked really creepy, but stunning at the same time.
Centurion. PTA

We were at a wedding in komatipoort close to the Mozambique border and we found the light coming from that direction. Lighting up every thing with a green, blue color and then it just went white .We had to stop the car cause we thought this was it. The flash divinity came from a north – easterly direction.

I captured and saved the images of the light from the meteorite on my security cameras in Musina Limpopo just past 23h00.It was realy strange and awsome when for 4 seconds the night turned into bright daylight.It was very close to earth here on the border town with Zimbabwe

i was chilling with my boyfriend and some friends of mine, and about 23:50 it seemed to look as if lighting struk the sky but in a split second night time suddenly turned into broad day light for about less than 5 seconds. it was so amazing, that we actually thought the repture took place

i was chilling with my boyfriend and some friends of mine, and about 23:50 it seemed to look as if lighting struk the sky but in a split second night time suddenly turned into broad day light, it was so bright that we turned away for a split second it lasted for about less than 5 seconds. it was so amazing, that we actually thought the repture took place. Ennerdale

My girfriend and I were driving from the center of Johannesburg towards Fourways Saturday night when we saw the clouds light up over Pretoria like there was lightning in the clouds, the next moment the meteor came through the clouds as a orange ball of fire leaving a trail of flames behind. From the location we were at and the angle I would say it hit the ground somewhere to the North of Pretoria. It would really be nice to know where it crashed and if anything remained.

We also saw the very very bright light from Francistown in Botswana. It was also seen from the SUA Pans

I was on my way back from a friend. Driving from Benoni agricultural holdings when at about 23:00 the sky turned a light green – I though I was being pulled over by cops. When I looked out of the drivers window I saw this massive bright light – my first thoughts was an aircraft has just fallen. Later learned it was the meteor.

On Saturday night I was driving from work home when suddenly I saw a blue light in the sky. Normaly this would be a Helicopter flying over the banana farms in the area but the light turnend very blue light, lighting up the sky as if was day time.This was followed by a white stripe light turnig yellow,to orange,to a dark bright orange,to a light red, finaly to a dark bright red light. Like a light switch it was of and back to a dark night agian. I belive that the ones who was lucky enough to see this, have an exsperience that is indescribable to others, so I hope there are someone out there with pictures or something to show others. George

this seems to have happenned whole globe.im in gaborone botswana and i saw the light aroud 11.i was suprised because it nvr seemed like it was gona rain.

Me and a friend of mine were staninding outside and chating when we suddenly saw a it. I actually thought it was the end of the world and Jesus was comming. I dont think i ever wana see something like that again. It was scary.

We live in White River and were having coffee in the lounge just before going to bed +-23H45 when the sky lit up – looked like the sun came up for 5 seconds and then went down again leavin an orangy red glow on the horizen for about 10 minutes. Awesome and like everyone says a once in a lifetime experience.

Hi
I live in Witbank!My friend and I were sitting in my room round about 23:15pm when all of a sudden my whole window light up. It seemed as thou people where outside my window shinning a light in and then we also saw a red colour with this light and we really didnt know what was going on until we listened to the radio the next morning.We really wished we could of seen more of it because it is not that often that you can see that happen! Oh there are some pictures on Jacarandafm.com go check them out!

We are living on the farm in the Brits area it was maggi’s birthday party,we were outside when it came. first a white flash then we saw the fire ball with it’s tail. There where blue red and orange collers it exploded into many pieces.It was incredeble.

Me and my family were visiting friends in Parys, right on the Vaal river. All of them went to bed an hour earlier but I was outside staring into the fire, when all of a sudden everything flikkered into daylight. I could not see the fireball itself, as there were lots of cloud cover, but it was a very eerie feeling. My intial reaction were also that it may have been lightning, but because there were no sound afterward, I reckoned it must have been something like a meteor.

My dad spoke to some of his friends living on the Tolwe/Alldays road, and they all saw the meteor speed towards Platjan, and a few seconds later heard a massive boom, and the ground shaking. Best bet is that it either crashed into Botswana, or exploded in that vicinity.

Hi,
Ek woon in Centurion. My huis se aansig wys na die Noord/Noord Oostelike rigting. Op 21-11-2009 om ongeveer tussen 23:00-23:30
Ek en my dogter gesit en gesels…en terwyl sy nog so sit en gesels en by die deur uitkyk…sê sy net skielik “Jislikie..wat was dit…!! Ek het gevra wat sy sien en sy het beskryf sy het ‘n helder blou gevolg deur ‘n oranje verligting in die lug gesien. Ek kon op daardie stadium nie vir haar verduidelik wat sy gesien het nie…en het dit net vermoed. Nooit gedink mens sal so iets in die omgewing gewaar nie. Nou weet ons wat sy gesien het. Dis jammer dat niemand fotos kon neem nie… nie eers ek nie…en ek neem gereeld… hoe wonderlik is die natuur nie darem nie… dit behou tog nog geheime van ons aardwesens. Onvoorspelbaar en misterie bring ons tot nuuskierigheid.
the sky is the limit – keep on watching the sky…

My wife and I saw the meteorite on saturday night. We live at Amandelbult, about 38km south of Thabazimbi, Limpopo. I just got home from work at around 22h00. Shortly after we saw the whole sky turned into a blue-green glow, followed by an orange streak of fire going towards the north. We both were stunned in awe of this magnificent display of light. It was beautiful.

Hi, we were in Johannesburg at the time of the sighting, it was too quick to take a photo though. Allmost looked like thunder. My brother who was in Rustenburg also saw the same light and mentioned it to me on Monday morning. Will be interesting to see what it actually was. Rumours says, it fell in Botswana and they were still looking into it. But like I said, ii’s only a Rumour….

We were in the bush near Hoedspruit when we saw the flash of light. I was expecting thunder but there was only silence. We started to speculate about what it could have been. Then, on our return to Jo’Burg on Monday we heard the 15h30 news of the light being caused by a meteor. And to think I was looing for meteors whenever the sky cleared!!

Hi, i was 40km from Musina in the Limpopo that night, just a few minutues past 11, a bright white flash appeared from the sky, as the light disapeared i saw a huge red/orange flame speeding across the sky and about 5 – 7 minutues later there was a disruption in the ground, the windows and doors of the chalets we stayed in was shaking. it really felt like a little earthqauke.

hi, i live in pretoria and saw a big flash of light in the sky and after peeking out the window saw bright orange sky towards the west. had no idea that it was a meteor, only found out next morning on radio 702. was amazing.

Hi

I am from Cape Town and happened to be at a wedding in Johannesburg on the evening of the 21st and also saw it from the balcony at the Everwood Country Estate Muldersdrift.

Would be interesting to hear what it was. Have heard that it was a satellite that was launched??

Myself & seven guests were at Rock Camp in Mashatu, Tuli Block in Botswana from 19th Nov to 24th Nov 2009. After our Game Drive and a braai on Saturday night the 21st, we were outside playing a bird CD calling the Pearl Spotted Owl. There was myself, my daughter, her boyfriend, my brother-in-law & two of the resident Game Rangers.

I was walking down a path to a dead Leadwood tree where I know the Owls like to perch. I was walking due south,when suddenly I saw the horison light up almost as if the sun was rising. Within a second or two the whole sky had litten up, as if daylight. It then momentarily turned an orange hue and went back to total darkness. The bush went into a deathly silence. No frogs, insects or birds. A deathly silence.

We were all stunned and did not totally understand what exactly had happened. We all admitted to having goose bumps but went about our task at hand, looking for the Pearl Spotted Owl, which by now were all around us in the trees.

I realised that something desperately unusual had happened and looked at my watch. It was 10h50 in the night.

About 5 to 10 minutes later, as I was entering the main building of Rock Camp, there was the most amazing explosion in the sky. It sounded like nothing I have ever heard before.

Two of the people with me were facing North when the sky lit up and they both said that they saw a red streak in the sky, very wide going south to north before the darkness returned.

My name is Midge Wood and my Cell No 082 920 9782. If there are any cosmic experts out there that would like to talk to us about what we experienced, please feel free.

on the 21 November 2009 in Mpumalanga, Vaalbank (Libangeni) for 2-3 Minutes the sky turned blue – green colour around 22H32. I never saw sumthing like dat in my life.

in the Centurion area we were all standing outside and saw this greenish light..some guy thinking its the end of the world hehe and me telling them its a green flair someone shooted up in the ski..but yes this was very beautiful..its really looked like a flair..this green coming down and exploded and making a bright light over the area..never seen something this amazing.. :)

I was @ work and it was amazing the speed the sound and the brightness, i knew it was not a shooting star and immediately i waited to hear that something bad had happened but found out a few hours later that it was a meteor, it was beautiful if you saw it you definitely know what im talking about, we had a few minutes of daylight again @ that hour…

Hi, I am an astronomer trying to determine the path of this meteor. I would like to ask all the people who actually saw the meteor (not behind clouds) to let me know where exactly they were, whether the meteor was east or west of them, roughly its altitude (“very low”, “about 30 deg”, “about 60 deg”, “almost overhead”) and whether they heard or felt an explosion or shock wave. please reply to [email protected]

As I was out on Saturday night I missed but our CCTV caught the effects on a number of cameras. The best of which we have published on our front page for others to enjoy. Visit http://www.digicell.co.za the view is from the garden, camera faces roughly north and location is Midrand

I was with a my girlfriend around, going to Sunnyside to pick up some, then all of sudden i saw the sky changed to blue then red,

I dint know what was happen because it happen so quick, but we i knew something was wrong

Hi. My husband and I witnessed this meteor in the US. We are in Chicopee Ma. which is in the western part of the state. It occurred on Sat night here around 5:45 pm (16.45) We were having a campfire in the back yard and it seemed to fly right over our heads (really low). It was amazing!
PS to Brian the astronomer, We heard nothing but it was right over head and very low.

I’m sorry , I did miscalculate the maritime hours. The sighting my husband and I witnessed was actually 17:45. Sorry for the confusion!

Hi I live in Pretoria, also saw it on Saturday. I had never seen anything like that in my life, I actually thought SA was under attack, but then again who would bomb us, we are good people ….

Late evening of 21 Nov 2009, my wife and I was lying watching tv at our flat in Nelspruit Mpumalanga when my eye cought a bright light through our open sliding door. It was like a massive commit with a long tail lighting up the sky ! 30 min later my wife’s water broke and the next morning my 1st daugter ‘Faith’ was born. Her birth and my love for the universe and stars make this meteor very special to me !

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