MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Luke 21:25-26, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”

But as bright as these fireballs are they will still all pale in comparison to the brightness of Christ’s coming …

Matthew 24:27, “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”

Star Tribune – “Dozens of people reported seeing a fireball flash across Northwest skies at about 6 a.m. Wednesday, moving east to west.

Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society told the Statesman Journal it had 165 reports from sky watchers in the Northwest and Canada.

Mostly clear skies made it more visible at a time when people were heading to work or school.

Dick Pugh of Portland State University told KGW that the flash apparently was a small piece of an asteroid burning up in the atmosphere.” Source – Star Tribune.

Fortunately, it’ll be a shot across the bow and not a direct hit, this time …

By Tariq Malik, Fox News – “The sun erupted with one of the strongest solar flares it can unleash early Friday, just days after firing off an intense solar storm at Earth.

The major solar flare, which registered as an X1.7-class solar event on the space weather scale, peaked at 4:01 a.m. EDT (0801 GMT), according to an alert by the NOAA-run Space Weather Prediction Center. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured video of the X1.7 solar flare, which followed several smaller sun storms over the last few days.

The sun storm erupted from a new sunspot cluster called Region 1882 and sparked a temporary radio blackout, SWPC officials said in an update. But it is not aimed directly at Earth and is not currently expected to be ‘geo-effective,’ meaning that it should not spark a major geomagnetic storms in Earth’s magnetic field, they added.

Astronomers classify solar flares into three categories — C, M and X — with C being the weakest and X the strongest. When aimed directly at Earth, X-class sun eruptions can interfere with satellite-based communications and navigation systems, endanger astronauts in orbit.

That does not appear to be the case with the X1.7-class flare, according to an SWPC update, though officials are awaiting additional imagery of the solar flare to see if it was associated with a massive explosion of super-hot plasma — known as a coronal mass ejection — that can hurl solar material into space at more than 1 million mph.

Friday’s X1.7 solar flare occurred just hours after a more moderate M-class solar flare and two days after an intense M9.4-class solar flare on Wednesday. That M9.4 solar flare was associated with a coronal mass ejection.” Read more.

Delaware Online – “A large fireball was seen streaking through the night sky by at least 21 people – three of them from Delaware – about 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Witnesses reported the sighting on the American Meteor Society’s website.

Middletown-area resident Dan Foraker said he also spotted it, and described the meteor as a ‘perfectly round ball of fire.’

Foraker, who lives near Drawyers Creek off Shallcross Lake Road, said he was sitting outside talking on the phone with his son about the Redskins game, when all of a sudden a ball of fire appeared over the line of trees.

‘I’ve never seen anything that big. I didn’t know if there was a plane going down,’ he said. ‘It lasted for about six seconds and went down behind the trees. I didn’t hear a sound, but I was waiting to hear a loud boom.’

Foraker said he called police and a county officer showed up later and said that the state police helicopter was the only aircraft that had been up in the air about that time.

A supervisor with the New Castle County fire board today said no calls were received about that time and no one was dispatched on any calls for a plane down.

The American Meteor Society, meanwhile, is investigating 21 reports from witnesses who saw this fireball over Washington, D.C., Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia and West Virginia between 7 p.m. and 8:13 p.m.” Read more.

Examiner – “Ohioans were dazzled by a bright flash of blue light in the night sky on September 27, 2013, in southern Ohio around 11:30 p.m., eastern standard time. Could it have been a meteorite or a satellite predicted to crash to earth on Friday?

A fireball reportedly hit near a home in northern Adams County, Ohio, a few miles outside the city of Peebles causing a house fire. Those reports are unconfirmed. The six alarm fire left fireman battling the blaze into the early hours of the morning. It is unknown at this time if the residents made it out safely.

A neighbor said the meteor crossed over the city and hit near the Locust Grove Cemetery just four miles from the Great Serpent Effigy Mound…

Update: As of the morning of September 28, 2013, a home outside of Peebles, Ohio, in the Locust Grove area of Adams County burned to the ground last night, the two residents of the home, an elderly couple, Jane and Lyle Lambert, died as a result of smoke inhalation. The fire is believed to be caused from the meteor or pieces of the heated meteor that hit the home.” Read more.

Earth Sky – “The American Meteor Society (AMS) has reported at least 373 reports of another bright fireball – a very bright meteor, likely a small chunk of natural incoming space debris – over the U.S. last night (September 27, 2013). These reports followed a similar event over approximately the same area the day before (September 26). The AMS called the coincidence of two bright fireballs, or bright meteors, spotted over approximately the same region on consecutive days ‘surprising.’ Witnesses from Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia reported a bright light moving across the night sky on September 27 at around 11:33 p.m. local time, according to the AMS.

Fireball might sound ominous, but it is just the word astronomers use to mean bright meteor. As seen from a whole-Earth perspective, fireballs are seen often. It’s unusual to have two appear on consecutive nights over the same region, however.

September 2013 has been a busy month for sightings of bright meteors, according to the AMS. Last night’s event marks the 14th fireball sighting with at least 25 witnesses in September, the most ever since the AMS started recording sightings online, they say.” Read more.

7 Midwest States See Fireball Streak Across Sky – “Scientists have said that the meteor is similar to the one that was reported to have streaked across the sky over Russia earlier this year. One eye witness from Fort Worth described the meteor as ‘bright blue green-like lightning with what appeared to be a fire-like tail glowing red orange.’ The eye witness added that the light from the meteor was ‘extremely close and lit up neighboring rooftops.’ Another eye witness described: ‘After it exploded, the meteor got brighter and didn’t burn out until it was close to the horizon.'” Read more.

By Ben Sutherly, The Columbus Dispatch – “The brilliant streak seen on Friday night in the skies over central Ohio was a piece of an asteroid or comet that was 2 to 3 feet across and hit the atmosphere at 113,000 mph, a NASA official said yesterday.

The bright flash of light at 11:33 p.m. prompted some people to call Columbus police to ask what it was while officers chatted about the event over their radios.

‘The initial trajectory suggests it passed over Columbus, Ohio, moving slightly north of west,’ Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office told The Dispatch in an email. Cooke said there were some reports of sounds similar to sonic booms, which suggests some of the fireball’s fragments made it to fairly low altitudes.

NASA’s meteor cameras in Ohio and Pennsylvania first detected it at 67 miles up, and it began breaking apart 41 miles above the earth. Cooke said it’s not yet certain, but it’s unlikely that the fireball produced meteorites on the ground given the ‘tremendous’ speed at which it was moving.

‘The fireball was so bright our meteor-detection software ‘went home to momma’ and thought it was seeing lightning,’ Cooke wrote. ‘The fireball lit up the sky, so the detection software thought it was lightning and did not flag it as a meteor/fireball.’

According to the American Meteor Society’s website, Ohio was ground zero for the sighting. The society’s fireball coordinator, Robert Lunsford, said the fireball already had generated 900 reports to the society’s website, making it the third-most reported meteor event since the group began tracking them in 2005.

‘It seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime thing,’ said Sandi Poyer of Pickerington. ‘We camp out a lot. We’ve just never seen anything like that.'” Read more.

By Cailynn Klingbeil, Edmonton Journal – “A patrol camera mounted inside an RCMP officer’s vehicle caught a fireball streaking across the night Prairie sky north of Manning.

Const. Josh Stachow was responding to reports of a vehicle that hit a black bear Saturday night with Const. Kyle Ash on Highway 35 near the hamlet of Hawk Hills, 20 kilometres north of Manning.

Shortly after 9:30 p.m., the night sky turned to day, Stachow said.

‘It started getting brighter and brighter, and all of a sudden, a huge meteor came streaking across the sky,’ he said. ‘For a moment there, I had no idea what was happening.’

The officer’s patrol camera captured the fireball as it streaked toward the horizon. RCMP released a video clip of the sighting Wednesday.” Read more.

Luke 21:10-11, 27, “Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven… And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.’”

By Bob King, Universe Today – “Move over Comet ISON. You’ve got company. Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy, discoverer of three previous comets, including the famous, long-tailed sungrazer C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy), just added a 4th to his tally.

This new comet will add to a lineup of comets that should grace early November skies in the northern hemisphere: Comets ISON, Encke and now the new Lovejoy.

The discovery of C/2013 R1 Lovejoy was announced on Sept. 9 after two nights of photographic observations by Lovejoy with an 8-inch (20 cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector. When nabbed, the comet was a faint midge of about 14.5 magnitude crossing the border between Orion and Monoceros. Subsequent observations by other amateur astronomers peg it a bit brighter at 14.0 with a small, condensed coma.

Right now you’ll need a hefty telescope to catch a glimpse of Lovejoy’s latest, but come November the comet will glow at around 8th magnitude, making it a perfect target for smaller telescopes. At closest approach on the Nov. 23, Lovejoy will pass 38.1 million miles (61.3 million km) from Earth while sailing across the Big Dipper at a quick pace.

Mid to late November is also the time when Comet ISON, the current focus of much professional and amateur observation, will be at its brightest in the morning sky at around magnitude 2-3. Get ready for some busy nights at the telescope!

C/2013 R1 will whip by the sun on Christmas Day …” Read more.

By Irene Klotz, Reuters – “A baseball-sized meteor blasted over the southeastern United States on Monday night, creating a bright streak of light, a sonic boom and a ruckus on Twitter, officials said on Tuesday.

The meteor appeared at 9:18 p.m. EDT over Alabama, traveling at about 76,000 mph. It exploded 25 miles above Woodstock, Alabama, located about 30 miles from Birmingham.

‘Objects of this size hit the Earth’s atmosphere on a daily basis, but this one happened near Birmingham, which is a fairly decently sized city and lot of people saw it,’ Bill Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, told Reuters.

Many of the more than 180 eyewitness reports came from people attending a Mumford & Sons concert in Birmingham.

‘This one wasn’t at 2 in the morning, so a lot of people were out and about,’ Cooke said.

‘I saw what I first thought was a falling star and then it turned bright green,’ an observer from Anniston, Alabama, posted on the American Meteor Society website.

‘I saw it near Dallas Highway in Marietta, (Georgia), near the National Battlefield,’ wrote another witness. ‘At first, I thought it was an errant firework, but it was bigger, neon green, came straight down and then disappeared.’

Scientists calculated the meteor’s orbit and determined that it came from an unknown comet. It exploded so low in Earth’s atmosphere that it triggered a sonic boom.

The meteor was too bright to be picked up by NASA’s All-sky Fireball Network, which tracks meteors brighter than Venus with 12 cameras in the eastern United States and New Mexico but whose parameters are set to screen out things like lightning.” Read more.

By Tariq Malik, Space.com via NBC News – “The Perseid meteor shower is still days away from hitting its peak, but a NASA camera network has already captured video of fireballs from the annual night sky light show.

NASA’s network of meteor-tracking cameras spotted the early meteor last week in a preview of what may come when the Perseid meteor shower peaks over the upcoming weekend.

‘Here is a video of a bright Perseid seen by our all-sky camera located at PARI (NC) in the early morning hours of July 30,’ meteor expert William Cooke, head of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., wrote in a video description on Aug. 1. ‘Several Perseids have already been detected and they are not set to peak for over a week!’ [See more early photos of the 2013 Perseid Meteor Shower by stargazers]

The 2013 Perseid meteor shower will peak overnight between Aug. 11 and 12, and Aug. 12 and 13, Cooke wrote, adding that NASA’s fireball network is already catching more Perseids as the time of peak activity nears.

The Perseid meteor shower occurs each year in mid-August when the Earth passes through a stream of dusty debris from the Comet Swift-Tuttle, which takes about 130 years to orbit the sun. The comet last passed through the inner solar system in December 1992.

Cooke has said that the Perseids may be such a dependable and prolific meteor shower because of the size of their source. Comet Swift-Tuttle has a huge nucleus just over 16 miles (26 kilometers) across, whereas the cores of most comets are only a few miles wide, he said.

The meteor shower is also known for spawning fireballs — which are extremely bright meteors — every few hours or so when observed under dark conditions.” Read more.

By Victoria Woollaston, Daily Mail – “The sun’s magnetic field is expected to flip in the next three to four months and it could lead to changes in our climate, storms and disruption to satellites.

This solar event only happens once every 11 years and signals what physicists call the Solar Maximum – a time when the Sun’s solar activity is at its highest.

During this peak in activity the outbursts of solar energy can increase the amount of cosmic and UV rays coming towards Earth and this can interfere with radio communications, cause solar bursts of light – known as flares – and can affect the planet’s temperature.

Physicists from Stanford University believe the Sun’s magnetic fields will flip before the end of the year, reversing their polarity. This will cause an increase in solar energy and could lead to changes in climate and satellite disruption. The reversal happens once every 11 years or so.

‘This change will have ripple effects throughout the solar system.’

The sun’s magnetic field reverses around every 11 years at the peak of each solar cycle.

The last peak, or Solar Maximum, was in 2000 and Nasa initially predicted the next flip would take place between 2011 and 2012.

Physicists also warned at the time that the next Solar Maximum could be the strongest yet.

Scientists at Stanford’s Wilcox Solar Observatory have been studying the sun’s magnetic field since 1976, during which time they have witnessed three reversals.

In 1859 a solar storm known as the 1859 Solar Superstorm, or Carrington Event after Richard C Carrington who recorded the event, saw numerous solar flares appear all over Earth.

It was so strong that the Northern Lights – a natural light display that appears predominantly in that Arctic and Antarctic regions and is caused by the collision of energetic charged particles in the magnetosphere and solar wind – were said to be have been visible as far south as Rome.” Read more.

Lloyds Of London Warns Of Devastating Electro-Magnetic Pulse From The Sun – “Lloyd’s of London, the world’s specialist insurance company providing services to companies in more than 200 countries, has issued a dire warning of the potential consequences of an electromagnetic pulse event from a solar storm, according to report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin... ’A severe space weather event that causes major disruption to the electricity network in North America could have major implications for the insurance industry,’ the study said. ‘The total U.S. population at risk of an extended outage from a Carrington-level storm ranges between 20-40 million with durations up to 1-2 years.’” Read more.