Southern Taurid fireball over Portugal on Nov 5, 2016

Famous for their decent fireball rates, the Northern and Southern Taurids (NTA & STA) meteor shower do not fail their reputation this year! As an example, a huge Southern Taurid fireball was filmed over Portugal on November 5, 2016, 21h 54m UT. The fireball was westwards directed, North of Lisboa, which was unfortunately overcast with clouds at the time it appeared. Its magnitude was estimated to be close to -11, which is nearly the brightness of a Full Moon! It thus casted shadows on the ground, and would undoubtedly blind potential observers for a few seconds after the event!

Taurids showers are associated with comet 2P/Encke, and are active from beginning of September until beginning of December. Their theoritical ZHR is about 5 for each branch (Taurids stream is part of a complex and is composed of two sources, a Northern and a Southern branch, which are 7° apart in the sky) at maximum, which will occur on November 12, 2016 for the northern source (NTA). So stay tuned for further Taurids fireball sightings in the coming days and weeks!