Have you ever seen a meteorite while looking through a telescope and fallen off your chair with shock?

Question: Have you ever seen a meteorite while looking through a telescope and fallen off your chair with shock?

Asked by privatejonastribbonbaker to Laura, Lily, Mark, Paul, Sarah on 21 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
- Paul Roche answered on 21 Jun 2010:
  
  Nope, but I did see a really bright meteor when I was siting on a beach in Hawaii once (the day after I had been using a telescope…) – a meteorite is actually what lands on the ground, so when you see these things in the atmosphere they are techniucally called “meteors”, or the bright ones (like I saw) are called “bolides”. The stuff you normally see (shooting stars, meteors) are caused by tiny bits of rock and dust, the size of sand grains. Something the size of a football would give a very bright flash, lighting up the sky for a second.
  
  Telescopes actually only see a very small piece of sky usually – the ones I normally use would need to take 49 images just to cover the Full Moon (so a grid 7 images by 7 images), so the chances of seeing a meteor are really really small.
- Mark Roberts answered on 21 Jun 2010:
  
  Alas not – I don’t use telescopes – that is more Paul
- Lily Asquith answered on 21 Jun 2010:
  
  No. First time I looked at the moon through my telescope I nearly cried with joy though. My daughter has therefore banned me from getting it out when her mates are round.
- Sarah Bardsley answered on 21 Jun 2010:
  
  No. Have you?!
- Laura Maliszewski answered on 21 Jun 2010:
  
  Nope, but I don’t spend a lot of time looking through telescopes. Microscopes are more fun to me.

Question: Have you ever seen a meteorite while looking through a telescope and fallen off your chair with shock?

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