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John Moffat, founder member of the Society for the History of Astronomy writes:
I attended the recent BAA meeting at Liverpool and I asked the chair, Janice McClean, if she would ask if anyone present witnessed the daytime Bovedy fireball of the 25th April 1969. I was really pleased when four members came up to me and shared reminiscences which were clear, even after 57 years. In the days well before mobiles, the records show only one black and white photograph but they record a very shallow angle of entry and a speed of around 30,000 miles an hour resulting in a temperature of 4000 degrees Celsius. Parts of the fireball landed in Northern Ireland with the largest part landing at Bovedy, near Garvagh. Co. Derry. This 5 kilogram meteorite is now on display at the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium but the main mass of the object came down in the Atlantic.
The irony for all of us was, that despite all our hours of diligent night time observations, one of the most impressive objects any of us have witnessed was in David Moore and Graham Winstanley’s case, while playing football in Liverpool. In Alex Pratt’s case he, his cousin and at least one other friend were chatting on the path at the NW corner of Alex’s home in Leeds when one of them shouted “did you see that!” – they’d spotted what looked like “the tail end of a fragmenting firework” to their WNW-NW.
In my case I was watching the Beverly Hillbillies on TV in Birkenhead!
We all concurred on the East to North West trajectory and around midway in the sky to our south. In my view the fireball was probably going over Snowdonia and Anglesey and that would explain our not hearing the sonic boom. We all agreed on a 20 degree length and all saw the fireball fragmenting into its tail. We all had the traverse at around 30 to 40 seconds.
I remember the TV programme had just finished and it usually aired at 6.30 pm so putting at around 7pm, although evening it was a fully light blue sky with several cirrus clouds. No doubt there is an accurate record of the time available somewhere.
For me the overriding memory was of intense varying highlighter pen colours of an intensity I doubt I will ever see again.
Attached image (by John Moffat) – Liverpool BAA meeting, 2026 Sep 19 – L-R John Moffat, Graham Winstanley (BAA Treasurer), David Moore, Alex Pratt (Assistant Director, BAA Meteor Section).
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