BUDDING astronomers from Clydebank are still trying to work out if they witnessed a meteor soar across the Clyde last month.

The mysterious fireball was seen by several readers at around 8am on Saturday, November 21.
Many who witnessed the natural phenomenon on the Glasgow horizon said it looked like a “tear out of the sky”. 

While Glasgow Airport is just a few miles away, locals insist they have not confused the sight with an aeroplane taking off.

Gordon McGechie, who managed to capture the incident on camera, said: “I was sitting in the conservatory in the morning, and you always see the planes either taking off or landing left or right. It was about 8am and I saw it in the sky, so my brother took a picture of it and I put it on Facebook. 

“I knew it wasn’t a plane because it was flying straight up and then it separated. I’m just a bit puzzled. Normally, you see planes going left or right, or right to left depending on the wind, but this was strange.”
Bankies took to social media to share pictures and opinions on what it could have been.

John McNeill said: “The only way I could describe it was as though someone had sliced a piece from the sky. Then it looked like an exploded rocket.”

Further discussion online suggested it could be a meteor from part of the "Leonidis Meteor Shower".

American space agency NASA had announced the shower would be active from November 5 to 30.

But Professor Martin Hendry from the University of Glasgow’s School of Physics and Astronomy said it is difficult to confirm for sure it was a meteor.

He said: “This is interesting but it’s difficult to conclude exactly what it might be without more information.

“Readers may remember the fireball that was spotted over Siberia in 2013. 

"An object like this can leave a trail but makes a lot of noise too. Without knowing how long the trail was visible for it’s hard to judge if it’s consistent with being a meteor fireball.”

So the incident remains a mystery for all.