(meteorobs) Meteor Trail?

[Jim Pettit]

I'm definitely a newbie here, so go easy, okay?
 
On August 15, I was in California's Mojave Desert approximately 15 miles
west-northwest of Barstow. There had been some severe thunderstorms that
afternoon (the reason my sons and I were out there in the first place) which
gave way to a gorgeous and brightly-colored desert sunset. At about twenty
past eight, one of my sons asked, "What's that?" while pointing up in the
sky. I looked up to see a narrow and brightly-lit trail of smoke twisting
gently in the sun at a very high altitude. Perhaps a minute or so after we
began pondering it, there was a deep and rolling sonic boom. Because I had
my camera out and was taking pictures of the sunset, I was able to take a
few shots of the smoke trail. I didn't get too excited, as both Edwards Air
Force Base and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center are in the same relative
vicinity, and my thought at the moment was that it was probably some
military jet, and what I was seeing was the contrail; that's why I've only
seven shots which show the trail...and in the last two of those, it's barely
visible. But I called Edwards the next day, and was told that yes, there was
a sonic boom observed at that time, but no, it wasn't any of their aircraft,
as they don't do high-speed, high-altitude flights in close proximity to
severe weather, and especially not on Sunday evenings. So the more I've
thought about it, the more I'm convinced it was probably instead a meteor,
and if I had lifted my head up a few seconds earlier, I might have seen
something very, uh, interesting.
 
Anyway, if this is of interest or note to anybody, and/or anyone would like
to see the raw, unretouched JPG's of the trail -- whatever it was -- please
let me know.
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