(meteorobs) Las Vegas fireball sighting

[Wayne Watson]

Very good to see your report. Good job. I'd say the chances of anyone seeing it from 
Calif. were slim to none. West of the Sierra from you, the skies have been dismal for 
weeks, and we are about to get pounded once again by storms. It's possible someone 
did see it from Ca, more likely from someone in NV or AZ in your area. I have a 
meteor camera here near Sacramento, but haven't turned it on for 8-10 days because of 
the bad seeing. You can get some idea of its coverage by looking at 
<http://home.earthlink.net/~mtnv95959a/meteor_beginnings.html>. We are slowly 
coordinating meteor camera activity in CA with other observers in CA and NV, but 
there are really only a few cameras in the state. The ones on my sight are the most 
active. We appreciate visual sightings too. There are people who specialize in visual 
observations, and I'm sure they will respond to your data for entry into meteor 
databases.

(A furious wind just kicked up. Should be a real interesting storm heading through 
here today and tomorrow.)

jennifersherer wrote:

> I'm new to this group and new to reporting a sighting, so I apologize 
> in advance for lack of detail that one probably reports for a 
> sighting. I was just glad to find a place to report the sighting!
> 
> Here's what I can relay:
> -location: Las Vegas, NV
> -time: Tuesday, Jan 4th at around 5:45pm PDT
> -seen while driving so position details are sketchy (I was merging 
> onto the freeway)
> -came almost straight down (slight angle from my top left to bottom 
> right. I was facing south and beginning to turn west at the time)
> -it moving relatively slowly... compared to shooting stars I've seen
> -was still brurning when I lost sight of it behind low level 
> buildings and the freeway I was merging onto.
> -I called our local non-emergency line but no one else had called in 
> about it at the time
> -it was very bright and had a long tail... it was a burning orange 
> with a green cast... I don't recall the destinct colors of the tail 
> vs the body, unfortunately
> 
> I checked local news sources etc. and haven't found any mention of 
> it. It was breathtaking.
> 
> This was different than any meteor shower I've seen. I've only seen 
> one other thing like this (fireball) and that was many years ago in 
> the San Francisco Bay Area. I remember it looking just like this one.
> 
> Cheers!
> Jennifer
> 
> 
> 
> ---
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> 

-- 
              Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
                  (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
                   Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

                         Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>