(meteorobs) Fireball report from Edmonton

[bmccurdy at telusplanet.net]

   Further to my report of Friday evening, I got confirmation from one of our 
local RASC members, Roy Ramdeen, who was out at Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve 
at the time: 

***
"We saw the same as Kevin out at Blackfoot. Trent Bjorndahl, Andrew Soon, and 
my self. Spectacular color only caught the last second of it, because we were 
facing south. From our location we though it hit north. Andrew was totally 
filled with excitement and was going to make a fireball report. 

"At the time Andrew estimated it to be about -8. We were getting a lot of 
flashes; most of these were due to bright sheet lightning off the tip of a 
small weather cell just southwest of Camrose. This was the brightest fireball 
for me to date; the deep blue is what caught my eye, along with holy #&%@, in 
the direction of a fairly relaxed Andrew. He was willing to chase after it." 
***

   Given that BHDSP is some 50 km east of where my son observed the fireball in 
west central Edmonton, clearly it wasn't particularly near at hand. 

   Another one of our members (and MeteorObs list member), Alister Ling, has an 
automated video system which monitors for fireballs. He has undertaken to 
review the tape from Friday night for evidence of this event.  

   Normally I would expect to get a few reports here at the Observatory from 
the public at large about a sight like this, especially one that occurred at 11 
p.m., but with it being a weekend the switchboard at the science centre is 
unmanned and only those who know what buttons to press can get past the stock 
greeting message. But it wouldn't surprise me if I get a couple of calls 
tomorrow afternoon. 

   Thanks to KCStarguy for your interest in this event and for prompting me to 
follow-up to the list.

   Bruce
   *****

Quoting Bruce McCurdy <bmccurdy at telusplanet.net>:

> 
> It figures ... I'm sitting here transcribing three nights worth of meteor
> tapes, waiting for it to get darker and the radiant higher before going out
> to observe for an hour or two, and my son walks in the door having just seen
> (from the bus stop) a brilliant fireball of what he describes as "magnitude
> -8 to -10, brighter than a bright Iridium", falling from just W. of due N.
> and straight down towards the N. horizon. It had three fragmentation events
> "as the core kept going but the outside fell off", started teal/turquoise,
> turned deeper blue, then lighter teal again at the end before a final
> "catastrophic fragmentation". Total duration was ~3 seconds, while the
> fireball dropped from 40 degrees altitude to about 15.  
> 
> Given its path and speed, surely this was one of the famous "flashbulb" Kappa
> Cygnids. Time of the event was about 22:55 MDT. Anybody else in these parts
> see this one? 
> 
> Kevin has watched a few Perseid showers with me in the past, as well as the
> great Leonid storm of 2001, so he isn't a complete neophyte when it comes to
> such matters. Still, when I think of the thousands of kilometres I have
> driven in pursuit of meteors over the past couple years with nothing brighter
> than a -5 to show for it, I'm thinking maybe I should ride the bus more
> often. 
> 
> Bruce
> *****
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list meteorobs: meteorobs at meteorobs.org
> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email: owner-meteorobs at meteorobs.org
> http://lists.meteorobs.org/mailman/listinfo/meteorobs
>