(meteorobs) Fireball report from Edmonton

[Alister]

I have the event on tape, close to 04:52:50 UT, just need to digitize and 
get the closer offset from UT of my camera time.

It was quite low to the north, so it should be a *long* way north. Hopefully 
Martin Connors got something at Athabasca. I forwarded the previous chain of 
observations to him

If I get time tonight I'll post a link to my video, but somehow I think 
things will conspire otherwise.

Alister.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <bmccurdy at telusplanet.net>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2008 2:25 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Fireball report from Edmonton


>
>   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
>> *****
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>
>
>
>
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