(meteorobs) Another Bishop Bolide: Sonic boom - 2008 Dec 27th~01:50AM PST

[stange]

Possibly 0156:43 PST.  Low on my IR Cameras horizon. 206 degrees (SSW) of 
True North in Yuba City.

Error in time <1 seconds. Error in Azimuth could be as much as 2 degrees 
because mirror was in a temporary position and local lights were used to 
establish angle with the Sentinel scaling as a reference to those lights on 
previous captures.

Both Sentinel records were deleted that morning(as usual) because no large 
event occured well above my horizon.

>From here it appeared to be a large flash followed by two small bright 
flashes. The IR camera is 0.1 Lux which does not show detail. Objects 
downward angle was steep, more than 45 degrees. It "APPEARS" to be moving 
westerly a very short distance but short frame .avi's can have skipping 
which cause backward jumps because of pre-frame and post-frame interaction 
with changing light trigger levels in Handyavi.

No .JPG photograph is available or can be enlarged on my website for this 
distant flareup. JPG is too course and blocky. TIF image is better but 
cannot be posted.

Yuba City Sentinel
(YCSentinel)




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Verish" <bolidechaser at yahoo.com>
To: "Meteor Observers" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: 2008/12/29 18:12
Subject: (meteorobs) Another Bishop Bolide: Sonic boom - 2008 Dec 
27th~01:50AM PST


> Hello all and Wayne Watson in particular,
>
> A lot of you may already have seen this, but if not, here is a 
> Spaceweather report on yesterday's fireball over CA.
>
> CALIFORNIA FIREBALL: A remarkable fireball blazed across Califonia on Dec. 
> 27th around 1:50 am PST. Its brilliant blue-green light caught the 
> attention of onlookers (some inside their homes) all the way from San 
> Francisco Bay in the north to the Los Angeles metropolitan area in the 
> south--a range of more than 340 miles. According to one account, the 
> object exploded with a thunderous boom, producing a spray of 
> golden-colored fragments.
>
>
> Dec. 27, 2008
> Location: Bishop, California
> Comments: Grant Bentley: "I got up to go to the bathroom this morning 
> around 1 AM and, as luck would have it, my bathroom's west-facing window 
> framed an intense fireball in the sky about 30 degrees in declination over 
> the Wheeler Crest. It was as if someone had set off a rescue flare that 
> instantly bathed the countryside around Bishop in whitish blue-green 
> light. You could see portions of the object disintegrating as it trended 
> left to right at an angle of about 15 degrees below horizontal. At one 
> point, the path of the incoming meteor went behind a cirrus-stratus cloud 
> that it backlit in snowy green light. After a brilliant show of less than 
> three seconds (time enough to register the impressions I am describing 
> now) it was gone without a trace. It was easily the most massive object I 
> have ever seen burning up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere."
>
> Location: Corona, California
> Comments: Will Wilkens: "At 1:50 a.m. PST I witnessed what appeared to be 
> a large meteor over Southern California. I am located in South Corona in 
> western Riverside County. Sitting at my computer facing my window (blinds 
> were open) which looks north, saw a very bright descending ball of light 
> towards the northwest…..I stood up to look closer and watched it descend 
> quickly behind the nearby hills. Angle of descent was 60 deg. Very bright. 
> Saw it for about 8 seconds."
>
> Location: San Jose, California
> Comments: George Shirakawa: "I was driving in San Jose on Interstate 280 
> and saw the event...I have never seen anything like it!"
>
> Location: Merced, California
> Comments: Erika Knorn: "Close to 2:00 a.m. I got up from watching TV to 
> let my dog outside. As she was walking around the grass I was looking up 
> over our house and what I saw was the most beautiful ball of light I have 
> ever seen!!!! As it came over my house I saw the ball of light get more of 
> a trail behind it. Then it got brighter and looked like it strated to get 
> bigger, then it blew outwords into a perfect big green circle that formed 
> around the ball. I then saw the green circle flash a couple quick flashes 
> of green/blue light then it looked like the fireball blew gold and white 
> flashes behind it and disappeared! I was so surprised from what I had just 
> seen that I stood outside for a couple of minutes to see if maybe what I 
> had just saw was some kind of missile or flare. Then I heard about 50secs 
> or so later a loud distant boom and a slight rumble like a thunder clap! 
> We had no rain or thunder in our area lastnight so I knew it wasn't 
> thunder! It also
>
> sounded like a sonic boom. I have been in Merced for along time and when 
> Castel Air Force Base was active, I did get to hear a few sonic booms and 
> that is what it also sounded like. I called my brother-law Ken in Modesto 
> California north of Merced this morning and I told him what I had 
> witnessed. He then told me he heard something while he was on his computer 
> around the same time I was outside seeing this all happen!!! I have seen 
> meteor showers before, but I have NEVER seen something like this! I'm 
> still in complete wow on the how big it was."
>
> Regards,
> Bob Verish
> <http://meteorite-recovery.tripod.com/2005/jan05.htm>
>
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