(meteorobs) BRIGHT fireball over central Alberta

[Bruce McCurdy]

Just sitting here in my living room minding my own business at 17:27 MST when a bright flash caught my eye out the picture window. I looked up and saw a second, probably brighter flash just above the eastern horizon, probably 100 degrees azimuth, only 5-10 degrees above the horizon at that point and dropping. It was an intense orange colour reminiscent of flickering firelight, but in my split second judgement possibly brighter than the Full Moon, certainly in that range. There are lots of reflections in my picture window, and by the time I finished going "holy $#!+" and stepped outside there was no evidence of any sort of persistent train. 

Within 30 seconds my telephone rang, and it was local RASCal Yves Lamarre who had been outside with his wife near their home in Sherwood Park, 30 km east of me. They too had seen the fireball to _their_ east, presumably even brighter than what I saw. They saw it a little higher in the sky though it ended fairly near the horizon for them as well. She got the better look of the two, so I suggested that she write down the details of what she observed. Yves will forward it to the Astro list. 

No doubt we will be getting a lot of reports at the science centre/university about this one. There will be tons of eastbound traffic at that time of day, such as Sherwood Park commuters. I hope that some of the fireball cameras will have caught it as well. 

In a word: WOW!!!

Bruce
*****