(meteorobs) Two Fireballs on March 23rd from South-Central USA?

[falcon99 at sbcglobal.net]

Robert, 

Unfortunately, the camera wasn't on for the first event - coming online at 0200Z.  Ironically I had returned from the hardware store only a few minutes earlier to install a digital timer for the camera.

I also manually went through the archives last night and did not see any events from 0400 to 0430 central time.  

Needless to say, I'll definitely be posting observations as accurate as possible - now that we've got some good practice.

Cheers, 

James



--- In meteorobs at yahoogroups.com, "Robert Lunsford" <lunro.imo.usa at ...> wrote:
>
> The American Meteor Society has received two reports mentioning the fact that there were two fireball reports that evening, perhaps 
> 15-30 minutes apart, visible from the same general region of the USA.
> 
> Debi from Granbury, Texas mentions:
> 
> "Again, there were TWO fireballs - approximately 10... -15 minutes apart - that were spectacular to observe! The first was bigger, 
> more blue-white (I initially thought it was a helicopter i.e. CareFlight strobe/light) & began its descent slightly more to the 
> West. (I lost sight it only because of my neighbor's high-pitched roofline.) The 2nd was slightly smaller, a little lower in the 
> sky - a bit more to the NW, (seemed) slightly faster, & had a "coppery" greenish hue. Both had visible tails during flight."
> 
> Chris (no location) mentions:
> 
> "Around 9:15 pm my wife came to tell me she had just seen the meteor previously mentioned. About 15 minutes later, we were out for a 
> smoke and together we witnessed a second meteor fall in a perpendicular motion from the first, in the same quadrant of the northern 
> sky. From her account it was only slightly smaller than the first and was just as spectacular in tail and in color."
> 
> Fortunately we have a report from frequent contributor James Beauchamp who reports his Sentinel Camera captured a fireball at 
> 21:21:02 CDT (02:21:02 UT on March 24th). I believe this to be the second fireball reported by the witnesses listed above. We can 
> also count on the timing of James's event as reliable when compared to inexperienced witnesses. Since James operates an all-sky 
> camera, one would think that his camera would also have also picked up on the earlier event. Perhaps the first event was too faint 
> to be recorded? This goes against the statements of both witnesses who stated the first event was brighter.
> 
> Looking at the list of reports at: 
> http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireball2/public.php?start_date=2011-03-01&end_date=2011-03-31&state=&event_id=331&submit=Find+Reports 
> reveals no clear break between the two possible events. This is to be expected with the normal large spread in timing with numerous 
> reports of the same event. If I had to separate this list I would draw a line between 21:10 and 21:15 CDT.
> 
> Looking at the first group with timings of 21:10 and earlier, I would estimate that the first fireball would have occurred near 
> 20:53 CDT. This takes into fact that many witnesses estimate their times to the nearest five or fifteen minute interval.
> 
> We will update this possibility should new information come to light...
> 
> Your comments are welcome!
> 
> Robert Lunsford
> American Meteor Society 
> 
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