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Fireball Sounds


Gary mentioned hearing some rumbling sounds from two Bolides in 23 years.  I
and Lunsford both heard a very loud sonic boom one night from a fireball we
observed coming in overhead in Dec 1992. It occurred 243 seconds exactly
after the fireballs appearance. I picked up the meteors appearance on fm
radio that was hooked to my chart recorder. the signal lasted 18 seconds
long.  The newsmedia reported a possible plane crash.  In fact several other
people witnessed it as well and called the fire dept to report the crash of
an airplane. We were observing meteors and saw it from the very beginning.
I'm pretty sure it left a meteorite that I estimated later to land probably a
few miles West of Mt. Palomar of all places. It was a mountainous area with
sparse population...chances of finding it were very slim. I plotted it, but
only one other individual several miles away would talk to me and gave me
some rudimentary info.  we estimated it's magnitude  at about -15.  There
were no terminal bursts..dot it just dulled down to a deep red for about 5
degrees in the end after which all light emission ceased. The sonic boom
resembled that from when military aircraft break the sound barrier.  There
was only one loud sonic noise that shook the area. I contacted CalTech to
check their seismographs for any indications of it.  They didn't see
anything, and then informed me that they somehow align their seismographs so
that they wouldn't pick up sonics. I didn't know this was done and was
surprised to hear about it. Other than that noisy fireball, I've never heard
any other noises of any kind from anyother meteors. I personally believe that
the only real noises to expect are that of Sonic booms and rumblings caused
from distant sonic booms. But that is an item that no doubt will be up for
debate for quite some while...particularly from those who claim simultaneous
Electrophonics. I don't say it doesn't happen, but I find it strange that the
person who swears of it's existence is perhaps the one who hears it almost
routinely for fireballs in New Zealand. 
George
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