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(meteorobs) Re: Bright meteor over Seattle



I'm forwarding this to us from markbue@microsoftdot com
I gave him the NAMN and FIDAC report URL's
WAyne


In article <01bba986$c59fda00$3325389d@MarkBue6> "Mark Buettemeier" 
<markbue@microsoftdot com> writes:>From: "Mark Buettemeier" 
<markbue@microsoftdot com>>Subject: Bright meteor over Seattle
>Date: 23 Sep 1996 19:31:54 GMT

>Last night I observed a very bright meteor, the brightest I have ever seen.
> It was brighter than Jupiter and had it not been for the Moon I'm sure it
>would have cast a shadow on the ground.

>I live in Redmond, Washington, USA, just east of Seattle.  The observation
>was made from my front yard at approximately 10:50pm PDT.  The meteor swept
>a path about 15 to 20 degrees long traveling at a moderate speed (compared
>to other meteors I've observed) in roughly a south to north path and left a
>very distinct orange trail.  The color of the meteor itself is best
>described as simply brilliant white, maybe slightly blue-green.  It was
>initially bright enough to distract me from setting up my telescope -- I
>was attaching my dew shield at the time.  I looked up to see the meteor
>almost directly overhead.  It gave one or two brief, brighter flashes about
>mid-way through the event.  The peak brightness was definately beyond
>anything else in the sky, even Venus at it's brightest would not have been
>this bright.  I'm not good at estimating magnitudes, especially for
>something so bright, but it had to have been at least -6.

>I would certainly be interested in hearing from others who may have also
>witnessed the same event.

>-- 
>The opinions expressed in this message are my own personal views 
>and do not reflect the official views of Microsoft Corporation.