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ARCHIVE RESEND Re: (meteorobs) FIREballs
[Hopefully the last ARCHIVE RESEND for today!]
Lew Gramer wrote:
>
> At 05:09 PM 4/18/97 -0200, you wrote:
> >The brightest I have EVER seen was about -20.
>
> Really, Bill, -20 at night??? (For folks just getting familiar with the
> magnitude scale, this is just 250 times less bright than the sun, and 1600
> times brigher than the full moon!)
>
> This is by far the brighest night-time fireball I have ever heard of - by
> at least a factor of 100! How did you estimate such a bright magnitude
> (what did you compare it too)? And what other effects did you observe from
> the event? Electrophonics, sonic boom, fragmenting? How long did the train
> last? I'd guess this is the event that created your fashionable necklace?
> Lew
Hi Lew,
I have written about this happening on the ASTRO list.
Chris Forder and myself were at the Cederberg dong some photography of
the LMC.
Initially we thought someone had a strobe light. The bolide came in at
about 30 degrees. It seemed to "dive down" and level out as it passed
over the mountains, about 5 km away.
There was a weird shrieking/ crackling sound that Chris and myself
heard. It was daylight and we could CLEARLY see the colors in the
mountains about 5 miles (8km) away.
The sonic boom was so loud, that the Celestron rattled on it's tripod.
It felt as if someone had smacked you with an open hand.
The boom echoed through the mountains for the better half of 20 seconds.
Even our bungalow rattled.
The boom was heard from Loeriesfontein to the coast down to Malmesbury.
The people in Saldanah bay (50 miles away) thought there had been a bomb
exploding in the town.
The bolide's sound was something I can only relate to a supersonic jet
flying VERY low over you travel ling at about MACH 2.
Anyone who has heard that will know exactly what I mean.
The train lasted for about 20 minutes. It was a fireworks display that
must have equaled your 4th July festivities.
If you want, I will type out the whole report out of my log.
This one came from east to west. The one that came through at 0300 the
next morning was dead N-S. That was about -6.
For some reason, there have been numerous very bright and loud bolides
over the Western Cape.
This is what REALLY pisses me off...........
At Langebaan, 35 miles away, we have a large airforce base. All I want
from the SOB's is the trajectory, speed angle etc. of the bolides.....
A person would swear I was asking them for the blueprints of our nuclear
arsenal!!!! I wonder of all military people are so stupid as this crowd.
The meteor I wear, fell in George. They are not related in any way as
the bolide was too far to the north for that.
Cheers and keep well
--
Bill Hollenbach Cederberg Observatory ah52@solo.pipex.co.za
http://aztec.co.za/exinet/travel/misc/cederobs.html
http://www.cs.uct.ac.za/~iwebb/obs/
Lat: 32:30.11' (S) Long: 19:15.20' (E) GPS POSITION
" We are stardust "