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(meteorobs) Fireball Caldwell, Texas
Hey guys...another fireball posted on aol this morning...plus a little more
info about the possible house hitting meteorite report I relayed
earlier...seems like the Beaumont in question is in Texas.
George Zay
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Subj: Fireball 5/3/97
Date: 97-05-11 03:07:51 EDT
From: Sjoplinh
I was working nights near Caldwell, TX, about 30 mi W of Bryan, and saw a
real nice fireball around 2 AM, as follows: To the south, about 30 deg above
horizon and 30 deg W of Scorpius; was whitish - blue with a few red debris
near the finish; was quite slow, taking maybe 2 or more seconds to travel the
25 or so degrees I actually focussed on it. A wild guess at the mag would be
-4 or better. The worksite was light polluted and the fireball ruined what
night vision I had for a while. The thing MAY have left a train (which would
have to have been bright to be seen thru the skyglow) but I'm not sure. It
was so bright it may have been an afterimage. I guess the thing to do in
these cases is to look away from the meteor's path (after the show is over!)
to be sure it's a train rather than afterimage.
From the little I know, this was neither an Eta Aquarid nor an Alpha
Scorpiid; a sporadic, I guess. A coworker suggested it may have been a
kamikaze satellite because of it's slow speed and roughly W to E path, but I
see in a previous post that spacejunk tends to be reddish. Impressive in any
case. I wonder if anyone else saw or heard of it.
Finally, the local TV news, May 10, had a report of a meteorite hitting a
house in Beaumont(?), TX. They showed film of a handfull of (presumably)
meteorite particles. Wow!
Happy hunting, Scott