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(meteorobs) FWD Re: Seattle fireball?





My reason for subscribing in the first place (last Saturday....) was this: 
Friday evening, November 14, 9:15 pm, PST. My friend and I were in our truck in 
West Seattle, just above Fauntleroy,  when we spotted a large object travelling 
in a east by slightly northeast direction. It looked to be high, but the night 
was very clear and so we had the impression that it was going to sail just over 
the top of the city. In fact it (of course...) kept going. The time it 
(actually they is a better word...) was within our view was about 20-25 
seconds. There seemed to be two main objects, and they changed a bit as they 
travelled, one in particular, gathering light (as if flaming....perhaps?). 
Also, both were followed by what I would think of as debris (?) or some other 
objects, trailing behind for some distance, and alot smaller. Maybe about 6-10 
for each of the two big ones, also bright-ish. Just don't know exactly how to 
describe this phenomenon. Needless to say both my friend and I were in a mild 
state of shock after this. We went in the house and turned on the radio. There 
were dozens of reports from people all over Seattle who had seen the same 
thing. No explanation via the media (at that point...) of what the objects 
were. We knew that the Leonid cycle was happening, or about to, but this seemed 
a bit too close, too real, and not like any meteors we had EVER seen 
previously. In any case, the next day, I surfed the web looking for information 
on sightings (which is when I subscribed here...), checked online newspapers, 
and tried to keep an eye on the news. Here's generally what I've been able to 
glean: it was a Russian booster rocket that crashed into the Pacific Ocean. If 
that's true, why did it go over the city heading east? Or: either a Russian 
booster or the Leonid meteors - no clarification. And that Friday eve, I called 
a friend in Northern Idaho, as the objects were heading east. She stated that 
she hadn't heard of anything and hung up, promising to check out media in her 
area. In 15 minutes she was back to me, saying that something similar had been 
spotted over Spokane, and people were calling the radio stations wondering what 
it was!

So, I have two questions about this:

[1] If it was a fireball from the Leonid cycle, then why didn't it get 
appropriate coverage as just such a thing? Papers call it a booster, and none 
of the meteor pages/newsgruops I've checked refer to anything other than 
"fireball in Northwest", whose descriptions never seem to be even remotely 
close to what I witnessed.

[2] If it was a Booster from a Russian rocket, why would the coverage for it 
state that it landed in the Pacific Ocean when it obviously went right over the 
city? And seemingly continued. And furthermore, the Pacific isn't exactly Pier 
69 in Seattle, as you surely know. There's a bit of distance to get to the true 
Pacific. Nor would I consider the Juan de Fuca the Pacific.

So, what were these objects, and why is there no hard info on them? Is it 
possible that there were two events; the booster and a meteor, and confusion 
assailed our fine media folk? Is it just no big deal and so no one brings it 
up? (Can't believe this one - it was absolutely spectacular!) Is there some 
sort of issue here that I don't know about?

If you have any solid info on this, I would love to hear it. My friend and I 
have been absolutely dying of curiosity and can't understand why people aren't 
talking about these objects. Of course we'd to yell "coverup", but yelling 
"misunderstanding" would no doubt be more in context. Can you enlighten me?

Thanks very much! have a great weekend!

Brent Magstadt
brent@speakeasy.org



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