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(meteorobs) FWD: Green fireball


>From: JoAnne S <Claros10@aol.com> (via Lew Gramer)
Date: Fri, 03 Apr 98 14:15:52 -0500

Thank you for your response to my question about a green fireball. What we saw 
is as follows:

Seen from Missouri Hwy. 30 at Murphy, MO. We were driving West, and saw this 
thing to the South over a small valley (which is totally occupied by a mobile 
home park) The fireball was actually over the trailers at an altitude of about 
75 feet above ground level when it extinguished.  This was at elevation 0 deg. 
for us since we were looking down fron the road.

Seen March 29, 1998  12:05 CST     06:05 UT

Observers  location: Lat. 38 deg. 29.918 min   Lon. 90 deg 28.144 min 
(determined by GPS)  altitude about 700 ft above mean sea level.  Sky clear, no 
moon, but lots of man made light pollution.

First seen  elevation 7 degrees  azimuth 200 deg.  From here it was angling 
downward in a straight line to elev. 0 deg  (level with us, but above the 
valley floor)

At this point it had travelled about 200 feet.   Azim. 220 deg.  It then 
levelled off parallel to the ground and travelled about 300 feet more azim. 250 
deg. at this point it faded out very quickly.  Speed: slow  500 ft/ 3 sec.

Travel East to West, mag. -2, apparent size about the same as a common 
streeetlight ( there are plenty to compare it to)  Color: burning copper green. 
 No visible trail, sparkle or glitter, no flash ( not like a bolide) Duration 
about 3 seconds, during this time it travelled about 500 feet and was about 
250- 300 yds away.  We could make accurate estimates because we have lots of 
close reference points.

When it disappeared it was actually visible against a background of tree topped 
hills.  I have seen a couple of green fireballs many, many years ago (in 
Indiana) but this thing was close enough that my adult son who was driving was 
yelling for us to watch where it was so he could hopefully dig out his own 
personal meteorite.

We have ruled out fireworks, planes, helicopters, aircraft, balloons, remote 
controlled planes etc. We did not mistakenly identify a star.  It was very low, 
not against starry background, too big, and wrong color.

Weirdo!!   Thanks for any suggestions you can offer 

                   JoAnne Scarpellini     claros10@aol.com