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(meteorobs) Highly unusual observation.
Hello all,
As secretary of the Meteor Section of the Netherlands Association
for Meteorology and Astronomy, I get lots of questions on the phone
from lay observers about supposed meteorites and fireballs and
other phenomena which the general public wants to know more about.
But the next story is beyond me, yet the lady who called me
appeared very credible. At least she was very adamant about wanting
to know what she had seen when on vacation in Canada:
On 1998.08.16 between 22.45 and 23.00 hours local time, from an
area that is only thinly populated, somewhere midway between Sarnia
(Ontario) and Detroit (USA), together with a relative who is living
there, she claims to have seen the collision of two meteors.
They fell towards each other in the form of a letter "V", hit and
fell apart. Before the collision the phenomenon was coloured white
to orange. When hitting, a yellow flash was emitted and after the
impact it shone with an intense white to blue colour.
The brigtness was described to me as more than a normal star (or
meteor), but definitely less than the sickle of the Moon. In doing
so, she compared the "meteors" with normal meteors which she had
seen earlier that month. The width of the light trails she said
looked to her "more like that of a tennisball than that of a mere
speck in the sky" (meaning a star).
Both observers were lying in garden chairs and looking in a West-
North-Westerly direction and upwards at an 80 degree angle.
I told the lady that the chance of two meteors colliding is so
small as to be nil, but she insists that this is what happened.
The thought occurred to me that it might have been some kind of
military exercise, but I doubt that any anti-missile tests would be
done in an area rather close to a major city.
If anyone has a bright idea, please let me know. Thanks beforehand.
Regards,
=Dick Gevers=
Sent by: Dick V. Gevers
Location: 52.04'51" N.- 04.41'52" E.
mailto:dvgevers@wxsdot nl