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(meteorobs) More on Aug. 16 Sarnia fireball...
Dick Gevers et al -
Several more notes forwarded from the RASC list regarding the Sarnia
fireball (?)...
- Cathy Hall
Reply-To: "RASC Discussion List" <rasclist@astrotech.stmarysdot ca>
From: "Chris Baldock" <cbaldoc@ibmdot net>
Subject: Re: RASC List: Sarnia event August 16th...
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1998 22:38:57 -0400
Here's my brothers words on this event ...
-----Original Message-----
From: Pretzel Twister <pretzel@home.com>
To: Chris Baldock <cbaldoc@ibmdot net>
Date: Saturday, September 05, 1998 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: RASC List: Sarnia event August 16th...
I don't recall the date I told you we saw the fireball.
We were sitting in the steps of the swimming pool sometime between 9:00 and
10:00.
I was looking up and in a westerly direction when I saw the fireball(came
from the north west and traveled south). It was orange to white in colour.
I was surprised we could watch it so long before it broke up. It seemed to
move slower than meteors I've seen before. It wasn't extremely bright and
looked like it has sparks or debris flying off of it.
It was following a straight line and then all of a sudden took a real wild
turn to the left .. I had assumed it had broken up at that time and we only
saw the largest piece take a different direction.
We did not notice more than one object.
How far across the sky ... the flight we saw lasted close to 10 seconds - I
was able to watch and say to junior - look at that and he saw it too.
......
I read through the other persons description -- they must have been closer.
As far as I could tell it probably broke up over Lake Erie.
Sounds like they saw the same thing we did - the directions correspond.
Oh by the way - on the west end of lake Erie off Locust Point (due south of
Detroit) the United States Armed Forces conduct test firings and the area is
restricted. You'll find this information of chart 2100 produced by the
Canadian Hydrographic Service. Generally centered around Lat 41degrees 38.5
' Long 83 1.0' . If 1' of arc is equal to 1 nautical mile then that would be
about 46 nautical miles from Windsor/Detroit and 93 nautical miles from
Sarnia.
I think it is just coincidence but that would be the general direction we
were looking when it broke up.
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Reply-To: "RASC Discussion List" <rasclist@astrotech.stmarysdot ca>
From: "Dave Sage" <dsage@inforampdot net>
Subject: Re: RASC List: Sarnia event August 16th...
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1998 12:58:48 -0400
> 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.
>The thought occurred to me that it might have been some kind of
>military exercise,
Funny you should mention military exercise. There IS an airforce base (the
name eludes me at the moment) on the US side maybe about 1/2 the way from
Sarnia (Port Huron Mich.) to Detroit. This may be a clue.
Dave Sage
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Reply-To: "RASC Discussion List" <rasclist@Astrotech.StMarysdot ca>
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1998 10:42:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Robert I. Duff" <rduff@julian.uwodot ca>
Subject: Re: RASC List: Sarnia event August 16th...
I wonder if this phenomena may have been two chunks of the same meteoroid
which had broken apart at some time prior to entering the Earth's atmosphere.
The two pieces would have been travelling close together through space. A
chance collision may have taken place as they entered the Earth's atmosphere
and started to burn.
Many asteroids appear to be aggregations of rubble. Some smaller meteroids
may also consist of loose aggragations of two or more rocks.
This idea is just a suggestion to explain the phenomena if indeed the report
is accurate.
Bob Duff
london Centre
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