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(meteorobs) Re: meteor over los angeles



I obtained the following off the website about the fireball over los angeles
last night:
http://www.channel2000.com/news/stories/news-980911-103045.html

Let's see how many errors can be noted in this article? I was at my
observatory at this time...but was taking a 40 minute nap during the moment
that the fireball occurred. I started observing at 20h07 local.   Dern!   :o)
GeoZay
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>>LOS ANGELES, Posted 8:45 a.m. September 11, 1998 -- The sighting of a 
meteor over Southern California last night prompted phone calls to the 
Griffith Park Observatory and to some sheriff's departments. 

Calls began about 7:20 p.m. Thursday. 

"It was early in the evening and a lot of people were outside. That's 
why it was kind of a big deal," said observatory astronomer James 
Somers. 

Somers said the meteor could have been as small as a baseball or as 
large as a basketball. He estimated the meteor was traveling up to 70 
miles per second. 

Deputies in Malibu fielded several calls from anxious residents who 
mistook the meteor for a flaming airplane. A sheriff's helicopter 
determined the calls were due to the meteor, said Los Angeles County 
Sheriff's Department Sgt. Peter Charbonneau. 

Somers said about three or four meteors break through the atmosphere 
over Los Angeles each year. He said the meteor probably was spotted by 
Southern Californians within a 100 mile radius. 

It's not clear what path the meteor took, but the Observatory will 
attempt to plot its path, Somers said. 

"It's done its thing," Somers said. "More than likely it's burned out by 
now." 

Somers said meteors begin as part of an asteroid belt usually orbiting 
the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Sometimes asteroids collide and parts 
break out of orbit and fall toward Earth. 

Copyright 1998 by The Associated Press

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