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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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