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(meteorobs) Fw: Texas fireball??
I received the following from Hal Fulton hal9000@hypermetrics.com
If any of you have more info on this, please email him directly. Thanks!
Mark
>------------------------------------------------------------
>Color=Green
>Date=1998
>Day=13
>Duration+seconds=3-4
>Month=09
>Persistent+Train=yes
>Sounds=None
>Time+Hours=09
>Time+minutes=00
>Time+seconds=00
>Town+and+State=Austin, Texas
>Velocity+Scale=4
>comments=Looking for details on this... please help if
>comments=possible. Please forgive lack of detail. Also note
>comments=that the could have been as late as 4:10 CDT (or
>comments=9:10 UTC). Here is what I posted to sci.astro:
>comments=
>comments=-----------------------
>comments=Does anyone know any details of this event?
>comments=
>comments=At 4 this morning (Central Time) I saw the most
>comments=monstrous shooting star I have ever seen in my life.
>comments=
>comments=I'm pretty bad with directions and ignorant of astronomy
>comments=in general. However, I do know that I was directly facing
>comments=Orion, whose belt was almost exactly perpendicular to the
>comments=horizon. The half-moon was to the left, much higher in the
>comments=sky but nowhere near the zenith. I was about an hour outside
>comments=of Austin, Texas, and the night was partly cloudy.
>comments=
>comments=The meteor I saw traveled from left to right in a path that
>comments=appeared roughly parallel to the horizon. It was "fast" in
>comments=the sense that it appeared to be fast-moving; and I even got
>comments=a slight sense of the three-dimensional orientation of its
>comments=path, as if it were traveling on a vector not entirely
>comments=perpendicular to my line of sight, such that the left end of
>comments=the trail was perhaps slightly nearer to my position than
>comments=the right end.
>comments=
>comments=It was not fast in terms of duration, however. I would guess
>comments=that it was visible for at least three seconds. This may not be
>comments=unusual, but the ones I have seen before lasted only a fraction
>comments=of a second.
>comments=
>comments=Normally, when someone points and says, "A shooting star!" I turn
>comments=and look and see nothing, because it's already gone. But this
>comments=time, my friend Victoria pointed it out, and when I whipped my
>comments=head around, there was still plenty of time to see it. I could
>comments=only watch with my mouth open.
>comments=
>comments=It was very large, with a wide persistent trail. I have not really
>comments=noticed a particular color before, but this one was a brilliant
>comments=green. I could also see what looked like yellowish sparks flying
>comments=from the back of the object almost like a large Independence Day
>comments=sparkler. Victoria says that she saw orange in it; it may be that
>comments=what I called yellowish she called orange. I have never before
>comments=seen a shooting star with a "structure" before -- the others were
>comments=mostly just brief streaks of light.
>comments=
>comments=I would estimate that the total distance it appeared to travel in
>comments=the sky was a little less than the head-to-toe width of Orion --
>comments=starting more or less "under" the moon and disappearing before it
>comments=reached Orion.
>fragmentation=Perhaps
>------------------------------------------------------------
<end of forwarded report>