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Re: (meteorobs) Green meteors

At 04:28 PM 4/15/99 -0700, Robert Lunsford wrote:
>Great question George! Green meteors are quite rare indeed (at least for
>me). I would estimate that only one out of 1000 meteors appear
>distinctly green to me. Most of these green meteors are in the brighter
>magnitudes of zero and brighter. Another interesting fact is that a
>majority of my green sightings occur within 30 degrees of the horizon
>meaning that I am looking through a thicker blanket of air when seeing
>them at this lower altitude.

Bob's description matches the very bright and large green fireball I
observed one day about 6 years ago, I think it was in late Fall but can't
remember exactly now. It first appeared in the southwest sky, travelled
along the western horizon at around 30 degrees as Bob notes these types
often do, and extinguished in the west-northwestern sky. I and my family
were walking into a restaurant in Sterling Park, Virginia when the fireball
appeared at around 7:30 Eastern time. I was looking at the red and orange
clouds in the western sky (the sun had set maybe a half hour before) for
signs of an approaching thunderstorm when BANG: the meteor appeared just
slightly south of where I was looking in the southwest, about halfway
between the cloud tops and the zenith. Other folks in the parking lot saw
it, too. Now that I think of it, I don't remember seeing it illuminate the
cloud tops. 

It was the slowest, longest-lasting meteor I'd seen until then or since.
It's hard to guess accurately: but I had enough time to notice it, stare
astonished for a bit, then call my family's attention to it, and they all
looked up and around and saw it before it extinguished. It must have lasted
at least 3 seconds and I'd like to say as long as five. Most beautiful
sight I've ever seen in my life, it was. Again, my memory is fading; but I
remember that the fireball appeared to be large, maybe a quarter the size
of the full moon. My thoughts at the time were "How could any meteor
appearing that large and bright be traveling that slowly and still seem to
burn out rather than drop to the earth??"

I first mentioned this fireball a couple of years ago herein and a couple
of folks, including George Zay, I believe, did a search of the FIDAC
archives for some record of it's being reported, but with nothing matching
my poor description.

Clear skies,

SteveH
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