[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Saw a nice one
About 4:02 on Monday 19 April UTC (11:02 PM CDT locally),
during satellite observing, I was fortunate enough to happen
to look up observe a very nice meteor (fireball/bolide?).
It was at least mag. -1 (perhaps brighter?). Venus and the
Moon (which had been closing on but would miss Aldebaran
from our location) had set. The meteor was significantly
brighter than Capella; I forgot to check for certain but
think that Sirius might have already been below the site's
approx. 10-degree horizon [It's an old Nike missile site
with embankments all around.]). So I'm not sure it was
bright enough to qualify as a fireball or bolide.
The meteor was strong orange-yellow, lasted about two
seconds, and was breaking up (or shedding fragments) along
its track. I'm sorry that I can't provide RA and Dec, but
its path was from about 45-50 degrees above the horizon in
the WSW to about 15-20 degrees above the horizon in the SSW.
(It's possible that I didn't see its beginning.) It did not
go out with a bright flash, but just burned out.
The observing location was Bee Cave Research Center, 30.314N,
97.866W, not too far (less than 10 miles/16 kilometers) WSW
of downtown Austin, Texas. The night was beautiful. I was
able to see six of the seven "little dipper" stars of Ursa
Minor, which is better than usual at that site. It's darker
to the west. I suspect that this meteor would have been
significantly better from San Antonio, Texas.
During the evening I also saw a meteor about +6 or possibly
brighter shoot through the middle of the field of the
telescope eyepiece (LM about +11.5, I think). Reflexive
exclamation! Unfortunately, I am still totally confused
about which way is which when I'm looking through the scope
-- kneeling, with head leaning somewhat to the left, and
everything reversed (and upside down?).
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexasdot edu - Austin, Texas, USA
To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html