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(meteorobs) Fireball - San Jose, CA
Greetings All...
I was up in San Jose California this past weekend for a relaxing
long weekend visiting my father and going to a Spint Car automobile
race. The race was very fun.. and as an added bonus, during a race my
father and I were witness to a beautiful and glorious emerald green
fireball low on the SE horizon..... The weather was perfect.. the
temperture was ~58deg F.. The sky was cloudless and clear. We were at
the San Jose Speedway at Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.. (Lat =
37.3022, Long = -121.8542).... in the stands we were face SE 135deg
almost exactly... Venus blazed low in west.... Mars shone brightly in
the SE sky, right next to Spica... now, of course with all the race
course lighting I estimaste my LM was no better than 4.0. (I determined
this as follows: I could seen 3 of the 7 main stars in Ursa Minor...
the 3 stars I could see have mags of 2 and 3....... the 4 starts I could
not see have list mags of 4.3, 4.3, 4.3, 4.9).
The fireball occurred on 5-15-99 at 9:57 PDT [or 5-16-99 at 0457
UT]. With the poor LM (~4,0) I estimate the fireball mag at -4.5 easily
(slightlly brighter than Venus).. Azimuth = 135degSE, Altitude =
~15-20deg... Length = 10 deg... Duration = 0.75-1.0 sec.
Trajectory was straight downward, perpendular to the SE horizen...No
persistant train. Slight wake. No sounds (other than the thunder of the
race cars). No terminal burst... BUT both my father and I clearly noted
an unmistakable EMERALD GREEN color.. and both of us also clearly
perceived a distnict meteoroid head..
A very cool shared visual experience...
Joseph Assmus
San Diego, CA
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