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Re: (meteorobs) - meteor sighting Tuesday morning
That would be good Ben!
Luis Gonzalez
emcomputer@hotmail.com
Personal Astronomer
Folsom, Ca 95630
----- Original Message -----
From: B Yen <byen@ixdot netcom.com>
To: <meteorobs@jovian.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 1999 3:12 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) - meteor sighting Tuesday morning
> Here in LA, one of the local channels had a piece about the FL
> sightings. There was some video footage, which showed a lot of
> "trailing sparks". They said it was a Russian rocket debris. I also
> heard of some Russian rocket debris, causing a sighting in Oregon
> recently.
>
> I have a tape, & can get a video-scan of it. If people want, I can
> send it as an attachment.
>
>
>
> Chip wrote:
> >
> > First off, I subscribed to this list Tuesday after searching for a place
> > people are interested in meteors. I wanted to share what I saw Tuesday
> > morning as it was much greater than any "shooting star" I have ever
> > witnessed before. I do see that you guys are much more technical about
> > your sightings than I have the ability to write at this point, but I
> > hope you won't mind me telling you about a meteor I saw in Pensacola,
> > Florida at approximately 4 a.m.(C.S.T.) Tuesday morning. I am strictly
> > a casual observer so forgive the lack of "hard" information.
> >
> > I just got out of my car at home and actually caught this meteor
> > streaking by with my peripheral vision, it was that bright and large.
> > It was heading approximately south-southeast. Now, I've seen thousands
> > of meteors as I am an avid fisherman who finds himself on the gulf at
> > night often. Those simply have no comparison to this. This one did not
> > burn up and I was able to watch it (from it's northeast) travel almost
> > from one horizon to the other and disappear as it continued on. I live
> > on a hill here and was fortunate that the meteor traveled almost the
> > same path as a set of powerlines that run near my house. The clearing
> > kept trees from obscuring my view. If it was descending, the descent
> > was extremely small. I would guess it continued onward, exiting the
> > atmosphere again. Otherwise, maybe it found a place in the gulf.
> >
> > I can't exaggerate enough to explain how bright and large the tail was.
> > It had to be quite close to me in proximity and fairly low altitude
> > (compared to any others I've seen). I could actually see "definition"
> > in the tail meaning that one could actually see the individual strands
> > of fire and sparks from the meteor itself. The tail was long enough to
> > take up almost a quarter of my viewable sky. It seemed close enough
> > that one would almost expect to hear noise from it or a sconic boom or
> > something. The whole sighting lasted at least 15 seconds. It showed no
> > signs of diminishing in strength from my view.
> >
> > Just to be thorough with this, I wanted to mention that it almost seemed
> > to change colors from a bright blue to a really bright white directly in
> > front of me and then seemed "orangish" as it headed toward the horizon.
> > I suppose the atmosphere was the cause for the perceived color change?
> > Maybe it was changing temperatures while burning?
> >
> > I've seen the different video clips on Discover, etc. where people have
> > caught some great ones on film. I swear this one was comparable to some
> > of that footage. Its one of those times you wished you had a video
> > camera because I know it has to be extremely rare. If you have seen the
> > daytime footage someone once caught on a beach of one heading straight
> > through our atmosphere, that would be a close match to my sighting
> > except it was a little more colorful and defined since it was night.
> > Maybe even closer to me or larger. Whatever the case, for someone who
> > gives "casual" a new name in my interest in astrological things, it was
> > pretty exciting to see.
> >
> > Side note, after seeing this I mentioned it on an off-topic message
> > board I frequent. Someone in Tampa relied the following day that there
> > were some similar sightings there. I've been to busy to follow up and
> > see if it could have been the same thing. I'm not sure that what I saw
> > was heading enough east to have gone through Tampa also. Also, Tampa is
> > probably over 300 miles across the Gulf Of Mexico from Pensacola. Hope
> > you folks didn't mind this "contribution", I feel a little out of my
> > league here after reading some of your messages for the past day.
> >
> > -Chip F.
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