[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

(meteorobs) SoCal Report



Last night about 04:20 AM I caught just end of a meteor. I was 
looking toward the NE, away from the full moon when I saw something at 
the periphery of vision on my right. When I looked to see what it was, 
we get a lot of air trafic between San Diego and L.A., I saw a large 
slow yellow meteor traveling horizontally toward the south about 20 
degrees above the horizon over the ocean. It was just the head, no 
train at all, but the head comprised of three or four fingers that 
were splayed out but still one unit. It only ran about five degrees 
while I looked directly at it and its size would command a -3 to -4. I 
believe parts of this meteor may have struck the ocean because of its 
slow speed. I heard a single pop that came from the west within 
minutes that may have been the meteor but I have a major freeway (5) 1 
1/2 miles to my west and I still can hear freeway noise if it's loud.

       I hope someone else saw this meteor, it looked as if it had ran 
under the moon with Jupitor and Saturn close aboard, lucky to have 
seen any of it. I have no idea how long it was or if it left a train 
somewhere along its path. I'm reluctant to call it a fireball or 
bolide as I didn't see much of it at all. Like to hear more about it.
Rob, it was about 205 degrees magnetic from my location at .3 miles 
west of El Camino Real, .6 miles north of HWY 78. 

      Rob, you are 40 miles south and 6 miles east of me at your home. 
Could you give me a degree reading of the elevation of the last big 
meteor we saw, I could then work out its altitude. The meteor was 
traveling south to me, I noticed you said traveling north. This may be 
something I would call a visual unconformity due to our locations and 
the trajectory of the meteor aiming somewhere between us. To me it was 
foreshortened and moving southward. To you it was longer but perhaps 
you were seeing it as it moved away but appearing to move toward the 
north while actually moving south. Try it with a pencil you'll see 
what I mean. I ran into this visual unconformity before when I saw 
high flying spy plane cross in front of the moon in '85. It moved from 
the 5 o'clock to the to the 10 o'clock position. I realized that I 
couldn't determine the direction it was traveling, toward or away from 
me, as they both could appear the same from my location accross the 
face of the moon. Something to consider in meteor reports.

                                   Dave English

To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html

Follow-Ups: