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(meteorobs) Fireball from Apr '98



I just ran into this, people may find it interesting.




To: astro-photo@nightsky.com 
       Subject: [APML]: OT: FIREBALL! 
       From: "Jason J. Chan" <jchan@eecs.tuftsdot edu> 
       Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1998 21:26:01 -0400 (EDT) 
       In-Reply-To: <01bd61bc$a9812140$61a92599@default> 
       Reply-To: astro-photo@nightsky.com 
       Sender: owner-astro-photo@nightsky.com 





Unbelievable!  That's all I can say.  Simply unbelievable!

I just got home.  I had to take the trash out from the side of the house
(Tuesday's my trash day).  So as I'm walking towards the garbage cans, I
look up and see the Moon.  It's bright and there's an opening in the
clouds in that part of the sky.

I'm muttering to myself, "Yeah, the bright Moon, a deep-sky
astrophotographer's bane...."  For some reason, an image of Jerry
polishing his scope comes into my mind.  Next thing I know I see the
brightest, largest "shooting star" slowly, and I mean slowly, cross the
sky.  It was so bright that the dark sky in it's immediate vicinity lit
up
as bright the sky around the Moon.  This fireball was brighter than that
half Moon, I tell ya.  It was pure and just SO bright, I couldn't tell
you
what magnitude.  I swear I saw streaking flames emanating from a central
bright point too.  It looked just like a mini-comet with tail and all
flying downwards across the sky. I tried to listen but couldn't hear
anything.  It was bright white, no other colors at all and no trail of
smoke that I could see.

I screamed out loud, "Oh my God!  Look!  Look!  Do you see it?!"  All of
a
sudden I felt ashamed as I was talking and yelling at no one in
particular.  A pedestrian walking by simply ignored me.  My neighbor had
just gotten home and asked me what I had just seen.  MAN!  No one saw it
but me.  NUTS!  It was simply stunning! 

Yeah, April 6, 1998, 8:51pm (looked at my watch immediately afterwards).
I'll never forget this night gents!  Why, oh why, couldn't I have been
taking a long exposure right at that moment?  I guess because the Moon
was
right there too, duh!

I hope you all have a good night!

Regards,

Jason
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