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(meteorobs) Electric Blue Dragons
I have also had the pleasure of witnessing a vivid, neon/electric pure blue
meteor. Way back in '94 when I only watched meteors as opposed to observing them,
myself and two friends pulled an all-nighter for the Perseids. We were treated to
probably 250 - 400 meteors throughout the night.
Around 4:30 or so AM, all three of us managed to be facing the same
northwesterly area of the sky when suddenly the finest fireball of the evening made
it's dramatic, if not startling, appearance. At about 50 degrees elevation this
blue beauty came to life with what memory places at about -7 magnitude. It had a
path length of about 20 degrees but the color was like nothing I have seen since in
a meteor -- just pure neon blue. In its wake the meteor left my first prolonged
train --at least two minutes. My impression was of the meteor "sizzling," but I
was so stunned at the time that I can't honestly say if this was an electrophonic
experience. The train twisted and distorted into a snakelike circle in the upper
atmospheric winds and today I can understand how ancient cultures created the
firebreathing, flying dragon myth -- for I saw one myself that night!
Kim Youmans
Dave English wrote:
> Bob Lunsford and I were treated to a great electric blue meteor on the night
> of 13/14 Dec. '99, but we were 90 or so miles apart, he was at Joshua
> Tree National Monoument and I was just taking the dog for a walk at home.
> I reported it as a -6 so as not to over do it, and waited to see if others like
> Bob had seen it and could give a more experianced call on the magnitude.
> Bob saw it as a -9, which was very close to the -8 or so I had wanted to
> post, but what a trteat it was! I was close to being right under the start
> point, about 10 dgrees NW of my zenith, so I saw the color very clearly.
> The head was oval, much larger than the width of the train by three to four
> times, and parts of the hear appeared clear. Too bad I didn't see it with
> binoculars or could have had a photo of it, the structure of the head would
> have been seen and studied, but without magnification or a photo/video,
> only an impression of structure was seen. The size and color of this
> electric blue Geminid makes it one of the best and most memorable meteors
> I've seen in nearly four years of watching the skies.
>
> Dave English
> Oceanside, California
>
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