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(meteorobs) Fireball Observed! (was, "...Who saw the green light?")
With Rob Matson's permission I'm reprinting his post
in which he describes his SoCal fireball observation.
Rob has already submitted his report to FIDAC.
The consensus is that "dark-flight phase" occurred,
but that it occurred over the Pacific Ocean.
On the other hand, we would be interested if there
were any observations of prior fragmentation earlier
in the flight of the fireball.
Bob V.
============= Attached Message =============
From:"Rob Matson" <matsonr@saic.com>
To: Meteorite-Recovery@egroups.com
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 04:01:17 -0000
Subject: [Meteorite-Recovery] Fireball Observed!
Hi All,
Southern California was just treated to a spectacular
fireball off the Orange County coast (as near as I can
estimate). I observed it while driving southbound on
the 405 through Seal Beach between 8:09 and 8:10pm.
It was moving roughly east to west, though without the
third dimension I could not tell if it was moving NE
to SW, E to W, or ESE to WNW. With a few additional
observations, triangulation would reveal this.
The fireball was bright green, at least magnitude -8,
and I observed it for 3 to 4 seconds before it
"fizzled out" only 5 degrees above the horizon.
Unfortunately, I'd say the chances are good that it
reentered over the water. This definitely produced
one or more meteorites -- it was trailing sparks
throughout its flight. However, it did not fragment
into multiple luminous objects -- just the main one.
KNX-1070 radio received a number of reports of
observations from Laguna Hills up to the San Fernando
Valley -- hopefully some amateur astronomers got some
good bearing information on this one. (I can provide
the azimuth and elevation of my observation, as well
as a fairly accurate position, to anyone who is
collecting data for triangulation. My latitude is
known to better than 100 meters; longitude about +/-
500 meters.)
Too bad it didn't come in about 10 minutes earlier --
the MRF would have quite the field day!
--Rob
==================================================
--- KHe1144783@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 9/27/00 7:19:41 AM Pacific
> Daylight Time,
> dfreeman@fascination.com writes:
>
> <<
> The NBC morning news noted a green light suspected
> to be an asteroid
> fragment coming in last night. Did anyone see it?
> I for one, am glad it wasn't five miles wide....
> Dave (who slept) Freeman >>
>
> Saw it !! Talking to my wife on our patio and saw it
> for almost 5 seconds
> before it burned out. Was like four landing lights
> coming at you and then
> broke up spectactularly, a shower of sparks. The
> last piece survived and just
> faded away heading appeared to be North Northwest
> off the Pacific Ocean or
> Los Angeles. Kris Henkel-Palm Srings Ca.
>
>
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