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Re: (meteorobs) "Electrophonic" Fireball sound nonsense
Hi Kevin
I know im flogging a dead horse here , but i too have heard the legendary
audible fireball on one occasion {in 8 years of deliberate obs}....i do hope
its not some form of mass hallucination!!!! hehe...dot it was in the vicinity
of 1 am local time 17th nov 1998 ( South Australia ) - about 15:30 16th nov
1998 U.T. It was an around - 10 Leonid , horizon to horizon , earthgrazing
fireball , It travelled from east to west , seemingly very slowly , and
lasted around 3-4 seconds at a guess . It also left a wide bright lasting
train .
There was three of us present at the remote dark site at the time- east of
Adelaide S.A - to observe the Leonids that night ,and we all definitely
heard it loud and clear ....... i would liken the sound very much to a more
dramatic version of the sound you get of static electricity, when two
statically charged items of clothing ( i.e pullovers,jumpers ) are seperated
or taken off against each other after some reasonable length of contact ...
not very scientific i agree ...but my version sorry :-) i sort of spitting
, hissing , crackling , party sparkler kind of sound .
The sound generated from the fireball Leonid that we saw that night , did
seem also to have an aural-hallucinatary quality to it . In as much as it
didnt seem to matter in what direction you faced , or if you looked at the
ground and up at the sky , the volume and intensity of sounds remained
seemingly constant ,and seemed to come from the ground up more so. Which is
of course the opposite to normal directional soundwaves . The sound also
seemed to have an artificial tone about it as well , like something from a
1950s science fiction movie.
I also have an multi-witnessed anecdotal account from long time astronomy
friends, of an audible fireball at around the time of Halleys comet in 1986
also from near Adelaide , when they were on of a viewing of the comet
(Halleys Comet was nothing to do with the fireball i presume ).
They saw a huge fireball slowly make its way towards south east of their
location with many outbursts and a very loud hissing crackling sound as it
went...the fireball even made it to terra firma near Melbourne (as reported
in the newspaper and in the media the following day, as it was widely
witnessed ) 800 km east / south east of their location..
Well thats my two cents worth ,i guess we should just be grateful Kevin that
you and i are amongst the lucky ones, that has been privy to an very
interesting Phenomenon of nature.
Regards
Kearn Jones
> From: Kevin Z Grey <kzgrey@ntplxdot net>
> Reply-To: meteorobs@atmob.org
> Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2002 20:54:15 -0400
> To: meteorobs@atmob.org
> Subject: Re: (meteorobs) "Electrophonic" Fireball sound nonsense
>
>
> Hi Mike,
>
> I've witnessed a fireball about 8 years ago where I heard crackling
> noises. My brother was with me and heard the same thing. This was long
> before we heard anyone even propose that such a phenomenon existed. At
> the time we didn't give it much thought, but one things for certain, we
> heard crackling and popping that coincided with the fireball's
> intensity. Even if we don't know what the cause is, and back of
> envelope calculations point to it as being nonsense, that doesn't mean
> that a noise is not being produced. Scientificly it may be
> unexplainable given that reproducing it is difficult, but my ears were
> telling me they were hearing noises. In fact, it occurred after a
> violent thunder storm which blew out the power, so there wasn't any
> background noise or electrical devices running and the wind was
> extremely calm. So unless there are little men rattling the dry leaves
> in the woods at that precise instant, I heard a noise that was
> indirectly related to the fireball. Weird it is. I don't have an
> explaination for it, I just know I heard it.
>
> ~~K
>
>
> Michael Linnolt wrote:
>
>> Dale, In fact I am looking for the answer! My simple logical analysis ruling
>> out the "meteor electrophonics" seems hard to refute. If someone can offer an
>> adequate explanation, please do so. This leads to the next step, then of
>> suggesting what else could be responsible for "simultaneously" hearing and
>> seeing meteors. If its physically impossible to detect meteor RF over
>> background while NOT detecting cell phone RF by the same mechanism, then what
>> is being reported by the witnesses? One explanation could be just a
>> coincidental occurence of the meteor with some locally generated sound. This
>> may sound too simple, but many "weird" experiences in the world can be
>> explained by such rare, random coincidental occurences! Take the probability
>> of hearing an electrophonic sound at some time as p0. The probability of
>> seeing a meteor as p1. The odds both will occur together is p0*p1, which is
>> small but finite, and given the rarity of these reports, fits quite well with
>> my little theory!
>>
>> Mike Linnolt
>>
>> --- Dale <biscayne@snappydsldot net> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> hi mike
>>> i've been a ham and an electronics freak since long
>>> before transistors
>>> i understand your point completely and you certainly
>>> raise a good question
>>> but i fear you miss my main point:
>>> the dismissal of something that can't be explained
>>> is exactly what science,
>>> and the pursuit of truth, (granted these are not
>>> ALWAYS the same) are NOT
>>> all about
>>>
>>> something is happening with this business of
>>> (nearly) simultaneous 'aural'
>>> perception of various atmospheric events far too far
>>> away to be explained by
>>> direct transmission of sound waves
>>>
>>> so why not help look for an answer instead of
>>> dismissing the problem?
>>> dale
>>>
>>>
>
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