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Re: (meteorobs) Fire Ball over the Gila

Hi Nev and all,
    I can second Kim's belief that two such events so close together are 
very rare indeed.  In my almost thirty years (and countless hundreds of 
hours) of serious observing, I have had only three fireball events that even 
remotely approach yours.  Oddly enough, two of the three were in my first 
year of observing (1974).  The second of those two events even closely 
resembled the conditions you describe for your sightings.  Recalling what I 
saw that year brings to mind a few thoughts and comments I wanted to share 
with you.  I saw this fireball on the evening of 16/17 Nov 1974 (right about 
midnight) and it was an Earth-grazing Leonid about -6 in magnitude.  I saw 
it through thick, pea-soup Florida ground fog that created an effect I have 
never seen repeated by any clear sky fireball event.  The fog created 
virtual "overcast" conditions as no stars were visible at the moment of the 
event.  It covered almost the entire sky in a skipping motion.  Each flare 
of brightness lit up the fog and created an appearance that made me want to 
duck.  It seemed like the fireball was about ten feet over my head!  The 
fact that no stars were visible for reference, made the fireball seem so 
much lower and closer than it actually was.  I've never seen a clear sky 
fireball look like that.  Since I was a new, inexperienced observer at the 
time, my emotional reaction was probably far greater than it would have been 
with several years of observing under my belt.  But it sure was awesome, as 
I'm sure yours were, too.  Hopefully, these events will peak your continued 
interest in meteor observing and many more enjoyable memories under the 
stars.

Regards, Paul in Florida


>From: "Jill and Nevyn" <mirage@gilanet.com>
>Reply-To: meteorobs@atmob.org
>To: <meteorobs@atmob.org>
>Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Fire Ball over the Gila
>Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 06:57:54 -0600
>
>Hi George:
>
>Thank's for the information.  Jill and I know nothing about any of this..We 
>just seem to be in the right place at the right time.
>
>Nev

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