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(meteorobs) Edmonton fireball
I was awakened this morning by the news director of a local radio
station, citing many reports phoned in by average citizens reporting what
seems to have been a fireball over central Alberta, Canada, last night. I
received one such report myself from a guy who found my contact info through
our website at www.skyscandot ca , as follows:
> I'm not sure who I would talk to about this, I found your page while
> trying to find information about what I just saw. Me and my spouse were
> watching extreme makeover (10/01/03 - 11:45pm) when I noticed a bright
> white light out our front window. I thought it was an airplane. It
> went from white to a purple color... at that time we ran to the front
> door. As it continued to zip by it changed to a white / blue glow. It
> looked quite large and very close. It definitely had a tail behind it
> as well. Would you happen to know what it was that flew by the house?
> 12km nw of Morinville, AB.. in the town of Mearns. I believe our front
> window faces west.
Of course after days of gloriously clear weather with many astronomers
out and about, last night was mainly cloudy, and was just starting to break
up around 9:30 when I returned home. So I'm not surprised none of our local
astronomical community saw it, at least none of those wired to our
newsgroup. But it seems as if lots of "ordinary" people did. While I have
nothing saying how bright it was ("quite large and very close" not quite
cutting the mustard in this respect), a first-order magnitude estimate can
likely be derived from the number of people who took the trouble to report
it, allowing me to say with some confidence for the record -- or at least on
the radio --that it was a fireball.
More to come I'm sure.
regards, Bruce
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