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(meteorobs) January 11, 2004 Fireball in Colorado



http://www.cloudbait.com/science/fireball20040111.html

January 11, 2004 Fireball
Cloudbait Observatory
Guffey, Colorado

This slow, bright meteor was seen by residents of
Colorado at 7:05 PM.  [January 11, 2004 Fireball]
It was also caught on two of the DMNS Allsky Network
cameras. 175 witness reports have been received as of
January 20 (small black squares on the map below).

The initial information suggests that this fireball
began south of Rifle, Colorado, and traveled eastward
just south of I-70, ending over Aurora, a Denver
suburb. The total path length was about 155 miles, and

the speed was about 10.5 miles per second. 
The fireball was traveling in a level path at a height
of about 44 miles. The radiant was probably in 
Aquarius. 
Meteorites may have dropped in the area around the
Buckley Air National Guard station. Residents should
be alert for rocks with a fresh black crust, or for
signs of recently disturbed dirt, possibly resembling
a small animal burrow.

This fireball is particularly interesting because of
its date. Many witnesses reported similar fireballs on
January 11 of 1998 and 2001. DMNS Allsky cameras also
recorded bright fireballs on this date in 2002 and
2003.

[Map]

[Image]

This is an image of the fireball from the Guffey
School allsky camera. The meteor begins at the left,
and travels nearly a quarter of the way across the
sky, almost parallel to the horizon. The gaps in the
trail are an artifact of the camera that made the
image. Because the event was so long (12.5 seconds)
the camera had to periodically stop and save the
image, and those breaks show up as gaps in the trail.
A 384 KB animated GIF of this fireball can be seen
here.  If you saw the fireball and have not made a 
report, please do so here: 

http://www.cloudbait.com/science/fireballs.html


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