Meteor Sighting

[maharang]

Gentlemen,
I was 17 years old and in pre med school.It was in march 1976 around 5 pm when my Chemistry Professor and I were standing in front of his courtyard. We were looking towards the mountains 10 miles away.We saw a ball of fire from the sky that to my memory was a size of what a football would appear from near. There was an orange streak behind it as it approached closer we watched it hiitng on the farside of the mountain ; there was a flash but no noise like thunder and it ended. I dont know if it might be useful now but im willing to show the aprroximate site to anyone whos interested.This happened in South India .Thanks.

[genebujold]

It was 1986, couldn't tell you what time of year, but not too cold, around 11:30 at night. I was coming home from a friend's place while in college.

I stopped at the Exxon station to refuel my VW Rabbit Diesal, and there was a truck (18W) driver cursing. I asked what's wrong, if I could help, and he said no, that his batteries were all run down and he couldn't get his rig started.

After I finished, I drove up to his truck, I pulled out my jumper cables, and he just laughed, saying "no way!"

I said it's worth a try, and we hooked up. Started right up, no problem (my Rabbit had 650 cold-cranking amps - it took a lot of oomph to turn over that little engine!)

About then, an orange fireball was streaking through the sky, clearly a meteor. I pointed it out, he was awestruck, saying it was the first he'd seen, me too. We shook hands, and he said he'd never forget that night!

[jscotti]

Cool - sharing our favorite fireball stories! Mine happened in about 1983 or early 1984 (I don't have my logbook handy where I scribbled a few more details). I was trying to observe one night through some lite cirrus and finally gave up - I shouldn't have been out there anyway. So I started to wheel the 6 inch Newtonian (on an equatorial mount on castor wheels) back into the shed when I noticed a shadow of the telescope on the ground like a spotlight shadow, but the shadow was moving, so I realized I better look up and sure enough, almost straight overhead was a very bright fireball with a halo around it moving quickly westward across the sky. It must have been as bright as the full moon more or less and in the following few days, I found out that two other friends had seen it, one from a few miles east and another from about 50 miles away on Kitt Peak.

Years later, I saw some objects that would have been about the same size as the object I saw burning up overhead that night, but they were still intact meteoroids zipping past Earth as they appeared as trailed images in our Spacewatch survey scans. We've seen verified objects as small as about 4-9 meters and other objects with too few observations for an official designation that must have been only about 1-2 meters in diameter based on how bright they were and how close they were when we saw them.

Jim.

[trinitree88]

It was August,1978. We had moved to Hanover, MA., and the new neighborhood was far enough from mall lights, so that the sky was pretty dark. I took my young son out to the front stoop to sit on the cement stairs, and watch for Perseids. After a few dim ones, a brilliant yellow fireball appeared, coupled with flashes of orange. It lit up the neighborhood, like the noonday sun, bright enough to easily read fine print by...for about 4 or 5 seconds...then it burst into several fragments. He turned to me, and asked," Are we going to see a lot like that one, Dad?". I laughed so hard I couldn't answer him far about a minute...." No, I don't think so Erik...that was pretty special". It still is. Ciao. Pete

[Candy]

I dont know if it might be useful now but im willing to show the aprroximate site to anyone whos interested.This happened in South India .Thanks.
I'd like to see the site, maharang. Do you have photos?

[taurus26]

Genebujold -

I would call that ordered chaos!

[publiusr]

Nov 11, 1986--a brilliant bolide broke up over Central Alabama. I was inside getting a haircut when it happened.

Mad as heck!

It happened again while I was at work in Dec 1999 when it happened again. I thought it was car lights so I didn't bother to turn around.

That was the night Spurrier lost to Alabama the time before last.

I think it was his visor on re-entry.