Sigh. Evidently, there was quite the light show over San Francisco around 17:30 local time tonight. It was a bolide of some sort; it might have been space debris. I haven't seen footage yet, or even heard what direction it was traveling, so I can't say for sure. Someone on the news said it might have been a big chunk of Leonid, but I doubt that; we're on the wrong side of the Earth for that.

The irony, though! I was out at 5:21 to see a -7 Iridium flare. The sky was still blue, though getting dark, and the flare was ok. It was behind a bit of cloud, and I almost missed it. Had I stayed outside another few minutes...

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Phil Plait
The Bad Astronomer
http://www.badastronomy.com
badastro@badastronomy.com

D'oh! #-o Oh well at least you got to see something! How common are iridium flares anyway?

Not all that uncommon. The really bright ones (Mag -6 or greater) are relatively rare(once every week or two) but I have seen multiple I.F.s some mornings and evenings. I suggest going to www.heavens-above.com and input your location, and that site will give you 7 day predictions for ones visible from where you are.

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"It's time to receive our missions from The Head."

The only reference to a meteor seen in the western part of the U.S. I've seen on the net so far is this from New Mexico. (I've never heard the term "glow worm" attached to meteors before).

Oh, man, that's too bad, Phil. One just doesn't see too many good chunks coming in. Best one I saw was back in the 60s at the Hollywood Bowl at a Crosby, Stills, et al concert that had Joni Mitchell for the opening act. Just as Joni started the guitar intro to her first song, a good sized fireball came streaming down through the sky right above the bowl. It broke up into four or five good-sized pieces that really lit up the sky for five or ten seconds. Needless to say the crowd went wild! Joni had to stop the song in mid-strum and ask "What's going on out there?... A meteor? Far out!" Then she went on with the show. It was indeed far out.

I always thought that we ought to have our astronauts take a bag of sand or gravel up with them so as to create an artificial meteor storm - on cue and very scientific of course. 8) They could throw in a couple of football sized rocks for the grand fireball finale....

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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

I may well have seen the same fireball from Tucson. The time was about 17:41 MST (Nov. 21, 00:41 UT) - I looked at my watch, but I forgot to write down the exact time, so I'm not 100% sure of the time. It was roughly due north from my point of view on the SW side of town, about 3 miles from my house. I was driving east and saw a very bright (moon bright?) bolide that had a bright green core and a redish trail falling almost vertically (just slightly eastward of straight down). It left no persistent visible trail in the twilight sky and I heard no sound, but I was driving and did not stop. It appeared within about 10 degrees of due north and fell from about 30 degrees elevation down to about 15 degrees elevation and lasted maybe 2 seconds, so it was not a satellite re-entry & I think that's moving the wrong direction to be a Leonid as well. Quite impressive!

Jim.

They updated the N Mexico link I posted. They dropped the reference to a "glow worm" cited by a local astronomer but included a pic this time.

My wife saw the "glow worm" as she was driving west in Albuquerque. It was about 5:35; she saw a brilliant "silver-white" object with flashes of green and red in it, terminating well above the horizon without fragmenting. She arrived home a few minutes later and called me outside to witness the trail. It was after sunset and there was a very bright, broken trail beginning about 20 degrees above the apparent horizon and cut off by high ground to the west. I sure wish I had seen the object itself.

Just discovered your site.

I saw the meteor over San Francisco last Friday evening. I was traveling south from San Francisco on the 101 freeway heading to San Francisco International Airport. Straight ahead of me, lined up with the freeway, I saw a very large greenish glowing object that appeared to be dropping to earth. The objest was large, so I thought it was close. Because I was near the airport, I first thought it might be an aircraft of some kind that was on fire. But that didn't make sense because it gave off a bright greenish glow. Because it was lined up with the freeway, it seemed to be swooping or falling down and coming toward me. I remember wondering whether it would hit me, landing on freeway traffic as I passed underneath it. It ended up disappearing behind some dark hills ahead. I waited to see the sky illuminated from an explosion that never came.

Shortly thereafter, I left my car, but not before calls reporting the phenmenon started come in to the radio station I was listening to: KGO - AM 810.

Linda Cushing

Welcome to the board Linda! That's interesting that people were calling a radio station to report it. What were they saying?

Hello!

The callers were identifying where they were located, that they perceived the object as being close and large. A couple of others also said they were waiting for it to hit the ground and were watching for an explosion that never came. Everyone I heard believed the object was falling out of the sky, not on a horizontal trajectory. There was also talk about whether this was some kind of aircraft, but they were discounting it because it seemed unlike what a burning airplane or helicopter would look like. I had to leave my car after the calls just started coming in - and I don't know how long the reports and discussion lasted. I added the radio information in case anyone was interested in contacting the radio station and perhaps getting a copy of the calls. As was reported earlier, the time was somewhere between 5 and 6 pm Pacific Time on Thursday, November 20th.

I'm surprised there was not more in the news about this. I've been busy on business since my return home to Southern California, and had forgotten about the sighting until last night when I did a Google search and ended up at this website. I was beginning to think I had imagined the whole thing.

Linda Cushing