Posted on 02/25/2007 7:31:18 PM PST by Sender
Sorry for the shameless vanity, but I was just outside in the back yard in Northern Georgia, and an incredibly bright light illuminated the dark yard like an arc lamp. I looked up and saw a meteor streaking overhead, white hot, which then broke up into orange, glowing fragments. This happened at 10:21PM EST. I apologize for posting something random like this, but it was astonishing. Perhaps it was a piece of space junk that reentered the atmosphere tonight. Did anyone else see this? It was truly spectacular.
Great movie Creepshow...
I am also pretty sure noting hit the ground...I will follow the Athen news tomorrow and post links...I feel for sure it will be in the paper.
I remember seeing some fiery debris from Skylab, but this was very bright. We have a moon tonight and this meteor or whatever created it's own shadows it was so brialliantly lit. It outlined my shadow over the moon's glow easily.
-PJ
It's sounds like you saw what is called a fireball. I've seen two. One many years ago, lit up the 3AM sky like it was bright daylight for a few seconds. Incredible.
The second was last summer, it was at dusk, and looked like a fireball straight from the wicked witch of the west in Wizard of Oz. I reported it online to as meteor society who tracks fireball sightings and four others saw it too. Talked to an astronomy prof and she said it was probably space junk but was excited at my seeing two events.
I'll try to find the reporting site.
I love those kind of things!!!
DK
guess it is cool- but freaked me out at first..
Freaked me out both times. The earlier fireball, everyone who was awake would notice, the second you had to be looking at the right part of the sky from a good location, they don't last long.
Talked to an astronomy prof about it, and the last one did not coincide with a meteor shower, so she thought it was space junk, big enough to make a few degrees of arc before either burning out or reaching terminal velocity (She was jealous anyway...).
Hey, terminal velocity works both ways, speed up to it or slow down to it. That's why many meteorites are cool on landing.
DK
I was just outside hauling off the trash and decided to recreate the situation. It's not uncommon for us to see shooting stars, I may see one every coupla months.
This thing was just so BRIGHT..
My wife and I were living in Japan when we climbed Mt. Ikoma near Osaka and saw the Leonids in 2001. From someone who used to watch the Persids and the once a minute spectacle, the 2001 Leonids were unreal. It was more like a meteor fell every 1/4 second.
"My wife and I were living in Japan when we climbed Mt. Ikoma near Osaka and saw the Leonids in 2001. From someone who used to watch the Persids and the once a minute spectacle, the 2001 Leonids were unreal. It was more like a meteor fell every 1/4 second."
Hey, I remember that! I was in Tokyo laying down on the roof a a house watching! was amazing. Still not as good as the hanabi around here though :P
I thought Skylab went down in the Southern Pacific, some small parts survived to hit Australia, though?
You would know more about that than I would.
I was camping in the backyard of a friends house- just a kid.
We saw fiery debris shoot across the horizon above the roof of Mr. White's house.
We were told it was Skylab, even talked about it at school.
Even the kids show's from Atlanta tv stations mentioned Skylab coming down.
This was different. Someone mentioned a welders arc- .
The center was brilliant white with strong stick welder blue arc covering the horizon as it passed overhead.
From my standpoint that would be from easterly to a southwestern trajectory.
Astronomy professors know very little about meteors ( which is hard for people to understand.) There's no money in studying meteors (as opposed to studying meteorITES, obviously there is some, the rocks on the ground) and astronomers are all deep sky types or focus on planets.
The actual study of meteors and meteor showers somewhat uniquely among the sciences, is dominated by amateurs and a few professionals from obscure countries, largely in Eastern Europe.
During the Leonid meteor return several years ago it was very frustrating as local news outlets would always go get some befuddled astronomy professor from the local college who likely spends 100% of their time studying galaxies, and then they'd give bad info, when likely in their area there was an amateur that was a member of the International Meteor Organization, with years of experience observing meteors, that they'd ignore.
Anyway, MOST meteors are not in scheduled "showers" - especially most really bright meteors, bolides. That something did not occur during a major shower doesn't mean it's space junk.
The single biggest space junk/meteor difference is speed. Meteors are much faster.
Anyone have anymore info on this meteor?
The level of science now on FR. (go figure)
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