[Chaos-l] Fwd: What did I see in the sky last night?

[Jim Pressley]

2010/1/19 Jim Pressley <binovision at gmail.com>

> Folks,
> Just over a week ago, while driving toward Jordan Lake to observe, I
> witnessed a similar light show.   The object I saw traveled from SE to NW.
> It started as a bright point of white light and seemed to be moving a bit
> slower than most meteors I've seen.   It increased in brightness as it
> traversed about 15 degrees of sky.   The object left a faint trail (it was
> still twilight at the time) and as it brightened, it threw off smaller bits
> (like fireworks do) and finally exploded and burned out.
>
> Had it been darker, it would have appeared to be a very bright event.   I
> chalked it up as a bolide (fireball) and figured I may have been the only
> one to have witnessed it.   What folks are describing here sounds very
> similar to what I saw.   Perhaps we are currently traveling through an area
> of space populated with a few larger-than-usual chunks of interplanetary
> dust.   I don't think my meteor reached anything near -14th magnitude, so
> I'll call it a bright *fireball*.
>
> Based on this definition from Wikipedia (...*bolide *comes from the Greek<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language>βολις, (
> *bolis*) which can mean *a missile* or *to flash*.  The IAU has no
> official definition of bolide and generally considers the term synonymous
> with* fireball*.  The bolide term is generally used for fireballs reaching
> magnitude *-14 or brighter*.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoroid#cite_note-Belton-7>
>
> Jim
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 12:40 PM, Jon Stewart-Taylor <joncst at earthlink.net
> > wrote:
>
>> Hi all.  Received the following from Ms. Kasten.  Did anyone else see
>> this, or read about it?  My first guess is a bit of space junk, but i'm open
>> to suggestions.
>> Thanks.    J.
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
> *From: *"Amy Kasten" <amy.kasten[...]>
>>
> *Date: *January 19, 2010 11:44:05 AM EST
>>
>> *To: *<chaos at rtpnet.org>
>> *Subject: **What did I see in the sky last night?*
>>
>>  To Whom it May Concern:
>> I live in Carrboro off 54 and Smith Level road.  I took my dogs for a walk
>> last night around 8:45/9:00pm and as I looked up in the northern sky, right
>> before me, maybe 30 degrees above the horizon, fell a burning object.  I’m
>> not sure if it was a meteor or something else, but it felt very close.  I
>> saw it start falling and then it grew in intensity and it continued to fall
>> very slowly for about 5 seconds (not like in a meteor shower where it
>> streaks far across the sky in a flash).  Also, unlike a shower, the light
>> path was not just a fine streak in the distance--I saw the grainy, sparkly
>> fire in the object’s trail.  It reminded me of those fireworks that burn as
>> they fall (they look like hair, or weeping willows maybe).
>>
>> I’m not sure if anyone captured this event, but if your club or other
>> astronomical unit you know can speak to this, I would really like to know
>> what I saw.
>>
>> Thanks so much,   *Amy Kasten    Research Analyst*
>>
>>
>
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