[meteorite-list] RE: Not space junk

From: GeoZay_at_aol.com <GeoZay_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:37:32 2004
Message-ID: <22.ec0f6da.276058a2_at_aol.com>

In a message dated 12/6/00 6:01:03 PM Pacific Standard Time,
marley2010_at_usa.com writes:

<<
 I attempted to fill out the fireball report, but when it came to telling the
 coordinates, I was stumped. Best way I can describe it. I was walking
 almost due south when all of the sudden I saw, and the best way i can
 describe this is from my vantage point, the bright fire ball appox 30 feet
 or so above a group of houses, not thirty feet about the ground ofcourse,
 but what appeared about 30 feet to me, certainly not straight up in the sky,
 but much lower towards the horizon. Ok, now, facing due south, in Amarillo,
 the path it took appeared to be towards the SW, like toward Portales NM, in
 that direction. And, like I said, I saw it dropping parts, much like the
 Peekskill video. I was thinking "hot damn, that has to be close" but as I
 watched it trail off to the SW, I realized there was no way it could be. >>

Okay, getting a little better picture of what you are describing, it now
seems that you are describing a possible meteor and not space junk. I at
first thought you indicated it crossed the sky....a good bet that it was
space junk if you did. But reading what you said above, I don't get this
impression anymore. The slowness you described in a previous post also
reinforced the concept of space junk re entering. But you indicated the
sighting was very low on the horizon. This would explain the slowness.
Meteors low on the horizon will appear much slower than they would if
directly above. As for the direction of travel...it could be perceived
traveling in a direction somewhat away from you as well as towards you, again
due to being low on the horizon. Meteors low on the horizon are very far
away. This one probably an easy 150 miles distant. This far distance is the
cause of meteors appearing slow. Actual determinations of direction of travel
is mostly guesswork. I wouldn't give too much in the way of accuracy for the
direction of travel on low horizon sighted meteors. Anyhow, if what I
described above is what you basically saw, then it most likely a fireball
meteor.
GeoZay
Received on Wed 06 Dec 2000 10:06:10 PM PST