[meteorite-list] One of the finest mornings of my life.

From: Robert & Wendi Beauford <wendirob_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:47:12 2004
Message-ID: <001501c17029$4859cfa0$524897cc_at_wendirob>

Went out at 2:00 her in the high Rockies. It was hazy, but I saw a beauty
right off. Within the first 30 minutes after that, I saw more shooting
stars than in the rest of my life combined previously (over 5-10/minute).
Then the sky cleared and the show really started to peak and from about 2:30
to 3:00 it hit about 10-20/minute. My wife joined me and we took a lot of
pictures. For about 45 minutes between 3:00 to 4:00 it got even better! We
counted over and over again because we couldn't believe it... 30-40 per
minute!!! (Is that some sort of record? It's got to rank pretty high in
the history of such things... blows the socks off of everything I've seen by
many orders of magnitude.) Then it slacked off again, back to 10-20/minute
and now, at 4:40, it's down again to 5-10. This has been one of the
greatest experiences of my life. I'm still just stunned and amazed by the
dazzling beauty of it. I saw 3 and 4 in the sky at once over and over
again. I think I have pictures (long exposure) with up to 8 in one frame.
We'll see when they come back. I hope they come out. Slow long creepers,
multiples, exploders, etc. I must have seen over 1000 shooting stars in the
last 3 hours. That's an extremely conservative estimate.
There were several dozen that looked like a mass of several small particles
moving as one meteor. I've never seen anything like that before.
Light trails that hung in the sky for minutes, 3-4 diverging from one point
within seconds, 2-3 parrallel flashing brightly into and out of existance at
the same moment.
Also, a flash of light from over the horizon that looked like distant
lightning. That must have been a heck of a one to see.
A couple of times it looked like Orion shot an arrow!... Hope I got that on
film.
I could go on and on. Simply magical.
I wish you all as joyous a day as I have already had, and that all the best
wishes you wished on all the stars that fell tonight come true beyond your
wildest dreams.
Good night.
With a big smile on my face,
Robert Beauford : )
Received on Sun 18 Nov 2001 07:04:45 AM PST