[meteorite-list] Going hunting

From: John Reed <john_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:06 2004
Message-ID: <3D4F6CF3.91C3B015_at_findalltrades.com>

 In 1985 or 86 a meteor flew over my head it came out of the sky at
about 45-50 degrees I saw a grayish fuzzy mass all in about 2 seconds I
am going back to the desert( 10 miles from Palm Springs) on business on
aug 9,. I will have 2 days to see if I
can find it. At the time I thought it to be an ordinary occurance in the

desert Anyway I drew a stright line on a piece of paper representing
the horizontal level that I was standing then I made a dot above the
line representing where I was standing on the horizontal line and how
high it was I then put a straight edge at 47o and drew a line from the
dot to the horizontal line it came out that it would of hit 5 times the
distance between the horizontal line and the dot So I am thinking it was

no more than 500 feet high or less than 200 The way it works out it
should of landed about a half mile away? 5 x 500 I know what direction
it went The question of course is how high was it really? I heard a
propeller or motor sound, the fire ball part only lasted a split
second when I saw it in the sky then it was probably close to 2
seconds before I heard it chopping the wind then I saw a big blur of
grayish fuzz and a quick shadow passing over. From the time I first
heard it till it was out of ear shot was maybe a fraction over 2
seconds. It seemed to be horizontal. I remember thinking it was as big
as a wheel barrow. I also remeber thinking I would hear a thud or
something when it hit I did not. It was a dead silent night at about 2
am Is there any thing I havn't figured? besides the heat the snakes and
the fire ants
 Do you think that its shape may have something to do with why it didn't

whistle or blow up and also the short fire tail ( 1 second)
 This would mean that if something of irregular shape came in contact
with the atmosphere its spinning and chopping would slow it down enough
so it wouln't heat up or reach the speed of sound and blow up
I know it a long shot but, if I find him I'am gonna put a saddle on his
back and ride him into town!
Thanks John
Received on Tue 06 Aug 2002 02:30:12 AM PDT