[meteorite-list] Fireball Reporting

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:53:34 2004
Message-ID: <20021211223421.55755.qmail_at_web80307.mail.yahoo.com>

Here is an example of an EXCELLENT fireball report:

----------- Attached Message -------------

Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 09:58:07 +0100
From: <leoniden_at_hetnet.nl>
Subject: (meteorobs) Spectacular meteor last night

Yesterday (December 10, 2002 _at_ 22:45:15 UT) I observed
a spectacular meteor while standing on my balcony.
I live in Almelo, The Netherlands

(52 20' N, 6 38' E).

I was examining the LM [Limiting Magnitude] field in
Gemini, the 5.3 star was visible and I was trying to
see the star to the right of Iota.

Then the meteor appeared near the head of Hydra,
approximately at:

RA 8h45m Dec 9,

corresponding to

altitude 23 degrees
azimuth 105 degrees
 
at the time.

The meteor remained visible for at least 4 seconds,
probably 5. It dissapeared near Ursa Major,
 
RA 10h00m, Dec 40.

This was about,

35 degrees above the horizon, azimuth 70 degrees.

It was moving slow.

When I first saw it, it had a short tail. The
magnitude during this phase was about 0. The meteor
dimmed a little (mag 1) and the tail disappeared. But
now there were some flares, up to -1 at least. After
the last flare there was some
fragmentation.
About 8 bits were visible for less than one second.
They trailed the meteor, but they kept moving in the
same direction. They drifted away from the meteorpath
a little though. The magnitude of the fragments was
about 2.

The meteor continued for a while, at magnitude 0/1.

When I first saw it, it seemed white/green. The tail
also had this color, after the tail disappeared the
meteor seemed white.

The meteor did line up nicely with the Sigma Hydrid
radiant, but it was only 5 degrees away when I first
saw it and it was visible for some 36 degrees.

I have considered fireworks, since December is
fireworks month, but because of the constant speed and
the near horizontal trajectory I don't think I saw
fireworks. It might have been space junk though.

Daniel

-------------- End of Attached Message ---------------

This kind of detailed information is very helpful
forecoveryte-recorvery efforts. (I wonder if there
were reports of a sonic-boom at that time in northern
Germany?)
Should you be fortunate enough to witness a fireball
such as the one that Daniel observed, and you are
interested in reporting what you saw, you should
record as much of the above information that Daniel
included in his report, as soon as possible.

Or, you can do a Google search on "Fireball Report"
and you will have all of the various web sites for
fireball reporting and report forms. Just pick the
one most appropriate for your area.

Bob V.





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Received on Wed 11 Dec 2002 05:34:21 PM PST