[meteorite-list] Bright Meteor Observed Over Oregon
From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jul 20 12:48:38 2005 Message-ID: <200507201647.j6KGlm026093_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> http://space.com/missionlaunches/050720_flyby_update.html Did you see Tuesday's meteor? Scientist wants to hear about it Mail Tribune (Oregon) July 20, 2005 Mike O'Grady was concentrating on his second shot at the Rogue Valley Country Club golf course Tuesday when he saw a flaming object fall from the summer sky. "It definitely had some body to it and it had blue-ish and red flames coming off it," said O'Grady. It was the second time in a dozen years that O'Grady, 53, witnessed what a Portland scientist speculated was a bright meteor that shot southward across the state. A half-dozen reports of a fiery object were tracked after the 2:17 p.m. event, said Dick Pugh of the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory in Portland. "It was a big meteor, a fireball," said Pugh. Staff at the National Weather Service office in Medford received three reports of a flaming fireball, including one from as far as Roseburg, said Spencer Higginson, a service hydrologist. The last time O'Grady saw a meteor was Sept. 8, 1993. He was fishing on the Rogue River when an object zipped across the sky and behind a hill. Now, as then, the sight startled O'Grady, who says he's "semi-retired." "I was looking up the fairway and I saw something coming straight at us," said O'Grady, who thought the object fell somewhere near Shady Cove. "I made a good second shot, though." Pugh said O'Grady's description of the object indicated it was closer to Medford than Portland. A fireball is defined as a meteor that glows brighter than the planet Venus, according to Pugh's meteorites.pdx.edu Web site. "We would like to talk to anybody who saw it from your area," he said, noting the blue tinge was significant. "You're getting the bigger end of it." Call Pugh at 503-287-6733 to report fireball sightings. Received on Wed 20 Jul 2005 12:47:47 PM PDT |
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