[meteorite-list] Fireball Sightings Stretch To Wyoming

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jun 26 00:26:55 2006
Message-ID: <200606260424.VAA03423_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/14891714.htm

Fireball sightings stretch to Wyoming
Rona Johnson
Grand Forks Herald
June 24, 2006

On June 2, Dayne LaHooe was driving on a gravel road through Grand Teton
National Park in Wyoming when something caught his eye.

"It was the most spectacular thing I've ever seen - I have never seen
anything like it before," he said. LaHooe called after he read my June
10 column in the Herald about the fireball that streaked across the sky
June 2.

"It shot across the sky and looked like it landed right behind the
Tetons," he said.

LaHooe, who works in Jackson Hole, Wyo., figured it was about 9:30 p.m.,
because the stars hadn't even come out yet.

He didn't say much to anyone about it because he thought they wouldn't
believe him. But he did tell his girlfriend and her father. Then, as
luck would have it, his girlfriend's father, who lives in the Twin
Cities, was driving through this area and somehow came across my column
and sent it to LaHooe.

>From Minnesota

Errol and Chris Johnson, who are from Chewelah, Wash., were in Roseau,
Minn., on June 2. They were celebrating Errol's uncle Glen Johnson's
86th birthday. It was about 11:30 p.m. and Errol and about five other
family members were sitting in the breezeway of his uncle's home when
they heard some distant booming noises.

"My wife said it sounded like a baseball bat hitting the side of the
house - like a sonic boom, I thought," he said. Johnson decided to go
outside to see if there was anything going on.

"Almost immediately, I saw two large fireballs with tails fly by, moving
from the south-southeast as they appeared to descend to the north,"
Errol said.

He called to the other family members to come, but the meteor was out of
range by the time they got outside.

Johnson and his wife didn't hear anything more about the fireball until
after they had returned to Washington.

"My aunt and uncle sent a thank you card and they sent along your
article," he said. That's when Johnson called me.

Using Google Earth, Johnson was able to find the exact longitude and
latitude of where he was standing when he saw the fireballs, which were
48 degrees, 50 minutes, 34.68 seconds north latitude and 95 degrees, 45
minutes, 38.84 seconds west longitude.

"As far as the angle off of the horizon, I am thinking I had to be
looking up about 60 to 75 degrees as I looked directly east," he said.

Over in N.D.

At the same time that Johnson saw the fireball, Leann Weber was in a
tractor cultivating a field about 3 miles north of Cando, N.D. It was
about midnight and there was no moon.

"All of a sudden, the sky just lit up," Weber said.

She said the fireball stayed in the sky for about a minute.

"As it was falling, you could see debris coming off it and it started
breaking apart," she said. "I've never seen anything like it, and
probably will never see any like it again. I guess it's a good reason to
keep cultivating late at night."

Weber, who works at the Herald as a copy editor, was reminded of the
sighting when she was reading my column the night before it appeared in
the Herald.

If you read my column June 10, you know that I was sitting in University
Park in Grand Forks during the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life
when I saw the fireball.

It's fun to hear from people who saw the fireball, but I still haven't
received any photos - hint, hint. And it would be really cool to find
out if anyone has found any pieces of the meteorite.

I have to apologize to anyone who has been trying to e-mail me lately.
My e-mail address has been missing an "r" for the last month and wasn't
caught until this last week. I haven't been ignoring your e-mails, I
just haven't received them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach Johnson at (701) 780-1229; (800) 477-6572, ext. 229; or
rjohnson_at_gfherald.com.
Received on Mon 26 Jun 2006 12:24:34 AM PDT