[meteorite-list] Fireball reported over Tucson

From: D. Hill <dhill_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat May 6 22:22:38 2006
Message-ID: <445B9ED7.4040401_at_lpl.arizona.edu>

Hi Mike and Meteorite-List,

YES! I saw it from Tucson. It was one of the best fireballs I've ever
seen.
I was driving east on the little entrance road to "Cactus Country RV
Resort" off of Houghton Road. At 9:45 P.M. local time, I and two
passengers saw a beautiful green fireball due east toward the Rincon
Mountains. It was much brighter than Venus (-4 mag); perhaps -8 mag?
It looked like a slow, bright, green arrowhead. It started about 40
degrees above the horizon and traveled at angle of ~60 degrees from the
zenith. The light extinguished with a flash about 5 degrees above the
horizon. (My eyes were not dark adapted so I didn't identify the
background stars). It took at least 5 secs. to traverse. About half
way through the trail, it brightened to a green "arrowhead", narrowed to
a normal trail, and then ended with an even brighter green "arrowhead"
perhaps -10mag.

Rik Hill was observing from the UA Catalina Sky Survey's Schmidt
Telescope on Mt. Bigelow and saw a sudden brightening in the wide field
CCD camera. Unfortunately no pictures.

I was amused to read that the fireball was observed eastward from
Deming, New Mexico because, as is common, my companions insisted it
would be found in the desert close by. Hence the importance of multiple
observations.

Good luck to all the meteorite hunters!
-Dolores Hill
Lunar & Planetary Lab
U. of Arizona

Michael Farmer wrote:

>I just saw on the 10:00 pm news that a large fireball was seen over Tucson
>descending behind the Rincon Mountains to the east of the city.
>Anyone know of any other reports?
>Mike Farmer
>
>PS: I have just returned from a meteorite hunting trip, and have a brand new
>Lunar (actually two) to report.
>
>News out soon, but one of our very own list members has found TWO new moon
>rocks in the last 40 days while searching for meteorites with me!
>
>
>
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>
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Received on Fri 05 May 2006 02:52:07 PM PDT