[meteorite-list] Another Fall???

From: Robert Woolard <meteoritefinder_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2008 06:32:24 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <87626.12555.qm_at_web39601.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

All,

  A lot of you may already have seen this, but if not, here is a Spaceweather report on yesterday's fireball over CA.

CALIFORNIA FIREBALL: A remarkable fireball blazed across Califonia on Dec. 27th around 1:50 am PST. Its brilliant blue-green light caught the attention of onlookers (some inside their homes) all the way from San Francisco Bay in the north to the Los Angeles metropolitan area in the south--a range of more than 340 miles. According to one account, the object exploded with a thunderous boom, producing a spray of golden-colored fragments.


Dec. 27, 2008
Location: Bishop, California
Comments: Grant Bentley: "I got up to go to the bathroom this morning around 1 AM and, as luck would have it, my bathroom's west-facing window framed an intense fireball in the sky about 30 degrees in declination over the Wheeler Crest. It was as if someone had set off a rescue flare that instantly bathed the countryside around Bishop in whitish blue-green light. You could see portions of the object disintegrating as it trended left to right at an angle of about 15 degrees below horizontal. At one point, the path of the incoming meteor went behind a cirrus-stratus cloud that it backlit in snowy green light. After a brilliant show of less than three seconds (time enough to register the impressions I am describing now) it was gone without a trace. It was easily the most massive object I have ever seen burning up as it entered the Earth's atmosphere."

Location: Corona, California
Comments: Will Wilkens: "At 1:50 a.m. PST I witnessed what appeared to be a large meteor over Southern California. I am located in South Corona in western Riverside County. Sitting at my computer facing my window (blinds were open) which looks north, saw a very bright descending ball of light towards the northwest?..I stood up to look closer and watched it descend quickly behind the nearby hills. Angle of descent was 60 deg. Very bright. Saw it for about 8 seconds."

Location: San Jose, California
Comments: George Shirakawa: "I was driving in San Jose on Interstate 280 and saw the event...I have never seen anything like it!"

Location: Merced, California
Comments: Erika Knorn: "Close to 2:00 a.m. I got up from watching TV to let my dog outside. As she was walking around the grass I was looking up over our house and what I saw was the most beautiful ball of light I have ever seen!!!! As it came over my house I saw the ball of light get more of a trail behind it. Then it got brighter and looked like it strated to get bigger, then it blew outwords into a perfect big green circle that formed around the ball. I then saw the green circle flash a couple quick flashes of green/blue light then it looked like the fireball blew gold and white flashes behind it and disappeared! I was so surprised from what I had just seen that I stood outside for a couple of minutes to see if maybe what I had just saw was some kind of missile or flare. Then I heard about 50secs or so later a loud distant boom and a slight rumble like a thunder clap! We had no rain or thunder in our area lastnight so I knew it wasn't thunder! It also
 sounded like a sonic boom. I have been in Merced for along time and when Castel Air Force Base was active, I did get to hear a few sonic booms and that is what it also sounded like. I called my brother-law Ken in Modesto California north of Merced this morning and I told him what I had witnessed. He then told me he heard something while he was on his computer around the same time I was outside seeing this all happen!!! I have seen meteor showers before, but I have NEVER seen something like this! I'm still in complete wow on the how big it was."

 





      
Received on Sun 28 Dec 2008 09:32:24 AM PST