[meteorite-list] Meteor over northeastern Colorado on Wednesday night?

From: Bob Loeffler <bobl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 23:29:47 -0600
Message-ID: <E4827ED87AA54D918744809206155357_at_dell>

HI all,

A friend of mine was driving in Colorado on Wednesday night and saw what he
thinks was a meteor.? He is a rockhound, not a meteorite collector (nor a
meteor watcher), so his description below is not as educated as some others
may be.? Did anyone see it?? Here is what he said:

?Since you have been down 285 a lot also, just pretend you are between
Fairplay and Jefferson...but closer to Jefferson going back to Denver... I
suppose roughly heading due NE.? and then visualize Kenosha pass in the far
distance...and you see this bright SLOW light...very big and then it dives
behind the mountains there...looking through the area of the windshield in
front of the passenger side of the front seat...so I and my friend saw it
but she had a better view as I was driving, etc.? It was about 10 to 10:30
p.m. Wednesday night and quite dark.? I saw it coming from?a lower angle in
the sky like about 30 degrees from the horizontal... and it was a long arc
path... We saw it 3-5 seconds or so, long enough to stare at it a
bit.....most shooting stars are so quick you will miss them if you are not
staring in the right part of the sky...but this was much lower in the
sky....not parallel with the ground but like an arc.?

Does this sound like a meteor to you?? Or maybe an airplane?? The slowness
could be because it was really far away, but the arcing of its path???? He
told me in a different email that it was extremely bright.

I looked at the American Meteor Society?s Fireball Reports page and found
one (event 640) from a person in Longmont, CO and it sounds like she
might?ve seen it too (same direction), but she didn?t put anything into the
Notes.

Thanks,
Bob L
Received on Sat 12 May 2012 01:29:47 AM PDT