[meteorite-list] brilliant Utah fireball!!!

From: Linton Rohr <lintonius_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2014 16:28:56 -0600
Message-ID: <5EF71590FEED4EBAB1AA70C13537C114_at_D190TH71>

Greetings all,
I was treated to my best fireball ever last night, by a wide margin! I had
got up at 4:00 and was lying there, about to fall asleep, when Karen started
shouting to look. When I opened my eyes, the entire sky out our large,
N/NE-facing windows was dazzling white! A moment later, a large, white,
slow-moving fireball came into view at the top of our view. I estimated it
to be at least half the diameter of the moon and it had a long trail behind
it, which Karen says had a green tint. Then it morphed into an orange
fireball, with undulating flames trailing out perhaps 3 degrees behind it! A
few small chunks fell from it, but for the most part, it remained intact
until it cooled into dark flight. The whole show lasted about 5 or 6
seconds, which will remain burned into my memory forever.
I usually compare bright meteors to Venus, but this one was more like the
sun! It was traveling from N/NW to E/SE and descending at about a 5 to 10
degree angle. It appeared to be right over Capitol Reef N.P., but was
probably much further away... possibly over toward Moab or even western
Colorado.
I'll be filing an AMS report on it and I'm hoping a lot of other people saw
it.
Linton
Received on Thu 02 Oct 2014 06:28:56 PM PDT