Meteors over Wisconsin?

I just got an email from a reader saying a friend of his saw what may have been a spectacular meteor breakup near Columbus, Wisconsin around 7:10 p.m. local time today (Monday, January 15, an hour ago as I write this). Did any BABloggees from that area see anything?

The friend reported seeing several "vertical trails" in the sky, so it sounds like it could have been a meteor exploding and creating several trails.

If you saw something, leave your location, what you saw, and the direction you saw it in the comments!

January 15th, 2007 7:17 PM by Phil Plait in Astronomy, Cool stuff, Science | 19 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

19 Responses to “Meteors over Wisconsin?”

  1. Tensor Says:

    Probably has nothing to do with the Wisconsin meteor, but as I was outside tonight looking at Orion, I saw three meteors flash by moving westward beneath Orion in the space of about 2 minutes. This was around 10 PM EST, which would be around 9 PM in Wisconsin. As I said, probably nothing to do with the earlier one, but three in two minutes at 10 PM is sorta unusual. Could it be that there was a small bit of debris that the earth just happen to move through?

  2. Tensor Says:

    Duh, forgot my location. Sarasota, Florida.

  3. jeremy Says:

    I did see something that i thought was a meteor, but am unsure of the direction I was driveing and saw it as i was turning a corner going thru the woods and didnt see it for long but it was bright and did apper to break up as i saw it in flashes

  4. Supernova Says:

    I saw a bright exploding bolide meteor in Wisconsin once, but as that was 5+ years ago, it doesn’t help you much. :) Still, it was an awesome sight!

  5. Jest Says:

    I was 15 when I saw my first bolide, and damn near freaked out. It was surreal. I didn’t know what it was until I did some research. Until then it was a UFO.. lol.

    Hopefully there’s some greater insight from others on which direction the Wisconsin event took, and at what time of the night. It’s really not likely anything significant, but who knows, maybe something small landed somewhere.

  6. Kim Says:

    My daughter and I were driving north on Honore Ave. in Sarasota, Fl shortly after 8:00 on Monday, Jan. 15. We both were blown away by the sight of a very big, bright, green and white meteor…I think I saw a few pieces blow off-they were red. My first thought was fireworks, then I realized it had appeared toward the east and streaked down westward. It went behind some clouds, but we could see if for a few seconds lighting up the clouds. Awesome!!!

  7. rich (richmanwisco) Says:

    Dang, if I only knew it was coming, I live 15 miles from Columbus.

  8. Buzz Parsec Says:

    I once saw a meteor (possibly a perseid, a few days after the peak) while driving west across the central valley of northern California. (Yosemite to San Francisco). It descended straight down in front of me and changed color from intense green to bright yellow as it went down. I later realized the green color was due to the tinted windshield!

  9. Erin Says:

    Saw a huge meteorite last night near Madison, WI. Anyone else see it? Large white ball with green and red trails traveling from the center of the sky straight toward the horizon. Looks like it could have hit somewhere…?

  10. Cyndie Says:

    On Sunday the 4th, at 7:50 p.m. as 3 of us (hockey teammates) were traveling west on 151, in the Beaver Dam area… we saw this flaming ball softly dropping straight down to our north. It must have been pretty big as we could make out the flames around it. It went from orange, to green, then fizzled into a smaller stream. It had to have been pretty huge for us to see it so clearly from the highway. It definitely did come down in the Beaver Dam area. It was an amazing sight… but landed in a farmland area and may be hard to trace?

  11. Robert Says:

    Cyndie:
    Has anyone gone to look for it?

  12. Jim Says:

    I live near Appleton, Wisconsin. A couple of our astro club members and friends spotted a bright meteor. The feedback was that it was bright green and eventually broke up so the sighting is quite real.

  13. Robert Says:

    Jim,
    Do you know if it was sighted east or west of Appleton?
    Was it headed North?
    I assume that you are talking about the February 4, 2007 event?

    Thanks,
    Robert

  14. Robin Says:

    I saw a huge meteorite last night near Oregon, WI about 8:55 looking west. It came from the south, appeared to arc lower than the brightest star in the west. It was about 4 times bigger that that bright star, had a LONG tail, and was “spitting” flames from the ball. I could see it for a long time, it didn’t look like your average little shooting star. I have never seen one before and it was amazing.

  15. Robert Blum Says:

    Did anyone observe the bolide over West Central Wisconsin (Mondovi, Durand) area on 3 Oct at 1900 z?

  16. Mac Gallagher Says:

    I SAW ONE TODAY!
    AT AROUND 10 PM.
    Im from milwuakee WI by the way.

  17. andres Says:

    Yesterday…Saturday nov 22nd…Driving down around in Sarasota, Florida, I saw a meteor…or shooting star, or falling star, whatever you would like to call it. I have seen many before, but they are usually higher up…farther away, and disappear quicker…but This one was thicker…i could see a variety of colors in it…..and it appeared very close to the ground…i actually thought it was going to hit at one point. I believe i was looking north. Did anyone else see it? It was still daylight outside, so im guessing the time was a little after 4 pm. I was impressed at how much larger it was then normal and how close it was to the ground.

  18. Joe Says:

    I saw a meteor over hwy 151 on wednesday in the direction of sun prairie, columbus area. it was a fast moving streak of green that lasted only a second or so….

  19. Chris Says:

    Joe, I may have seen the same one. I was driving West on I90/94 and I saw a meteor explode and break up over the Dells area. It was difficult to pinpoint the exact location since it was the night sky and tough to get a good perspective.

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