At 10:32 p.m. Mountain time last night (Monday) I was sitting on my couch watching the tube when I suddenly saw a bright object falling in the distance. From where I was the view was broken up by trees, so I couldn’t see if it was a bright thin line or wide and flaming or what. Being inside a lit room and looking out into the dark made it hard to tell what I was seeing as well. I couldn’t tell if it stopped being bright while still in the sky or went below the horizon. It sure looked like it flamed out as I watched. The whole event took less than a second. I went outside but saw and heard nothing going on.
Did anyone else in the Boulder area see anything at that time? From where I am it was to the north by northeast, and was perhaps 20-30 degrees above the horizon, heading straight down.
I’m just curious to know if this was an actual meteor (really, a bolide given how bright it was) or some local kids shooting off fireworks!
November 6th, 2007 at 10:12 am
My guess would be nearby folks of British origin, given that Monday night was November the 5th (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night)
Certainly round here a bolide could have gone right overhead and not been noticed in the constant pops, flashes, bangs, whizzes and crashes; from dusk to fairly late on the barrage was pretty constant…
November 6th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Could you give more precise details?
I’m… just curious.
It’s not like I’m shooting meteors at you and trying to reduce my aiming circle or anything. Honest.
November 6th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Bolides are some of the coolest things ever to witness. When the one flared over Indianapolis several years back I was lucky enough to be outside and looking in the right direction.
November 6th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Are you sure it’s not a streetlight?
(I’m kidding… Put the knife down, Phil. Just set it down slowly, okay?)
November 6th, 2007 at 10:24 am
It could have been a bong exploding… it is Boulder after all.
November 6th, 2007 at 10:29 am
It was swamp gas, reflecting off of Venus as a weather balloon floated over.
November 6th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Do you know anyone named “Mindy”?
J/P=?
November 6th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Yes, why do you ask?
November 6th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Phil, it was the aliens delivering your lamp that you wanted, part II.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Nanoo, nanoo.
Totally not Klingon orbital bombardment. At all.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Didn’t see yours but saw a similar event the following night from Denver. I was standing in a parking lot at about 9:30 to 10:00 PM when a caught sight of a meteor low in the sky to the southwest of my location. It started as a streak and then flared noticeably before flaming out. If this is the description of a bolide, then that’s what I saw. It looked like it could’ve come down in the foothills to the southwest of Denver, but distances are deceiving at night plus my view was partially blocked by trees.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Last Tuesday morning at about 7:00 am, there was a fireball that traversed the skies to the south of Calgary. I saw it break up, and it seemed as if it were close to the southern limits of the city. Radio reports idicated that it had been seen in Lethbridge, a city about 100 miles south of Calgary and the fireball there was still to the south. Obviously it was over Montana, and obviously a lot higher up and a lot faster than it seemed from our vantage point.
Amazing.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Mmm… Mindy. *sigh*
As for the meteorite… “We must meet this threat with our courage, our valor, indeed with our very lives to ensure that human civilization, not insect, dominates this galaxy *now and always*!”
November 6th, 2007 at 11:49 am
I’m doing my part. Are you?
*sigh* Even if the movie is an oversimplified polemic travesty, it is at least good B-grade fluff.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:51 am
I’m from Buenos Aires. I say, kill them all!
November 6th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I saw something very similar to what you wrote about in Mission Viejo, CA last Thursday night. I’d be interested to know what it actually was. It seemed odd to me that it was falling straight down.
November 6th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Somewhat related to this post, is anyone aware of any sort of survey going on for bolides? I know that, when they happen near a city the only footage often comes from ATM cameras and the like. With a semi-organized group of amateurs, there could be a network of fisheye cameras pointed straight up that would provide some more information on the phenomenon.
November 6th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
I got to see several good bolides while living in the Denver area. One was bright enough to see through cloud cover while driving on Wadsworth in Arvada. Neat.
With all these bolides over Colorado, it makes me wonder. I thought it was Kansas that the gods hated.
November 6th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Phil (and anyone else reading), make sure you report all possible bolides with either the American Meteor Society (AMS) or the International Meteor Organization (IMO). They communicate with each other so you only have to file a report with one of them. Here’s the link to the AMS reporting site:
http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs.html
Click on the link to submit a report and then fill out whatever information you can. Even if you think it’s not enough to glean anything useful submit it anyway. The more reports we have the more accurate the path can be determined.
November 6th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Just so we’re clear: You’re saying you saw a Flying Object that has since gone Unidentified?
November 6th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
I, for one, welcome and respect our new extraterrestrial overlords.
November 6th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
> I, for one, welcome and respect our new extraterrestrial overlords.
Only if they’re robots or in some way cybernetic. Metal is better than meat!
November 6th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Arlo,
He wasn’t at Shirley MacLaine’s house.
November 6th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
[...] fireball November 6th. 2007, 9:46am unknown wrote an interesting post today [...]
November 6th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
The Cylons are preparing for the orbital bombardment.
November 6th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Quiet Desperation says: “Could you give more precise details?
I’m… just curious. It’s not like I’m shooting meteors at you and trying to reduce my aiming circle or anything. Honest.”
So just what is your CEP at Boulder range?
- Jack
November 6th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Michael Robinson says: “The Cylons are preparing for the orbital bombardment.”
Naah, it’s the Zagons. I guess we’ll have to move the whole civilization underground now.
- Jack
November 6th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Thanks, tenacious, for the website you mention in your reply. I have seen a couple of very bright Bolides in recent years but I didn’t know who to report them to.
November 6th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Dr. Plait;
We appreciate your enthusiasm in reporting this event, however it will be necessary for you to take down this article immediately or you will suffer a very swift yet painful death.
We have investigated this report thoroughly and it appears that you were making a simple yet understandable mistake. The object in question was a weather balloon. We have established this beyond doubt and consider the incident closed. Please consider it also closed as we do know were you and your family live.
Do not mention this to anyone ever and if they bring it up act as if you do not know what they are talking about. If they persist you may say “Oh yes that. It was a weather balloon. I did not remember that because it was of such little consequence to anyone’s life or to national security that it hardly seemed like it was worth taking note of.”
- THE GOVERNMENT
November 7th, 2007 at 3:21 am
[i] I’m doing my part. Are you?
I’m from Buenos Aires. I say, kill them all![/i]
My favorite is, “C’mon you apes! Do you want to live forever?” I use that a lot day to day.
November 7th, 2007 at 7:14 am
> “So just what is your CEP at Boulder range?”
From a 1000 miles away, about 1000 miles.
November 7th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Actually, having grown up in Boulder (I even took piano lessons across from the “Mork and Mindy House”), I know that meteor activity is really quite common.
Now, what was REALLY COOL in Denver / Boulder happened yesterday morning at 5:47AM…
We had an absolutely beautiful view of the International Space Station, with the Space Shuttle in trail behind it, orbiting from roughly southwest to northeast. Because the sun was just coming up when they passed, both were very (unusually) brightly light and easily seen with the naked eye. Friends tell me you could easily make out details with any decent telescope.
It was well worth the 5 minutes standing barefoot on the driveway in 20 degree weather with the kids to see them pass directly over our house.
I’m actually kinda surprised that BA didn’t mention this one.
November 7th, 2007 at 11:42 am
I say it was one of two things:
1) The last vestiges of common sense fleeing boulder in flaming tatters
or
2) Mycroft checking his aim (Cheyenne Mtn IS just a few miles to the south)
November 21st, 2007 at 9:12 am
I saw a shooting star near Boulder on Monday evening, November 19, 2007 at 5:58pm. I was riding my bike home in the dark from Boulder to my house in Gunbarrel. As I rode along Spine Road right next to the Diagonal, I noticed a white light passing overhead that I thought was an airplane. “That’s kind of low, I thought.” I looked up at the light, and saw that it was flaring and releasing little sparks behind it. The light was almost directly overhead (just a bit forward of my position), and traveling toward the northwest.
The light was definitely a flaring streak of flame, not a single point like you sometimes see in meteors. After a few more moments of me watching it, the light flared yellow and then went out completely. I remember thinking that it might have landed in the foothills near the Greenbriar restaurant and Fourmile Canyon. I stopped riding and checked my watch to get the exact time. I didn’t hear any sound except for rush-hour traffic on the Diagonal.
It sounds like another bolide.
December 14th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Sounds like these bolides must happen a lot in Colorado.. On Nov 28 at about 9:45pm, I was driving south on I-225 near where it bends to the west, and witnessed a streaking fireball – it went from left to right in front of me, on an almost-horizontal path that took it directly over the highway. I could see the flames flying behind the thing, like the coma of a comet, as it streaked across the sky. (Been looking for news about this ever since – *someone* else *has* to have seen this thing!!)