Comments on: Bright fireball lights up northern California

By: Bright fireball lights up northern California | Bad Astronomy ... | Astronomy and the craziness of this universe | Scoop.it

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 03:51:04 +0000

[...] Astronomy | American Meteor Society | On Wednesday evening, October 17, around 19:45 local time, a bright meteor blazed across the sky of northern California. Some reports say it was as bright as th. Article about a meteor that recently was seen in the sky in California [...]

By: MartinHajovsky (@MartinHajovsky)

MartinHajovsky (@MartinHajovsky) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:49:26 +0000

My wife and I saw it from Garberville in Northern California, disappearing over the hills to the southeast. We were there on vacation and had just gotten to our hotel room after 14 hours of travel from Houston. We both just happened to look over in that direction through our window at the exact right time and saw it flare and fragment. What incredible luck!! I still can’t believe it.

By: Jon Hanford

Jon Hanford — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:37:54 +0000

Great news! The CAMS website is now reporting that a 63 gram meteorite from the event has been recovered in Novato California (see my link above for pictures, details).

By: Jon Hanford

Jon Hanford — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 15:06:40 +0000

According to a preliminary trajectory calculated by NASA researcher Peter Jenniskens there is a good chance that that the fireball dropped fragments just north of San Francisco: http://cams.seti.org/

The meteoroid entered the atmosphere with a speed of 14 km/s at an altitude of 85 km and was last seen at an altitude of 39 km. Jenniskens notes on Spaceweather.com that “39 km is not the end point, but the final bit captured by the San Mateo video camera.” Further study of video records should result in a more accurate info on the specifics of this event.

By: MdB

MdB — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:06:12 +0000

Something hit southwest UK at 16:15 BST.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20000877

Maybe a different lump off the same block?

By: CJ Nerd

CJ Nerd — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:29:47 +0000

There may have been another one in the SW of the UK yesterday:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20000877

By: John

John — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:23:54 +0000

I heard it! I live right down the street from Wes Jones, in San Mateo. My wife said it sounded like a gun shot, I said, no, it’s a sonic boom, although it was hard to imagine any plane making one here, I figured it must be something else and I’d never find out, like usually happens when I hear a mysterious noise. Too bad I wasn’t outside to see it.

By: Al Feersum

Al Feersum — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 09:25:07 +0000

Something happened last night over the UK:

Source: BBC News

‘Meteor’ prompts Devon and Cornwall tremor reports
People across Devon and Cornwall have inundated police with calls saying they had experienced an earth tremor.

Officers from the region said they received reports of people hearing loud bangs and buildings shaking from about 16:15 BST on Thursday.

Police staff in Devon’s Newton Abbot station also said floors shook.

The British Geological Survey said it had no evidence of a tremor, but added it could have been a sonic boom from a meteor falling to earth.

‘Spectacular’ noise source

Police said the calls were “fairly widespread”, coming in from Harrowbarrow in south east Cornwall, as well as the South Hams and Teignbridge areas of south Devon, the Tamar Valley and Dartmoor.

Insp Gareth Twigg, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “The first calls reported sounds like an explosion. Further calls also described noise and then objects shaking.

Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20000877

By: Derek

Derek — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 08:56:34 +0000

I saw this when I was at work. The sky lit up really bright for a quick moment then was gone. I thought it was a rocket . I am in Eureka, California

By: KmanInSanFran

KmanInSanFran — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 06:51:10 +0000

…a friend of mine in St. Louis called me to discuss the Cardinals/Giants series (actually, he just wanted to gloat)…I stepped into my backyard since the telephone reception wasn’t clear…from the direction of South Bay/SFO I saw a brilliant white light streaking across the sky heading northwest-ish; and it had a tail that looked like a 4th of July sparkler, while the center of the event turned white-green-and-purple…it took a few seconds for it to register in my mind that what I was witnessing was a meteor (and not your typical streak-across-the-sky-and-gone-before-you-could-make-a-wish-kinda-thing)…apparently, per my friend, all I said, repetitively, without recollection, was, “what the **** is that?!….what the **** is that?!….damn that is so ******* amazing!!!.” I must have said it loud enough because many of my neighbors started to look outside their windows (it’s been wonderfully warm here – so, all the windows are up)….I probably sounded like the rainbow guy when he made that viral video – exclaiming the joy he felt while looking at a rainbow….

…from my perspective, in Noe Valley, it seemed like the meteor would have met its end over Marin, the Bay, or the Pacific Ocean…from other reports that I have read, it seems that it made it much further north….what I am really interested in knowing is: what was the altitude (for me it seemed like it was at airplane height)?; what was the length of the tail?; and how large was the object?

If anyone can answer those questions, then I would greatly appreciate the information. To sum up, I’ve seen many astronomical events, and this certainly ranks at the very top (or, dead even with the northern lights that I saw by chance in Alaska). PS – I also heard the boom/rumble and felt an “earth-shake”, but I did not connect it with the meteor until I read the reports…..uhhh, and my gloating friend in St. Louis was envvvvvviiiiiiiiiooooussssssss:)…..