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Science Forum Index » Astro - Amateur Forum » bright slow meteor from Champaign, IL -- Feb 5 01:51 UT
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| Stuart Levy |
 Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:19 pm |
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Guest
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Saw an impressive meteor from east-central Illinois
last night (Sunday Feb 4th 19:51 CST, Monday Feb 5th 01:51 UT).
I'm hearing detail-free reports of it on local radio --
apparently people saw this in southeastern Missouri and
southern Illinois too, at least 150 miles away.
Here's what I saw. Anyone else on this list see it?
It started in the west-northwest, maybe 40-45 degrees altitude
and sweeping downward and leftward at roughly a 45-degree
angle, disappearing in the trees maybe 10-15 degrees south of west;
if you extended its path backward, it would pass through
about the middle of Cassiopeia.
At its beginning, it might have been mag -2, white;
it brightened as it fell, turning brilliant green, at least
mag -6 -- bright enough to illuminate the trees a bit.
Falling further, it turned white (maybe around 15-20 deg altitude?)
and flashed briefly even brighter; then as it finally sank into the
leafless trees, at 5-10 deg alt, it turned yellow and dimmed.
It went dark before it fell below my horizon.
It trailed orange sparks throughout its path but they didn't last long --
it didn't leave a persistent glowing train, or if it did, it wasn't bright
enough for me to see from Champaign.
It moved *amazingly* slowly for a long-track meteor. I didn't time it,
but guessed that it was visible for about 10 seconds. It moved maybe 45
degrees in that time, so it crept along at only maybe 5 degrees per second.
I wondered whether it might have been space junk, which is supposed to
(a) move slowly and (b) trail fragments as it falls. However...
On local radio station WILL-AM this morning was a report of a
widely-observed meteor last night in southern IL and southeastern Missouri.
A NORAD person noted that it had been a meteor, i.e. not something falling
from Earth orbit. Ah, now they're noting a report from near the Indiana
border too. I've reported it to the station, and also turned in a report
to the American Meteor Society, http://www.amsmeteors.org/
Hope others saw this too.
Stuart |
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