Here is an example of an EXCELLENT fireball report: ----------- Attached Message -------------
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 09:58:07 +0100 From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: (meteorobs) Spectacular meteor last night Yesterday (December 10, 2002 @ 22:45:15 UT) I observed a spectacular meteor while standing on my balcony. I live in Almelo, The Netherlands (52 20' N, 6 38' E). I was examining the LM [Limiting Magnitude] field in Gemini, the 5.3 star was visible and I was trying to see the star to the right of Iota. Then the meteor appeared near the head of Hydra, approximately at: RA 8h45m Dec 9, corresponding to altitude 23 degrees azimuth 105 degrees at the time. The meteor remained visible for at least 4 seconds, probably 5. It dissapeared near Ursa Major, RA 10h00m, Dec 40. This was about, 35 degrees above the horizon, azimuth 70 degrees. It was moving slow. When I first saw it, it had a short tail. The magnitude during this phase was about 0. The meteor dimmed a little (mag 1) and the tail disappeared. But now there were some flares, up to -1 at least. After the last flare there was some fragmentation. About 8 bits were visible for less than one second. They trailed the meteor, but they kept moving in the same direction. They drifted away from the meteorpath a little though. The magnitude of the fragments was about 2. The meteor continued for a while, at magnitude 0/1. When I first saw it, it seemed white/green. The tail also had this color, after the tail disappeared the meteor seemed white. The meteor did line up nicely with the Sigma Hydrid radiant, but it was only 5 degrees away when I first saw it and it was visible for some 36 degrees. I have considered fireworks, since December is fireworks month, but because of the constant speed and the near horizontal trajectory I don't think I saw fireworks. It might have been space junk though. Daniel -------------- End of Attached Message --------------- This kind of detailed information is very helpful forecoveryte-recorvery efforts. (I wonder if there were reports of a sonic-boom at that time in northern Germany?) Should you be fortunate enough to witness a fireball such as the one that Daniel observed, and you are interested in reporting what you saw, you should record as much of the above information that Daniel included in his report, as soon as possible. Or, you can do a Google search on "Fireball Report" and you will have all of the various web sites for fireball reporting and report forms. Just pick the one most appropriate for your area. Bob V. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
