Hi Gary,
Indeed it does sound like you experienced electrophonic sounds. Many years
ago Bernd helped me put a meteor sound page together using his famous
database of info. It's amazing as when you read through them you start to
see a definite pattern in the descriptions. The witness descriptions of many
falls are here:
http://www.meteorites.com.au/odds&ends/sounds.html
Cheers,
Jeff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary Fujihara" <fuj...@mac.com>
To: "Shelly" <shelly1...@msn.com>
Cc: <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 21, 2010 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Your top meteor sightings!
Aloha meteor watchers,
My most memorable meteor sighting was on November 21, 2001, during the
peak of the Leonids shower on the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii Island in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii was in the perfect location to
view the peak (of the 2001 shower and 33 year cycle), and I happened to be
working at the 8.3m Subaru Telescope, operating the SuprimeCam wide field
imager on the prime focus of the telescope. Night lunch is at 11:30 pm,
and I took my break outside to get a glimpse of the meteor shower. I
faced the eastern sky and observed as Leo slowly rose above the horizon.
Several meteors were already appearing, with occasional earth-grazers
traversing almost 180 degrees across the sky.
One I recall would appear as a bright greenish-blue streak that pierced
the dark night sky, fading out before reappearing again this time as an
orange-yellow meteor. This was probably an earth-grazer that skipped
across and through the earth's atmosphere not unlike a stone across a pond
or lake's surface. But that was not the most memorable meteor of the
night.
At 12:09 am, there was a super bright bolide that appeared and got
brighter and brighter in intensity, seemingly without moving at all in the
sky. It was apparently traveling toward me, and its light cast shadows
from the support building and railings that danced all around me. At its
brightest, I would estimate that it was -13 v magnitude, or about equal to
that of the full moon. While all this occurred I thought I could hear a
buzzing sound associated with the meteor. Its intensity seemed to match
that of the bolide I was watching. After what seemed like an eternity
(but was probably only a few seconds at the most), the meteor spiked in
brightness before extinguishing to darkness. Wow! I had to pinch myself
to be sure I had not imagined that experience.
In retrospect I know that any sound emanating from a meteor could not
coincide with the vision of it, because of the difference in speed of
light and sound waves. But I know what I heard and and experienced and
later learned of electrophonic sound phenomenon, which could explain what
I had experienced. A most unforgettable meteor sighting!
Gary Fujihara
Big Kahuna Meteorites (IMCA#1693)
105 Puhili Place, Hilo, Hawai'i 96720
http://bigkahuna-meteorites.com/
http://shop.ebay.com/fujmon/m.html
(808) 640-9161
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