![]() MeteoriteMen’s Geoffrey Notkin once told us a good rule of thumb: if you hear an accompanying sonic boom a few minutes after seeing a meteor, it’s close. Green for nickel (Not kryptonite!) is typically seen. Painting by Frederic Church.īright meteors may exhibit colors, hinting at chemical competition. Such an event was witnessed over the northeastern United States on July 20 th, 1860. Sometimes, such a fireball can begin shedding fiery debris, in a dramatic display known as a meteor train or meteor precession. If they reach a brilliance of magnitude -14 - about one whole magnitude brighter than a Full Moon - said meteor is known as a bolide. Remember, it’s the front of the windshield that picks up the bugs rolling down the highway.Įvening meteors, however, can have a dramatic slow, stately motion across the sky, as they struggle to catch up with the Earth. Meteors generally have a very swift motion, and occur with a greater frequency as the observer rotates forward into the path of Earth’s motion around the Sun past local midnight. Such ‘meteor-wrongs’ that are commonly circulated as authentic are the reentry of Mir, the 1992 Peekskill meteor, Chelyabinsk, the reentry of Hayabusa, and screen grabs from the flick Armageddon… has anyone ever been fooled by this one? We’ve seen ’em all, though you’re welcome to try and stump us. Likewise, the fakes are never far behind. Just such a fireball was witnessed over the United Kingdom on Friday evening, September 21st, 2012. ![]() If the event occurs on a Friday or Saturday night with lots of folks out on the town on a clear evening, we might see multiple captures come streaming-in of the event. How fast can YOU have your smartphone camera out and running? We only recently learned that a quick double tap of the home button will bring the camera on our Android to bear, no unlock needed. Most good meteor footage comes from video recorders that are already up and running when the event occurs, to include security and dashboard cameras, and mobile phones already recording another event, such as a concert or game. How do we know this, and what do we look for? Is that flash a meteor, bolide, reentry or something stranger still? Thursday’s (Wednesday evening Pacific Time) event was less spectacular, but still interesting: the nighttime reentry of the Long March CZ-7 rocket body NORAD ID 2016-042E as it broke up over the U.S. Chelyabinsk immediately grabbed our attention when we saw the first videos recording the shock wave of sound generated by the blast. Now, I always like to look these over myself before reading just what other experts might think. A bit of digging around ye ole web revealed video and a few authentic stills from the event. Memories of Chelyabinsk came immediately to mind. ![]() West Coast!’ ‘Major event lights up the California skies!’ and variations thereof. It wasn’t long before the messages started pouring in. Last week, we poured our morning coffee, powered up our laptop and phone, and prepared to engage the day.
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