What was it? Meteor?

Hello all,

I was just outside my house when I saw a VERY bright dot move from
approximately 60°down toward the horizon ... I only saw as far as the
treetops... around 20°. Rough estimates here. This traversal took
around 1.5 seconds.... quite longer than I'm used to seeing meteors.
Far too fast for an aircraft, far too bright and fast to be a
satellite. It was like seeing Venus travel down the sky like a rocket.

Any ideas?

My location is 40°42'7.69"N x 73°38'49.47"W. I was facing NNW,
approximately 8:20 PM Eastern USA
Did anyone else see this?

On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:28:13 -0400, Atreju
wrote:

I was just outside my house when I saw a VERY bright dot move from
approximately 60°down toward the horizon ... I only saw as far as the
treetops... around 20°. Rough estimates here. This traversal took
around 1.5 seconds.... quite longer than I'm used to seeing meteors.
Far too fast for an aircraft, far too bright and fast to be a
satellite. It was like seeing Venus travel down the sky like a rocket.

Any ideas?

My location is 40°42'7.69"N x 73°38'49.47"W. I was facing NNW,
approximately 8:20 PM Eastern USA

That's a good description of a bright meteor. In the early evening,
meteors are likely to be in prograde orbits. These are the slowest
meteors, and the direction you saw it in means it could have been
descending towards you, making it appear even slower.


_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

I'm with Chris on this. I think you analyzed the situation pretty well.
Sounds like a meteor.
Marty

Atreju wrote:
Hello all,

I was just outside my house when I saw a VERY bright dot move from
approximately 60°down toward the horizon ... I only saw as far as the
treetops... around 20°. Rough estimates here. This traversal took
around 1.5 seconds.... quite longer than I'm used to seeing meteors.
Far too fast for an aircraft, far too bright and fast to be a
satellite. It was like seeing Venus travel down the sky like a rocket.

Any ideas?

No idea, but I'm envious I didn't see it!

:-)

On Aug 29, 1:26 am, (Marty) wrote:
I'm with Chris on this. I think you analyzed the situation pretty well.
Sounds like ameteor.
Marty

Also, meteors THAT bright are commonly called fireballs.

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FF