Russell Eberst wrote: > I note that CNN are reporting "Bright flashes and sharp booms were reported in the skies > over the Puget Sound area early Thursday (3 June), and experts said a meteor or falling > "space junk" may have been the source. Based upon descriptions in the media and elsewhere, this was a meteor. No satellites were due to decay. The event was very dramatic. Too bad it occurred when most folks were in bed. I have appended a couple of reports. Ted Molczan http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/06/03/tech/main620845.shtml "A man from northwest Montana described it "like a transformer blowin' up." "I heard the rumble, and then I felt the whole house shake, and I thought, 'Oh, an earthquake, huh?'" said a caller from the Seattle area. A trucker in British Columbia, 550 miles north of Seattle, said he saw "a flash of light. It just lit up the mountain ridges, and the first thing I thought of was al Qaeda." "I saw this flash of light, and then I heard a pop-pop-pop and then the house kind of creaked - it was bizarre. It was kind of scary," said another Seattle-area woman calling the radio station." Here is USENET report on sci.astro.amateur: From: "Martin R. Howell" <martinhowell@ilikestarsearthlink.net> Subject: Meteor !!! Date: June 3, 2004 10:06 AM Time: Approximately 2:42 a.m. PDST Location: 3 miles south of downtown Seattle, Washington Sky: Clear I was outside at work very early this morning when suddenly the terrain began to glow, getting increasingly brighter over the course of perhaps 2 to 3 seconds. Everything was soon bathed in a turquoise blue luminance. I looked up to a sky which had become brighter than late dawn. It too possessed a beautiful turquoise hue. Almost immediately after gazing skyward, I spotted a meteor's trail approximately 30 degrees off the northeast horizon which etched a broken path roughly parallel to, yet displaced about 20 degrees to the east of, the meridian. It appeared as a sharp and thin line which was "smoking" on both sides for a total width of somewhat less than 1/2 of a degree. The whole occurrence lasted somewhere around 10 seconds and was one of the most incredible astro events I have ever witnessed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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