Re: fireball or reentry ... ?

Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Tue, 17 Nov 1998 04:01:00 +0000

In message <3650E1B1.6520@prodigy.net>, Mark Hanning-Lee
<markhl@prodigy.net> writes
>Hi, I went out to look at an Iridium flare (which hapened on time). Just
>before that, at 18:31 local time 11/16 = 11/17 02:21 UT, I saw a nice
>fireball. It moved from approximately E elevation 25 degrees to
>approximately N elevation 45 degrees in ~1-2 s. Silent, blue-white,
>shedding a lot of reddish particles with 1 larger reddish particle
>~mid-track. Magnitude perhaps -6 as referenced to the -4 flare a few
>minutes later.
>
>Not expecting any reentries are we?

I'm always expecting a re-entry but this wasn't one - your report
implies it was far too fast and probably along a strongly retrograde
trajectory.

Nor was it a Leonid meteor - it occurred before the radiant rose for
your location.

Speaking of which (and at the risk of drifting off topic). The Leonids
are putting on a fine show as I type this. During a 47 minutes watch
from 02:50 UTC, I have counted 77 Leonids, most of them of negative
magnitude and leaving glowing trains. Earlier I saw one of (about)
magnitude -10 which left a train visible for four minutes as upper
atmospheric winds distorted it into a V-shape. US-SeeSaters should have
an even better display over the next few hours as the shower builds
towards maximum about 19h-20h UTC.

Alan
-- 
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