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Remarks |
It was a very bright, bead chain like in appearance; Fell in a vertical streak right to the horizon, the head of it showing brief flares and trailing fragments that all extinguished rapidly, but left a trail appx 3/4 the way from first detection (I entered something like 70°, had been craning my head and looking up when I first saw it, otherwise, my car's view would have been more restricted in elevation). I immediately rolled the window down and took up a position just about fifty yards further south, southwest, for a better view out the driver's seat, but couldn't distinguish any lingering trail afterward. As for time, I feel it was over 1 second but not much longer-I'd love to know what other reports and observations by camera bear out, vs my impressions. Beside me, a fellow pilot and NWS weather spotter who normally sees everything, and often catches it first, completely missed it. We had just finished doing some photo editing of the Delta IV launch and were returning from a late meal as I saw it; the map position marked should show tne car leaving Miller's and has me looking over Bob Evan's restaurant, facing south. No alcohol, but a lot of iced tea between us. Ordinarily, we'd have enough time to call out something like that, especially since a good visual scan and target callouts are vital in the cockpit, but this time, I was the only one to see it; it was quick and I was really caught by surprise since we were in a very brightly lit parking area. On a clearer night, I sometimes just shoot the moon for fun with a DSLR from there or nearby in our neighborhood, but it was not a perfectly crystal clear night. Very heavy rain the day before left us with a light fog in low spots and a minute later, we saw the setting moon a darker yellow on the treeline, further down the street. I'm not sure if my impression of the color of the meteor was due to atmospheric pollutants, ie, a low inversion trapping smoke, etc, but I didn't note any discernible color change as it fell. The fragments were training, and many were nearly as bright as the head before they extinguished. It wasn't bright enough to leave a lasting retinal image like when a flash goes off, but it sure was a beautiful and neat way to finish a day of sky photos and shooting the launch from Canaveral. My impression as I lost it to the local horizon was that it still had a little more to go, that it wa still flaring and breaking up, but maybe a little diminished. Given slant range effects and the dense lower atmosphere through which I was viewing it as it got lower, it must have been quite a sight for anyone doing astrophotography south of Orlando in some of Florida's darker sky areas. |
