Reports Report 4143g (Event 4143-2016)
| Observer | |
|---|---|
| Name | Elliott M |
| Experience Level | 1/5 |
| Remarks | We observed the fireball from a sidewalk on the north side of Shelton Street, between a woods and a row of trees parallel to the sidewalk. The trees left a gap in the sky that followed the sidewalk closely, and the entire event was visible in this gap. I.e., it was very nearly parallel to the sidewalk, which itself runs due west. I have seen plenty of shooting stars, but have no astronomical training and cannot judge myself whether this actually was a fireball. I hope this description is enough for an expert to go on. The peculiar aspects that distinguished it from ordinary shooting stars were the brightness (I think I've only seen a couple of shooting stars that were that bright) and the way it turned into a translucent-looking disk halfway through the visible trajectory. I couldn't tell for sure, but I thought the disk might have been faintly yellow. There are street lights in the vicinity and my eyes were not fully dark-adapted. Hope this is useful. |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Address | Carrboro, NC |
| Latitude | 35° 54' 50.59'' N (35.914053°) |
| Longitude | 79° 4' 36.47'' W (-79.076796°) |
| Elevation | 141.258m |
| Time and Duration | |
|---|---|
| Local Date & Time | 2016-10-26 21:21 EDT |
| UT Date & Time | 2016-10-27 01:21 UT |
| Duration | ≈3.5s |
| Direction | |
|---|---|
| Moving direction | From up to down |
| Descent Angle | 180° |
| Moving | |
|---|---|
| Facing azimuth | 270° |
| First azimuth | 270° |
| First elevation | 45° |
| Last azimuth | 30° |
| Last elevation | 30° |
| Brightness and color | |
|---|---|
| Stellar Magnitude | -5 |
| Color | White |
| Concurrent Sound | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Delayed Sound | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Persistent train | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Duration | - |
| Length | - |
| Remarks | - |
| Terminal flash | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Yes |
| Remarks | The light source started dim, rapidly grew brighter (Venus-like, I think), then got big (turned into a larger, somewhat dimmer disk, which I think was about a quarter the diameter of the full Moon), then continued as a bright line, or maybe more than one, that petered out. So if that was an explosion, it wasn't "terminal"; it happened in the middle of the event. Unless maybe the continuation afterwards was fragmentation? |
| Fragmentation | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Unknown |
| Remarks | - |