Reports Report 1612f (Event 1612-2019)
| Observer | |
|---|---|
| Name | ANDREW B |
| Experience Level | 2/5 |
| Remarks | Since childhood with friends and my father we've occasionally gone out to see meteors. The most impressive I'd seen before was with my father when we saw two at the same time during a Perseid shower in the 1970s. But I've never seen one that seemed so close that I thought it might be fireworks. I can give better angular altitude and length estimate by measuring around where I was sitting and the adjacent porch parts near where I saw it. I don't have a good time estimate, maybe closer to dark than sunset, but southern sky still fairly bright, and recall a jet landing and another passing by far above heading north - but these are so frequent. Sure was a blast seeing it. The head and sparks were intensely bright and reminded me of welding sparks. Sadly, it reminded me of the Columbia disaster video reporting years ago. |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Address | Morrisville, NC |
| Latitude | 35° 48' 50.92'' N (35.814144°) |
| Longitude | 78° 50' 36.44'' W (-78.843455°) |
| Elevation | 101.92585m |
| Time and Duration | |
|---|---|
| Local Date & Time | 2019-04-06 20:00 EDT |
| UT Date & Time | 2019-04-07 00:00 UT |
| Duration | ≈1.5s |
| Direction | |
|---|---|
| Moving direction | From up left to down right |
| Descent Angle | 95° |
| Moving | |
|---|---|
| Facing azimuth | 163.12° |
| First azimuth | 165.78° |
| First elevation | 29° |
| Last azimuth | 185° |
| Last elevation | 35° |
| Brightness and color | |
|---|---|
| Stellar Magnitude | -22 |
| Color | Yellow |
| Concurrent Sound | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Delayed Sound | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Persistent train | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Yes |
| Duration | 4s |
| Length | 50° |
| Remarks | smoke trail, white, like a contrail, only persisted perhaps 30 secs, spark-like pieces fell behind bright head, quickly losing bright glow |
| Terminal flash | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Fragmentation | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Yes |
| Remarks | head was extremely bright, like a tiny speck of sunlight, with small similarly tinier bright specks falling off behind, and the tinier specks went out almost instantly. The head lasted a couple seconds, and the trail a bit longer. Many planes land at RDU nearby, and others fly almost exclusively north high above. This was extremely bright but small, and far faster in appearance than even the planes landing/leaving RDU, and across these airplane routes. I thought it might be a bottle rocket from a neighbor nearby, but it went roughly horizontal, no sound, no upward path, no explosion/sound. My wife was with me but looking in another direction. I don't know the exact time, but after sunset and before dark. |