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Remarks |
I made a note and took a photo of the sky from the place I observed the fireball immediately after observing it, so that the location, time, and start/finish location of the fireball were preserved quite carefully. Also I made a sketch of the path of the fireball immediately on the photograph of the sky, so that the path of the fireball was memorialized as well as I could at that moment. The fireball started a little to the left of and below Capella and ended a little to the right of and below Venus. Capella, Venus, and the horizon are all very clearly visible in the photo, on which I made the sketch of the fireball's path, so in making this report I used that sketch and those visible landmarks, along with a planetarium program, to get rather exact direction and elevation of the start and end point of the fireball.
Notes I took at the time:
"Fireball went going straight downwards about halfway between the star and the trees (near visible in the picture). It started pretty high probably 70 or 75°, about 2/3 of the way between the the planet (Venus) and the Moon. It went straight down and then turned into little sparkly things about the same level as the planet (Venus)." [70 or 75 degrees was a poor estimate - the moon at that time was about 62 degrees and the fireball started lower than that, as I noted. Comparing the starting point of the fireball to Capella, which was about 53 degrees azimuth at that time, gives a starting altitude around 50-55 degrees.] |
