I have been fortunate to have had an encounter with a meteor very up close and personal. I first saw it in my telescope, then it became visible to the eye. I was so excited, until I realized how big it was and the fact that it was coming down on top of me. I couldn't move; my knees were knocking very badly. I kept thinking about the obituary and how the papers would play up the event.
At the last moment, what was as big as a house had shrunk to an outbuilding size and it curved and passed over the field to my right. It was so bright that it lit up the area; the head was the whitest white I had ever seen and the coma evolved from yellow to orange to red. The sound was like bacon frying. But the irony about it was that it was moving slow--at least to me.
It was so hot that the head worked as brakes near the ground. The meteor did not hit, but began to travel parallel to the ground towards the fields out of sight behind my home. At that point, I finally moved, but I sort of went into shock.
The next day, I was out combing the fields for the hit with friends, but we never found it. It may have burned up completely or there may be a nice sized chunk still out there. I did get a chunk of the meteorite that fell in a farmer's pasture, in nearby Milledgeville that same night. It is a typical Chondrite meteorite. The Air Force and another government agency visited his farm, but they did not take the meteorite, which, btw, was as big as a small boulder.
The date was September 12, 1980.
LinOn Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 12:04 AM, Kim Noyes <kimnoyes@gmail.com> wrote:
Rick, of course SKYLAB was supposed to have burned up completely before any of it reached the Earth, too. ;-p
Jason, that zig-zagging you describe might be atmospheric distortion of what it was really doing.... when you see those Vandenburg launch contrails spiral up they are not really spiraling but the vehicle is moving in a straight but curved trajectory.... again, atmospheric distortion.
KimmerOn Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 9:57 PM, Rick Bates <HappyMoosePhoto@gmail.com> wrote:
There are a couple satellites about to hit the atmosphere (decayed orbit) but should burn up before hitting the earth.RickTiny iPhone keypad + my fat thumbs = typos. Sorry.--
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