Reports Report 1472g (Event 1472-2015)
| Observer | |
|---|---|
| Name | Chris H |
| Experience Level | 4/5 |
| Remarks | I spend a lot of time sitting outside at night, and we're out away from the city a bit so I've seen *lots* of meteors hit the atmosphere - I probably see at least one or two every week, sometimes several in a week or even in a night - but I've never seen anything even close to what I saw last night. Everything I've ever seen before comes in and gradually gets brighter and then sort of burns out, but always moving across the sky. This had a very minor tracer (or "tail") - very quick and not very bright, but then at single spot in the sky there was a huge flash, and then the two streams of light coming out from the center that I described before - the flash and streams of light were not moving. I know what a satellite looks like going across the sky. I know what the space station looks like. I know what an iridium flash is. And I've seen some very large meteors, but none of those things were anywhere near what this looked like. I've never seen anything like this except in the movies. It was some *very* freaky stuff! One last thing - I came inside and recorded the date, time and area of the sky where I saw this event, along with a simplistic little picture that I drew. If you're having a hard time understanding my description, I would be happy to send you a scan of that drawing. If anyone knows what this is, or also saw it, I would be extremely interested in hearing that info. Please just ask if there is any additional info I can provide. Thanks, Chris |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Address | Mesa, AZ |
| Latitude | 33° 29' 2.49'' N (33.484026°) |
| Longitude | 111° 39' 24.82'' W (-111.656895°) |
| Elevation | 558.975769m |
| Time and Duration | |
|---|---|
| Local Date & Time | 2015-07-06 23:03 MST |
| UT Date & Time | 2015-07-07 06:03 UT |
| Duration | ≈3.5s |
| Direction | |
|---|---|
| Moving direction | From up left to down right |
| Descent Angle | 120° |
| Moving | |
|---|---|
| Facing azimuth | 57.97° |
| First azimuth | 43.53° |
| First elevation | 56° |
| Last azimuth | 61.79° |
| Last elevation | 44° |
| Brightness and color | |
|---|---|
| Stellar Magnitude | -16 |
| Color | White |
| Concurrent Sound | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Delayed Sound | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Persistent train | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Unknown |
| Duration | - |
| Length | - |
| Remarks | - |
| Terminal flash | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Yes |
| Remarks | It was like a flash bulb going off and then, from the point of the flash bulb, two lines of light shooting out in opposite directions, tilted about 20-30 degrees relative to the horizon, and then slowing disappearing. There might have been some tracer light right before the "flash bulb" but I wasn't looking exactly in that direction when it happened. |
| Fragmentation | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Yes |
| Remarks | I don't know if it was fragmentation - As I said, after the flash, there were two streams of light heading out from the center in opposite directions - they were probably several degrees long in each direction - if I hold my fingers about 6 1/2" inches apart, and then hold at arm's length, that would be a good approximation of how "wide" the two streams of light were, so I would guess that's somewhere around 15-25 degrees??? It was like looking at a disk or plate from the side, and the plate was tilted about 15-20 degrees to the horizon - up on my right and down on my left. The two streams of light shot out and then slowly disappeared over a second or two. |