Reports Report 747b (Event 747-2012)
| Observer | |
|---|---|
| Name | Chris S |
| Experience Level | 4/5 |
| Remarks | The meteor\'s path started low in the south-west, rose to about 50° highest altitude at SSE and then went down again when it had moved to a straight east terminal position. Approximately fifteen minutes before I saw the meteor I saw what appeared to be a satellite going from south to north, about 2nd magnitude, but going significantly too fast to be a normal satellite. At 10:33 I saw (with several other witnesses, including two teachers from the school event I was doing an astronomy presentation for) a \'satellite\' moving from exactly east to west, this one also 1st-2nd magnitude. I know that most people don\'t launch satellites into orbits in that direction for economical reasons (another 1200 mph more thrust to get them to orbit that way = more money), so I don\'t know what it was. I doubt these sightings were connected, but they were interesting anyway and I thought I\'d mention them here. |
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Address | Mountain Home, ID |
| Latitude | 42° 54' 34.85'' N (42.909681°) |
| Longitude | 115° 41' 40.24'' W (-115.694512°) |
| Elevation | - |
| Time and Duration | |
|---|---|
| Local Date & Time | 2012-05-29 22:44 MDT |
| UT Date & Time | 2012-05-30 04:44 UT |
| Duration | ≈7.5s |
| Direction | |
|---|---|
| Moving direction | From down left to up right |
| Descent Angle | 45° |
| Moving | |
|---|---|
| Facing azimuth | 227.41956° |
| First azimuth | 227.72636° |
| First elevation | 15° |
| Last azimuth | 87.18433° |
| Last elevation | 10° |
| Brightness and color | |
|---|---|
| Stellar Magnitude | -9 |
| Color | orangish yellow to reddis |
| Concurrent Sound | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Delayed Sound | |
|---|---|
| Observation | No |
| Remarks | - |
| Persistent train | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Yes |
| Duration | 1s |
| Length | 2° |
| Remarks | This was more of a trail of sparkly debris than a persistent train. The train was generally the same color as the meteor but fainter and changed colors as the meteor did. At its highest position (to the SSE, about 50° up) the train was longest and transitioned suddenly from almost crimson red to white and remained white as the meteor changed in color to bluish-white to greenish-blue, when both abruptly disappeared with a slight terminal flash a short distance above the eastern horizon, near the northernmost stars of the just rising constellation of Ophiuchus. |
| Terminal flash | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Yes |
| Remarks | Not sure if the sudden and dramatic changes in color had anything to do with fragmentation. However, just as it disappeared to the east, the meteor flashed with a brilliance and color that reminded me of a distant exploding electrical transformer, and I think I saw what resembled small greenish and bluish spark-like fragments dispersing and almost immediately vanishing around the terminal spot over less than half a second. |
| Fragmentation | |
|---|---|
| Observation | Unknown |
| Remarks | - |