American Meteor Society

Reports Report 2538h (Event 2538-2016)

Observer
Name Matthew E
Experience Level 3/5
Remarks It was very low on the horizon but still felt very close. I briefly considered trying to drive out to see if I could locate the strewn field (I think I'm using that term correctly) but decided it would likely be akin to trying to chase down the trunk of a rainbow...for all I know it may well have been hundreds of miles out over the Pacific...regardless, I feel I need to stress how close it felt (despite the lack of associated sound. Another clue, possibly, is that the terminal flash did not have a flashbulb effect on my surroundings, the way a very bright firework might...there was certainly a flash, but it want close or bright enough to light up the area I was observing from...granted, there is a lot of light pollution in my area, but the point is it certainly was nothing like the videos of the fireball over Russia a few years ago..when I say close, I mean the sort of distance a plane or helicopter in the distance appears to be)
Location
Address Gilroy, CA
Latitude 37° 1' 10.69'' N (37.019635°)
Longitude 121° 34' 26.32'' W (-121.573978°)
Elevation 62.904m
Time and Duration
Local Date & Time 2016-07-23 22:15 PDT
UT Date & Time 2016-07-24 05:15 UT
Duration ≈1.5s
Direction
Moving direction From up right to down left
Descent Angle 251°
Moving
Facing azimuth 246.69°
First azimuth 293.54°
First elevation 35°
Last azimuth 219.77°
Last elevation 26°
Brightness and color
Stellar Magnitude -21
Color Light Yellow, White
Concurrent Sound
Observation No
Remarks -
Delayed Sound
Observation No
Remarks -
Persistent train
Observation No
Duration -
Length -
Remarks -
Terminal flash
Observation Yes
Remarks I actually initially thought it was a firework, but the speed, trajectory, intensity, and fragmentation were all completely wrong. It was just like seeing a shooting star, except instead of being up and out in the void, It looked more like the flight path of a helicopter in the near-distance (although I recognize this was very likely an illusion, I suspect it was much, much farther away than it appeared to be)...except moving incredibly fast (again, like a shooting star), and at the end of about one second it broke sort of "popped" with a flash and broke up into about five smaller fire balls, all of which went dark within a quarter- to a half-second.
Fragmentation
Observation Yes
Remarks I actually initially thought it was a firework, but the speed, trajectory, intensity, and fragmentation were all completely wrong. It was just like seeing a shooting star, except instead of being up and out in the void, It looked more like the flight path of a helicopter in the near-distance (although I recognize this was very likely an illusion, I suspect it was much, much farther away than it appeared to be)...except moving incredibly fast (again, like a shooting star), and at the end of about one second it broke sort of "popped" with a flash and broke up into about five smaller fire balls, all of which went dark within a quarter- to a half-second.