American Meteor Society

Reports Report 953a (Event 953-2010)

Observer
Name Ronald C
Experience Level 5/5
Remarks I think I covered just about everything that I can think of and/or remember about the incident as described in the previous questions with the exception of just one unrelated (and very rare event) in which my father, along with my wife and I as well, I had just set out our 10 inch Newtonian reflector just before sun down to look at the moon first while we waited for it to finish getting dark out to observe fainter objects, it was about two or three days past new moon so it was a thin crescent moon that night and when I looked through the eyepiece to focus it, when all looked clear to my vision or eyesight I was completely shocked and dumbfounded by what I was seeing on the dark side of the moon and what more then likely took place not too long before we set the scope up. I could see what looked like a large and bright dust or (moon plume) as I call it. It was huge and bright... Thinking it had to be some stray light from nearby street lights or houses (including our own) I did a few test to find out and see and could rule that out as a possibility. Even more so, after we had finished early that night and had put our scope away I was even more surprised and extremely excited to find out that it was still there and even more observable, bigger and brighter on the second night that we had set up then the night before. I wanted to find out and to know if it was really a dust plume caused by the impacting of a large meteor hitting it and in my own opinion and with my experience and knowledge from studying Astronomy, that could/can be the only cause and/or explanation for this phenomenon that we were witnessing. On the third night of setting up our scope and observing the plume was still there and visible, and even bigger once more then it was or had been on the last two nights we saw it, only this time, it had spread so much and had began to settle back down on the moonscape that it was now much fainter then before however sill visible to the three of us. We had yet once again set up for a fourth night to observe and find out if it was still there and visible and if there had been any changes to see, but when I looked and focused this time and taking several minutes to scan the area of where this event had taken place- Nothing... It was completely gone by the fourth night and the reflecting moon-dust and settled back down to the surface by then. My only wish is that I had been equipped with a decent enough digital camera to take some pictures of that very rare event and to have some sort of proof to what my family and I had witnessed, but sadly I do not. I only know what I saw and what the only likely explanation for seeing it was based of of what I have learned over the years and that is good enough for me. I estimated the moon plume on the first night to be roughly the of size of the Continental United States after the impact, but on the third night, and on our final observations before the plume dissipated completely and was no longer visible I est
Location
Address Apple Valley, CA
Latitude 34° 24' 27.12'' N (34.407534°)
Longitude 117° 8' 12.75'' W (-117.136875°)
Elevation 1180.979858m
Time and Duration
Local Date & Time 2010-10-14 21:00 PDT
UT Date & Time 2010-10-15 04:00 UT
Duration ≈7.5s
Direction
Moving direction From up left to down right
Descent Angle 135°
Moving
Facing azimuth 232.47°
First azimuth 112.04°
First elevation 15°
Last azimuth 289.85°
Last elevation 4°
Brightness and color
Stellar Magnitude -13
Color Light Blue, White
Concurrent Sound
Observation Yes
Remarks Read above as described in those sections, but in short it sounded like a jet flying overhead and just above us but very low for what a jet would be flying at, however since it did not fly or pass us overhead we did not hear a sonic boom ( we hear them often in our area and know what they sound like) we did hear the following as described in the next question.
Delayed Sound
Observation Yes
Remarks Right after hearing the sound of the meteor as it was flying by and past us over the mountains as we watched it disappear behind this certain particular ridge up on the mountain we immediately heard a loud thud or bang as if the miners up the hill near the base of the mountain from us were using to much explosives when blasting. Right after we heard that loud explosion we could feel the ground shaking beneath our feet for just a moment as if we had just experienced a 3.5 magnitude Earth quake. (We know what those feel like too as well since we have felt many on this magnitude and know the difference. This was no Earthquake....)
Persistent train
Observation Yes
Duration 17.5s
Length 99.99°
Remarks It was at least the size and/or as long as two city buses put together from back to front and the meteor was glowing bright red as pieces were burning and breaking off then the color had changed to a bluish-white before disappearing over and behind a nearby mountain ridge, then we heard a loud bang and felt the ground shake below our feet as if we just had had an Earth quake of a magnitude 3.5.
Terminal flash
Observation Yes
Remarks Right before the object impacted or blew up we could hear a noise coming from it as if a jet was flying low to the ground and passing by/over, but there was no jet or plane out, near, or around at that time to produce such a sound. As we were experiencing this and as this was happening I took notice and paid close attention to the fact that our noisy neighborhood (that being the animals, i.e. cats, dogs, birds in the park singing or chirping and not the traffic or people) had suddenly and abruptly fell silent and for a moment there was an eerie quietness on an otherwise noisy street and neighborhood. It was a bright bluish-white color and then suddenly and without any warning it had become very brilliant for just a split second as we both seen an intense white flash of light.
Fragmentation
Observation Yes
Remarks The meteor was breaking apart as it descended towards Earth and we could see fragments breaking off of it as the main piece or body continued on and the fragments trailed behind. I have reason to believe that my wife and I along with my 17+ years of studying Astronomy (including the study of meteors and/or the study of meteorites) may have found an actual piece that survived its burning decent and bearing all the characteristics of what meteorites look like. We do believe that we have found a small sample fragment from this very same incident that we have been investigating and searching for.