Fireball over Baltimore
I'm starting to receive reports of a fireball southwest of Baltimore Monday evening. Here are two of them:
From Donna Caudle: "My husband and I were driving last night (1/7/08) through Perry Hall, MD when we spotted a blue-green fall fireball speeding to some site not far from us ... We were traveling near the area of Magdlet Rd in Perry Hall and Joppa was closed for some accident. I would say we were facing north west when we spotted it falling the the direction of Carney or Towson. The time was about 8:50 pm last night ,Monday the 7th of Janurary "
And, from Jeff Ceccola, who has reported before: "Frank, I was lucky enough to see another fireball tonight (1/7/08). Twice in a 2 months. I fear my friends are going to think I'm fibbing when I tell them about this one.This one was to the southwest, in front of the constellation Cetus. It had a greenish hue, with a magnitude of about a -4, lasting no more than 3 seconds.
Since my first event, I've been doing a lot more star gazing and have studied sky maps. I'm sure my increased interest is why I was lucky enough to see yet another fireball..
Let me know if anyone has seen this one. Look for you in the Sun. -Jeff"
UPDATE: More reports, from Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina, are now appearing on the American Meteor Society log. The broad area where this object was visible gives you an idea of how high and far away from Baltimore it actually was. Observers frequently describe such things as falling "just beyond the trees," or in the next town. In fact, they are usually quite distant, very high in the atmosphere, and rarely reach the ground.
If anyone else out there saw this object, please send me a comment. Be sure to include the time you saw it, where you were, which direction it was going relative to your location, any sounds that seemed to accompany the event, and any other descriptive details you have. Here is more on what to include.
You can also file a fireball report with the International Meteor Organization, or the American Meteor Society.
Never seen a fireball? Well, here's one in a terrific image captured Nov. 2, 2005, by Mark Vornhusen of Germany and published by NASA. It is NOT Monday's object. But if you got a picture of it, send it to me and I'll replace this one with yours.
Comments
Last night (1/7), my girlfriend and I saw a very bright fireball low in the southern sky (altitude approx. 15 degrees above the horizon) over DC at around 9 pm. The sky was hazy with high clouds obscuring most of the stars in that part of the sky, but the bolide was clearly visible., moving slowly about 20 degrees across the sky before disappearing near the horizon. Based on that, I estimate it to be about magnitude -6.
Posted by: Phil | January 8, 2008 10:00 PM
We saw the fireball too. My daughter and I were coming back from her dance class and we saw it as we were driving up the street, and it was right in front of us. We thought it was so close that we actually went searching for the meteor! We live in Elkridge. It was bright green, and wider than anything I have ever seen before. It appeared to be travelling from the north to the south. It was about 8:50 pm on Monday Jan 7.
Posted by: Donna Smith | January 14, 2008 10:06 PM
I think it's the same one I saw, but i don't remember the exact date, but the time is correct- I was close to 9 pm. I was on my home from work on the ramp from I295 turning on to I695 towards Glen Burnie when I saw it soot across the sky in front of me heading towards the west going to the right of me. It was the coolest thing I ever saw!
Posted by: Pat Shifflett | September 17, 2008 2:14 PM