Subj: Re: Fireball 7-1-2000
Date: 7/8/00 9:46:44 PM Pacific Daylight Time

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Subject: Re: Fireball 7-1-2000
From: patl@rampros.com
Date: 2000/07/04
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.astro.amateur
My friends and I were backpacking in Sequioa National Pack above
Fresno. We were at 10,000 ft on a moonless night watching the stars
when the fireball appeared. Seemed to last forever with a tail that
was about 1/4 the width of the sky. It went right over our heads and
broke up into pieces, turning orange in color. We watched as a couple
of pieces floats down towards the horizon. Looked like if anything hit
the ground it would have been near the owens valley area. Truely the
most amazing sight I've ever seen in the sky, and what place to see it,
up in the heart of the sierras on a moonless night! We thought it must
of been some kind of space junk since it was traveling so slow, nice to
see this thread on it explaining what it exactly was. We got back home
monday (7/3) and I hoped I'd find something on the internet about it.
We live in interesting times.

In article <8QT75.117$Uf2.16944@news-west.eli.net>,
"Jondy Cohen" wrote:
> I saw the object very well from my home in Modesto, Ca. It was a large
> fireball that seemed to travel very slowly, lasting quite long. It
broke
> into about 5 pieces that continued below the horizon. I saw it in the
> southeast and traveled toward the north.
> Jondy Cohen
> jondy@thevision.net
>
> "Mark Hammergren" wrote in message
> news:395FFCC1.D5EFB941@home.com...
> > A number of us in Livermore, CA also saw these objects on Saturday
> > night. I didn't see any on-going fragmentation, just a roughly 2
> > degree long orange trail following the primary object. The primary
> > object was fairly stable in brightness until we lost sight of it in
> > the trees, after it had covered perhaps a third of the sky; the
> > smaller fragment disappeared seconds after we first saw the objects.
> >
> > They were apparently the remains of the auxiliary motor from the
> > SL-12 booster which launched the Russian geosynchronous
communications
> > satellite Raduga-26 in 1990.
> >
> > A similar motor re-entering over Oregon on Sept. 1 1999 spawned UFO
> > reports that ultimately made their way onto the Art Bell radio show.
> >
> > While these fireballs were quite dramatic relative to your garden
> > variety meteors, they'd make awfully boring flying saucers.
> >
> > Alan Pickup's satellite decay watch page is a wonderful reference
> > for items like this. It can be found at:
> >
> > http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk:80/satevo/dkwatch/index.htm
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > -- Mark Hammergren
> >
> > Robert MacKay wrote:
> > >
> > > A group of us watching from Henry Coe State Park south of San
Jose, CA
> > > picked it up right at 2221hrs west of Antares and watched it
cross the
> > > entire sky, breaking up all the way. There was also a "trailer"
tagging
> > > along out 10 degrees behind it, smaller and lighter in color..
> > >
> > > Truly an amazing sight.
> > >
> > > "Mark Gingrich" wrote in message
> > > news:8jmq6r$eck$1@samba.rahul.net...
> > > > Stephen Hauskins wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Approximately 10:20 PM PDT.
> > > > >
> > > > > Santa Cruz California.
> > > > >
> > > > > SW to NE trajectory. Large primary fireball, secondary one
> > > > > behind it for approximately 10 seconds. Primary lasted 30+
> > > > > seconds until obscured by trees.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Interesting. About 5 minutes later, I was hearing reports on my
> scanner
> > > > about a possible aircraft-in-flames crashing just beyond the
hills
> east
> > > > of Union City, California. They scrambled the local police,
fire, and
> > > > a neighboring agency's helicopter in search of it. After 45
minutes
> > > > with nothing sighted, they called off the search.
> > > >
> > > > We had broken overcast at the time. That leads me to believe
the
> > > > reporting parties mistakenly thought the fireball a flaming
aircraft.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~
> > > > Mark Gingrich grinch@rahul.net San Leandro,
California
> > > >
> > > >
>
>


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