8/28/99 X-CLASS FLARE

CURRENT OVERVIEW, COMMENTARY, JOUSTS

Greater detail on current investigations

IMPORTANT ASTRONOMICAL UPDATE

Date: 08/25/1999 1:47:36 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: glen@wans.net  (Glen Deen)

Four attached emails from me to Brian Marsden and Daniel Green at Harvard are summarized below.

"comet transiting crescent Moon" = "1999 August 14.543 [should be 1999 August 15.043]

Small bright comet rapidly transited crescent Moon through center towards the Sun at 8:02 CDT = 13:02 UT. [should be 20:02 CDT = 25:02 UT = August 15 at 01:02 UT]

8-inch Schmidt Cassegrain [telescope] at 100X"

I saw the comet on the Moon's equator, bisecting the thin crescent and moving towards the Sun. It looked like a miniature Comet Halley from April, 1986. The foreshortened fan-shaped comet tail and the bright coma could be perfectly enclosed in a square box one arc-minute on a side with the tail filling the bottom (north) side like a broad broom, and the bright coma tangent to the top (south) side. It looked a little like the video game "Pac-man" ghost image except with a smaller and brighter head.

 I first saw it in the dark crescent, but it was bright enough to see against the bright crescent, and I definitely saw it move towards the Sun against the daylight blue sky outside the Moon's image. It seemed to move slowly at first and then accelerate. The entire observation lasted less than two minutes.

 The motion towards the Sun means east to west, and that is a retrograde orbit if the Earth is the center or a direct orbit if the Moon is the center.

 At my sighting, the comet would have been way too small to cast a shadow visible to the naked eye.

 SANDIA LABS: 8/15/99 METEOR

AVI  QUICKTIME

The first movie is from a videotape of the August 15, 1999 meteor from an all-sky camera located at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. The camera views a spherical convex mirror that looks like a chrome hub-cap, which produces a fish-eye image of the entire sky. The horizon is ringed by city lights, and north is toward the upper left. The meteor appears to the west, in the lower left quadrant, and descends into the clouds as it lights up the entire sky . . .

Anomaly, 8-26/99 EIT 284

Survivor of Turkish quake describes a fireball

Asteroid, volcanic, EMP?

"It was awful," he said. "It was like a science fiction movie when a fireball rushes toward you and blows open your doors. I saw it coming clearly through the window in my son's room. It looked like a red fireball."

EMAIL, 08/27/1999 1:04:08 AM Pacific Daylight Time: We are really having a rough time down here in Turkey. This is a nightmare come true on a grand scale. Just wanted to share some activity that has skipped everybody's attention. On the eve of the quake, fisherman from a small village near Cinarcik on the Marmara sea, when trying to collect their fishnets that they have left in the sea that night at a depth of approx. 500 meters, found out that it was impossible to collect them. After struggling for a couple of hours they managed to pull all fishnets up with a lot of rubble rocks and fried fish. Most of the nets seemed burnt and the rocks looked magmatic. Since most fisherman sleep in their boats they say that during the quake they saw that the sea turned red with fireballs.Time was 03.02 am. Question is: is there a kind of volcanic activity happening below the Marmara sea that we do not know about?

EDITOR'S NOTE: See Archives: PAPUA, THE DAY THE SEA CAUGHT FIRE

08/25/1999 5:45:53 PM Pacific Daylight Time

Hi Guys: I heard a report on the local TV news about eyewitness reports of an exploding fireball over the LA area this morning at approximately 9 AM PDT. Must have been at least a 200-400 pound meteor to have caused such a ruckus according to an astronomer that was interviewed. Frank, GSL

EMAIL, 08/26/1999 8:34:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time: Many people in the Tri-Valley and Bay Area reported seeing something strange in the sky around 9 a.m. this morning (Wednesday); most described it as bright, bluish-colored, flashing, streaking across a large part of the sky, lasting a few seconds. There were reports from Napa, Livermore, San Francisco, Gilroy, all of which said the object was seen towards the south. There were no rocket launches from Vandenberg, so it may have been a meteor that came pretty far into the atmosphere, or...? Did anyone else hear about this, or see it?

EMAIL, In a message dated 08/27/1999 7:46:33 AM Pacific Daylight Time: Regarding an exploding fireball over L.A. in the morning of the 25th: that was a live missile test. I was in L.A. over the past week, and got to witness this also. No explosion... just a missile flying overhead. I thought I'd share that with everyone before people start getting too freaked out.

BOARD, August 25, 1999 at 09:11:41 PM EDT: I know I can't answer your questions! All I know is that the San Francisco news radio station KCBS was reporting on this for more than an hour right after it happened, and I heard several eyewitnesses describe it basically the same way. The radio station called Vandenberg to ask if there was a launch. When they were told there wasn't, then they interviewed an astrophysicist, who claimed that it "must have been a meteor." I guess that's just the standard explanation!

EMAIL, 08/27/1999 7:38:31 PM Pacific Daylight Time: I was late going to work yesterday -- traveling in my car going south on 101 from home. Just before I got to Santa Rosa I saw a brief white streak -- just like a meteor -- moving from about the 11 to 12 o'clock location in the sky in the south-east toward 7am -- as if it were headed toward Sacramento. I was shocked. My first thought was -- well here it comes -- the one to wipe us out during the day. And then it seemed to just fizzle and burn out -- what a relief -- just as if it were one of the meteors I watched during the Perseids (sp?) at night earlier this month. Only it was daytime. It was like a trail of white -- not like a Vandenburg burnout but more like a meteor. I kept on in my car, freaked, thinking I might see more but I didn't. It was around 9am. I'm really glad to hear there were other reports. No one else I know saw it.

EDITOR'S NOTE: See Reports of Blue Fireball today, Syzygy board

Tuesday, August 24, 1999 3:28 PM

I may be a pie-eyed piper, or whatever, but at about midnite last night, I went outside with an ordinary pair of field glasses, and if that was not Comet Lee in the southern sky, certainly brighter than anything other than the moon, well, I certainly do not know what it is. And, unless it is a refraction on my lenses, the tail is visible to the left. Should be pretty spectacular tonight...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Need verification on ground observation here. Star chart set to 8/26 07:00 center moon

EMAIL, 08/26/1999 8:31:37 AM Pacific Daylight Time: The sighting happened @ approx. 7:30 [Tues. eve, Southern Mo.] and lasted for a good part of 30 mins. or more. It was a V-shaped ball of fire, myself and my wife viewed the thing thru binoculars it started out small and became larger and than disappeared in the sky.

It's location was West @ about 10-15 degrees above the horizon. My wife e-mailed a local TV station who said it was probably a jet fuel explosion...But that s not what we saw. This thing looked similar to that Hail-Bop comet of a few years back because it actually had a tail of fire that separated like H.B.....also it had a amber red (like a hot coal) color to it. I find it hard to believe no one else seen this thing....Hope my info. helps.

Please let me know what you think.

EMAIL, 08/26/1999 6:38:15 PM Pacific Daylight Time: Local Observation time 20:29 CDT.

Was just out watching full moon rise. A shadow cast was cast over the entire bottom 1/3 of the full moon. As a watched, it slowly receded downward towards the southern pole area until it was gone, like a sheet being pulled away. Elapsed time was approximately one minute (give or take ).

Observation made with 50 power field glasses. Sky conditions clear.

EMAIL, 08/26/1999 9:45:02 PM Pacific Daylight Time: I am new to sky watching and don't have the ability to attach files... but I was wondering if the eclipse image posted at http://www.crystalinks.com/ezine3.html was actually shot from Mir and if so, what the objects are in the upper right hand [left] corner? [also notice the cloud rings]

 9D Nibiruan Council PERSPECTIVE on the Aftermath of August 11 - 17

ELAINE LUCAS: MOONBASE

EMAIL, 08/26/1999 5:44:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time: Gentlemen: Here are 2 new pic's of Comet Lee. These have been verified.

EMAIL, 08/26/1999 9:15:09 PM Pacific Daylight Time: Check photo at the following site:

comets.amsmeteors.org/comets/lcomets/1999h1.html

Observations: is comet Lee diminishing?

MILLENNIUM GROUP: THE ROAR OF A LION

THE COMING OF COMET LEE INTO THE LIVES OF HUMANITY

August 26, 1999

The comet obviously appears larger - about three times larger than the star. But that does not necessarily mean it is brighter. However, all you have to do is compare the brightness with the naked eye, and anyone can easily see that the comet is brighter than the 7th mag star! And not only a little brighter - much brighter.

 RADAR IMAGES CAPTURE BIG, SLOWLY TUMBLING ASTEROID

Astronomers have used the world's two most powerful radar telescopes to make the most detailed images ever obtained for a large asteroid in a potentially Earth-threatening orbit.

B I G R O C K

Lowell's MOID LIST: Orbit intersections at epoch 10 Aug 1999

NOTES FROM Internet Message: They show: 98VD35 0.00271 that works out to 660,300 miles, now 99 JU3 is 0.00034 (31,620 miles) that get me breathing hard! Ouch.. 93VD is a 0.00020 (18,600 miles) in 179 days (from 10 Aug 99);

1997XR2 is 0.00003!! 2790 miles...!  That 97XR2 is a very serious rock..! 97XF11 and 99AN10 have been in the news...but this one is alot worse! (looks like a few meters, H[Magnitude]=21-27, house-sized, 24 meters, over 20,000 tons or so, but still, coming that close would cause drag..may make someone's day, will pass by within 197 days of August 10, 1999)

1997 XR2 0.000 21.0 ( 28d) < 1997-11-19 0.036 >

Conversion of Absolute Magnitude to Diameter

{to get miles from number... 0.00034 X 93,000,000 miles (1 AU)}