Subj: 10/13/2000 Midwest Fireball Report

Date: 10/17/00 2:06:41 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Hello Charlie etal:

Here's what I detected from Southern California at the approximate time you

specified. However, the anomaly shows up 78.2 seconds earlier than what you

recorded from the east coast. Apparently the objects in question passed by

here that much sooner! Could we figure the airspeed of the boggie with the

timing information? Please let me know what you think about this aspect.

Regards,

Frank Condon

Geo-Seismic Labs

********************************************************************************

Subj: Bogie

Date: 10/17/00 7:20:22 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Charlie:

Re: Bogie

Did some quick math. Dunno where "northeast" or "southern California" are

exactly but I used LA and NYC to get an approximation. Distance as the Crow

flies: 2262 Statute Miles. Time 78 secs. Speed: 115,200 mph. Thems comet

speeds partner!

The only caveat would be that the Bogie would haver to be directly overhead.

Can you ascertain that from you data?

Shrews

********************************************************************************

Subj: Re: 10/13/2000 Midwest Fireball Report

Date: 10/17/00 8:18:04 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: cplyler@elfrad.com (Charlie Plyler)

ummmmmmmmm Just doesn't figure. The time delay is much too broad. Odd

thing though, I didn't detect what you did at your specified time. It is

possible

that the time constant is off on this end as the WWV corrections clock was

inoperable at that time. Recalibrated clock to within plus or minus 5

milliseconds.

We'll see if the next anomaly compares.

Charlie

Frank Condon wrote:

> Hello Charlie etal:

> Here's what I detected from Southern California at the approximate time you

> specified. However, the anomaly shows up 78.2 seconds earlier than what you

> recorded from the east coast. Apparently the objects in question passed by

> here that much sooner! Could we figure the airspeed of the boggie with the

> timing information? Please let me know what you think about this aspect.

>

> Regards,

>

> Frank Condon

> Geo-Seismic Labs

>

********************************************************************************

Subj: Re: Bogie

Date: 10/17/00 8:26:18 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: cplyler@elfrad.com (Charlie Plyler)

To my knowledge there was no visible in this area. Of interest however is the

fact that the wave cancelling instrumentation became active aprox three

seconds before the main detection equipment indicated an event. Both are

using the same antenna array.

Charlie

Bob Shrewsbury-Gee wrote:

> Charlie:

>

> Re: Bogie

> Did some quick math. Dunno where "northeast" or "southern California" are

> exactly but I used LA and NYC to get an approximation. Distance as the Crow

> flies: 2262 Statute Miles. Time 78 secs. Speed: 115,200 mph. Thems comet

> speeds partner!

>

> The only caveat would be that the Bogie would haver to be directly overhead.

> Can you ascertain that from you data?

>

> Shrews

********************************************************************************

Subj: RE: Midwest Fireball 10-13-00 - Primary Reports

Date: 10/17/00 10:37:26 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Hello All,

Here are the primary reports I've collected so far. Some witnesses did report hearing sound associated with this Fireball event, while others reported silence, perhaps it was due to their observing location. From what I can gather, the argument continues over the Fireballs identification as being "space junk", a bolide, or a true "unknown". If it proves to be "space junk", we may have a "little problem" if it came in unnoticed by NORAD. UFO's, on the other hand, have had a longstanding track record of sneaking in unanounced. I'm attempting to locate possible satellite data for this event. I'll keep you posted.

Best!

Cinde

=======================================

Re: Space Debris over Oklahoma?

From: Tony Beresford (aberesford@iprimus.com.au)

Date: Fri Oct 13 2000 - 22:10:30 PDT

In reply to: Bill W Davis: "Space Debris over Oklahoma?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 11:59 14/10/00 , Bill W Davis wrote:

>On the local (ch 25) television news a report of re-entering "space

>debris" .

>They also mentioned that it was seen in Kansas.

>Anyone know what this is about?

Bill, the last re-entry of substantial size happened over

Africa on oct 11, the next is due in the next few hours.

So it was most probably a meteor and not man-made.

The media and some of the local "experts" they ask dont

seem to realize that bright meteors are a lot more

common than re-entry satellites or debris.

Tony Beresford

Adelaide, So Australia

=======================================

Re: Space Debris over Oklahoma?

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)

Date: Sat Oct 14 2000 - 00:31:37 PDT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bill W Davis (davisorbiter99@juno.com) wrote:

> On the local (ch 25) television news a report of re-entering

> "space debris" .

> They also mentioned that it was seen in Kansas.

> Anyone know what this is about?

Two local 10:00 news programs here mentioned a very bright fireball

or meteor that was seen in Texas and Oklahoma. (For non-USA folks,

this would indicate an observed track of several hundred kilometers.)

One program said that it was observed by someone in Llano, a town

about 80 km (50 miles) west of Austin, who said that it broke up

into several pieces. So far I haven't been able to find any more

about it. If it truly was a single object, it was of substantial

size and on an earth-grazing track. If so, I would expect it was

detected by satellites.

We've had a little bit of sky (and even Moon, planets, and a few

stars) appear in the last day or so but have predictions for mostly

clouds for the next five days at least....

Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA

=======================================

Re: Space Debris over Oklahoma ?

From: Harro.Zimmer (Harro.Zimmer@t-online.de)

Date: Sat Oct 14 2000 - 14:12:20 PDT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A preliminary explanation: It was possibly a real decayer!

The Russian launched yesterday (Oct 13, 14:12:45 UTC) a Proton with three

Glonass navigation satellites. In Orbit was a platform 00-0063E (#26567)

and the RB 1 (#26568). The first and so far only ELSET for the platform has an

epoch of 19:56 UTC and a mean motion of 16.4921.... The remaining lifetime was

short. I have some problems to calculate the exact decay time because an unsual

high (and wrong) eccentrity.

Around 00:30 - 00:33 UTC (October 14) crossed the platform the Oklahoma / Kansas

region. The message from Bob and Joan Wilhelm based at Hays (Kansas) with the

description of the seeing is in good agreement with my calculations. The object

raised about 00:30 UTC from AZ 213.5°. Maximum elevation 62.9° on 00:33 UTC

(AZ 320.9°). Set: 00:36 UTC (AZ:28.8°). I have only a time problem: The

Wilhelms gives "shortly after 7:00 p.m. Has anybody a more precise time ?

A yet there no confirmation from SPACECOM and no new ELSET....

Harro

Harro.Zimmer@t-online.de

Berlin, Germany

=======================================

Re: Texas Object

From: Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)

Date: Sat Oct 14 2000 - 14:10:26 PDT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ron Lee <ronlee@pcisys.net> writes

>http://www.ktxs.com/

The report has a photo and indicates a time of 19:15 local time,

presumably 00:15 UTC on the 14th, and says the direction was W->E and

the duration 45 seconds.

The earlier report by Bill Davis suggests that it was seen from Oklahoma

and Kansas.

I speculate that this was the decay of an object from the Proton launch

of three Glonass satellites a few hours before. OIG still lists the

objects as "UNK", but I expect they will eventually be called Cosmos

2374/5/6. I calculate that the orbital plane of this launch was over

Abilene, Texas, at about 00:13 UTC on a track that would carry any

object moving in the plane in a NE to NNE direction towards Oklahoma and

Kansas. This direction of motion does not square with the KTXS's W->E

report, but it does link nicely with Bill's report.

Two decaying objects were catalogued from this launch, and these are the

only elsets published for them so far...

C 2374? Proton platform 222 x 61 km

1 26567U 0063E 00287.83021579 -.00002476 78281-5 00000-0 0 12

2 26567 64.8447 270.0186 0123550 338.2240 21.4862 16.49218953 04

C 2374? Proton r 154 x 142 km

1 26568U 00063D 00287.76934050 -.00002461 77806-5 00000-0 0 18

2 26568 64.8377 270.1735 0009609 260.3878 99.6226 16.46681843 08

C 2374? Proton r 154 x 142 km

1 26568U 00063E 00288.31593574 .00085130 77824-5 16382-5 0 21

2 26568 64.8375 268.0381 0009565 259.5957 100.5192 16.46782262 98

Note that the only elset issued for the "platform" has it designated as

"E", though it has subsequently been re-designated in OIG's on-line

catalogue as "D", with the rocket taking the designation "E". Even so,

it would be normal for the rocket to have the earlier designation.

With no further elsets to hand, it is possible, if not probable, that

both objects have already decayed. Note, though, that the second elset

for the rocket has an epoch of 00288.3159, corresponding to a time of

07:35 UTC on the 14th, more than seven hours after the fireball report.

Provided that SpaceCom has not confused the rocket and the platform,

this suggests that only the latter could be a candidate for the Texas

event. I don't have a great deal of confidence in the platform's sole

elset, but modifying its drag term to force a decay on the orbit over

Texas produces a pass 3 degrees to the W of Abilene at ~00:24.

Do we have any better time and direction estimates?

Alan

--

Alan Pickup / COSPAR 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl

Edinburgh / SatEvo & elsets: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/

Scotland / Decay Watch: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/dkwatch/

=======================================

Subj: (meteorobs) [IMO-News] Re: Fireball Kansas 10/13...0025 GMT

Date: 10/14/00 11:53:14 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: ecannon@mail.utexas.edu (Ed Cannon)

Sender: owner-meteorobs@jovian.com

Reply-to: meteorobs@jovian.com

To: imo-news@egroups.com

CC: vortex@dodgecity.net, meteorobs@jovian.com

Below is a quoted eyewitness report from Hays, Kansas, USA, of the

Friday evening (October 13 local time) twilight fireball over Texas,

Oklahoma, and Kansas. This is a track of several hundred kilometers.

There is a brief TV station news story, "Thousands see UFO Friday

night", with a photo from Abilene, Texas, at this location:

http://www.ktxs.com/

It was briefly reported on the 10:00 p.m. local news on two stations

here, and I've also heard that it was on the 10:00 local news in

Oklahoma as well.

To say the least -- I wish I'd seen it!

Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA

From the SeeSat mailing list Hypermail archive:

http://www2.satellite.eu.org/sat/seesat/Oct-2000/0210.html

> We are new to this list so forgive us if we make some faux pas but we

> saw the object last night and thought someone might be able to make

> some educated guesses as to what it was based on our descriptions.

>

> We live in Hays, Kansas, USA, not far from the geographic center of

> the US. Sorry, don't know the lat/long. It was shortly after 7:00

> p.m. Central time. The object was on the southern horizon and its

> path was from roughly southwest to northeast. The sun had just set

> below the horizon but it was still light out. As it climbed from the

> southern horizon, we noticed a bright object with a heavy contrail.

> We have lots of jets flying over Kansas so it isn't all that unusual

> to see the sun reflecting off of the jet with its contrail behind it.

> But most of these jets are flying in a east/west or vice versa

> direction. We soon realized it was not a jet, as it was going too

> fast. As climbed into the sky relative to our position, it began to

> break apart. Some of the pieces glowed bluish green, pink, and

> reddish orange. At apogee, we noticed two bright objects ahead of

> the main contrail and these two continued to track northeast until

> they disappeared. The whole episode lasted maybe a minute. Its was

> at about a 45 degree angle to the horizon and went approximately 3/4

> of the way from the southern horizon to the northern. There was no

> sound associated with it. The contrail remained in the sky for many

> minutes afterward and in fact was still there as the sky darkened

> about 5 or 10 minutes later. I suppose it could have been a meteor

> but our money is on it being a piece of space junk.

`

=======================================

Subject: Witnesses See Fire in the Sky!

http://www.msnbc.com/local/KSNW/148578.asp?cp1=1

Witnesses see fire in the sky

WICHITA, Kansas, October 13 Kansas watches as a strange sight lights up the

night.

Watch KSN News Video online!

THERES ONE BIG WHITE LIGHT and around it was like five little

balls, just lights, just following them. And then thru the sky there was just

like vapors and vapors were like different colors blues and oranges. It was

just odd, said eyewitness Anthony Davis of Valley Center.

Weve had reports of the fire in the sky from all over the Midwest. From

McCook, Nebraska in the northwest, through Great Bend to El Dorado. In

Wichita, hundreds saw the sight.

See video with NORAD explanation

Gary Bishop of south Wichita said, So I looked over my shoulder and

right across the sky from the southwest to the northwest, down a little bit.

There was a meteor that left a trail of blue lights. It was beautiful.

As the object screamed across the sky, 911 couldnt keep up with all the

calls that were coming in. 911 supervisors say they had more phones ringing

than dispatchers to answer them. They say they had around 150 calls from

witnesses saying they saw everything from space aliens to a plane crash.

While dispatchers were getting all those calls on the meteor shower, they

did have a serious car accident to deal with as well. Luckily, supervisors

say that call got through without much of a wait and response time wasnt

affected.

So what was it in the sky? We talked to the North American Air Defense

Command to find out. Master Sergeant Larry Lincoln told us, It seems to be a

very heavy meteor shower. Our weather people told us to expect something like

this from the 10th to the 29th of October, with the heaviest coming down

around the 15th. It seems to probably be coming down a little early. The

mission of NORAD U.S. Space Command is tracking. Tracks man-made objects,

satellites, things like that. Things that are in orbit. So in this case

again, its a meteor shower. We would not necessarily see that heavy the I.R.

signature, probably wouldnt be significant enough, so thats what people

are witnessing.

Thats the official word from NORAD in Colorado Springs. Although no one

at the U.S. Space Command there witnessed the event. Their response is based

upon our accounts of the lights.

********************************************************************************

Re: Fireball, Midwest USA, 10/13/00 - More Reports

Date: 10/17/00 10:40:56 AM Pacific Daylight Time

Hello All,

Here are some later reports. I hope someone can arrive at an exact time to properly identify this object. Until then, its still technically classified as a "UFO" <g>

Best,

Cinde

=======================================

Fireball(s) over Texas - Oklahoma - Kansas on Oct. 14 UTC

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)

Date: Mon Oct 16 2000 - 00:09:50 PDT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The reports in Kansas seem to be around 7:30 p.m. local time Friday PM

(0:30 UTC Oct. 14). There's an eyewitness report on the sci.astro.amateur

newsgroup who says he saw it from Wichita, Kansas, at 7:31 and mentions a

newspaper story. That story is still online on this page:

http://web.wichitaeagle.com/content/wichitaeagle/2000/10/14/localnews/

Suspicious lights in the sky prove harmless

Officials say the fireballs were probably a large meteor breaking up or "space junk."

By Novelda Sommers

The Wichita Eagle

Those weren't alien spacecraft that streaked across the sky Friday night over Wichita.

The fireballs that left glowing trails of smoke lingering in the heavens were likely caused by a meteor that broke up as it entered Earth's atmosphere, said Greg Novacek, director of the Lake Afton Public Observatory.

Hayden Frank, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said he thought the lights were caused by "space junk" entering the atmosphere.

The lights moved over Sedgwick County just after sunset Friday, putting on a show for startled residents.

Lt. Bret Giffen of the Wichita Police Department's south substation, said callers inundated emergency dispatchers about 7:30 p.m., reporting what some thought was a plane crash and what others described as "a fire in the sky."

Police checked with McConnell Air Force Base and Wichita Mid-Continent air traffic controllers, ruling out the possibility of a plane crash, Giffen said.

"You could see the evidence in the sky of something huge and smoking," he said.

Wichita police Officer Brad Elmore said he was about to give a traffic ticket to a motorist near 21st and Amidon streets when the motorist pointed to four bright orange fireballs streaking from south to north across the sky.

Each fireball left a trail of smoke that looked like a jet contrail, he said.

"It was really wild, like something out of the movies," he said.

Novacek said the trails of smoke probably were 40 to 50 miles from Earth, much higher than airplanes fly.

Judging from the description, the object probably measured several feet across when it hit the atmosphere, he said.

Most shooting stars that sky watchers view during meteor showers are no larger than a grain of sand, he said.

"This was just a little bit larger than normal and was noticed," he said. "No aliens. Stuff hits the Earth all the time."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reach Novelda Sommers at 268-6340 or nsommers@wichitaeagle.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it was seen in Texas at 0:15 and Kansas at 0:30, that's very roughly

500 km in 15 minutes, or about 0.55 km per second average speed.

I received a private e-mail from an eyewitness in Oklahoma and have

replied requesting details.

A meteor observer has published a story and "suggested track" on this

site:

http://www.meteors.com/cometlinear/midwestern_fireball.html

There are another eyewitness report or two here under the discussion

topic, "What was it?":

http://www.meteors.com/cometlinear/discussion.shtml

There's also an indirect report from a National Weather Service employee

in Kansas at this location; he reports regarding many reports they

received where he works:

http://www.egroups.com/message/imo-news/399

I'm not sure if there have been any more helpful elements on OIG.

Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA

=======================================

http://www.meteors.com/cometlinear/msnbc_quotes_norad.html

Midwest Fireball Update

Re-entry coordinates now online

Posted 10/16/00 | by Dr. Mark Kidger

MSNBC quotes NORAD sources as suggesting that the Kansas fioreball was an early Orionid meteor. The Orionids are one of two meteor showers produced by Comet Halley, the other being the Eta Aquarid meteor shower in early May. However, unlike the Leonid meteors in November which are very new material, the Orionid meteor shower is due to material released thousands of years ago.

The identification of this object as a fragment of Comet Halley is unlikely for several reasons.

First, the Earth only starts to encounter Comet Halley's orbit around October 18th - although a very few fragments of dust from the comet may be seen earlier, in fact, the International Meteor Organization finds that the very first Orionids are seen as early as October 2nd.

Second, this meteor shower is not known for producing very large fragments like the Kansas fireball. Were this a fragment of Comet Halley it would weigh perhaps 100 grams.

Third, the Orionid meteors are very fast. They enter the Earth's atmosphere almost head-on, with a velocity of 67km/s. The Kansas fireball appears to have been much slower moving.

Fourth, the radiant of the Orionid meteor shower was well below the horizon at the time that the fireball appeared. No Orionid meteors would be visible until several hours later.

Fifth, if it *were* a fragment of Comet Halley, it would have come from the East and could not have shown a south-north trajectory."

========================================

<< ------- Forwarded Message

To: International Meteor Group <imo-news@imo.net>

From: Fritz Kruse <vortex@dodgecity.net>

Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 12:03:47 -0500

Subject: [IMO-News] Fireball Kansas 10/13...0025 GMT

Hi, I am new to the list. I work for the National Weather Service in

Dodge City, KS. We were flooded with calls at 730 pm CDT about an object

that had streaked across the sky from southwest toward northeast.

Many said it sparked, heard noise, was orange, was blue, broke up into

about 10 fragments, produced a contrail, did not appear to reach ground.

We went out to take a look at the sky and observed an unusual contrail,

described as two intertwined trails with regular bumps or puffs every

1/4 mile or in a general straight line path with curves. The trail was

almost overhead but slightly east in the sky. The contrail did not seem

very high, probably 10,000 to 20,000 ft. Reports say the contrail was

observed from northeast Oklahoma and stopped near Hill City, KS.

I just saw the event on the Weather Channel, and to me it looked like a

fireball or bright meteor.

Can someone confirm if this event was a fireball?

Thanks, Fritz

===========================================================

From IMO-NEWS:

http://www.e-groups.com/list/imo-news >>

From: Alan Pickup[SMTP:alan@wingar.demon.co.uk]

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 12:07 PM

To: SeeSat-L

Subject: Texas-Oklahoma re-entry

Since both I and Harro Zimmer speculated (independently) on Saturday

that Texas - Oklahoma event on Friday evening (local time) might have

been the re-entry of a piece of the Glonass launch a few hours earlier,

a further elset has appeared for the so-called Proton "platform"...

C 2374? Proton platform 152 x 129 km

1 26567U 00063D 00287.83019657 .14539302 81605-5 14433-3 0 26

2 26567 64.8034 269.9668 0017643 9.1093 351.7127 16.49742837 09

My SatEvo evolution for the final orbits runs...

C 2374? Proton platform 145 x 125 km

1 26567U 00063D 00287.89064770 .18678256 26819+0 14384-3 0 90028

2 26567 64.8028 269.7289 0015132 9.0831 350.9442 16.51735784 17

C 2374? Proton platform 136 x 120 km

1 26567U 00063D 00287.95114844 .25529299 76537+0 14274-3 0 90023

2 26567 64.8019 269.4900 0012043 9.0568 350.9649 16.54325171 27

C 2374? Proton platform 121 x 112 km

1 26567U 00063D 00288.01152910 .56971797 59774+1 18830-3 0 90022

2 26567 64.8006 269.2505 0007381 9.0305 350.9828 16.58731241 33

The last of these orbits takes it along the following track over the USA

(output based on that from Mike Mccants's LATLONG program):

UTC Lat Long

h m s degN degW

0 24 30 29.5 104.4

0 25 0 31.3 103.4

0 25 30 33.1 102.3

0 26 0 34.9 101.1

0 26 30 36.7 99.9

0 27 0 38.4 98.6

0 27 30 40.2 97.3

0 28 0 41.9 95.9

0 28 30 43.6 94.4

0 29 0 45.2 92.8

0 29 30 46.9 91.1

0 30 0 48.5 89.3

The object had passed through perigee at 00:19 UTC when it was over the

E Pacific, en route to the Mexico coast, so a decay along this arc is

quite likely.

This track is very close to my estimate on Saturday - the object would

have passed 3.1 deg W of Abilene, TX, at 00:25:18 UTC (19:25:18 local

time) and almost directly over Lubbock, TX, 19 seconds later. the track

would have taken it NNE over Oklahoma and Kansas towards Lincoln, NE,

which it would have reached at about 00:27:43 UTC were it still in

orbit.

I am not certain of the accuracy of these times but, if the orbital

period was correct at the initial elset, then I doubt if they are wrong

by more than about 10 seconds.

In my opinion, the object sighted was, indeed, the re-entry of the

Proton platform. I understand that this is a cylinder 3.7m in diameter

and 4m long, being the casing of the Proton's 4th stage. It weighs some

800 kg.

Alan

--

Alan Pickup / COSPAR 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl

Edinburgh / SatEvo & elsets: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/

Scotland / Decay Watch: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/dkwatch/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas reentry

From: Matson, Robert (ROBERT.D.MATSON@saic.com)

Date: Mon Oct 16 2000 - 12:21:41 PDT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Alan,

Based on the Lubbock, TX and Wichita, KA reports, it looks

like the C2374 Proton plat predicted TLEs would need to

shift about 2 1/2 minutes later to get a good match with

the observations. (00:28 for Lubbock, and roughly two

minutes later for Wichita). I guess the Lubbock report

is the one you'd want to synchronize with, since beyond

this time the debris is no longer in a Keplerian orbit.

Best,

Rob

Texas-Oklahoma-Kansas-Nebraska fireball(s)

From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)

Date: Mon Oct 16 2000 - 23:29:28 PDT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I received a follow-up private report from Seiling, Oklahoma

(36.148, -98.924), that the object was observed moving northeast

at "very close to" 0:20 Oct. 14 (7:20 p.m. local time).

There is a story with a video and a different, and very good

still photo (that resembles the Peekskill fireball quite a bit)

at this location:

http://www.msnbc.com/local/ksnw/148578.asp?cp1=1

I haven't seen the video yet and wonder if it's time stamped.

The story mentions that the event was also observed from McCook,

Nebraska and also has a fairly embarrassing quote from someone

at "the North American Air Defense Command".

The site that had published the suggested track has been updated:

http://www.meteors.com/cometlinear/index.shtml

It now includes a link to one of Alan Pickup's messages to SeeSat.

Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA

****************************************************************

Subj: Re: ïÔ×ÅÔ: Fireball, Midwest USA, 10/13/00 - More Reports

Date: 10/18/00 2:31:03 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: cplyler@elfrad.com (Charlie Plyler)

This is the chain of events leading up to present. I was asked to check the

Elfrad

data for anything unusual for the time period from 9:00 to 9:30 PM local time of

the event. This would correspond to the UTC time of 02:00 to 02:30 10/14/00.

I also checked the time period from 00:01 to 01:00 UT 10/14/00 however did

not find any unusual detections.

Perhaps there were two separate sightings?

Thanks,

Charlie Plyler

Elfrad

Andrei Ol'khovatov wrote:

> Dear colleagues,

>

> Pleaee, check me, maybe I misunderstood something...

> The witnesses reported time is

> ~00 h 27 min UT

> Charlie's time:

> ~02 h 19 min 47 sec UT

>

> Frank's time: = Charlie's one - 78 sec

>

> In other word, the registered anomaly was about 2 hours later after the

> fireball - is it correct?

>

> Sincerely,

> Andrei

>

> -----éÓÈÏÄÎÏÅ ÓÏÏÂÝÅÎÉÅ-----

> ïÔ: LOOKIN4ET@aol.com <LOOKIN4ET@aol.com>

> ëÏÍÕ: FrankCondon@Geo-Seismic-Labs.org <FrankCondon@Geo-Seismic-Labs.org>;

> BARDSQUILL@aol.com <BARDSQUILL@aol.com>; cplyler@elfrad.com

> <cplyler@elfrad.com>; olkhovatov@mtu-net.ru <olkhovatov@mtu-net.ru>

> äÁÔÁ: 17 ÏËÔÑÂÒÑ 2000 Ç. 20:43

> ôÅÍÁ: Re: Fireball, Midwest USA, 10/13/00 - More Reports

>

> >Hello All,

> >

> >Here are some later reports. I hope someone can arrive at an exact time to

> >properly identify this object. Until then, its still technically

> classified

> >as a "UFO" <g>

> >

> >Best,

> >Cinde

> >

> >=======================================

> >Fireball(s) over Texas - Oklahoma - Kansas on Oct. 14 UTC

> >From: Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)

> >Date: Mon Oct 16 2000 - 00:09:50 PDT

> >---------------------------------------------------------------------------

> ---

> >

> >--

> >The reports in Kansas seem to be around 7:30 p.m. local time Friday PM

> >(0:30 UTC Oct. 14). There's an eyewitness report on the sci.astro.amateur

> >newsgroup who says he saw it from Wichita, Kansas, at 7:31 and mentions a

> >newspaper story. That story is still online on this page:

> >

> >http://web.wichitaeagle.com/content/wichitaeagle/2000/10/14/localnews/

> >

> >Suspicious lights in the sky prove harmless

> >

> >Officials say the fireballs were probably a large meteor breaking up or

> >"space junk."

> >

> >By Novelda Sommers

> >The Wichita Eagle

> >

> >Those weren't alien spacecraft that streaked across the sky Friday night

> over

> >Wichita.

> >The fireballs that left glowing trails of smoke lingering in the heavens

> were

> >likely caused by a meteor that broke up as it entered Earth's atmosphere,

> >said Greg Novacek, director of the Lake Afton Public Observatory.

> >

> >Hayden Frank, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said he

> >thought the lights were caused by "space junk" entering the atmosphere.

> >

> >The lights moved over Sedgwick County just after sunset Friday, putting on

> a

> >show for startled residents.