Turtle Posted March 13, 2005 Report Share Posted March 13, 2005 ___I was taping the Moon/Mercury conjunction out my West window near Portland Or, when out the window (but not in the camera view as it was zoomed in) I saw a spuuttering green & yellow fireball come from left to right in my view & going away from me & dropping at a shallow angle. It persisted 3 to 5 seconds before disappearing over the horizon. It was breaking up & spewing debris the whole time; Wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2005 ___I just reviewed my tape & while it isn't in the video, my exclamations are in the audio. By that mark I put the time over Portland at 7:43:53 PM PST & lasting 5 seconds in my view.___Local news is reporting it was seen as far South as Medford Or & as far North as Seattle. They are asking for tapes if anyone caught it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starrmtn001 Posted March 13, 2005 Report Share Posted March 13, 2005 My son saw a blue fireball followed by 2 red orbs over Mt Baldy, Calif. about a week, or so, ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Posted March 13, 2005 Report Share Posted March 13, 2005 too bad you didn't catch that on tape. would've been nice to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Queso Posted March 13, 2005 Report Share Posted March 13, 2005 yeah those things are crazy, last time i saw one i was in california. i was in my car and the entire street slammed their breaks to watch, pretty amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 13, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2005 ___Here's a link to a local News Station page:http://www.kptv.com/___No one yet has come forward with a picture as far as I know. I'm sure they are checking the weather cams & such other surveilence, as well as asking anyone who caught it on tape or film to e-mail or call them.___It is apparent it was widely seen for hundreds of miles up & down the PNW.___If a picture shows up I'll update the thread. Keep looking up! :cup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starrmtn001 Posted March 14, 2005 Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 Here's a link with the story and some photos. http://www.komotv.com/stories/31552.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 ___That link gets at error at their site, but if you click their home button & scroll down you can find the story. However, there are some pictures. That is an illustration (drawing) with the story you link to. :cup:___Here is a home-video out now:http://www.kgw.com/perl/common/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=www.kgw.com/031205flash.wmv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[email protected] Posted March 14, 2005 Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 I saw one in New Mexico about twenty years ago that lit up the sky brighter than day for about 20 seconds, then disappeared over a hill. I expected to see an impact but there was nothing, except a couple Air Force helicopters flying over a few minutes later. I'll never forget it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 ___Sweet [email protected]! I like to think how when we have the fortune to see one of these, our awe is the same as the first person who saw one. All the 'splainin' just falls away & it's just you & the rock from space. So cool!___On the topic of this fireball, I don't know if anyone is undertaking this, but a broad survey of people who saw it should suffice to plot a trajectory for this object. Here is a very good example of how 'anecdotal evidence' demonstrates its scientific useability. Despite many individual discrepencies in eyewitness reports, among many reports the commonalities point to the facts. Many meteorites have been recovered by this method. :cup: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddog Posted March 14, 2005 Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 Turtle, Where in the sky did you see this fireball come in, from the ocean to over Portland or the reverse ? Maddog Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turtle Posted March 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2005 ___The reverse. Here was my circumstance. From my second story West facing open window atop a 300' hill of Missoula flood deposits in Vancouver Washington. In the open window, my video camera, trained on the Moon/Mercury pair which lay directly West & inclined at approx 50 degrees from the horizon. The camera feeds to my little TV/VCR & I lay on a couch watching on TV Moon/Mercury; every 5 or so minutes I would get up & adjust the camera to keep the pair in view(I was zoomed in so that the Moon filled about 1/5 the screen). ___So, as I lay there watching the TV, out the open window I saw coming into view at the left edge of the window. the fireball. It's primary apparent motion to me, was left to right, and it secondarily appeared to be moving away, as well as dropping. I jumped up & ran over to stick my head out the window & follow it 'till it disappeared over the West Hills of Portland. It appeared fairly low to the horizon, a good 20 to 30 degrees lower than the elevation of Moon/Mercury.___It lasted no more than 5 seconds, & what the one video extant does not show is the showering of sparks & intense green color (others are reporting seeing green as well). I really knew I had no chance to use the camers as it moved too fast, so I didn't even try.___On a side note, over the 2 hours I taped of the Moon/Mercury conjunction, you could actually see Mercury taking a slight lead over Luna in the race to the horizon. Astronomy is 'da best! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.