RECENT SKY ACTIVITY (as reported through 1/5/95)

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The following is a somewhat loose and informal assemblage of -recent- reports from the Internet, 
of unusual things seen in the skies. They should follow in chronological order. 
If you're aware of any reports not found here, please e-mail me at . 
You'll notice I've included reports of objects described as bolides, or fireballs. 
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Jackson Donovan
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From: joeshea@netcom.com (Joe Shea)
Subject: Fireball Lights Up California Sky
Message-ID: 
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Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 14:59:22 GMT
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                HUGE FIREBALL LIGHTS UP CALIFORNIA SKIES
                                by Joe Shea

        Californians from Los Angeles to Sacramento and others as far 
west as Reno, Nevada reported seeing a huge greenish fireball with a 
distinct, glowing green, red and white tail streak across the night 
skies at about 8:30 PST last night.
        One Lancaster, CA man said the light was "as big as a Greyhound
bus, three or four miles away," while another man called the light
"blinding."
        Police across the state reported hundreds of calls from startled 
residents.
        Officials at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles said the object
was apparently a large meteorite.  Observers said it lit up the entire
sky in its brief passage across the heavens.  No impact was reported.
                                                -30- 
-- 
                                             joeshea@netcom.com
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From: dlp@fido.caltech.edu (Deborah L. Padgett)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: Bolide/Fireball - central California
Date: 27 Dec 1994 05:43:54 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
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Summary: bright flash, double sonic boom

Location:  Big Pine California, in the Owens Valley

What we saw:  While watching television a very bright flash lit up
   the entire Eastern Sierra mountain range brighter than the full moon.
   I saw the flash from inside a brightly lit house, looking out toward
   the west.  The source of the flash must have been generally from
   the east, since the all the snowfields of the eastern sierra lit up
   without shadowing.  I did not see the bolide directly.  We searched
   the dark night sky here for any residual clouds and found none.

What we heard:  About 90 sec after the flash, we heard a sharp double sonic
   sonic boom.  It was followed by a low rumbling that slowing died away.
   I have attended many space shuttle landings, and this double-boom
   was very similar to the sonic booms made by the space shuttle (and
   nearly as loud).  The time interval between the two booms seemed shorter
   than the shuttle, indicating that an object smaller than the length
   of the shuttle orbiter was producing the sound.

Reasoned speculation:  A meteorite about 50 feet across would be consistent
   with the time interval between the sonic booms.  From the time delay
   between the flash and the booms, the bolide probably struck within 30
   miles of my location, somewhere generally to the east.

Karl Stapelfeldt and Don Padgett 
at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory
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From: jmcd@mintaka.sdsu.edu (John McDonald)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Meteor, California
Date: 28 Dec 1994 18:10:21 GMT
Organization: San Diego State University, College of Sciences
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Well, i suppose i was one of many people who saw the fireball on the 
night of Dec 26, around 8:15 Pacific time...

We saw it from a car travelling east in Santa Cruz.  What i saw was
a yellowish fireball from about 30 degrees above the eastern horizon
which brightened to about mag -7.  It had a red glow about it as it 
faded behind the Santa Cruz Mountains.  My friend who was with me 
swears she saw colors of green in it, though i couldn't confirm that.  

It was quite spectacular!

John
--
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| `A society of "astronomers" would be,  ||   John McDonald           |
| at least on paper, better capable of   ||   SDSU Dept of Astronomy  |
| gauging the proportions of our         ||   jmcd@mintaka.sdsu.edu   |
| existential dilemmas.' ==Paolo Soleri  ||                           |
========================http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/students/jmcd/JMCD.html
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From: jmosley@cello.gina.calstate.edu (John Mosley)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Central California Fireball
Date: 28 Dec 1994 21:52:02 -0800
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Fireball over central California, December 26, 1994

preliminary report from Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles
213-664-1181  phone
213-663-8171  fax
email: jmosley@cello.gina.calstate.edu

A spectacular meteor (fireball) was seen over California and Nevada from 
the Los Angeles area to Reno, and as far west as Redding and San Francisco, at 
about  8:15 p.m. PST on December 26. People reported seeing sparks, smoke and 
the  colors blue, white, green and yellow. Many callers along the flight path 
reported (and some insisted) that it landed very close to them.

It was first seen while east of the Palm Springs/Riverside area, 
traveling  northwestward. It was last seen from Mammoth. It seems to have traveled 
over the California desert from a point east of Barstow, passing west of Death 
Valley and toward Reno.

The Reno airport control tower reports that it was observed by pilots 
near the  town of Beatty, Nevada who saw it travel NW along the California-Nevada 
border;  one pilot saw it extinguish at an estimated height of 31,000 feet. An 
observer  in the San Francisco area also saw it sputter out. A report from Big 
Pine, 15  miles south of Bishop, places the fireball to the east (the person saw a 
brilliant flash that lit up the mountains and heard sonic booms 
reminiscent of a Space Shuttle landing). We conclude it ended its flight roughly 30-40 
miles east of Bishop, California near the California-Nevada border.

The object was apparently traveling nearly parallel to the ground. It is 
unknown if any solid objects survived the long passage through the atmosphere (at 
last  250 miles). 

[Apparently a second fainter fireball was seen an hour later moving 
eastward  over southern California.]

The Observatory solicits reports from people who saw this fireball near 
its  ending point.
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From: jmcd@mintaka.sdsu.edu (John McDonald)
Newsgroups: sci.astro
Subject: Re: Central California Fireball
Date: 29 Dec 1994 19:17:00 GMT
Organization: San Diego State University, College of Sciences
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John Mosley (jmosley@cello.gina.calstate.edu) wrote:
: Fireball over central California, December 26, 1994

: It was first seen while east of the Palm Springs/Riverside area, 
: traveling 
: northwestward.

from Santa Cruz, it was travelling apparently directly east...

john
--
=======================================================================
| `A society of "astronomers" would be,  ||   John McDonald           |
| at least on paper, better capable of   ||   SDSU Dept of Astronomy  |
| gauging the proportions of our         ||   jmcd@mintaka.sdsu.edu   |
| existential dilemmas.' ==Paolo Soleri  ||                           |
========================http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/students/jmcd/JMCD.html
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