Oct 27/28/29 Meteors and a Colorado Fireball

Carl Hergenrother,

The Orionids continue to slow down. Also both the Epsilon Geminids and the Leo Minorids are no longer active. Even with the decreased number of meteors, rates are still higher than in early October. In fact, the Tucson camera just broke the 1000th meteor mark for the month of October. This has been far and away the best month so far for that camera. This doesn’t mean there are more meteors visible in October than any other month. For one, the Tucson camera only started operations in March so there is no data for Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb. Also July and August have very high meteor rates but most of those months were clouded out by the monsoon.

There have been many reports of a bright fireball observed over Colorado early last evening. The fireball occurred on Oct 28 at 7:28:50 MDT. Thomas Ashcraft of northern New Mexico was not only able to see the meteor with his eyes he also was able to get images of it on his all-sky meteor camera. More on his observations can be found on his webpage at

http://www.heliotown.com/Fireballs_October_29_2008_Ashcraft.html

Thomas also looks for meteors by detecting the signal of distance TV and radio stations reflected off of a meteor’s ionized debris trail. Audio of the signals reflected off of last night’s fireball are also at the above site.

Chris Peterson is the operator of an all-sky meteor camera in Colorado. He also detected the fireball. A website dedicated to his observations and those of others in Colorado can be found at

http://www.cloudbait.com/science/fireball20081028.html

On this blog, SooYee left a comment describing the view from north of Denver, “Last night on 10/28 at 7:30PM (Mountains Time), I saw something very fast and bright flying across the sky (as I was facing South towards Denver, CO) from the East to West right below the Jupiter.”

Obs  Date (UT)   TotTime TOT SPO NTA STA ORI
TUS  2008-10-28  11h 20m  36  14  1   2   19
SDG  2008-10-28  09h 00m  98  59  8   10  21
TUS  2008-10-29  11h 22m  35  22  1   3   9
SDG  2008-10-29  09h 52m  91  54  8   10  19

TUS – Camera in Tucson operated by Carl Hergenrother
SDG – Camera in San Diego operated by Bob Lunsford
TotTime – Total amount of time each camera looked for meteors
TOT – total number of meteors detected
SPO – Sporadics (meteors not affiliated with any particular meteor shower)
NTA – Northern Taurids
STA – Southern Taurids
ORI – Orionids

Published by Carl Hergenrother

I am a professional astronomer specializing in the study of comets, asteroids and meteors. This blog will focus on my professional and amateur work in this field.

8 Comments

  1. We saw the meteor from Boulder, looking to the south. It was spectacular! It was very large and bright, flying from east to west. It seemed like it was so close, just outside of our sunroom. Quite a sight!

  2. I saw a bright fire ball Oct 28 about 7:30 in Monte Vista, Colorado
    I was so colorfull bright What a thing to see

  3. I live in northern new jersey and on wednesday, october 29th, at 345pm/est, my kids & i saw (with friends) a meteor in the sky! It was to wide and big to be an airplane; So we’re assuming this is what we saw. Can anyone confirm? There was nothing on our local news, and of course, I didnt have my cell on me at that moment so there are no photos.

  4. I saw the meteor or at least I now think that is what it was. What I saw way bright blue looked like a comet with white tail. I live in Centennial Wyoming. I asked if anyone else saw it, but they didn’t & said I was crazy. Glad to know now I’m not.

  5. My mom and I were laying on a blanket in the backyard around 10:30 PM (Phoenix, AZ) watching the meteor shower. We had already seen about six “shooting stars”/meteors. We then saw a huge fireball come from the Southern horizon traveling to the Northeastern horizon. It split into two pieces and then continued to fall as two separate pieces then faded away. It lasted about 10 seconds and it was amazing. We live in the far North valley, away from the city lights. The new moon made it a great night for star gazing. I asked my Astronomy teacher, and she is checking into it. Did anyone else see this???

  7. No! You are far from crazy! I saw the comet/fireball! Between 7 and 8 in the p.m. from my window in Arvada, Colorado! Brightest freakin’ thing I have ever seen!

    Thought I was all alone. Then I mentioned it to a friend days later, and he saw it, too! “Tuesday nite! Oh my Gawd! I was out walking the dog and it blew through the sky! And, I started blessing everyone! I felt chosen!”

    Yep. Chosen.

  8. Has anyone see fire in the sky this evening, December 4, 2008? My husband and I stepped outside for a cigarette around 8:30pm MST in South Denver, Colorado, and in the southeast sky there was this fireball that then just quickly disintegrated. It was the most bizarre thing.

    Please advise.

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