[meteorite-list] Meteor or supernova tonight?

From: Bob Loeffler <bobl_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:37:23 -0600
Message-ID: <20080731063743.2DF541059D_at_mailwash5.pair.com>

Hi all,

About 1 hour ago (somewhere between 11:20pm and 11:40pm Mountain timezone)
while walking in my Superior, Colorado neighborhood I saw something in the
western sky that was really cool. The thing that caught my eye was a star
that brightened and brightened (so it was as bright as Jupiter) and then it
faded away. It took between 5 and 10 seconds for the whole thing to occur
until I couldn't see it anymore. At first I thought it might be a meteor
coming toward me from the west, but I didn't see much (if any) movement. It
just brightened and faded. I was still walking, so my perspective might've
been off with the motion of me moving (so background trees and houses
would've been "moving" also). I guess it could still be a meteor, but it
seemed more like a supernova (although those take a lot longer to brighten
and fade). I didn't hear anything, but I am near a somewhat busy highway.
It definitely was NOT an airplane. No blinking lights and not much
movement. It was between the stars Arcturus (in Bootes) and Antares (in
Scorpius) possibly in the Serpens constellation, like near M5 (Messier 5).
I think it was closer to Arcturus (maybe 10 degrees to the south of it) and
slightly higher in the sky, but there were several bright street lights in
that direction, so I couldn't get a more exact location for it. Sorry.

Did anyone else see it? Maybe Chris Peterson at his Cloudbait Observatory
in Guffy, CO got a video of it?

I also saw two definite meteors during my 20 minute walk.

Regards,

Bob Loeffler
COMETS
http://www.peaktopeak.com/comets/
Received on Thu 31 Jul 2008 02:37:23 AM PDT