May 11, 2012 fireball

[Extollager]

Did anyone else at Chrons see this?

http://www.amsmeteors.org/2012/05/upper-mid-west-fireball-may-11-2012/

My wife and I were using my new telescope to observe Saturn from our back yard in rural North Dakota when this spectacular visitor from space appeared. My son, in Fargo, also saw it. My wife didn't think she'd seen a meteor before, so this was a terrific one to begin with! (No, we didn't see it in the telescope.) It was low on the horizon, passing behind a tree south of us. For my son and me, this was our second or third fireball, as defined in the article, I guess. Of course we've seen many less impressive meteorites.

 

[Metryq]

I didn't see that one, but I've seen a bolide before. I was a student at the time. I was crossing the campus to go to breakfast. The sun was still below the horizon, but the sky was bright. A hissing noise made me look up, and there is was—like a ball out of Roman candle, taking about half a second to cover 10 degrees of the sky.

I asked one of my astronomy profs about it later, and he said "bolide." I especially noted the green color (like the photo linked on Wikipedia above), and wondered if HG Wells described the green flames of the Martian cylinders coming down just so that he could freak someone out later if they saw a bolide.

 

[Extollager]

Yes, the photo of the bolide looks like what we saw. Interesting speculation about the great HGW!