November 24th, 2006
catch a falling star
Last night, I just happened to be looking out a north-facing bedroom window when a bright “green thing” fell out of the sky at around 23:15 hrs. EST. I assume it was a meteor… or would that be meteorite? In any case, I made the little graphic to provide an approximate idea of what it looked like. There was a bright, whitish point of light leading a wavering, fuzzy green tail.
I see meteors fairly often here at the farm as we have a reasonably clear light of sight in most directions, especially in autumn and winter after the leaves are off the trees. Most are just pale points of light that blip across the sky or dive down toward the horizon and blink out in a moment. However, over the span of about thirty years, I’ve seen several like the one in the graphic — a couple that popped bright white flashes as they streaked down, and three that trailed blue to bluish-violet tails. One of the bluish ones may have been quite close as it actually appeared to leave a smoky trail behind.
We’ve seen one other “weird thing” here at the farm. It may have been about 4 winters ago. We were standing out in the yard at night listening for owls and coyotes. There was a sudden flash of light… actually, flash seems inadequate to describe it as it was more like a big blast of light that lit up the snow. It reminded me of when a large camera flash goes off as it was quick, but the brightness seemed to hang in the air for a long moment. At first I thought it possible that it might just have been some strange vision glitch, but Don saw it too. No explanation for that one as there were no vehicles passing by on the road that could have made a flash with their headlights, and the light seemed to be coming from above rather than from ground level.
Have any of you seen interesting flashes such as these?
November 24th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Great graphic, bev! We don’t have clear enough skies in winter to see much of the night sky. Last night, though, was perfectly clear, and we could see the Milky Way. The sight of that always takes my breath away. I’ve never seen the kind of light flash that you describe. I’m thinking it had to be something fantastically atmospheric.
November 24th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
I’m sure many old legends were created from events like that. I don’t think I have every witnessed the bright flash you describe, but I imagine it was a small meteorite exploding not too far off the surface, relatively speaking.
As for the green streak, I have watched some videos similar to what you describe, a more memorable one being over a football stadium during a game. You were lucky to see one.
November 26th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
I love meteor stories! I recall seeing a friend’s face light up from a real blazer a decade ago – it was quite a treat.
Regarding the flash – was it an instantaneous flash, or one that you became aware of over a period of a second or two?
There are meteors that come straight at you and might produce something like that (especially if they explode!)
There are also Iridium satellites that periodically catch the light in a very predictable manner and focus it back on you. And at the right position these can be sunlight-bright, although much smaller, and for a period of a few seconds. Usually you’ll see these in the south or north no more than an hour or two before dawn or after dusk. You wouldn’t see them at midnight, for instance.
November 26th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Wayne – I would saw that the flash was almost instantaneous. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to would be those old style camera flash bulbs …remember those old bluish glass ones — that would flash and then sort of crumple and melt after — and how they were like a quick, bright white flash that died over a moment after. That’s close to what it looked like, only the area lit by the flash was pretty large. This would have been at least a couple of hours after sunset.
Another bit of phenomena I’ve been thinking about this week is the “sound” of the aurora borealis. I’ve seen several good displays in my lifetime, and on a couple of occasions, there was a distinct sound that accompanied the light show. One night when there were psychedelic pinkish rivers of light flowing around overhead, there seemed to be barely audible low-pitched tones that seemed almost like vibration. On another occasion, on a very cold winter’s night, it sounded almost like tinkling, icy chimes or that kind of plastic wrap that used to be stiff and make crinkly noises. There’s a bit about it here.
November 27th, 2006 at 2:28 am
That is so cool – I love anecdotes about celestial phenomena. I’m sitting here with my astronmer son who is so danged skeptical about anything that has no data to back it up. He remembers standing outside the dome at McDonald Observatory and watching that unparalleled Leonid meteor shower in 1998.(He and his colleague were the first to observe the Moon’s sodium tail that night because of the cloud of meteorites striking its surface). He said the meteors were spectacular and his mind created the ‘whish’ and ‘poof’ sound as they streaked overhead even though his scientific mind knew that his brain was manufacturing the sound effects. I like the story of the the aurora making eerie sounds. Goosebumps.
My best meteor observation was in the middle of the night following an ambulance in the heart of Yellowstone National Park. The altitude was too much for my mother and she was gravely ill. As my husband strained to dodge the elk at the edge of the winding dark road – a tremendous column of green light with a fireball flickering beneath it dropped in front of us. It was a memorable evening and happily everything turned out well.
November 27th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Cathy – Thanks for writing about your experiences with meteors. Sounds like a scary experience at Yellowstone. Glad it turned out alright.
December 8th, 2006 at 5:11 pm
I saw this type of falling star today in Arizona. (Dec. 8th 2006) and was not sure what was it. Your graphic matches with what I saw.
April 8th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
great stories guys. I am puzzled at what I saw tonight. I found this thread because it was green and i did a search on green things falling out of the sky:)….Anyways, I just returned fom the movies and it was 11:40 pm in Nova Scotia. I lit a cigarette when I got out of the car and stood on the porch. My eyes where tired from the drive. I just happened to look up and towards the woods and seen a green glowing object drop into the trees I’d say about half a km away. It did not leave a trail and it didn’t drop fast. Just like a green firework that was still lit when it hit the ground. But, there is no one around to shoot fireworks. Either way, I’m going to go check it out tomorrow as it looked like it landed not far away..
hmmm. got me wondering.
Take care..
April 9th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Hi Onno – That’s a very interesting sighting. It could be some kind of meteor as I’ve noticed they seem to be going not all that fast as they get close to the ground — perhaps because the burning particle is almost burned to nothing by that point. Anyhow, do post a follow-up if you find anything interesting – bev
April 10th, 2007 at 9:48 am
the same falling meteorite that you described i witnessed last night, my boyfriend and i were down by the river and we saw this bright green light with a bright white light leading it down. Right before it went into the water the light went out. It was definately a sight to see.