NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2019 Jul 25, 20:03 -0700
Since we have many NavList regulars in the northeast US, it's worth asking: did anyone see it? Count yourself lucky if you did (I did not). A very bright ffireball was seen by observers from Maine to Virginia a few minutes after 11:00pm EDT last night (just over 24 hours ago) and based on reports received so far, the ground track extended from the Atlantic, about 70 miles south of Newport, RI, across the eastern tip of Long Island, and then towards New Haven, CT. Although these things have the appearance of being "just over our heads" and "landing in the next yard", the action is often dozens to hundreds of miles away and roughly 50 miles up in the atmosphere... At the brightness described by these reports, this rock was probably about a foot across before it was incinerated by entering the atmosphere...
An experienced observer on Long Island wrote: "I have seen many bright meteors over the years but this was the most intense and awe-inspiring of my lifetime. When I first noticed it I was driving and saw what looked like the full Moon coming through the trees, but I was able to see it zip overhead and explode. It was utterly sublime and indeed terrifying — I was shaking for minutes afterwards." This and many other comments can be found on the amsmeteors.org page for this event: https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2019/3151.
Frank Reed
