Saw a fireball flying thru the sky, burnt before landing to the Saratoga forest… while driving back home from costco over almadan.
(from http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=08&month=11&year=2009)
WEEKEND FIREBALLS: On Saturday, Nov. 7th, just as the sun was setting over San Francisco Bay, a brilliant meteor glided across the sky and disappeared into the sunset. Witnesses say it was "slow-moving," "white and green," and that it left behind "a trail of smoke and sparkles of debris." Alerted by a friend, Rick Baldridge of Campbell, California, rushed outside and snapped this picture of the fireball's aftermath:
"This was a rare event," says Baldridge. "I have not seen a high altitude 'smoke' stream like this for more than 20 years."
The fireball may have been a piece of periodic Comet 2P/Encke. Right now, Earth is passing through a stream of debris from the comet, and this is causing the annual Taurid meteor shower, which peaks between Nov. 5th and 12th. The display usually produces no more than about 5 meteors per hour, but what it lacks in number, it makes up for in dazzle. Taurids tend to be fireballs, bright enough to be seen even in twilight skies. At the time of the Bay Area fireball, the constellation Taurus was rising in the east, so the fireball's identification as a Taurid seems probable, albeit not certain.
A few hours later in Ozark, Arkansas, amateur astronomer Brian Emfinger photographed a definite Taurid: movie. "I estimate its brightness at around magnitude -10 (almost 200 times brighter than Venus)."
Sky watchers should be alert for Taurid fireballs in the nights ahead. The best time to look is during the hours around midnight when the constellation Taurus soars high overhead.
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