Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Very Cool "Historic" Meteor Visible From Cyprus

Hello Science Fans,

I received an astronomy alert the other night that an asteroid the size of a mini-van would become a metor somewhere over Egpyt, and would probably be visible from Cyprus. I got up at the un-Godly hour of 3:30 AM to look for the event. It was a crystal clear night in Cyprus, which it is about 300 nights a year, and Orion was high in the SE. At approximately 5:46 local time the metor appeared on schedule. This was the historic part. Never has an impact with Earth's atmosphere of a specific asteroid been forecast. This one flared as an extremely bright "bolide" as it streaked across the sky. It was at least as bright as the full-moon, but in a much smaller area. It left the tell-tal ion-trail across the sky long after the bright streak, but none of the mysterious sounds of bolides was heard by this observer in Cyprus. Happy star-gazing all.

GSL

1 comment:

The Weathergeeks said...

So where are the pictures??? That is pretty amazing that you were able to see a meteor at the right time and place. Hope these sorts of predictions continues - and not seasonal hurricane predictions.

BB