On November 8, 2009, Wayne, at RDL Observatory, reported a capture of a bright fireball to our network. He told us:
“All
Late night capture, direction of travel westward. Event seen at Telkwa BC. UFO analyzer places impact area some where in the Terrace / Telkwa area but calibration of ufo analyzer is uncertain. Witness at Telkwa said phosphor like drops falling between him and hill 1 mile to his north. No Sound heard. enjoy
wayne”
Wayne sent a movie of the event to the BCMN group. You can view it here:
Upon receipt of Wayne’s report Brower wrote Alan Hildebrand, Coordinator of the Canadian Fireball Reporting Centre, and asked if he was getting any additional reports of the event. He said he had not heard of the event.
In between e-mails Hildebrand checked back in his mail and found the alert Wayne had sent earlier. (It’s always good to follow up if you don’t hear back).
CBC carried and article the next day. You can view the article by clicking here.
On November 9th Hidlebrand (personal communication to Brower) summarized to the MIAC group. The fireball was:
- Seen widely.
- It caused explosive booms and cast ground shadows.
- He estimated the fireball to be in the -17 to -18 magnitude range.
- Estimate ‘conservatively in 100 kg to 1 tonne order of magnitude’.
- Had an east to west motion (and apparently some south to north and at least modestly steep) which would be reasonable for prefall orbits.
- Was probably a meteorite dropper.
No other BCMN camera recorded the fireball.