Have you seen comets?

[Turgon]

Over an hour ago, I saw a blue ball streak over my friends front lawn and disappear over his house. It must have been only a few hundred feet up in the air because it was huge. I've only ever seen shooting stars from a great distance, looking miniscule. But this looked like a soccerball in the air that's how close it was.

5 minutes later, I heard ambulance and police sirens, so I went out on to the main street and there had been a major accident not far off. I don't know if there's any connection or what caused the accident. But I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out more details. Maybe one of the drivers saw it too and it freaked him out?

 

[dugdeep]

Over an hour ago, I saw a blue ball streak over my friends front lawn and disappear over his house. It must have been only a few hundred feet up in the air because it was huge. I've only ever seen shooting stars from a great distance, looking miniscule. But this looked like a soccerball in the air that's how close it was.

5 minutes later, I heard ambulance and police sirens, so I went out on to the main street and there had been a major accident not far off. I don't know if there's any connection or what caused the accident. But I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out more details. Maybe one of the drivers saw it too and it freaked him out?

Wow, that's crazy! I've never seen a comet that close. Only quick little streeks across a starry sky. How sure are you that it was a comet?

 

[Gawan]

Over an hour ago, I saw a blue ball streak over my friends front lawn and disappear over his house. It must have been only a few hundred feet up in the air because it was huge. I've only ever seen shooting stars from a great distance, looking miniscule. But this looked like a soccerball in the air that's how close it was.

5 minutes later, I heard ambulance and police sirens, so I went out on to the main street and there had been a major accident not far off. I don't know if there's any connection or what caused the accident. But I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out more details. Maybe one of the drivers saw it too and it freaked him out?

Wow, that's crazy! I've never seen a comet that close. Only quick little streeks across a starry sky. How sure are you that it was a comet?

Well, had it a tail?

 

[HiThere]

I saw a (probable) meteorite coming down and giving off sparks before it went below my line of sight about a week ago, thought it was probably one of the Perseids. It came down at a 70-80 degree angle from horizontal; i.e. almost vertical. I didn't hear any sound and there wasn't anything about it in the news the next day, so it was probably a small one relatively close.

 

[tschai]

Over an hour ago, I saw a blue ball streak over my friends front lawn and disappear over his house. It must have been only a few hundred feet up in the air because it was huge. I've only ever seen shooting stars from a great distance, looking miniscule. But this looked like a soccerball in the air that's how close it was.

5 minutes later, I heard ambulance and police sirens, so I went out on to the main street and there had been a major accident not far off. I don't know if there's any connection or what caused the accident. But I'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out more details. Maybe one of the drivers saw it too and it freaked him out?

It was probably a bolide (large meteor) rather than a comet- I have have been fortunate enough to see several of these and indeed they can be quite startling-they appear out of nowhere and can be very brilliant even in day light-Certainly enough to "freak" someone out and cause an accident

 

[Turgon]

Actually, tschai, I think you are right! I looked up bolide meteorites and found this picture which is EXACTLY what I saw last night.

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bolide.jpg

 

[ripvanwinkle]

I've seen comets as pictures in books and on the internet but have never actually seen a real one. Could what you saw have been a fireball rather than a comet or is a bolide (meteorite)? I saw two fireballs last summer. The 2 that I saw were very quick, just a split second for each. If I hadn't been looking at the sky at that particular moment I would have missed them. I have been watching the sky with more interest and frequency than I used to and am amazed at what I am seeing. I just posted this in another thread a few minutes ago. It's about the meteorites I have seen.





http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,24082.0.html

 

[DGF]

I saw a really good meteor that came in at such a steep angle and made a smoke trail so it must have been at a low altitude and also saw the wake turbulence in its smoke trail. It must have exploded as it lit up the sky. It was early Labor day morning of 09.