Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Catholic Living in the Modern World => Topic started by: Neil Obstat on August 13, 2014, 05:52:17 AM
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Today is the 97th anniversary of the 4th apparition of Our Lady of Fatima.
In the western sky, above Thousand Oaks, CA, this morning, I saw the biggest meteor I have ever seen first hand.
It came silently out of the northern sky at an extremely high speed, at a very steep angle downward, as viewed from my position (I couldn't tell whether it was angled toward me or away from me or by how much), about 65 degrees from the horizontal (25 degrees from the vertical), and at 90 degrees west from Polaris (north star).
It lasted about 2 seconds. It began with a flash of white light, which caught my attention, since I was already, quite by chance, looking in that direction. If I had not been looking that way, I would have missed it entirely.
It quickly formed a bright white streak downward, then erupted into a larger yellow light, changing into orange and then red, as it spewed a cloud of white vapor in all directions, which looked like a billowing cloud only illuminated by the streaking meteor. The cloud was about 10 times wider than the meteor's bright spot, about one inch wide measured by my fingers at arm's length.
I'm thinking that the "cloud" couldn't have been latent, since this happened in an otherwise clear sky with all the stars visible and a bright moon overhead.
As the meteor emerged from the base of the instantly erupting cloud, it faded quickly and disappeared as if burning to nothingness. When its light was gone, the cloud was no longer visible in the night sky, even with a nearly full, bright gibbous moon shining at 11:00 overhead.
It could have been over the ocean west of Port Hueneme and Oxnard.
A jumbo jet was flying northwest directly toward it, as best I could tell, when the meteor disappeared about 10 seconds before the jet passed through the same line of sight from my position. I can hardly imagine the terror the pilot might have felt seeing that coming down at him while flying peacefully through the night sky. I suppose he might have thought that his having had to wait on the tarmac for an extra minute before takeoff, a little while earlier, hadn't been such an inconvenience after all.
It reminded me of the video I saw of the meteor that hit Russia last year (?), but it was only 2 seconds in duration (whereas the Russian one lasted about 15 seconds), and it made no sonic boom or any other audible sound for me to hear. I listened for a minute to be sure.
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Meteor shower peaks tonight
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Perseid meteor shower should be at peak tonight
News Sentinel staff
5:23 PM, Aug 12, 2014
5:33 PM, Aug 12, 2014
The year’s best meteor shower should be tonight and in the wee hours of Wednesday – if a nearly full “supermoon” doesn’t overshadow it.
According to NASA, the Perseids should peak with up to 100 visible meteors per hour this evening and into tomorrow morning. NASA.gov will live stream the shower starting at 9:30 p.m. EDT. The website says the best viewing will likely be in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday, though the meteors might be seenn starting around 10 p.m. Tuesday.
NASA.gov says, “The Perseids are one of the most plentiful showers (50-100 meteors seen per hour) and occurs with warm summer nighttime weather, allowing sky watchers to easily view the shower. Perseids are also known for their fireballs. Fireballs are larger explosions of light and color that can persist longer than an average meteor streak.”
Even with the brighter than usual moon, fireballs may be visible.
NASA advises views to lie on their backs with feet facing to the northeast. Eyes should adapt to the darkness after about 30 minutes outside, and then the fireballs may be visible.
Partly cloudy skies are forecast for Knoxville tonight with a low of 61 and a 20 percent chance of rain.
Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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I guess what I saw was a fireball, then.
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I saw a huge one 2nights ago. I was in easton, PA around 1am. It was huge compared to the ones I usually see. It was white and suddenly flashes larger and turned green then disappeared. If it didn't travel so far at a downward angle I would have thought it was fireworks.
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I drove to the train station this morning in the biggest downpour that I've seen in my life. It turns out that it dumped 10 inches in 2 hours. That's 4 inches shy of the monthly record for any month. When I got up this morning I had one thought: the good will perish with the bad.
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reminds me of The Adventures of Ralph Melish.
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I drove to the train station this morning in the biggest downpour that I've seen in my life. It turns out that it dumped 10 inches in 2 hours. That's 4 inches shy of the monthly record for any month. When I got up this morning I had one thought: the good will perish with the bad.
Yes, I think about that phrase when I pull out my weeds in my flower garden. I try to be careful not to uproot the flowers, but sometime a flower will we taken up with the weed. The happy thought is, the "flower" will gain Heaven that day.