At approximately 02:00 EDT (UTC-4) on Monday, July 15 I observed a fireball over Lake Winnipesaukee, NH (43N 39', 71W 17'). The object traveled horizon-to-horizon in a South to North trajectory consistent with reentry from a polar orbit. The peak altitude was approximately 80 degrees West of my position. While my field of view was limited by tall trees around the cabin, the object traversed 45 degrees of arc in roughly two seconds. The fireball was considerably brighter than any of the surrounding stars; I would esitimate a magnitude of at least -5. The object did not appear to break up or leave a trail of debris. While I also observed a good amount of meteor activity around the same time, the long arc, relatively low speed and South-to-North trajectory lead me to believe that this was a man-made artifact. I have checked several online resources, however I have not found any other reports of sightings or predicted reentries that would account for this event. Kurt Stephens kstep@pepsdesign.com Back under the sodium lamps in Worcester, MA --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.373 / Virus Database: 208 - Release Date: 7/1/2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jul 15 2002 - 20:47:50 EDT