As I was driving to work last night, I saw a very brief - but very bright and clear - meteor flash through the night sky. It looked incredibly close, although I later found out that, in fact, this was probably an illusion, as people had seen it all across the Northeast. In fact, it was over a town in Massachusetts, evidently (see the description below from a post by NASA Meteor Watch, from earlier today - July 20, 2024, with the link attached).
Now, I was driving at the time that I saw it seemingly straight ahead in the night sky. But I just continued driving. After all, what can you do? It was very brief, and there was nothing left after the fact. I almost doubted that I had actually seen it. Maybe it was just a single firework that had burned itself out? That was how close it appeared, although again, that was an illusion.
I knew better, and that it had not been the product of my imagination, or just some mere fireworks. Still, there was nothing about it on the internet for quite a few hours, until I found something about it on Facebook many hours after the fact.
Again, it happened so fast, and went away just as quickly as it came, that I almost felt like I had imagined it. At least, that is, until my coworker at work mentioned that he also had seen it. He has a dash cam, and so he actually got a brief video of it. He forwarded it to me, at my request, and that is the video which you can see below. It was from his camera, but he and I saw the same thing. Wish I had gotten it on camera myself, but I don't have a dash cam.
Still, it was exciting to see, and I am quite glad that I saw it.
So below is my friend's video of a meteor (which I also witnessed) on Friday, July 19, 2024, right around 9:30 (2130 EST) at night in New Jersey..
Seemed worth sharing here.
Enjoy.
Meteor on a New Jersey Summer Night
NASA Meteor Watch, July 20, 2024
Fireball over the NorthEast just after 9:30 PM local time this evening (Friday, July 20)
Description:
Numerous eyewitnesses in the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have filed reports on the American Meteor Society website of a bright meteor seen Friday night just past 9:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time. An analysis of these accounts, constrained by a few publicly accessible videos, shows that the fireball appeared at an altitude of 54 miles above the town of Arnoldville in northwestern Massachusetts. Moving northwest at 55,000 miles per hour, the meteor passed over the tristate intersection into New York, where it disintegrated 35 miles above Schuylerville after having traveled 46 miles through the upper atmosphere.
This fireball was not a member of the Southern delta Aquariid or Perseid meteor showers.
We thank the American Meteor Society for providing the eyewitness accounts
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=883559907143247&set=a.271373308361913
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