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On Seeing A Fireball in the Predawn Winter Sky of Northern California

By 28 Comments

This morning I saw a very bright fireball in the predawn sky at my home in Northern California, by far the brightest meteor I have ever seen. What a treat! Here are the details…

Most winter mornings I’m up around 5. I make a strong cup of French roast and then head outside to look at the stars and listen to the great horned owls and the coyotes.

Viewing the Fireball

Usually I’ll see a meteor or two in the 10-15 minutes I’m out. But this morning, absolutely clear and calm,  I saw magnificent  orange fireball slowly move across over half the sky. It was nearly overhead, and I first noticed it when it was about 10 degrees east of the zenith. It moved nearly due west to finally disappear over the Eddy mountains.

Geminid fireball in the Mojave Desert. Photo copyright Wally Pacholka, AstroPics.com.
Geminid fireball in the Mojave Desert. Photo copyright Wally Pacholka, AstroPics.com.

It was one of those moments that come too rarely in life, a moment when you know you’re part of something beautiful, something special.

Reporting the Fireball Sighting

I filed a report on the -6 magnitude fireball with the American Meteor Society, which is an excellent source of info on meteors any time of the year.

Seeing Sporadic Meteors

And note that this month you’ll see a decent amount of sporadic meteors from any dark-sky rural site in northern California or elsewhere. More from the American Meteor Society on sporadic meteor rates in February:

As seen from the mid-northern hemisphere (45N) one would expect to see approximately eleven sporadic meteors per hour during the last hour before dawn as seen from rural observing sites. Evening rates would be near two per hour.

That’s 11 meteors an hour predawn. I’ve seen hundreds, possibly thousands, of meteors in my life just bey getting up early and heading outside.

(Special thanks to Waly Pacholka for permission to use his photo. See more of his high-quality astronomy pictures at AstroPics.com.)

Your Take

Have you ever seen a fireball? Tell us about it in the comments section below.

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Comments

  1. Michael says

    Wow sounds like it was a big one. I have been lucky enough to see a few large meteor showers while camping in the outback of Australia. The lack of city lights is crazy out there so the night sky looks incredible.

    Reply

    • John Soares says

      Michael, having a dark night sky is crucial for viewing meteors in general, but even though a fireball will be visible in a bright city, it looks so much better splashed across a dark night sky.

      Gotta get to Australia some day!

      Reply

      • Michael says

        Yea I agree. That’s why I love camping so much 🙂
        Hope you make it to Australia…if you do feel free to drop a line.

        Reply

    • John Soares says

      Head east to the mountains Ron!

      When I lived in Crescent City I was still able to do some observing on the relatively few clear nights. I specifically remember looking at a fairly bright comet in 2001 or so.

      Reply

  3. Kathy Lewis says

    I was awake worrying about the start of lambing and saw a large sslow orange fireball at approx. 5:25 am this morning. We live just above the CA border about 30 miles east of K Falls. It went below the horizon to the S.W. of us.

    Reply

    • John Soares says

      Kathy, I bet it was the same fireball. I saw it at that time, and given your position east/northeast of me, your description sounds right.

      Glad to know somebody else saw it!

      Reply

  4. Gambolin' Man says

    John,

    Spectacular sighting! I was lucky enough once to see a similarly large fireball flame out over the course of ten seconds in the inky night sky in Utah’s canyonland “back ‘o beyond” a few years ago.

    Reply

  6. Eric Soares says

    Oh the end times is a-comin’! Nancy and I saw a meteor in the daytime in the hills above Half Moon Bay once. I’ve seen a few good fireballs elsewhere. The best was in the Saline Valley (just east of the Inyo Mountains) in the winter about 20 years ago. About 7pm a giant green fireball roared (and I mean ROARED) across the desert and scared the holy crap out of everyone. I thought it was a missile launched at us. Apparently, it was so big it made national news and was seen across the southwest. Wow!

    Reply

    • John Soares says

      Holy Shebootie, Eric. Your fireballs were definitely brighter and more dramatic than the one I saw yesterday morning.

      I’ve seen fireballs several other times in my life. The most memorable was coming back after dark from a hike (sounds familiar) when I was a teenager.

      Reply

  7. Derek Oscarson says

    John,
    I got up at 4 am back in ’99 or ’01 to check out the Leonids. What a show. We were getting 300-400 meteors per hour, with a handful of truly spectacular fireballs that seemed to drop into the next town and explode. I almost couldn’t believe people were sleeping while the sky was literally on fire above. I’ve seen some meteor showers since, but nothing has even come close, especially the fireballs.

    Derek Oscarson,
    NY

    Reply

    • John Soares says

      Derek, I remember the reports of that major Leonid display. Unfortunately I missed it, but I don’t remember why. Perhaps it was cloud cover, or perhaps I got up later, or perhaps it wasn’t as dramatic on the West coast.

      Thanks for sharing your experience. I hope to see such a meteor storm sometime during my remaining years on the planet.

      Reply

  9. shawn raley says

    John, I was south bound on highway 97 and a was fortunate enough to see this fire ball from the very second it appeared. It was unbelievable! It was moving so slow, it had a beautiful tail of illuminated dust trailing behind it. It was Hollywood like. I have never seen anything like that before. Lucky us!

    Reply

    • John Soares says

      Shawn, you, Kathy, and I all saw it. Sounds like you had the best overall view.

      I didn’t see the dust trail, although there could have been one for a second or two. I was busy following it all the way to western horizon and then thinking about its actual track across the sky.

      That fireball definitely made my day.

      Reply

  11. Rory says

    It must be a great view and experience!
    I am planning to visit Mr.Shasta for the first time in the winter, and only visited once during summer.
    Could you guide me where will be the nice open space to see the night view like this?
    Preferably not too far away from the downtown but still has great view?
    I’m really struggling to gather all the information for my trip to Shasta, so I really appriciate if you reply me with some advise.

    Thank you

    Reply

  12. Peter says

    My nephew told me that he saw the fireball too. He witnessed a huge fireball meteorite/asteroid rip across the sky in a firery orange display. He also noticed soft billowy tree or feather-like formations that were not clouds but rather had more of an etheric quality.

    Reply

  13. Jim says

    John,

    Late to the party on this topic, but I was fortunate once, while driving south on Highway 88 out of Minden, NV, to share with my 12 year old daughter a late afternoon fireball falling south of us into the wilderness areas of the Sierra Nevada. It was an awesome site to share – I couldn’t believe the green color in the main part of it. Something by daughter and I still remember and talk about 13 years later!

    Thanks for your post on you experience.

    Jim

    Reply

    • John Soares says

      That’s really cool Jim. Seeing a fireball once in a lifetime is rare, but to see one in the daytime is really special.

      What a great experience for you and your daughter!

      Reply

  14. Tojo Thomas says

    Dear John,

    I’m looking for copyright permission to posters, quotes, clips and trailers to post in blog. How can I get such right..!! Is it possible to get it as an individual. My desire is to build a website like Imp awards or IMDB.

    Your suggestions will be highly appreciated. Kindly reply to my email ID

    Thanks & Regards

    Reply

Trackbacks

  3. […] The first weeks of fall are a great time of year to see meteors in the pre-dawn sky of northern California and elsewhere. I get up most mornings between 5 and 6 a.m. and head outside into the still quiet with a cup of hot french roast to watch the stars. Lately I’ve seen several meteors every morning, even though I’m out for only 10-20 minutes. (And I’m always hoping I’ll see another fireball) […]

    Reply

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