Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Meteor seen across wide swath of Pacific Northwest

The Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. A meteor streaked through the sky over the Pacific Northwest and apparently landed in Eastern Washington early Tuesday.

A Horizon Airlines pilot reported seeing the meteorite hit earth with a flash and a burst of light near State Route 26 and the Lind-Hatton Road in the southeast corner of Adams County about 5:45 a.m. PST, said Mike Fergus, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman in Seattle.

Sheriff's dispatchers said they had no reports of damage, injury or a meteor landing in the area, about 175 miles east-southeast of Seattle and 90 miles southwest of Spokane. Washington State Patrol Lt. Robert D. Kerwin said there was no indication of a traffic disruption.

Fergus said he did not have the pilot's flight number, point of origin, destination or altitude at the time of the sighting.

A number of pilots reported seeing the meteor streaking through the sky from Boise, Idaho, into Washington state, an FAA duty officer said without giving his name.

Television stations in Spokane reported getting viewer calls from across Washington state and north Idaho, parts of Oregon and southeastern British Columbia, starting about 5:30 a.m.

The callers said it resembled summer lightning, a rocket, a satellite or an exploding transformer. A viewer from Walla Walla, about 55 miles south-southeast of the reported crash site, said she heard a sonic boom and felt a shock wave not long after seeing the streaking meteor.
I wonder if it has anything to do with this story.

5 comments:

Satanic Mechanic said...

April,
Nope, they did not blow up US193 over Eastern Washington. Over the next three nights around 6:30pm, US193 will make passes over Eastern Washington. I tried to view it last night but the arc was pretty low, a lot of dust in the atmosphere to the south, a full moon and the lights from the 500kv lines along the Snake river drowned it out.
If you are interested, I can post a link on where to view it from Pullman. You will be able to see it on Thursday pass over two hours before the Navy shoots it down.

Mattwi said...

Post it please. Hopefully it will not be too cloudy Thursday.

Satanic Mechanic said...

OK, here it is: http://www.heavens-above.com/

It is important that you enter the configuration, so you can put your location so it can find the satelite for you.
Ah the hell with it, here is the info for viewing in Pullman:
Today, it will rise from SSW at 6:13pm get as high as 46 degrees and set at the SE at 6:17pm.
Tomorrow (02/20), it will rise from the SW, go as high as 81 degrees and set in the SE at 6:10pm
Thursday (02/20), right before they blow it up, it will rise in the WSW at 6pm, get as high as 62 and set in the NW at 6:02pm.
You might not be able to see Thursday's since the day's are getting longer. I do plan on trying to tape tomorrow's since it will go right over my house.

To answer a future question: what is the degrees? The horizon is zero degrees and the point above your head, called azimuth, is 90 degrees. Today's viewing shows at 46 degrees, so look in the middle.

Satanic Mechanic said...

Brainfart- Thursday is 02/21 not 02/20.

Satanic Mechanic said...

I got to see it tonight. I wish I taped it especially since another satellite overflew it. It's magnitude is a hell of brighter than 1.6.