I usually lurk here, but ... I saw this flash too - I was driving down 101South between the 280/680 intersection and Tully, and saw it come down just to the left of the freeway, looked like it was north of the Yerba Buena/Capitol exit. It looked VERY VERY VERY close. I too thought it was a firework coming down. Didn't see anything on the news, so I didn't think much about it.
Makes that long day at work almost worth it.. ;-)
-K
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey Crilly [mailto:jlc@No-Spam]
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 1:45 AM
To: The Astronomy Connection
Subject: Re: [TAC] Bolide over South Bay?
ok.. we thought maybe it was late fireworks.
Up at montebello tonight (last night?) I was
standing with my back to the south-south-east,
and suddenly it got very bright - as if someone
took a flash picture - I could see shadows
in front of me. I turned around and
saw flaming stuff falling downward.
Others saw it, and assumed it was fireworks.
But with these widespread reports it sounds
more like a bolide.
This thing was bright... it cast more light
than the near-full moon!
As for location... my guess is that it was
pretty far south-south-east. Maybe even over
the ocean.
--- kevin@No-Spam wrote:
> Did anyone else see a *very* bright meteor falling a
> ways to the south of
> Oakland, around 10 this evening? Either that, or
> the brightest wayward Roman
> candle of my life. From my viewpoint driving down
> Highway 13 near Piedmont, it
> looked like it was falling somewhere in the general
> direction of Mt. Hamilton.
> Started as a slowly falling Venus-like star about 60
> degrees above due south,
> flared extremely bright a few degrees above the
> horizon, and then sputtered into
> many short trails before disappearing.
>
> If any of you were in a position to triangulate,
> maybe we can go meteorite
> hunting ;-).
>
> Kevin