In the iBrattleboro’s column “Today In Local History” of July 28, 2014 the leading entry from 1860 reported:
“A meteoric body was seen passing through the heavens over this village at apparently no very great height on Friday evening of last week. The time was about ten o’clock and not more than a minute was occupied in the passage of the brilliant object. It lighted up the heavens with great brilliancy, and with its long and illuminating train it was momentarily thought to be an enormous piece of fireworks.”
On Oct 20, 2012 Halley’s Comet Orionid Shower visited the Northern Hemisphere and on that night standing in the center of Prospect Graveyard on South Main Street three Brattleboro residents had agreed to meet at 10pm. This is my email newsletter sent the next day:
“Saturday’s night skies were largely clear; the temperature was dropping to about 50 degrees, with no wind.
I spent an hour with Fred L and Arlene D in the Prospect Cemetery on South Main. Fred and I arrived by 10:10pm; Arlene a few minutes later. While Fred and I were waiting for Arlene, a shooting star suddenly appeared from just over Wantastiquet and flew overhead across the black firmament.
It had a bright fiery nose cone trailed by a long white-yellow tail that, “not more than a minute,” extended nearly from horizon to horizon. In near slow motion, this yellow cone etched out its long tail moving as though the night sky had nothing better to do than to entertain us mere mortals transfixed on this chilly, starry night.
When Arlene arrived a few minutes later, Fred and I could not contain our excitement. Neither of us had ever seen anything like it.
Maybe twenty minutes later, sitting on a tombstone, Arlene excitedly pointed out to us farther east over Wantastiquet an amazingly large, four second shooting star, Fred and I caught a couple of seconds of it. The second shooting star wasn’t as long and dramatic as the one we saw earlier but it was more than enough to give us an equal measure of excitement.
We spent a few more minutes using my bird watching telescope and binoculars to view the brightest point in the sky over Wantastiquet…was it Venus? It clearly looked like a full planetary ball.
We also saw a dazzling milky field of stars, not so easily discernible with the naked eye. These remnant points of light of some portion of our Milky Way from so long ago was the mere background for the wonderful night drama brought to us by yet another celestial visit from Halley’s Comet in the Orionid Shower’s.
"Passing over at apparently no very great height"
The same was true for this meteor. It was a low flying trajectory roughly along the line of Canal Street. If there had been passengers in the “cone” we could have waved to them.
The cone disintegrated first into what you could describe as pieces of fireworks, while “its long and illuminating train” lingered for several moments, then disappeared quietly into night sky without fanfare.
Will not brush the earth with its tail
From iBrattleboro’s: Today In Local History
1858: Donati’s Comet – This erratic visitor may be seen every clear evening as it has been during the past three weeks, in the heavens, a little below the tail of the ‘Dipper.” It is exceedingly brilliant with millions of miles of tail. Although this is not strictly a local item, an observation of its beauties is worthy the attention of our readers in this latitude. It is expected the comet will not brush the earth with its caudal (posterior) appendage.
Meteoric Body Seen Passing Through The Heavens of New England
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/strange/meteor-captured-on-dashcam-video-lights-up-new-england-sky/article_01d831f2-d0f4-5de4-830b-5d775816c3dd.html?mode=image&photo=1
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A police sergeant looking for speeders captured a fireball streaking across the sky on his dashboard camera early Tuesday.
The bright flash visible from several states was apparently left by a meteor burning up as it passed through Earth’s atmosphere. Other people and webcams also captured images of the fireball.
The American Meteor Society reported more than 400 sightings in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania and parts of Canada.
Portland police Sgt. Tim Farris was parked in front of the Central Fire Station when his camera captured the meteor lighting up the sky around 12:50 a.m.
Full story: https://www.ibrattleboro.com/sections/nature/meteoric-body-seen-passing-through-heavens-over-village
We have angered the gods!
Great picture at that first link. A big pink glow in the night sky.
I saw big green glow many years ago as I was driving. It was off to the left of me, and seemed to follow along in the air with me for a short while (an optical illusion). Then it burned out and vanished. The length of time you could see it was what was notable to me. It felt like a really long time compared to shooting stars.
Meteor entry event
Yes, that’s what my original is about about. The cone and its tail literally traveled the length of the night sky just overhead, that it “felt like a really long time compared to shooting stars.”
Those long seconds were some of the best of my life and my only meteor entry event I’ve seen..