02-16-2013, 06:29 PM
Hunt - yep, that was almost certainly a fireball or bolide. The flash can be incredibly bright but as you describe is very short. It can appear to be as bright as the sun at least for someone relatively nearby. They happen a lot but clearly most of the planet isn't populated so most go unnoticed, and even in the populated areas these things would have to happen at night and have someone just by chance looking the right way, so you can understand why most go unreported.
While working at night on MK I've seen two or three just because I stepped outside to check conditions and used to spend a lot of time doing that because the view is so spectacular (we're talking nearly 20 years now), but never saw something as bright as you or Paul report, so you can imagine how most of these things are never seen. Some earth-monitoring satellites are now telling us how often these things actually occur, and it's much more common than you'd expect. Even the Russian meteor was caught by a satellite when it entered the atmosphere. Twenty years ago that would not have happened.
Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/
While working at night on MK I've seen two or three just because I stepped outside to check conditions and used to spend a lot of time doing that because the view is so spectacular (we're talking nearly 20 years now), but never saw something as bright as you or Paul report, so you can imagine how most of these things are never seen. Some earth-monitoring satellites are now telling us how often these things actually occur, and it's much more common than you'd expect. Even the Russian meteor was caught by a satellite when it entered the atmosphere. Twenty years ago that would not have happened.
Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/