Fireball!

Usually when I think of an astronomical drawing, I think of an object seen through a telescope. But on some occasions I've been moved to do other wise.

In this case, I was dumping the trash. It was 6 July, 1981. I was on the USS America, an aircraft carrier. I had taken a bag of trash to the back of the ship to a small platform, like a patio, that we called Sponson 6. When the ship was more than 50 miles from shore and planes weren't flying off the flight deck, far above the sponson, this was the place were you took trash to throw it over the side.

It was a very warm and humid 90 degrees the ship was at 20 degrees north in the Indian Ocean and about 7:15 in the evening. After stepping through the door onto the sponson, I tore open the bag of trash and tossed it over the side. Even before doing this, I had already looked up. The ship was heading east, so I was presented with the pretty scene of a glowing red twilight sky, Jupiter and Saturn, a young Moon, a very bright Venus low, against the horizon.

The scene was pretty enough that was worth hanging around for a couple of minutes. After dumping the bag, I backed off and took in the scene, including the hum of the machinery of the ship, the swooshing noise of the water passing 15 feet below, not to mention the smell of the trash.

WOW! A bright meteor streaked across the view! It only lasted a couple of seconds, but it was white in color and about the same brightness of Venus. It left a nice trail with little sparks coming out of the tail near the fireball.

A few minutes later, I used the back of a page from my astronomical logbook and some different colored pens to make the sketch. Over the years, I've seen many fireballs. But, because of this sketch, this is the one I remember most. Today, I only have to glance at it, close my eyes for a second and can recall the scene in my mind's eye. If this isn't a good reason to make, even simple drawings, I don't know what else is.

For the full story, see:
http://ladyandtramp.com/images/astroimages/fireball.jpg