I became aware of this 8:31 pm MST fireball when I started receiving phone calls from Denver and Colorado Springs television stations, which in turn had received multiple fireball reports. Cloudy conditions to the east prevented the Cloudbait camera from catching this event. However, it was caught on the allsky network camera at Elizabeth High School, and on the Sandia network camera in Albuquerque. The Elizabeth image is shown to the left, and may also be viewed as a video (46 KB). It doesn't appear too bright in this image, but Elizabeth is about 125 miles north of the fireball location. It is also appears that the final part of the fireball is cut off at the bottom, so the entire event isn't captured.

Witness reports were received from as far west as Salida and as far north as Denver. Most reports were of a brilliant green or blue-green light, terminating in a large explosion and a lot of glowing debris.

We have had many fireballs recently from the annual Taurid shower, and I initially assumed this was another. However, based on the two available camera angles, this meteor was traveling from north to south and is unrelated to the Taurids. Because the fireball was close to the horizon in both images, calculating the height of the terminal explosion is difficult, but it was certainly fairly low- less than 25 miles. The terminal explosion occurred over open country about 20 miles east of Walsenburg. The camera angles make it difficult to determine just how far north the trail began. The low speed of this meteor, and its low terminal explosion, make it quite likely that one or more meteorites were produced.

Please check back for further information as it becomes available.