Big, Bright Meteor Alarms Californians

Press, Volume C, Issue 29415, 18 January 1961, Page 13

Big, Bright Meteor Alarms Californians

LOS ANGELES, January 17. Thousands of persons today reported seeing a giant ball of fire flash across the Californian horizon last night.

The streak of light in the sky caused widespread fear. Weather officials said it was a meteor.

The huge meteor, trailing fire, was seen throughout most of California, alarming thousands of residents already edgy because of recent unexplained phenomena. Reports of sightings came from San Diego, on the Mexican border, to Marin County, north of San Francisco—a span of about 600 miles. It was also sighted by a weatherman in an airport tower in Las Vegas. 300 miles inland. Touched off by the thousands of sightings were wild reports of air crashes, numerous fires started by embers from the meteor, and reports that defence installations had tracked the huge fireball into the Pacific Ocean. All were false, United Press International reported. The Mount Wilson Observatory in Southern California —where the fireball appeared most brilliant—said that it was common for periodic showers of meteors to hit the earth's atmosphere. causing them to appear quite bright Such a condition, a spokesman said, was known as dracoid. Only the previous night, a meteor flashed across the sky in southern Oregon and northern California, lighting up Eureka. California, almost like daylight. A check with military and defence installations showed there were no rocket firings at the time the meteor was sighted, about 6 o'clock last night Californian time, and there were no radar trackings of the fiery object. Descriptions of the fireball varied, according to where it

was seen, but most people agreed that it was rapidly moving north-west—a giant ball of fire trailing a long multi-coloured tail Observers in some areas said it left an eerie, bluish light trail. A United States Air Force officer, familiar with rocket launchings at California's Vandenberg Air Force base and Cape Canaveral. Florida, described it as “a very bright light-—as bright as I've ever seen.”