reply to post by All Seeing Eye
Soylent Green Is People made some good points.
Whilst no one is accusing you of being dishonest or delusional, it is well established that people in general make make poor witnesses when it comes
to unfamiliar objects like meteors, and in cases where there are few if any cues in the sky.
It's no reflection on you, it's just how our minds work and how we perceive the world around us. Especially with meteors, since they have so many
characteristics that people don't usually associate with meteors, that can take the unwary person by surprise, they can play tricks on the eye.
I went in to detail about the reasons why this is true in this post I made
here
(scroll down a bit for the section on meteors, but I recommend you also read the opening introduction), and also posted an actual example of a bright
meteor that was seen by many people, many of which described the meteor as being much closer to them that it could have been.
That is actually quite common with bright meteors, and I see similar reports to yours all the time having read thousands of meteor reports over the 14
or so years I have been studying the subject. This is actually a well recognized problem by the scientific community, since without knowing that
people often misjudge the distance of meteors, it would be a very confusing task to locate any fallen meteorites without knowing this.
That's why meteorite hunters disregard reports of "the meteorite fell just over that hill over there", knowing full well that the physics precludes
this in all but the rarest cases.
By the way, people also often describe meteors as being bright white like a magnesium flare, and I have seen many meteors like this myself.
Anyway, just to demonstrate how bad observers we make, have a look at this demonstration - sorry there is no audio at the start, so watch that you
don't turn up your volume too much, as it does come in a few seconds into the clip:
Our brains are very strange things, and there are lots of ways that they can distort the way we perceive reality, not just by completely omitting
seemingly obvious details from a scene.
Having said all of that, there is always a chance what you saw was not a meteor, but I personally think what you saw was a meteor, going on your
description.
edit on 5-2-2012 by C.H.U.D. because: added a bit more info