NUFORC Sighting 5142

Occurred: 1998-12-13 02:00 Local
Reported: 1998-12-15 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 2 hours
No of observers: 1

Location: Lafayette, CO, USA

Shape: Other

Event was a meteor shower. 5 meteors spotted in one hour plus 6 regular shooting stars.

My occupation is a secretary. I was surprised to see the below-described meteor shower (of Dec. 13, 1998) because it was not announced on the news but was more visable for me than the highly-talked about Nov. 16 meteor shower. In fact, I never saw ANY meteors during the November meteor shower, but I saw 5 on December 13. It all began at 1:55 am when I woke up from sleep and was laying there looking out the window. I saw a bright, very large "shooting star," it was about 5 or 6 times larger than a shooting star and way brighter than the brightest star in the sky. The color was different than the rest of the stars too. It was the same color as the moon when it is full and bright. A few seconds later I saw a "typical" shooting go by just east of the path of the meteor. A few minutes later I saw a second meteor shooting through the sky and another shooting star a few minutes later. At this time I phoned the UFO Reporting Center because I thought it was unusual to see 2 meteors and 2 shooting stars in such a short time. Then I went back to sleep and woke up again at 3:00 am. I no sooner looked out the window and I saw yet another meteor go shooting by in the sky. This really got my interest, so I decided to sit up and count how many I saw. I grabbed a tablet and made a column for "shooting stars" and one for "meteors." Within an hour (3 am to 4 am) I saw 3 more meteors and 4 more shooting stars for a total of 5 meteors and 6 shooting stars. I just think it is curious that the public was never told about THIS meteor shower and it was much more spectacular than the one in November that all the news stations covered. The stars and meteors were all traveling from north/east to south/west.

NUFORC Note:

Sightings correspond to Geminid Meteor Shower.

Posted 1999-01-28