7:50pm local time last night. reports of it from as far away as Tucson imply this was one of the brightest ones of the year.
I saw barely the end of it. I was driving down my driveway, with a canopy of trees overhead, and I saw the two flashes. when I looked up, the last of the glowing trail appeared briefly and faded.
I would casually estimate magnitude to be -14, which is a bit brighter than the full moon, and appears maybe 10 times a year anywhere on earth.
anyone got good astronomical information about it? my search of the media yields results from "yep we all saw it" to "end times probably nigh" but I will bet it was captured by various cameras (this being SoCal and all!), radar, etc.