[meteorite-list] Going hunting

From: David Freeman <dfreeman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:06 2004
Message-ID: <3D4F675B.8070308_at_fascination.com>

Dear John, List;
I didn't see you mentioned that it made the "nighttime as day time" and
there fore, I think that it was the size of a pea and probably burned up
except for a pea size piece that you may have heard.. Ever hear a rifle
bullet a mile down range? Five miles down range?
Statistics note that most meteorites at night are usually very small and
don't make it through the atmosphere to the ground.
I would think a random search of anywhere would have the same percentage
of success....about 800 manhours of searching per new meteorite.
Good Luck, there must be some somewhere.
Dave (_at_400 hours) Freeman

John Reed wrote:

> In 1985 or 86 a meteor flew over my head it came out of the sky at
>about 45-50 degrees I saw a grayish fuzzy mass all in about 2 seconds I
>am going back to the desert( 10 miles from Palm Springs) on business on
>aug 9,. I will have 2 days to see if I
>can find it. At the time I thought it to be an ordinary occurance in the
>
>desert Anyway I drew a stright line on a piece of paper representing
>the horizontal level that I was standing then I made a dot above the
>line representing where I was standing on the horizontal line and how
>high it was I then put a straight edge at 47o and drew a line from the
>dot to the horizontal line it came out that it would of hit 5 times the
>distance between the horizontal line and the dot So I am thinking it was
>
>no more than 500 feet high or less than 200 The way it works out it
>should of landed about a half mile away? 5 x 500 I know what direction
>it went The question of course is how high was it really? I heard a
>propeller or motor sound, the fire ball part only lasted a split
>second when I saw it in the sky then it was probably close to 2
>seconds before I heard it chopping the wind then I saw a big blur of
>grayish fuzz and a quick shadow passing over. From the time I first
>heard it till it was out of ear shot was maybe a fraction over 2
>seconds. It seemed to be horizontal. I remember thinking it was as big
>as a wheel barrow. I also remeber thinking I would hear a thud or
>something when it hit I did not. It was a dead silent night at about 2
>am Is there any thing I havn't figured? besides the heat the snakes and
>the fire ants
> Do you think that its shape may have something to do with why it didn't
>
>whistle or blow up and also the short fire tail ( 1 second)
> This would mean that if something of irregular shape came in contact
>with the atmosphere its spinning and chopping would slow it down enough
>so it wouln't heat up or reach the speed of sound and blow up
>I know it a long shot but, if I find him I'am gonna put a saddle on his
>back and ride him into town!
>Thanks John
>
>
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Received on Tue 06 Aug 2002 02:06:19 AM PDT