[meteorite-list] Going hunting

From: John Reed <john_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:52:06 2004
Message-ID: <3D4F7855.F00EFB76_at_findalltrades.com>

 Dave, I know its not going to be like fishing in a barrel but I do have few
things going for me 1. I heard it , it sounded like a quite motor boat 2. I
got a 1 second sight on it, gray and fuzzy propably fuzzy becuase it was
spinning so fast 3 Its shadow passed over me 4.I am reasonably sure of the
angle it came down 5 I am pretty certain of the direction because I saw it
looking straight up and also the the angle it went away from my house which
is still there so we can reference it I am pretty sure it was between 22o-28o
looking straight up off the rain gutter
Here's the question how high was it when it passed over me?
Thanks John

David Freeman wrote:

> 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 03:18:46 AM PDT