[meteorite-list] News Photographer Nabs California Fireball On Video

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:21:02 2004
Message-ID: <200307111552.IAA24952_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/7105099p-8037410c.html

News photographer nabs rare shot of meteor on video
By Louis Galvan
The Fresno Bee
July 11, 2003

No, it wasn't a bottle rocket left over from the Fourth of July. And,
nope, no matter what your know-it-all brother-in-law said, it wasn't
an alien spaceship, doomed as it entered the Earth's atmosphere.

"It was a meteor," said Dr. Fred Ringwald, a department of physics
professor at California State University, Fresno, after reviewing a
videotape of a streaking bright light that shot across the sky about
10 p.m. Wednesday.

"It was a rock from space, probably traveling about 100,000 miles an
hour when it hit the Earth's atmosphere and started to burn," he said.

Often called shooting stars -- but not stars at all -- meteors are not
an uncommon sight, said Ringwald, an astronomer.

What is not common, he said, is for meteors to be caught on video.

"That is fairly rare," he said. "It probably only happens a couple or
three times a year."

Wednesday's light show, visible for miles, was caught on tape by Tony
Kirkpatrick, a news photographer for KGPE, Channel 47, in Fresno.
Kirkpatrick was interviewing movie fans at River Park when what looked
like a green fireball lit the sky.

"It lasted about eight to 10 seconds," said Eddie Cadena, the station's
executive producer of news.

Typically, Ringwald said, meteors are no bigger than a pebble but appear
bigger because of the large glow created as they start burning and
breaking up.

"Some of them can be seen for hundreds of miles," he said.

The reporter can be reached at lgalvan_at_fresnobee.com or 441-6139.

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http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/spew4th.pl?ascribeid=20030710.174843&time=07%2051%20PDT&year=2003&public=1


Fresno State Physics Professor Says California Meteor Video Footage Is Rare
AScribe Newswire
July 11, 2003

FRESNO, Calif. -- Dr. Frederick Ringwald,
physics professor and astronomer at California State University, Fresno,
said a bright meteor, or bolide, spotted over Central California last night
was not necessarily anything unusual other than the fact that a local
television photographer caught brief but clear video of it.

"What a lucky break to catch that on tape," Ringwald proclaimed as he
viewed a copy of the video at the KGPE TV Ch. 47/CBS studios in Fresno
Thursday afternoon.

A video still of the Fresno meteor is available at
www.FresnoStateNews.com. A streaming video will be posted late tonight or
early Friday.

The CBS affiliate invited Ringwald to view the tape and provide
expert commentary on it for this evening's news.

"In itself it's not a big deal, but that it was caught on tape,
that's a big deal," Ringwald said.

The bright image is seen darting from the sky with parts of it
breaking off.

Ch. 47 photographer Tony Kirkpatrick was interviewing a moviegoer
outside the Manchester Theatre in central Fresno when he noticed the streak
from the corner of his eye and turned his camera to capture a few seconds of
it.

"I always shoot with both eyes open and noticed this bright light as
I was shooting the interview," Kirkpatrick said.

"At first I thought it was a police helicopter conducting a search
nearby but when I didn't hear the helicopter motor, I looked up to see what
it was. About the same time, the theater crowd reacted to the light because
it lit us up so much so I swung the camera up, still rolling, and got a
little bit of it."

Ringwald noted that the cameraman was shooting in a well-lit area
with streetlights visible in the picture, eliminating any view of stars in
the sky.

"But you can see the meteor very clearly, meaning it was as bright as
the moon," Ringwald said. He said most meteors are small, about the size of
dust grains but this was probably a little bigger, such as a pebble or small
rock, explaining its brightness.

This meteor burned up in the atmosphere about fifty miles above the
planet and was probably only the size of a marble heating up at a
temperature of 5,000 degrees, Ringwald told Ch. 47.

He was also interviewed by Fresno Bee reporter Louis Galvan who told
him reports have come in from all over the state, testament to its unique
brightness.

Associated Press reported Thursday morning that authorities said four
separate meteors were visible over parts of northern and central California
with reports of white, blue and red streaks in the sky.

The meteors were reported at around 10 p.m. Wednesday, said Greg
Renick, a spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Services.

Renick said the odd-colored streaks were visible from "several
counties" - as far north as Calaveras and Santa Barbara in the south.

AP reported that Renick said he didn't know why there would be red
streaks in a meteor shower.

A spokesman said the Federal Emergency Management Agency had no
information about Wednesday's sightings but said meteor showers were
expected over the next several days, according to the AP report.

Ringwald said the color stems from being bright enough to activate
the human eye's color vision since "the human eye goes color blind in the
dark."

"But it was just a meteor," Ringwald said. "Something left over from
the early years of the solar system. It's not the end of the world or
Martians invading earth. It's something that happens two to three times a
year somewhere in the U. S. A."

He said that the cameraman's work actually lends support to an
argument against the existence of UFOs.

"These days, with all the high technology digital cameras abundant
and people always shooting them, more UFO sightings would be caught on tape
somewhere in the world just like this quick meteor image was," Ringwald
said.
Received on Fri 11 Jul 2003 11:52:22 AM PDT