[meteorite-list] Pasamonte ("corkscrewing" meteorites)

From: Steve Schoner <steve_schoner_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:22:39 2004
Message-ID: <20030616161358.94572.qmail_at_web12706.mail.yahoo.com>

Well then, if meteors cannot corkscrew what about
those that appear to break off and change direction
slightly in the lumionous phase?

If they can do that, then corkscrewing caused by a
flat surface spiraling in the same phase is not out of
the question.

I am certain that I read in some of the Nininger notes
that the Pasamonte fireball did appear to "corkscrew"
and it was not the train, but the fireball itself.

Steve Schoner/AMS



--- Marco Langbroek <marco.langbroek_at_wanadoo.nl>
wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve Schoner" <steve_schoner_at_yahoo.com>
>
>
> > I think that a person took a famous photo of the
> > Pasamonte fireball as it was happening with a
> camera.
> > According to him, and Nininger who reported it, it
> > corkscrewed in flight.
> >
> > Steve Schoner/AMS
>
> Hi Steve and others,
>
> I am not convinced by the Pasamonte photograph, as
> it is pertinent to know
> how this photograph came about. At first, it is
> likely that this photograph
> does not show the Pasamonte fireball as is assumed,
> but rather the extremely
> bright persistent train it left. This was argued in
> 1950 by C.C. Wylie in
> Pop. Astronomy, for good reasons.
>
> The photograph was taken by a ranch foreman. He was
> inside the house when
> allerted by a bright flash outside. He picked up his
> camera, went outside to
> a spot with clear view, and took the picture. He
> actually opened the shutter
> while still walking.
>
> I want to point out:
>
> 1. That it is clear that this thus is a picture that
> was not taken from a
> steady tripod, but with a handheld moving camera
> with the shutter opened
> while the camera was moved. Hence, the corkscrew
> appearance in the picture
> is at least partly, if not whole, an artifact of the
> camera movement while
> the exposure was made;
>
> 2. Given the sequence related, it is likely that it
> pictures the bright
> persistent train rather than the fireball itself.
>
> - Marco Langbroek / Dutch Meteor Society
>


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Received on Mon 16 Jun 2003 12:13:58 PM PDT