[meteorite-list] RE: Hotshot's photo is genuine, but it's an aircraft contrail

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:28:22 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86901B4EDD7_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi All,

Just for clarification, the news story that Bj=F8rn forwarded to the
list is a bit misleading, starting right from the title:

> Hotshot's meteor in photo is genuine Oct 4 2003

The only thing that's genuine is the photo itself -- in other words,
that it is an accurate representation of what was seen in the sky from
his location, and that the image was not doctored, for example, with
PhotoShop. The photo does NOT by itself conclusively prove that the
contrail in the image was caused by a meteor.

When visual clues in this image are combined with those in a second
image taken some 10 miles to the west-southwest, a meteoric origin
is ruled out. The contrail was caused by an aircraft on a heading
slightly south of west passing 3-7 km south of Porthcawl (depending
on altitude). --Rob
Received on Mon 06 Oct 2003 12:59:40 PM PDT