[meteorite-list] Who was the first meteorite in flight photographer?

From: Francis Graham <francisgraham_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2007 10:57:29 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <66863.63398.qm_at_web58701.mail.re1.yahoo.com>

Hello!
  Mechanix Illustrated, April, 1939, p. 94, contains
this curious statement:
  "Apparently, only one photographer has ever been
lucky enough to snap the picture of a falling
meteorite."
   As of 1939, is that true?
   And who might that be? The writer does not say.
   Charles P. Olivier's "Meteors" (Williams and
Wilkins, Baltimore: 1925) has as its frontspiece the
"Great Bolide of Sept. 12, 1923" racing on a plate of
the Andromeda Galaxy, M31. This photo was taken by
Josef Klepesta at the Prague Observatory. But to my
knowledge that did not produce a known meteorite.
There are other meteor photos in Olivier's book: Plate
2 is a "Great Meteor" Feb. 21, 1922 by Bosler and
Mechvile at Paris Observatory; a meteor trail appears
in Plate 3 in an exposure of NGC 6995 by E.E. Barnard,
plate 9 shows one on Nov. 16,1922 by W.J.S. Lockyer.
But none of these made meteorites.
  There has to be scores of pre-1939 astrograph plates
with meteor trails. So the question is, to what were
the editors of Mechanix Illustrated referring? Or do
they simply have it wrong?
  I also suspect, that, even to this day, there are
less than a dozen pictures of recovered meteorites on
the way down. Or have I under-estimated that?


Francis Graham



      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
Received on Sun 30 Dec 2007 01:57:29 PM PST