[meteorite-list] Heavenly Sight Has Hobbyists’ Eyes Grounded

From: Mike Groetz <mpg444_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:22:09 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <837884.62795.qm_at_web33008.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

http://www.swtimes.com/articles/2008/11/17/news/news03.txt

Heavenly Sight Has Hobbyists? Eyes Grounded

By Rusty Garrett
Sunday, November 16, 2008 11:55 AM CST
TIMES RECORD ? RGARRETT at SWTIMES.COM

A local amateur astronomer with a 35-year interest in the field is on a search he likens to finding a needle in a haystack. Right now, he is seeking help in just locating the haystack.

Mark Balzer of Spiro was among the hundreds who spotted a bright meteor blazing across the Arkansas and Oklahoma sky Nov. 8.

Balzer said he was outside observing other falling stars resulting from the Taurid meteor shower, an annual autumn occurrence known to produce some exceptionally bright fireballs occasionally.

On his Spaceweather.com Web site, NASA?s Dr. Tony Phillips noted 2008 was to be a ?swarm year? for Taurids, with the peak period between Nov. 4 and Nov. 12.

Balzer said at about 8:35 p.m., out of the west, where he had not expected to see anything, a bright fireball emerged.

The meteor, which Balzer said was more than half as bright as the moon, traveled nearly overhead his home east of Spiro from west to east across the sky.

The object broke up at an altitude Balzer estimates at 40 to 50 miles above the ground.

?The most apparent color was white with strong green at breakup, although shades of blue, red and orange were also apparent,? he said.

Three to four minutes later, three sonic booms were heard.

According to Bob Moody, director and caretaker of the Coleman Observatory near Van Buren, the booms are significant.

?Bright Fireball?

In a post on the Web site of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Astrological Society, www.aoas.org, Moody wrote:

?The fireball and sonic boom ... means that whatever produced these effects actually penetrated much deeper into the atmosphere than the vast majority of meteors that enter our atmosphere daily. Should enough sightings be reported, researchers can sometimes calculate whether there may have been a meteorite produced by the event, and in more rare cases, can estimate where the object(s) might have landed. THIS IS RARE! The fact that the sound barrier was broken by some object that created a bright fireball is a marvelous sight to behold, and should a meteorite have come from such an event, it would be the first known from the Ft. Smith/Van Buren area. I would be very interested in hearing about your reports, and I prefer that all reports be posted here to allow the readers of our forum to share your experience.?

Balzer said using his own observation and accounts of the sighting he has received, he estimated the object broke up south of Fort Smith, but was heading a little north of east. He plotted the path on a map and said given the angle of descent, it looks like it may have traveled in the direction of Charleston.

Balzer said a witness in east Fort Smith told him, ?I looked up just in time to see a red/yellow object that split in two pieces and go dim. It was accompanied with a whooshing sound like an object going through the air.? That person said the object appeared to fall to earth along Zero and Massard, or maybe south of that area.

Another observer who lives on Industrial Park Road in Van Buren wrote Balzer a description. He said the object was ?glowing brilliantly white ... a third the size of the moon at its brightest.

?Then it turned an opulent aqua blue and started to dim a bit. As it was dying, it split into two pieces. One piece died out quicker than the other, but the other soon followed.?

He also related bearings of the object and said he did not hear the sonic boom.

A Photograph?

Moody received an exciting response to his request for reports from Brian Emfinger, a television photographer who had a camera trained on the sky over Spiro at the time the fireball appeared. Emfinger submitted the picture, which is on the Web site. While he expressed doubt the photo captured the actual fireball in question, the time stamp on the photo was 8:25 p.m.

Moody replied to Emfinger in a message suggesting the picture is ?most likely? the object of interest.

Both Balzer and Moody agree that more information is needed from observers.

Moody says in his message to Emfinger that the brightness of the moon during the incident may have detracted from its brilliance. Had it occurred on a dark night, he said the meteor ?would have caused a lot more people to notice it.?

Moody also said reports from other areas ? he suggests observations from the Little Rock-to-Columbia, Mo., or the Tulsa-to-Topeka areas could provide a perspective helpful in determining where the object may have landed.

Balzer said he too is soliciting more observations. He can be contacted by e-mail at 2008meteor at gmail.com.

?If someone would come forward and say they ... saw a light get very bright then fade, with no track, that would indicate that this was headed right for their area,? he said.

He also wonders if any security cameras could have caught a picture of the object as it streaked by.

?If there?s enough observations, it will be possible to figure out approximately where these fragments landed,? Balzer said, adding, ?I doubt anything will be found, but you never know.?

Don?t Touch!

He said as unlikely as it sounds, the discovery might come from someone close enough to the object to have heard a thud as it struck the ground or hit a rooftop.

?If anyone does find something? ? and he said chunks of the meteor would likely be charred looking ? ?they should leave it alone and report it,? Balzer said, noting trained observers can learn much from seeing the object where it landed. He cautions against notifying police, who probably have better things to do.

Moody asks that those with eyewitness accounts either write them to his e-mail: bobmoody at aoas.org or log on to the AOAS Web site and leave a message in the forum.

?I personally doubt anything fell to the ground from it, but I need more data,? he said.

Discoveries are not unheard of. Balzer cited several instances of meteorite recovery in recent years. In 1998, two stones, each weighing just under three pounds, were found inside the city of Monahans, Texas. They were less than 65 miles from a location where a very bright light and two sonic booms were reported.

Moody has researched and written on the June 8, 1920, ?great Oklahoma fireball? that entered the earth?s atmosphere near the Arkansas-Louisiana border and traveled west-northwest, passing low in the sky over the Muldrow and Sallisaw area.

Moody concluded that remains of the fireball likely hit the ground, but none have ever been found.

 
 



      
Received on Mon 17 Nov 2008 10:22:09 AM PST