[meteorite-list] Image of PA/MD bolide passing near M31

From: drtanuki <drtanuki_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:08:55 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <206009.68492.qm_at_web53107.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

List,
  Does anyone know if there are any reports from airline pilots for this event? Are there East coast air flights during the time frame of this event? Thank you. Dirk Ross...Tokyo

--- On Sun, 7/12/09, Rob Matson <mojave_meteorites at cox.net> wrote:

> From: Rob Matson <mojave_meteorites at cox.net>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Image of PA/MD bolide passing near M31
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Sunday, July 12, 2009, 4:02 PM
> Hi All,
>
> At first I was inclined to believe that the telescopic
> image recorded
> by amateur astronomer Mike Hankey [for South Park fans
> please note
> that I resisted the urge to refer to Mike as "Mr. Hankey"
> ;-) ] had
> to be showing an aircraft rather than a bolide, as Dean
> Bessey first
> theorized here. However, there are some problems with the
> airplane
> theory, most notably the increasing separation between the
> trails
> as you move from the top of the image (higher elevation
> angle) to
> the bottom of the image (lower elevation angle). The trail
> separation
> increases by more than 20% over the tiny field of view,
> which for
> an aircraft would require the plane to be flying almost
> directly
> toward or away from the observer. This cannot happen for an
> aircraft
> flying anywhere close to level flight.
>
> For those trying to track down potential meteorites from
> this
> fireball, I hope you haven't been depending too much on the
> azimuth
> and elevation information provided by J. Kelly Beatty of
> S&T. While
> he (she?) correctly matched up the image's pointing and
> orientation
> with the star field surrounding M31, the coordinate grid
> that is
> overlaid is very wrong for some reason. The telescope
> wasn't pointing
> at elevation 62 degrees. From the Baltimore area, the
> Andromeda Galaxy
> is much lower in the sky at 1:06 am on July 6th -- about 27
> degrees.
> The object track at the top of the image passes very close
> to the
> 9.3-magnitude Hipparcos star #003223, which was at azimuth
> 57.0,
> elevation +27.5 at 1:06 am. When I have some more time,
> I'll calculate
> the 3D trajectory from this single frame, since there is
> enough
> information in it alone to do so. Suffice to say that the
> object
> was almost certainly travelling from NE to SW, heading
> toward
> Baltimore from the NE but not quite making it there.
>
> --Rob
>
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Received on Sun 12 Jul 2009 03:08:55 AM PDT