[meteorite-list] calibrated stellar photo - york water

From: Robert Woolard <meteoritefinder_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:47:19 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <24580.94306.qm_at_web39606.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hello Mike and List,

  Wow, Mike, you certainly have done a lot of great work on trying to pin this fall down! Thanks a lot for sharing all your info with the rest of us. If nothing is ever found, it won't be due to any short coming on your part! And if pieces ARE recovered, it probably WILL be due in great part to you and your hard work. Best of luck in pieces being recovered, with hopes that YOU will actually be the first to find one!

  Sincerely,
  Robert Woolard

--- On Mon, 10/19/09, Mike Hankey <mike.hankey at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Mike Hankey <mike.hankey at gmail.com>
> Subject: [meteorite-list] calibrated stellar photo - york water
> To: "meteoritelist" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>, "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
> Date: Monday, October 19, 2009, 11:29 AM
> Dear List,
>
> I know this is not as exciting as the Grimsby meteorites,
> but its
> something I've been working on the last few weeks and I
> wanted to
> share it with the list.
>
> I have logged a lot of hours searching for meteorites from
> the PA
> fireball and to date have not been able to find anything.
> Searching in
> the same general area over a long period of time really
> starts to wear
> on your physche and a few weeks ago I started to get
> consumed with
> doubt regarding the area I was searching. I had found some
> new videos
> and knew that we had never been able to properly analyze
> the data from
> the original York Water video. I believed if we could
> properly analyze
> that data and incorporate it into the current trajectory it
> might be
> able to improve our projections and lead us to a new search
> area.
>
> A couple of meteor experts suggested making calibrated
> stellar photos
> of the direct sighting videos in an effort to improve the
> input data
> used in the projections. The first attempt for making the
> calibrated
> photo would entail busting out the jpegs from the original
> AVI and
> then stacking the images like you would stack an astro
> photo. Faint
> stars could exist in the frames that would not be visible
> in a single
> frame but would become apparent after stacking 100 or so
> frames. If
> this approach failed then new video would need to be shot
> that would
> include stellar objects.
>
> I started with the York Water video as this was a great
> capture but
> very distorted due to the fish-eye lens. I tried stacking
> but got no
> stars. A friend tipped me off to the fact that the full
> moon would be
> rising in the east on Oct 4th and Oct 5th. I coordinated
> with York
> Water to capture video from these nights. Using this new
> moon footage
> I was able to pair up 9 frames of the meteor video with
> very close
> references to the full moon at different points of time. In
> 3 cases
> the meteor was a perfect match to the moon's location.
>
> Here is the York Water calibrated stellar photo:
>
> http://www.mikesastrophotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/york-water-calibrated-summary-simple.jpg
>
> Here is the star map that I created after analyzing the
> calibrated photo:
>
> http://www.mikesastrophotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/york-moon-star-map.jpg
>
> I traced a straight line through the meteor locations and
> down to the
> horizon. Using imperfect measurements I came up with an
> approximate 67
> degree angle at the horizon. I drew a line in google earth
> at that
> angle from the york water location and it intersected Rob's
> 0km marker
> almost exactly. I find this reassuring and pretty
> incredible
> considering Rob used only the Pittsburgh video and the
> astro photo in
> determining his 3D model. Mad props to Rob Matson on his
> meteor
> trajectory skillz -- Rob I think you could triangulate a
> meteor in
> your sleep. :)
>
> http://www.mikesastrophotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/york-water-map.jpg
>
> I'm not sure about the precision of my measurements or star
> chart but
> I know its pretty close (i'm sure it could be improved
> some). I'm not
> sure if this new input data can be used to make minor
> improvements to
> the trajectory, velocity estimates or angle of descent but
> if there is
> anyone out there who worked on plotting the PA fireball and
> wants to
> take another crack at it with this information I would love
> to hear
> from you.
>
> I know several people on the list worked on getting the
> ALT-AZ
> readings from the york video using compasses and field
> surveying
> techniques and had a hard time due to the distortion from
> the camera.
> I wanted to share this approach to analyzing security
> footage in case
> this situation ever arose in the future. Using a calibrated
> photo
> eliminates a lot of guess work.
>
> I have requested the original raw footage of the Pittsburgh
> video from
> Alison Kruse and I hope to be able to pull out more stars
> in that
> footage using the stacking technique.
>
> My conclusion after working with the York calibrated photo
> is that I'm
> searching in the right area, but just need to look harder.
> I find it
> amazing and inspiring that Mike Farmer can fly to Ontario
> and find a
> meteorite on his first day.
>
> The new information from the York video and the excitement
> from
> Ontario has given me a jolt of positive energy and a boost
> to morale
> -- exactly what I need to continue searching the corn
> fields of
> Lancaster PA.
>
> To see the full post about this exercise follow this link:
>
> http://www.mikesastrophotos.com/baltimore-pa-meteor/york-water-calibrated-stellar-photo/
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike Hankey
> http://www.mikesastrophotos.com
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Received on Mon 19 Oct 2009 04:47:19 PM PDT