[meteorite-list] Catalina Sky Survey

From: Mark Hammergren <mhammergren_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:12:09 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <683526.31687.qm_at_web180305.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

When it comes to speculating on motives, I try to follow the old adage (paraphrased from Goethe) that "misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice." Once the "automated survey" mistake was published, carelessness undoubtedly made it easy for it to propagate to other publications. Of course, that's no excuse. As an observational astronomer, myself, I would never minimize the credit due to the humans behind the telescope, and I was happy to congratulate Richard in person in Tucson this year for his discovery. That said, it would be a similar mistake to minimize the efforts it took Jenniskens and Muawia Shaddad to organize multiple large expeditions to Almahata Sitta for the systematic search for (and painstakingly documented recovery of) those wonderful little pieces of 2008 TC3.
Very best regards,
Mark

--- On Mon, 3/29/10, Linton Rohr <lintonius at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Date: Monday, March 29, 2010, 12:53 AM
> Thank you, Richard.
> It's always bothered me when I've seen article's refering
> to the "automated"
> Catalina Sky Survey discovering 2008 TC3, since I knew one
> of our own was
> there. Not knowing the details though, I appreciate your
> "more detailed
> look" and applaud your "lengthy" response.
> I too, can speculate on why someone would minimize your
> contribution to this
> historic event, but I keep being interupted by the
> persistent image of a dog
> retreiving a thrown stick. It landed rrriiight......
> there!
> Linton
>
Received on Mon 29 Mar 2010 02:12:09 PM PDT