[meteorite-list] fireball over midwest

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2007 14:21:28 -0600
Message-ID: <007001c74963$37b817b0$28e38c46_at_ATARIENGINE>

Hi,

    If it had a 45-degree angle of descent at Champaign
or Beardstown it would intersect the ground at a distance
south of the observation equal to its altitude at the point
of observation. I recall a longish thread some years ago,
in which Rob Matson discussed the mathematics of
"angle observation" from the ground and demonstrated,
I believe, that determining the actual angle is impossible
without multiple observations, however detailed any one
observation may be.
    With sightings from Appleton, Wisconsin to Cape
Girardeau, Missouri (575 miles), and assuming it lit up
at 60 miles altitude and dropped to zero in 575 miles,
produces a 6 degree angle of descent in the "straight-line"
approximation. Of course, it isn't a "straight" line...
    A 100 mile descent from 15-20 miles altitude from
Beardstown would bring it down north of St. Louis,
in my backyard literally (goes to look for craters). A
100 mile descent from 15-20 miles altitude from Lewistown
would bring it down 20 miles inside Illinois. Today's
newspaper accounts in St. Louis don't sound like
local Missouri witnesses saw something on their far
Northern horizon, which would be too cluttered to
see within 10 degrees of the horizon almost everywhere:

    "The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that
calls flooded 911 operators and area police
departments, the Missouri Highway Patrol
said. Callers described the spectacle in various
ways, some saying it looked like a plane crash and
others calling it a ball of fire in the sky."


Sterling
------------------------------------------------------------
PS. I see Susan beat me to the "backyard" joke.
------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 1:05 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] fireball over midwest


Note that my estimates were very speculative, based on limited reports.
An experienced observer in Champaign reported it to his west following
an approximately 45? angle of descent. So it doesn't sound like this was
very shallow.

I haven't read anything (yet) to suggest that any of the more southern
witnesses saw the meteor near them. It is not unusual to see a meteor
150 miles away; in the absence of other evidence, my thinking is that
the object was fairly low at Beardstown, didn't travel much farther
south, and the witnesses to the south were simply seeing it far to their
north. The speed and duration suggest a ground path perhaps 100 miles
long. More reports would be good.

Following the Russian rocket body decay over Colorado last month, Fox
news called it a "Quadrantid meteor shower from an extinct
constellation".

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Chris Peterson" <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>;
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 11:45 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] fireball over midwest


> Hi,
>
> The original report Ron posted covers the
> region from 25-30 miles north of St. Louis to
> as far south as Cape Girardeau, a stretch of
> perhaps 130 miles or more.
> From Beardstown to Cape Girardeau is
> more like 200 miles. If it was at 15-20 miles
> altitude at Beardstown, this would be a very
> shallow trajectory.
> Always possible (if this is true) that it was
> the extended progressive breakup of a larger
> object.
> A shallow trajectory, of course, is more
> likely to drop an intact meteoroid and elevate its
> status to meteorite.
> As for the northerly direction of travel, please
> note that it is Fox News, who have most things
> backwards...
> Below is another news report.
>
> Sterling K. Webb

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Received on Mon 05 Feb 2007 03:21:28 PM PST