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

[MeteorHntr at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/12/2009 2:02:18 A.M.  Central Daylight Time, 
mojave_meteorites at cox.net writes:
>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
Rob,

While I got Cs in geometry in  High School and didn't even get into the 
advanced math beyond that, I do try to  figure some things out.

HOWEVER, I don't claim to be an expert.  I  did visit Mike Haney and his 
scope the other day.

His base of his  telescope was level to the ground and I took a piece of 
paper long ways and  rested it on the base, with the right corner of the paper 
at the lower point of  the scope, then I made a mark up the left side of 
the paper at the angle where  the scope was pointing up.  I made a line from 
that left mark down to the  right corner and with a borrowed carpenter's 
square on site, it read roughly  17  degrees elevated. 

In the field I am not interested in getting  the math perfect, and 
realizing that his photo didn't show the end of the  fireball, and I knew others 
with more exacting measurements could work out the  more exact numbers later.

But when I saw the 67 degree number, I knew  that was way off from where he 
had the scope set up.  Maybe it was pointed  much higher up and he was 
mistaken when he showed it to me, or maybe others were  wrong.

Also, in my amateur sleuthing, we turned the scope to look at the  cap his 
gazebo had.  The cap occupied 1/2 of the field of vision.   Holding my arm 
outstretched and holding my thumb up, with me standing beside the  scope, my 
thumb nail was about the same size as the cap.  So this told me  (I think) 
that the field of vision he was capturing in his photo compared to the  
entire sky was about twice the size of my thumb nail at the size on my stretched  
out arm.  A tiny little zone.

Again, I am not good with math, but  logic would tell me that if it was the 
fireball in his photo, that the fireball  would have been in his camera's 
scope's field of view for an extremely tiny  fraction of one second.  Unlike 
an airplane that might be in a field for  many seconds. 

To me, I imagined that the "bumpy" looks in the light  lines might have 
been from "non oriented pieces" tumbling as they are flying in,  and as the 
different sized faces of the rocks are revealed as it crosses, the  light gets 
slightly brighter (or wider) then not over and over.  Again, I  am not an 
expert with airplanes but it would seem those would be steady all the  way, 
and maybe blink on and off throughout the photo.

On a different  note, Mike Haney has a VERY nice house. There might be some 
poking fun at him in  an S.T. costume, but he is obviously a very 
successful young man.  He had  some really cool Star Wars collectibles in a case that 
many of us would love to  have to hold our meteorites.  I would guess he 
has a nicer house than  probably 99.9% of the people on this list.  Not that 
financial success may  mean a whole lot in this case. I am just saying this 
because I don't want people  to think of him as a "goofy kid."  I was very 
impressed with him, and he  seemed like a very sharp, intelligent and 
successful man.

Just some of my  observations from the field.

Steve Arnold
of Meteorite Men  

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