(meteorobs) Fireball Photo???

[Emily McGowan]

Hello,

My name is Kevin McGowan. I'm a professional photographer.  I've been 
working in digital photography for a number of years.  What strikes me about 
this photo is the pixelation/resolution of the "fireball".  It is very 
coarse, compared to the resolution of the plane.  The resolution should 
match if it was shot at the same time.

I'd say it was a very crude added effect.

I once saw a meteor going over upstate NY in the 70s.  It was a bright green 
and barely lasted a second.  It was a very clear day.   I was young and 
thought someone's model airplane had caught fire. LOL

I have a question about the fireball photo.  It looked like it was under the 
clouds and they looked low and too thick to let much light through. Wouldn't 
that mean that it was at an angle to possibly hit the earth?
If we did get hit, wouldn't we know?

Kevin McGowan

Bob et al.,

Actually it is pretty easy to get an "add on" to look like this. You paste 
the entire streak of light in a new layer in the photograph and then with 
the mouse or a stylus tool on a digital tablet erase the streak of light in 
places allowing the underlying layer to show through. The result can make 
the underlying layer appear to be in front of the "add on". The digital 
tools are pretty versatile and can partially erase pixels so that there are 
no sharp edges. Photography, even negatives (they can be made from a digital 
file) is less and less reliable as conclusive evidence these days.

Clear skies,

Terry Richardson
Department of Physics and Astronomy
College of Charleston
843 953-8071


-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org on behalf of Robert Lunsford
Sent: Sat 2/25/2006 6:08 AM
To: meteorobs at meteorobs.org
Subject: (meteorobs) Fireball Photo???

Please visit the website below and let me know what you think.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v623/sdbound182/DSCN1905.jpg

The photographer claims his intended target was the small aircraft.
He claims this object lasted 1-2 seconds and occurred near noon
local time. He also states the object appeared toward the northeast.
If this is so then a lens artifact from the sun is not possible being that
the sun was at his back. You can verify this by noticing the shadow
of the wing upon the fuselage of the aircraft.

To me, this appears to be a crude add-on to this photograph. It is
quite "un-meteor like". I wonder though how he got it to appear as
if the streak was behind the clouds during the first portion of it's
re-entry?

One more thought...this location was fairly close to Vandenberg,
but I could not find any scheduled launches for the afternoon of
February 18. Besides, he claims the object was going down, not
upward.

Your thoughts?

Thanks!

Bob Lunsford
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