(meteorobs) RE: Explosion Observed

Robert Anderson bob_becky.anderson at sbcglobal.net
Mon May 15 22:32:53 EDT 2006


I agree. I'm extremely skeptical in the likely hood that the event was an
un-aided visual of a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB). I maintain that the event was a
meteor entering into the atmosphere with an approach that obscured the trail
from my position. If several observers from a variety of distances
distributed over a wide area could confirm the same event then we would have
something to leverage and gain a better understand the nature of the event.
The flip side to this is if the same observers reported the same event and
no trail was observed, THEN the meteor hypothesis becomes suspect and there
may be another explanation (GRB least likely I would think).

Regards,
 
Bob and Becky Anderson
Tulsa, OK

-----Original Message-----
From: Richardson, Terry R. [mailto:RichardsonT at cofc.edu] 
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 8:14 PM
To: Global Meteor Observing Forum; Global Meteor Observing Forum
Cc: bob_becky.anderson at sbcglobal.net
Subject: RE: (meteorobs) RE: Explosion Observed

Bob is right this would be a fantastic brealthrough however there would be a
way to tell if this were a visual GRB because it would be all over the news.
Two of my colleagues at the College of Charelston are big time GRB
astronomers and they have a telescope in the US Virgin Islands dedicated to
visual GRB detection. Hedre is how the process works. Within seconds of a
gammy ray detection by the SWIFT orbiting observatory, pagers all over the
globe alert participating astronomers to get to an internet connecterd
computer. The coordinates of the GRB location is emailed to their account
and they take command of their particular telescope over the internet. No
matter what the telescope was doing, and no matter who was running it, it is
now under the control of the commands coming over the internet which direct
it to photograph the suspected area in visible light to detect the GRB
visible light afterglow. Neat stuff.

If a GRB were as bright as a point meteot, it would not fade all that fast
and it would be front page news for all the newspapers. 
Almost certainly a GRB was NOT observed.

Clear skies,

Terry Richardson
Department of Physics and Astronomy
College of Charleston


-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org on behalf of Jan Verfl
Sent: Mon 5/15/2006 6:39 PM
To: 'Global Meteor Observing Forum'
Cc: bob_becky.anderson at sbcglobal.net
Subject: RE: (meteorobs) RE: Explosion Observed
 
Hello all!

A GRB observed visualy would be a fantastic breakthrough, indeed! Anyway
this is definitely _not_ impossible, but the probability of such a sight is
enormously low and without any other evidence, there is no way to tell, if
it is the case.




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