(meteorobs) Search for a screamer (part one?)

[stange34 at sbcglobal.net]

I envy you, your local search.

Time to get REALLY sophisticated, or at least investigate the possibility 
of. sending out.......<drum roll>.........
.....K-9's(search & rescue dogs) trained to detect the smell of 
meteorites!.

Brought to you care of  "Bark & Barf kennel klub".

<Sorry> :-)



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruce McCurdy" <bmccurdy at telusplanet.net>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: 2007/05/31 17:37
Subject: (meteorobs) Search for a screamer (part one?)


>
>    "METEORITES HIT NEAR REDWATER"
>
> ... the headline screamed. The Edmonton Sun story detailed:
>
> "Hildebrand believes fragments of the meteor [sic] may
> be around Redwater, 68 km northeast of Edmonton,
> especially in the area of Township Road 574 and Range
> Road 220."
>
>    So when fellow RASCal John Cliff contacted me later on Tuesday morning 
> about goin' a-meteorite-huntin' I thought "why not?" The coordinates 
> seemed specific enough to give it a whirl ... nothing ventured and all 
> that. It was only a 45-minute drive northeast of Edmonton. Unfortunately 
> it was a spur of the moment decision for us to go, and my last-minute 
> email to Martin Connors of Athabasca University was answered just minutes 
> after we left. Unbeknownst to us, Martin had suggested we were probably 
> wasting our time near Redwater and should go to the town of Legal instead 
> .
>
>    So off we went in search of a hole in the ground. Instead, we found 
> Redwater.
>
>    "Redwater 2, Bruderheim 38" said the sign coming into town, which 
> seemed promising. If you believe in signs, that is. We probably had a 
> better chance of entering a time warp into 1960 (when the Bruderheim 
> meteorite fell) than we did of finding a new meteorite.
>
>    I can't even confirm that there was no meteorite fall near Redwater. I 
> CAN confirm as Martin's note rather baldly stated, that we were wasting 
> our time. While that stung a bit after the fact, at the time we were 
> blissfully unaware as we crisscrossed all Range and Township Roads within 
> 3 miles of the coordinates mentioned by Dr. Hildebrand. The gently rolling 
> terrain was mostly agricultural, dotted by sloughs (small ponds) and 
> periodically interrupted by impenetrable wooded areas. We scanned with 
> binoculars all open areas, drove to a couple of off-road locations, and 
> got out and walked to a couple of spots that grabbed our attention but 
> which turned out to be man-made or natural disturbances. I also talked 
> with a couple folks at the local convenience store, but even though I 
> pointed out that Sun headline it didn't seem like it was the talk of the 
> town or anything.
>
>    We neither of us really knew what the heck we were doing, but were both 
> anxious to give it a try. And the mosquitoes were certainly anxious to 
> give *us* a try.  We had fun anyways; the thrill of the chase and all 
> that. Of course we're the two guys who went to Fort McMurray for the Venus 
> transit ... via Saskatoon.
>
>    Tomorrow I will likely be heading out with Mark Zalcik (another 
> Edmonton RASCal) to the community of Lily Lake, just east of Legal and the 
> current "best guess". I don't hold out a great amount of hope, but it's 
> not every day one gets the opportunity to chase the pot of gold at the end 
> of the bolide.
>
>    Bruce
>    *****
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