(meteorobs) More on the Alberta fireball

[Bruce McCurdy]

    Self-explanatory posts from our local astronomy discussion list.

    Bruce
    *****

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Bruce McCurdy
To: Astronomy Discussion list
Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2007 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Astro] the bright light...minus the green men......


    Thanks, Mike. As it happens Alan Hildebrand and Martin Connors were both 
in town yesterday for Dr. Hildebrand's timely lecture "Extinction from 
Asteroid Events: Past and Future". I chatted with both briefly. Athabasca 
University's All-Sky Camera did indeed capture the event. Frank Florian 
showed the clip on the plantarium dome at the end of the lecture. It 
revealed accurate beginning and end points of the interloper (roughly 
01:07.20 to 01:07.25) but the frames in between were saturated, the fireball 
was so bright. When I asked Martin about a brightness estimate he grinned 
and said "minus 26". He also said the video wasn't yet on the web but will 
be soon. I understand that an all-sky camera in Saskatoon also recorded the 
fireball, although am unsure of the detail. The mere fact that two stations 
over 500 km apart recorded it speaks to a pretty significant event.

    Frankie advised that he had received 20-25 calls at the science centre 
on Friday, but most were pretty unspecific, along the lines of "What was 
that bright flash I saw?" I understand he gave the usable reports to Alan 
and Martin, who after the lecture headed north of the city in search of 
eyewitness accounts. So safe to say the best possible authorities are on it. 
That said, what those experts need is first-hand accounts, so I encourage 
everybody to keep your ear to the ground for reports of this event. If you 
hear (of) a good observation, do what you can to facilitate contact between 
the observer and the experts.

    Bruce
    *****

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Noble, Mike
To: Astronomy Discussion list
Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2007 3:08 PM
Subject: RE: [Astro] the bright light...minus the green men......


>From what I can deduce on the timing of the email and reporting of the 
event, it must have occurred at around 1am on May [25th] observed somewhere 
between Lacombe and Ponoka on Hwy 2 North and looking to the north.

Reports of Fireballs can be made to Frank Florian but these reports should 
also be directed to the Canadian Fireball reporting Centre at the following 
URL http://miac.uqac.ca/MIAC/fireball.htm.

Don Hladiuk, Alan Hildebrand, Martin Connors and Brian Martin should also be 
informed in a timely fashion of any really bright events.  Don, Brian and 
Martin have all sky cameras and if they are given a precise timing for the 
event, they can check their video recordings.  That's if they had clear 
skies at their locations during the event.  The optimal report for them 
would be an exact timing of the event to narrow the search time on their 
tapes.  Forwarding of this information should be done quickly because older 
tapes will get re-used.  The UofA had an All-Sky Camera, but it was removed 
when the building it was on was torn down this past fall.  I don't know if 
that camera has been re-installed at a different location.  Doug Hube maybe 
able to report on its statis.

Don's email: hladiukd at telusplanet.net;
Martin's email: martinc at athabascau.ca
Brian's email: brian.martin at kingsu.ca
Alan's email: ahildebr at ucalgary.ca

Beyond the exact timing of the event, the observer should record their 
location of observation, direction of the fireball, duration, brightness, 
colour of the fireball and if possible stop for up to 10 minutes to listen 
for any possible sound emanating from the fireball.  All of this information 
will help in triangulating a possible fall line for any meteorites.  The 
advantage of All sky cameras will allow for a more precise triangulation of 
the illuminated portion of the meteor's passage through the upper 
atmosphere.

This is a little information for anybody wanting to make a Fireball 
observation report.

Mike Noble


From: astro-bounces at mailman.srv.ualberta.ca 
[mailto:astro-bounces at mailman.srv.ualberta.ca] On Behalf Of Kevin Jeske
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 12:04 AM
To: astro at mailman.srv.ualberta.ca
Subject: [Astro] the bright light...minus the green men......

Hi everyone,

Does anyone know what re-entered the atmosphere last night?  My co-worker 
was driving back from Calgary and saw a giant green flash in the sky that 
turned the night to day for a brief moment.  Patti had heard on the news 
that people were calling Frank at the TWOS today for more details.

Thanks,
Kevin



- about 20 minutes north of red deer
- around 1am or a little after
- it visually looked like a gigantic firework, there was a flash of "putrid" 
/ "northern light" green bright light that lit up the surroundings as if 
someone had flicked on a light.  it streaked from east to west and looked as 
big as a five pin bowling ball.  it was at the end of the "firework" and had 
some orange color to it until it went into small pieces which then 
disappeared.