(meteorobs) Sentinel Alert -Addendum

[Chris Peterson]

Hi Larry-

I can locate the terminal explosion of some fireballs to within a few 
hundred meters, but I'd consider a 100 square mile search area based on 
that alone to be excellent. Several hundred square miles would be more 
typical. The uncertainties of position during dark flight are huge.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <stange34 at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2007 5:31 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Sentinel Alert -Addendum


> You are quite right George.
>
> In my short experience in Meteor/Fireball work, the opportunity to use 
> my
> personal hand-held detection equipment so far has not been realized. I 
> know
> better than to attempt recovery in broken high altitude terrain.
>
> Perhaps a rollng hills or desert  terrain will allow an attempt if it 
> is
> fairly close by and is trianglulated with enough accuracy to resolve 
> the
> fall area to <5 square miles. I am accustomed to search using a 
> visibly
> aligned or flagged grid pattern. It is the ONLY way to insure some 
> measure
> of success. Otherwise it is just a random chance encounter.
>
> Larry