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Re: (meteorobs) Prairie Meteor Network
George wrote:
>
>Does anyone know where I can find info about the Prairie Meteor Network that
>was in operation between 1964 and 1975? A website, book, or personal
>knowledge about it would be appreciated...looking for info such as how many
>cameras used, locations...who operated the program etc.
>George Zay
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory ran the Prairie Network.
It consisted of sixteen stations centered on southeast Nebraska. They used
surplus aero cameras with F-6.3 - 12 inch focal length Wide Angle Metrogon
lenses that covered a format of 9 x 18 inches on aero roll film. This
Network photographed and recovered fragments from the Lost City Meteorite,
in Oklahoma in Jan 1970. This was the second meteorite to be recovered by
this method. The Czech Network recovered the Pribram meteorite in 1959.
Canada set up a network called MORP and recovered the third triangulated
meteorite called Innisfree, in 1977 in Alberta. The Canadian Network used
50mm focal length lenses on 70 mm film. The Prairie Network and MORP are no
longer operating leaving the Czech system now called the European Network
still in operation. A fourth meteorite called Peekskill was recovered in
N.Y. after hitting a car. Several amateur photographers with video cameras
captured the fireball on video tape. These video tapes were collected and
digitized and the height and orbit was computed for this meteorite. Peter
Brown and Bob Hawkes and their group I believe were responsible for this
study. I'll dig up some references for you later. There were some
photographs of the Prairie Network in Sky & Telescope when the Lost City
Meteorite was recovered. I'm not sure what issue, but I'll find it.
Ed Majden
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Edward Majden epmajden@mars.ark.com
1491 Burgess Road Meteor Spectroscopy
Courtenay, B.C. CCD's - P.E.P.
CANADA V9N-5R8 Amateur Astronomy